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Mon 7 Jun, 2004 05:40 am
It derives from a great famine in ancient China. Anything eatable, including grass, cortices of tree, even some clay, has been eaten by then deadly hungry people, except crabs that crawled around fields. But no one had ever eaten the weird and awkward looking creatures. They had been fearing the creatures were toxic. Okay, there was a man who thought so: If I have nothing to eat, I will be doomed to die on hunger ; and if the crab is toxic, I must die on it, too; so why not try, what if the crab is not toxic? So he risked his life. Well, the cooked crab was so yum that he hailed found out a new continent. And the people were saved by the great finding.
So, when Chinese praise that you are the first one who ate crab, they are praising that you are a brave man, a forthgoer.
Of course, Tomatos were once thought to be deadly poison until one brave soul stood before a crowd and greedily devoured one. If not for this selfless man we would not be putting catsup on our fries today. We should praise all the courageous men and women throughout history who have defied unimaginable odds to bring us our foodstuffs!
NickFun wrote:Of course, Tomatos were once thought to be deadly poison until one brave soul stood before a crowd and greedily devoured one. If not for this selfless man we would not be putting catsup on our fries today. We should praise all the courageous men and women throughout history who have defied unimaginable odds to bring us our foodstuffs!
two corrections:
first it's ketchup, not 'catsup', and
second, it is imaginable!
[that IS the topic, isn't it?]
Yeah, ketchup is more exact.
I didn't get "who have defied unimaginable odds to bring us our foodstuffs!".
Did you perhaps mean "who have risked their life to seize the odds to bring us our foodstuff?"
PS. Grammatically speaking, do you think "die on hunger" is correct?
How about "to starve" instead?
"die from hunger" sounds more correct to me
oristarA and BoGoWo, I am aware that "ketchup" is the more commonly use term however, catsup is also correct. Is my use of the term "unimaginable" incorrect? Maybe I should rephrase for fear of future attacks from the A2K grammar police. It is difficult to fathom how many brave souls lost their lives or risked severe gastric disturbances to find out which mushrooms were healthy, which were poisonous and which ones were "magic".
And oristar, you have some improper verb usages in your original post. "Eatable" should be replaced with "edible". "Of hunger" was already mentioned.. Don't "die on it"rather "die from it".
Re: Correct this
oristarA wrote:It derives from a great famine in ancient China. Anything eatable, including grass, cortices of tree, even some clay, has been eaten by then deadly hungry people, except crabs that crawled around fields. But no one had ever eaten the weird and awkward looking creatures. They had been fearing the creatures were toxic. Okay, there was a man who thought so: If I have nothing to eat, I will be doomed to die on hunger ; and if the crab is toxic, I must die on it, too; so why not try, what if the crab is not toxic? So he risked his life. Well, the cooked crab was so yum that he hailed found out a new continent. And the people were saved by the great finding.
So, when Chinese praise that you are the first one who ate crab, they are praising that you are a brave man, a forthgoer.
I'm not an English teacher and I tend to make mistakes, however I've darken in the above passage, those things that I would advise you to change.
Edible, not eatable
Cortices from trees? What are they?
Do crabs crawl around fields? For some reason, I thought they lived in an aqueous environment.
Okay: drop this
on hunger: should be of hunger
The remaining items darkened should be self explanatory.
(It's hard to make the corrections online!)
" he hailed"...What does this mean?
And to think Oristar had the audacity to criticize my use of the English language!
It derives (what derives?) from a great famine in ancient China. Anything edible, including grass, tree bark, even some kinds of clay, was consumed by the desperately hungry people, except for the crabs that crawled around the fields. No one had ever attempted to eat the weird and awkward-looking creatures. There was a fear that the creatures were toxic. Finally one man thought, the crabs may be toxic, but if I have nothing to eat, I am doomed to starve anyway; so why not try them? The cooked crab turned out to be delicious, and the starving people were saved by the discovery.
So, when the Chinese say that someone is the first to eat crab, they mean that that man is an innovator and a pioneer.
Here's my interpretation, oristar.
Quote:The legend has it there was a great famine in ancient China. Anything edible, including grass, tree bark, even clay, was eaten by starving people, except the crabs that crawled around fields. No one had ever eaten the weird and awkward looking creatures because they feared the creatures were toxic. There was a man who thought, "If I have nothing to eat, I will be doomed to die of hunger; and if the crab is toxic, I will die if I eat it. So what have I got to lose? What if the crab is not toxic? So he risked his life. Well, the cooked crab was so delicious that he was hailed throughout the continent. And the people were saved by the great finding.
So, when Chinese say that you are the first one who ate crab, they mean that you are brave, a pioneer.
and the people were saved by this great
discovery - reads a little better?
do crabs crawl? that doesn't sound right somehow - crawling implies on your knees??? running around the fields?
scuttling around the fields? yes - I'd say they scuttle
Thanks for the corrections, esp. inspirations from Eos and Swimpy.
Vivien, "scuttle" is vivider。 And how about "run about"?
Hi NickFun, as relation between ketchup and catsup, eatable is also correct, because AHD has defined that: eatable, adj -- Fit to be eaten; edible: an eatable meal.
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