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imchongjun
Joined: 14 Nov 2005
Posts: 120
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 Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 6:50 pm Post subject: "pleasantly excited" |
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Hello, teachers.
I am not sure if I understand the last sentence of the following passage.
Men have never been alone in space. We have been watched, inspected, and studied periodically since Neanderthal times by races in the galaxy who have preceded us in development by hundreds of thousands of years. These observers have been pleasantly excited by some of the things we have done, appalled by others.
I paraphrased the last sentence like this: These observers have been enjoying wathcing us, somtimes excited and sometimes appalled by what we have done. Is this correct? I appreciate your comments very much. |
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dragn
Joined: 17 Feb 2009
Posts: 450
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| Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 9:17 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| I paraphrased the last sentence like this: These observers have been enjoying wathcing us, somtimes excited and sometimes appalled by what we have done. Is this correct? I appreciate your comments very much. |
No, I'm afraid the passage didn't survive your paraphrasing entirely unscathed. You've altered the meaning, and your sentence doesn't really make good sense.
When you say "These observers have been enjoying watching us, sometimes excited and sometimes appalled by what we have done," you make it sound as if they have enjoyed watching us the whole time, both when they were excited and also when they were appalled by our actions. That doesn't make any sense. How can you enjoy watching someone do something that appalls you? If something appalls you, it is shockingly unpleasant or disturbing�not enjoyable.
If someone is pleasantly excited, they are...well, excited in an especially pleasant way. For example, you might be pleasantly excited if you were present as your child took his or her first step, or uttered his or her first word. You might be pleasantly excited if your son or daughter won some sort of academic prize or a talent contest, and so on.
The advanced civilizations spoken of in the passage might have been pleasantly excited to see Isaac Newton invent calculus or James Watson crack the code of human DNA. They might have been pleasantly excited to see the Berlin Wall finally come crashing down and with it the scourge of communism.
On the other hand, they would have no doubt been appalled to see six million innocent people of the Jewish faith brutally murdered under the direction of a madman, or countless other grotesque examples of man's inhumanity to man. They would no doubt be appalled to see millions of children in undeveloped countries continue to die of starvation and preventable diseases.
Greg |
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imchongjun
Joined: 14 Nov 2005
Posts: 120
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| Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 4:27 pm Post subject: |
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| Thank you, Dragn, for your clear explanation!! |
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