Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[rice07]

Hi Fw

Here I've got a briefing from world news in the following:

Hundreds of officials have descended on this eastern outpost to begin preparations for upcoming peace talks even as fighting continued in the tangled forests of eastern Congo.

Missing from the gathering was the warlord Laurent Nkunda,whose rebellion,staged from the jungles surrounding Goma,is at the heart of the spiraling conflict.

For the above complicated sentences in the 2nd paragraph,I think there's an inverted structure included too--aiming at making the antecedent come directly before the relative clause.

the subject of the main clause:the warlord Laurent Nkunda

the verb be of the main clause:was

complement:Missing from the gathering(Missing--adj,from the gathering--adv)(definition of missing:(adj)not included,although it ought to have been)

whose rebellion,staged from the jungles surrounding Goma,is at the heart of the spiraling conflict =>1.relative clause used to refer to the subject of the main clause.


=>2.staged from the jungles surrounding Goma=>phrase of past participle used to refer to rebellion.

=>3.relative possessive word--whose,subject--rebellion,verb be--is, complement--at the heart of the spiraling conflict

So,in terms of not being a native English speaker,do you think sometimes English is difficult?Nevertheless,whichever you learn,in fact, that's a process for language learners to necessarily go through,isn't it?Friend,let's keep going!

[Lorikeet]

Apologies to rice07, who sent me a PM about this thread which I didn't notice until today. (Apparently the update on my browser no longer has a pop up when there is a new message and I have to remember to check for messages.)

I didn't respond to some of this thread because sometimes an over reliance on grammatical terms makes my head spin. However, rice07 asked me about the sentences:

1. Just before going to sleep and while comingi back from work on the train are the time when I enjoy reading the most.
2. Just before going to sleep and while comingi back from work on the train is the time when I enjoy reading the most.

I think that "Just before going to sleep is the time when I enjoy reading the most." is a good sentence.
If you have two favorite times, you can say, "Just before going to sleep and while coming back from work on the train are the times when I enjoy reading the most."

The sentence "Just before going to sleep and while coming back from work on the train is the time when I enjoy reading the most." doesn't make sense to me, because I don't understand how those two times can be the same.

If, however, you said, "Coming home from work and relaxing on the train is the time when I enjoy reading the most." it would make sense to me, since "coming home" and "relaxing on the train" are the same activity.

[rice07]

Thanks Teacher Lorikeet for your explanation to the core of my confusion! Since my computer was out of service in the past few days, I couldn't show you my appreciation until now. Thanks once again!

Have a nice day!