Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[ysw1990]

I finally write in this site. Happy

I have some questions about an economics magazine: The Economist

I think I gonna ask some questions here quite often.

Thank you very much.




(1) The Europeans hoped they had stumbled on such a solution last year, when they at last talked Russia and China into imposing sanctions and George Bush into dangling the prospect of normal relations with Iran once enrichment stopped.

-> I can't understand the bold one. I can understand 'with Iran of which enrichment stopped.' But why is the 'once' injected in that sentence?

(2) Numbers are still growing; but recently-it is imposible to know exactly when-an infection point seems to have been reached.

-> First, I want to know the usage of ':' and ';'. Second, I want to know why the writer used the presence perfect tense in the bold sentece.

(3) That workforce will shrink by a fifth in the next decade.

-> Does it means that the workforce would be one-fifth, not four-fifths?

(4) Rural areas have borne the brunt of population decline.

-> I can't understand the bold one.





Thanks a lot! This is all for today.

[cgage2]

I gonna ask - please refrain from using slang expressions on a grammar help site
"I'm going to ask"

Good question about "once". In this case, "once" means "at the moment that....

It means that the work force will decrease by 20% or 1/5"

"born the brunt" = be negatively (badly) affacted by

I'll answer the questions about : and ; in a later post

[buddhaheart]


(1) The Europeans hoped they had stumbled on such a solution last year, when they at last talked Russia and China into imposing sanctions and George Bush into dangling the prospect of normal relations with Iran once enrichment stopped.

-> I can't understand the bold one. I can understand 'with Iran of which enrichment stopped.' But why is the 'once' injected in that sentence? ~ after, whenever or if ever (conjunction).

(2) Numbers are still growing; but recently-it is imposible to know exactly when-an infection point seems to have been reached.

-> First, I want to know the usage of ':' and ';'. Second, I want to know why the writer used the presence perfect tense in the bold sentece. There�s no �and� in this sentence you quoted! The presence perfect is used to indicate an activity (number growing) started in the past has just finished (reached an �infection� point).

(3) That workforce will shrink by a fifth in the next decade.

-> Does it means that the workforce would be one-fifth, not four-fifths? No. Smaller by 1/5. Shrunk to 4/5 of what it�s now. �Shrink by a fifth� = be reduced by 1/5.

(4) Rural areas have borne the brunt of population decline. Brunt ~ hardest part, the main force. = Population has declined the most in rural areas. Rural areas have the worst population decline.

[ysw1990]

Oh, sorry. I hadn't realized that I should use correct grammar.

And Buddhaheart, I just wanted to know the usage of colon and semicolon, not the usage of 'and' in that sentence.

[buddhaheart]

(2) Numbers are still growing; but recently-it is impossible to know exactly when-an infection point seems to have been reached. When 2 independent clauses are clearly related in meaning, a semicolon is used to separate them. You could however treat them as 2 sentences by putting
a period between them.

[ysw1990]

Thank you so much!