The river shrinks and black crows gorge on bright mangoes in still, dustgreen trees. Answer The author uses “…in still…” to describe the “…the (dustgreen) trees.” Since the author is describing the trees, in still is an adjective. Using the Cambridge dictionary, still is defined as: staying in the same position; not moving: So the … Read more
“Just one thing”, said the tailor. “A touch to your waistcoat”. He unbuttoned the dissipated garment and did it up again more symmetrically. I’ve looked up the word dissipated and still I can’t seem to understand what it means in this case, when used with garment. Answer Although nowadays we mostly use it to describe … Read more
I would like to know what does “schematic claim” in the following encrypt mean which is from an entry of Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: To consider some of the different strategies for responding to the phenomenon of intersectionality, let’s return to the schematic claims that women are oppressed and this oppression is wrong or unjust. … Read more
I’m translating a post about psychology and having trouble with this sentence: “I know when I’m sitting across from someone who’s smiling brightly at me while simultaneously describing a significant loss or disappointment that I may have tripped over someone else who’s hiding.” The context is someone trying to hide their negative emotions. But I … Read more
A particularly quotable 1970s British comedy film includes the following pseudo-old-english instructions for dispatching a troublesome foe: First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin, then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou … Read more
Is there a semantic difference between “digitization” and “digitalization” when used in the context of the advent of digital science/scholarship? E.g., is there a difference between saying “the digitization of scholarship affects scientific methods” and “the digitalization of scholarship affects scientific methods”? Answer Yes[1]. Digitization is the process of converting analog data to a digital … Read more
I read in “The White Silent” of Jack London and see this sentence ‘Only one day. We can shave it through on the grub, and I might knock over a moose.’ I do not understand meaning of ‘we can shave it through on the grub’. Do you explain clearly for me? And Jack London use … Read more
Can anybody help me with the following passage? Eigner and his deputy, Mustafa Riza Tadjadod, were to come down out of the hills to the railway and plant time fuses at irregular intervals along the line, thus wrecking it in several different places. Results were to be reported to Abwehr II by means of a … Read more
Help me please about the exact meaning of the following passage. The words in bold are intended. “Although the SD had taken the trouble of getting Mayr and Gamotha out to Persia, and although war with Russia had broken out, Berlin was so confident of victory farther west that it did not see any reason … Read more
I read this in Word by Word by Kory Stamper: Don’t think that Gove was a windbag: he was a New Englander and valued sparse efficiency in all things (including lexicography). So it says something that the memos are so long. Does the latter sentence’s construction have some idiomatic significance because it in itself doesn’t … Read more
