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I am reading the book "How to Live 24 hours?" and am wondering why skill in the following sentence is singular.

We are obliged by various codes written and unwritten, to maintain ourselves and our families (if any) in health and comfort, to pay our debts, to save, to increase our prosperity by increasing our efficiency. A task sufficiently difficult! A task which very few of us achieve! A task often beyond our skill! Yet, if we succeed in it, as we sometimes do, we are not satisfied; the skeleton is still with us.

I am wondering why not "A task often beyond our skills." At least this is what I would have written.

Let me know what you think.

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    "Skill", as a concept, is an uncountable noun. – Andrew Jun 14 at 3:34
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    see this definition – katatahito Jun 14 at 4:15
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    It's probably connected to the use of "a task" even though the author lists several tasks. "Skill" here is more general, but "skills" wouldn't be wrong if you think of it as the skills to maintain health, pay bills, save etc. – Mattias Jun 14 at 8:53

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