Failed to understand the collocation: the waste represented by casualties...

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Does " the waste represented by sickness-induced casualties" sound natural or awkward?

Context:

A Pround Medical Tradition
In all wars up until the Russo-Japanese War, it had been known that the "silent enemy"-disease-took a greater toll of lives among fighting men than did bullets. With the outbreak of the conflict with Russia, Japan made history by resolving to learn from her mistakes. Chastened by the waste represented by sickness-induced casualties that she had suffered in her recent war with China, she paind an exstraordinary amount of attention to curbing battlefield illness. By the beginning of the twentieth century...

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http://www.google.co.jp/books?id=cprBEpxvexgC&printsec=frontcover&hl=zh-CN&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=true

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Type: Question • Score: 2 • Views: 477 • Replies: 5

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View best answer, chosen by oristarA

If you diagrammed this clause, it would be;

Chastened by - what?
the waste
what kind of waste?
represented by casualties
what kind of casualties?
sickness-induced.

1 Reply

@PUNKEY,

Is English your native language, PUNKEY?
I feel English is rather difficult for you.

1 Reply

@oristarA,

I have recommended that you learn to diagram (or parse) these sentences that give you so much trouble. It would help you.

I am born and raised in the US.

"Chastened by the waste represented by sickness-induced casualties that she had suffered in her recent war with China," could be an adverbial clause that modifies the verb of the sentence and tells "when."

Or it could be an adjective describing "she."

With that, I will not respond to your questions again.

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Waste and wastage are normal terms in military parlance for troops who are disabled or die as a result of causes other than enemy action. Someone writing of a military campaign in which a certain number of troops were lost to sickness might describe it as wastage, or normal wasteage. There is nothing odd about the terminology used here. It is standard military terminology. It does not sound awkward.

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@Setanta,

Excellent!

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Failed to understand the collocation: the waste represented by casualties...

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