Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[learner12]

Hello, teachers!!

Cities given, the problem was to light them.
----->
What does this sentence want to say?

My guess:
If cities were given, they were needed to be beautiful; I mean, people must build buildings, have the necessary infrastructure and so on to live a happy life.

Thank you in advance.

[CP]

That can't be the whole sentence, and I suspect the punctuation is a little different in the original. Can you cut and paste the original paragraph, or at least the original sentence, so we can see the context? Thank you.
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[learner12]

I am so sorry that I haven't written a whole sentence; I took out from a textbook, and right now I found the original sentence on the net.

Thank you for your help, CP!!

http://dinamico.unibg.it/rls/essays%5Cvirgpuer%5Cvp-12.htm

A PLEA FOR GAS LAMPS
by Robert Louis Stevenson

XII - A PLEA FOR GAS LAMPS

CITIES given, the problem was to light them. How to conduct individual citizens about the burgess-warren, when once heaven had withdrawn its leading luminary? or - since we live in a scientific age - when once our spinning planet has turned its back upon the sun? The moon, from time to time, was doubtless very helpful; the stars had a cheery look among the chimney-pots; and a cresset here and there, on church or citadel, produced a fine pictorial effect, and, in places where the ground lay unevenly, held out the right hand of conduct to the benighted. But sun, moon, and stars abstracted or concealed, the night-faring inhabitant had to fall back - we speak on the authority of old prints - upon stable lanthorns two stories in height. Many holes, drilled in the conical turret-roof of this vagabond Pharos, let up spouts of dazzlement into the bearer's eyes; and as he paced forth in the ghostly darkness, carrying his own sun by a ring about his finger, day and night swung to and fro and up and down about his footsteps. Blackness haunted his path; he was beleaguered by goblins as he went; and, curfew being struck, he found no light but that he travelled in throughout the township.

[CP]

Good heavens! What sadist would assign this passage to a non-native speaker with less than 15 years of training? Most native speakers would make a lemon face just reading such old fashioned prose.

All right, my guess about the whole sentence and punctuation was entirely wrong. I am sorry.

What Stevenson meant by opening his little essay with "Cities given, the problem was to light them," was, "Given that cities exist, the problem of how to light them arose." Or, "If we have cities, we have to figure out how to light them." Then he went on to talk about the lamp lighters, in a pretty indirect way.

Please tell your teacher I said it is cruel and unusual punishment to have you read something like this. Go get the New York Times -- that's quite challenging enough, and it makes sense.
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[learner12]

Dear CP,

Thank you for your lightning-speed replies. I really cannot thank you enough.

I got it-- I say your opinion to my teacher. You are right.

Have a nice day!!