a burlesque biography 7

I'm not a regular in this forum, but saw your plea for help in the Asian Forum and decided to see if I might be any help. Here is my response to each question:

1 great-grandson: the son of a grandson or the grandson of a grandson?
My grandson would be the child of my child, and my great-grandson will by my grandchild's child.

2 reformer: I think it refers to John Morgan Twain, right?
Sorry, haven't got a copy of the text before me.

3 keep one's eagle eye on: What's the exact meaning of this?
Eagles are reputed to have extremely sharp vision. So this phrase means, to keep a sharp watch on something.

4 make good fair time across the ocean: fair? means "in time"?
Usually we wouldn't couple "good" and "fair" in this manner. The author's intent is probably that the trip across the ocean was without incident, and on schedule.

5 walking a plank: I have once see some pirate ritual in "pirate of the caribbean", I'm not sure if this is like that one. A plank overboard by one side of the ship and let one of the captured staff walk on it. If he walks inside, he will be killed by a sword or some other weapon. If he walks outside, he will be killed by falling into the sea. Is that what is called "walking a plank"?
You seem to have the correct concept. Let me rephrase into English structure that I would use. I once saw a pirate ritual called walking the plank in Pirates of the Carribibean", is this the same? A plank is thrown over the side of the ship, and a prisoner killed by being forced to walk out on it until he falls into the sea. Is that what is meant by "walking the plank"?

6 pupils: Is that also a rhetoric expression? And means "the captured person"?
Pupils has two meanings. It can either mean students, or it can mean the dark central part of the eye that adjusts itself to the amount of light seen. So far as I know, "pupil" never means a "captured person". The context of the sentence should make clear the meaning of the word..

7 at any rate: Does this expression mean "whatever you rate it" or "whatever you think of it"?
The phrase is closer to "whatever you think of it", but if we alter your first alternative just a little it also fits. "however you rate it "

8 never find any fault with sth: They find this is perfect? Of course I know the author does not mean this. But literally it is, right?
I don't understand the question.

9 At last this fine old tar was cut down in the fullness of his years and honors: I don't quite understand this sentence, especially "this fine old tar" and "in the fullness of his years and honors"
A "tar" is an obsolete term for a sailor, and so a "fine old tar" means "a good old sailor". "Cut down" here means "killed". "In the fullness of his years and honors" is a fancy way of saying the old sailor was killed in his old age after receiving all the rewards of his life.

10 to: like in the previous paragraph, it also means "until",then?
Without the actual text I can not comment.

11 if he had been cut down fifteen minutes sooner he might have been resuscitated: What makes her think so? Is there a story about this?
Hanging, as a method of execution, often results in strangulation, and takes some lengthy time to kill. In this sentence, the author is saying that if the hanged person had been cut down from the noose fifteen minutes earlier it is possible that his life might have been saved.

For a self-taught student of English, you are doing extremely well. Apparently the text you refer to here is filled with many specialized and obsolete terms that would have been common during the 18th and 19th centuries. This is a technique sometimes used by writers of fiction to give the reader a sense of living a life alongside the fictional characters. My advice to improve your writing is to keep sentences short and simple. Never forget that the purpose of writing is to clearly convey your thought/story to the reader. Fancy vocabulary runs the risk that the reader will either not know what a word means, or that words with multiple meanings will confuse the reader, or that you've made a poor word choice. It is also easier to make grammatical errors and confuse the reader when you use Long, complex sentences. I've found it best to keep sentences short, averaging around 14 words. Don't try to pack more than one simple idea into a single sentence, but break long sentences down into several with each conveying a single thought. The basic structure is noun/subject, verb, and the object which toward which the action of the sentence points. This is a technique used by some of the greatest writers of the English language, and is a good model to work from.

Re: a burlesque biography 7


I'll probably repeat some of Ash's fine work, but I noted he couldn't answer it all, and I don't have time to mmove between three screens!


1. Son of a grandson

2. If you refer to "the Reformer" in the phrase "great grandson of the Reformer", then yes, it is John Morgan Twain.

3. Keep a close watch on...plus what Ash said. Remember, an eagle is a bird of prey...so this phrase has, in this case, the idea of a predator readying itself to attack a prey animal.

4. Fast and fair weathered I think

5. Yep...walking the plank was supposed to be what pirates did to captives or as a punishment to their own who did something wrong.

6. Pupils...the paragraph about the putative pirate ancestor is written as though Twain believes his subject is a good and fair man who aims to assist others. He is said to do this by training crews of merchant ships to keep good time (ie he chases them in an attempt to capture them and take all their goods and kill the crews). Those who are unable to learn to do this (ie those he captures) he continues to try to "teach" by making them walk the plank (ie he murders them). Because this man is referred to, ironically, as a "teacher", his victims are (also ironically) referred to as his "pupils".

7. "Anyway" probably captures the meaning well enough.

8. Well, yes, normally if you never found any fault with something, this is likely to mean that you found it faultless, or perfect.

9. "Fine old tar"...this fine old sailor
"was cut down in the fullness of his years and honors"...normally this would mean that he died at an old age, and regarded as an honourable and fine man. Here, of course, it means that he was hanged as a pirate, and cut down from the rope when he was dead.

10. "To her dying day": "Until the day she died" Yes.

11. I think it is just another example of the widow's foolishness and refusal to face reality...she thinks her thieving murderous husband was a fine man, and she is also unable to fully accept his death.

Sometimes, as in the punishment for treason, people WERE cut down when still alive...but only to have their internal organs pulled out while they were alive, and they were then cut into four pieces..(hanged, drawn and quartered).

Thank you very much, asherman and dlowan. It's so kind of you. The answers can't be more clear. Thanks again.