In the past, making structures quake-resistant meant firm yet flexible materials, such as steel and wood, that bend without breaking. Later, people tried to lift a building off its foundation, and insert rubber and steel between the building and its foundation to reduce the impact of ground vibrations. The most expensive/recent designs give buildings brains … Read more
The original sentence: We set out to explore how it is that we can all live in the same universe yet see reality so differently. The compared sentence: We set out to explore how we can all live in the same universe yet see reality so differently. Source I would like to know the meaning … Read more
Do I have to specify the time when I say "How silly of me!" in the past? Let’s say I’m telling a friend about something silly that I did in the past, and I say: How silly of me (it was) not to suspect that! Is "it was" implicit in this case—since my friend understands … Read more
"It will take an hour for the room to get/be painted" "It will take the room an hour to get/be painted" i am thinking if they are grammatically correct sentences. As usually we say "It will take an hour for me to paint the room" and "It will take me an hour to paint the … Read more
I can think of several examples of where technical teams knew a proposed well would be dry and yet senior management wanted to drill it because of pressure from government or business partners. I would like to know in the above sentence which one is the predicate? The sentence construction makes me confused. "can think … Read more
A native speaker is telling about the floods, how it happens, how people behave during floods, etc. and she says: They’ve got water coming up to their knees. I know this structure is commonly used when you want to say "you own something", but I find it interesting to see it used for description of … Read more
My house is the one with the red door on the right. My house is on the right, with the red door. Are both sentences idiomatic and do they have the same meaning? Answer Both are fine. There are potentially a couple of different meanings of the first sentence. It could mean "my house has … Read more
These trains are fast. They can travel at very high speeds. These trains are fast. They can travel at very high speed. Can I say "at very high speed" in that context? If it is possible, what’s the difference between two sentences? [I can say the first version in my native language, but it’s very, … Read more
I know that dream can be used as a noun and as a verb. And I know that a nightmare is a bad dream. My question is: If I wanted to use dream as a verb and wanted to use nightmare as its object, would it be correct to say "I dreamt a nightmare last … Read more
Is "There are alot of people who can substitute you" equivalent to "There are alot of people who can substitute for you".(People will take your position). I reckon if we use "substitute" without "for" in my given example then it will be wrong and we could only use "replace" without "for" and the right sentence … Read more
