a very confusing sentence

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"The country stretched flat and bare as a table for fifty miles on either side the track,—a distance looking in the clear air not over one fifth as great."

I don't understand the latter part of the sentence. So difficult.
Could anyone explain it to me? Thank you!

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Type: Question • Score: 3 • Views: 2,068 • Replies: 18

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Quote:

I don't understand the latter part of the sentence.

me either.

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The writer is pointing out that things far away look closer in clear air. It is a strange way of saying something, so I suppose he was instructed to make his writing more descriptive - even if it confused people.

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It suddenly occurs to me that perhaps the author means even in a clear day we can only see clearly one fifth of the long distance. He uses this kind of description to tell us how far the plain stretches. Am I right?

1 Reply

@Justin Xu,

I find you guys just copy one or two sentences and want them explained. Please have the courtesy to give references as to interpret one must look at the context i.e. look at the whole paragraph or page. I have begun to ignore you guys as you create problems.

Quote:

fifty miles on either side the track

This is nonsense as the horizon is only 17 miles.

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@Justin Xu,

Almost the opposite. You might be able to see five times as far if a given distance looks one fifth the actual distance.

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@talk72000,

I think you should do that, talk. I ignore crossword puzzles, you could ignore English questions

1 Reply

@roger,

I will follow your advice. Originally I thought of helping but I find them quite inconsiderate.

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@talk72000,

Quote:

This is nonsense as the horizon is only 17 miles.

The autor doesnt say he could see that far only that the plain extended that distance.

Quote:

as to interpret one must look at the context

I agree. I have on a number of occasions encoraged posters to provide more context in their original posts but seem to be largely ignored in this matter.
I begin to wonder if there is some communication gap or lack of understanding in what context actually means.

1 Reply

@dadpad,

He could be in a plane then you could see farther. The context would explain it i.e. the author was in a plane or helicopter.

Context = surrounding information. Hope that helps.

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@talk72000,

The context may not help too much.

The excerpt comes from a free romantic novels site

http://freeromanticnovels.com/index.php?b=Deserted

Quote:

By way of peace-offering for his blasphemy in calling the Nevada desert a leper, Lombard had embezzled a couple of chairs from the smoking-room and carried them to the rear platform of the car, which happened to be the last of the train, and invited Miss Dwyer to come thither and see the scenery. Whether she had wanted to pardon him or not, he knew very well that this was a temptation which she could not resist, for the rear platform was the best spot for observation on the entire train, unless it were the cowcatcher of the locomotive.

<snip>

Quote:

The country stretched flat and bare as a table for fifty miles on either side the track,-a distance looking in the clear air not over one fifth as great. On every side this great plain was circled by mountains, the reddish-brown sides of some of them bare to the summits, while others were robed in folds of glistening snow and looked like white curtains drawn part way up the sky. The whitey-gray of the alkali-patches, the brown of the dry earth, and the rusty green of the sagebrush filled the foreground, melting in the distance into a purple-gray. The wondrous dryness and clearness of the air lent to these modest tints a tone and dazzling brilliance that surprised the eye with a revelation of possibilities never before suspected in them. But the mountains were the greatest wonder. It was as if the skies, taking pity on their nakedness, had draped their majestic shoulders in imperial purple, while at this hour the westering sun tipped their pinnacles with gilt. In the distance half a dozen sand-spouts, swiftly-moving white pillars, looking like desert genii with too much "tanglefoot" aboard, were careering about in every direction.

I'm surprised the OP got as far as they did into this mess.

3 Replies

@ehBeth,

What is a guy reading romantic novels? It is girly stuff. Free romantic novels means these are fledging novelist. This writer is trying too hard and using excessive amount of description. It seems more like a National Geographic piece.

1 Reply

@ehBeth,

Oh my gawd!

thats a contender for the worlds worst novel.

1 Reply

@dadpad,

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@talk72000,

You didn't go look at the site.

There's a wide range of free books to read and download. Authors including Jack London, Enid Bagnold, Tolstoi, Aristotle, Jane Austen.

Not fledgling novelists. Not necessarily girly stuff.

The particular book selected (or assigned) is not one of the better samples of good writing available at the site, but it's not 'fledging (sic) novelist'.

1 Reply

@ehBeth,

Advice taken. Embarrassed

Also old novels use a different style and could be confusing for beginners. Joseph Conrad was one of the densest writer. Uncle Jim is a good example.

1 Reply

@talk72000,

(google is our friend)

I think that some of our ESL/EFL posters do not have access to all of the internet resources we do, so they can't always link us to the 'context'. Google to the rescue!

I often Google a sentence portion to find the source of the excerpts - trying to suss out the context.

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@ehBeth,

ehBeth wrote:

Quote:
Lombard had embezzled a couple of chairs from the smoking-room and carried them to the rear platform of the car, which happened to be the last of the train, and invited Miss Dwyer to come thither and see the scenery. .

I'm surprised the OP got as far as they did into this mess.

Oh My Gawd! ". . . embezzled a couple of chairs. . . ? I'm sure glad I wasn't called upon to explain that one.

I usually make the assumption that our posters are asking about material assigned by someone else. Possibly assigned by an instructor who wrote the mess they are expecting their students to understand.

1 Reply

@roger,

The instructor seems to pick doozies. I feel the students are just picking their way on their own as instructors would pick better material.

0 Replies

a very confusing sentence

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