"Вы видите стол и кровать."
Translation:You see a table and a bed.
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My immediate thought (as a healer) was to grab my sheets and make sure my spells were ready.
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"The table and bed", not "the table and the bed"? Looks strange to me, but I'm not a native English speaker.
"A knife and fork" sounds natural. "A knife and a fork" doesn't sound natural except when the point of the sentence is where you're affirming there are indeed both a knife and a fork as if someone doubted it.
Honestly, the program is just kind've being a stickler on the usage of the english language, it really makes no difference.
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Стол: masculine AND inanimate / non-living, does not change.
Кровать: feminine noun ending with soft sign, does not change.
Read up on Russian accusative case, it will really-really clarify most of this lesson!
On the table is a spell book and on the bed you see the mummified husk of a wizard. As you approach, however, the book burst into light and five aberrations stumble out of a portal. Roll initiative. Everybody but the barb: regrets so hard Barb: Yawns
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As far as I know, it is not a common phrasing in English. Some verbs like "see", "hear", "know", "think" are rather used in Present Simple than in Present Progressive.
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It's not terribly common to be telling someone else what they see/hear/think/etc. anyway, so I wouldn't say it's that uncommon to use Present Progressive, at least for see/hear.
A case where it's appropriate and relatively common is in explanation or narration:
"You are seeing the effects of inflation."
"You are hearing the call of the African swallow."
"You are thinking you shouldn't have done that." (Far less common, even when rephrased as a quotation: "You are thinking, 'I shouldn't have done that.'")
"Knowing" is another matter. I can't think of an example where "you are knowing" is likely. The exercises could definitely do with being lenient on seeing/hearing, though.
It actually is uncommon, because both "see" and "hear" are non- action or state verbs, like "know" the majority of the time.
In the examples you provide you are refering to situations where is clear what action the person is taking
"You are seeing the effects of inflation" either the subject is looking at a graph or something, making "see" active
or
The person has asked for an explanation why something is expensive, making "see" abstract.
In it's regular context see is decribing a state, a experience you have and the process cannot be observed or measured externally.
Imagine you are explaining your room in thefirst person - i see my bed, i see my chair, i can see that it's raining outside, etc.
Same principle works here.
As for your "hear" example, i'd say you used an unusual formulation as the present simple would be more suitable in most cases for the same reasons as above.
Perhaps it is just a poor choice of an english language sentence. I think the purpose of the example is simply to show the second person plural/polite usage of видеть, and (I think) that the two nouns, even when separated by a conjunction, both take the accusative case. The sentence, "You see a table and a bed." could be something a magician might say before waving his magic wand and making them disappear. I doubt it would be heard often in everyday conversation.