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Mon 28 Jul, 2014 06:47 pm
I watched TED which is about slime mold' primitive intelligence. And I could not understand below sentence.
I was quite impressed by this feat, at how what was essentially just a bag of cellular slime could somehow map its territory, know itself, and move with seeming intention.
In this sentence, "how" was used as a noun? And could "how" be put with "what"?? please explain this text.
thanks.
@archls,
It's an awkwardly phrased sentence, I agree. The thing to understand is that the phrase
what was essentially just a bag of cellular slime is, in effect, a noun phrase. All the extra words just modify the word "slime." If it was re-written as
I was quite impressed by this feat,by how a bag of cellular slime could somehow map its territory, know itself, and move with seeming intention.
would that make more sense to you?
@Lustig Andrei,
Thanks, Andrei. It's very helpful for me.
@archls,
Nothing more to say here. Andrew has dealt admirably with this.
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