Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[dreamjoy]

i can not understand these following sentences
1."a natural uassuming woman whom they have been doing their best to spoil by making a lioness of her" (what does making a lioness of her mean??)
2.he lives in terror of being caught in a minority where his insecurity will be conspicuous.
3.we humans come by our hungry brains in a natural progression.

i do hope someone can solove my problem
thank you!

[bud]

1. An unassuming person is someone who has no desire for attention or admiration. They may be quiet, by nature.

A lioness (or lion), when used to describe a operson, is someone who is important or powerful.

So the clause means that they are trying to turn her into an important person, while that is not something that she desires.

2. If he ends up in a goup who are mostly different from him, his insecurities will be obvious, and he is frightened by that possibility. It implies that his insecurities are hidden when he is in a group of people similar to him, and so there he feels safe.

3. Hungry brains = eagerness to learn = thirst for knowledge

Natural progression - a sequence that is very usual

It means that a person acquires a thirst for knowledge in a normal sequence. The sequence might be: being played with a lot as a baby, being encouraged to explore thier curiosities as a toddler, good schools as a child, etc...

[Nef]

1."a natural uassuming woman whom they have been doing their best to spoil by making a lioness of her" (what does making a lioness of her mean??)
2.he lives in terror of being caught in a minority where his insecurity will be conspicuous.
3.we humans come by our hungry brains in a natural progression.


Hello,
I think you are reading some difficult material. Here's what occurs to me.

1. To spoil someone by "making a lioness of her" probably means to treat her almost too well, as though she were a queen or an empress. One meaning of "spoil" is to over-indulge. Think of people trying to anticipate and grant someone's every wish in a fawning (very subservient) way. This could make the lionized woman EXPECT to be treated in that fashion all the time. Therefore, she might become very impatient and upset if she were treated in any other way.

2. I'm not sure. Someone is afraid he will be placed in a situation that will result in others becoming aware of how unsure of himself he is, of how little he really knows or can do?

3. I'm not sure of this, either. My guess would be that the writer is saying that humans "come by our hungry brains" because we evolved from a long line of creatures that have active minds and are curious about things.