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Can I in describing someone's ability to stay attentive use the plural noun "levels"? Or will it sound awkward? For example:

"Jim had one serious problem - he couldn't stay focused on any given topic for more than half a miinute. Teachers began to complain. So his father took him to a doctor. The doctor prescribed Jim with a special "attention pill". Jim was to take it right before his next lesson. Jim did. His attention levels soared soon after that."

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"Level" is fine, but since your sentence refers to a single trait ("attention") it would be singular, not plural.

Jim's attention level (or level of attention) greatly improved after starting medication.

If you are talking about multiple people, or people in general, then you can use the plural:

The attention levels of the entire class greatly improved when the teacher began to set her lessons to music.

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  • Which means your answer is not "Yes, you can", but rather "No, you can't", right? Because my question was specifically about applying the plural noun to an individual's single trait.
    – brilliant
    Commented Sep 28, 2018 at 6:28
  • @brilliant Yes. I've edited to make the answer more accurate.
    – Andrew
    Commented Sep 28, 2018 at 15:39

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