Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Li-Chun]

I'm confused about the usage of "in order to" in the following sentences.

"Excavations have shown that the early settlement of Jericho was surrounded by a great stone wall about three yards thick -- one of the earliest human-made defensive structures. Indeed, people must have greatly feared their neighbors in order to invest the labor needed to build such a wall with only stone hand tools."

As I know, we usually use "in order to" to state the purpose.
However, it looks weird in the above sentences.
One of my teachers said that the phrase "in order to" here means "because".
That is, the author presumes "people must have greatly feared their neighbors" according to the evidence that they "invest the labor needed to build such a wall".
This seems a reasonable explanation.

But I'm still confused...
Is it also common to use "in order to" to state a cause or a reason?


Thanks!

[CP]

Your teacher is right. "In order to" can have that meaning.

"Indeed, people must have greatly feared their neighbors in order to invest the labor needed to build such a wall with only stone hand tools" could be re-written as:

"Indeed, people must have greatly feared their neighbors if they invested the labor needed to build such a wall with only stone hand tools."

I wouldn't say it is very common, but it would not sound wrong and would not be misunderstood in writing or conversation by native speakers.
_________________
You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[Li-Chun]

Thank you for the great help!!
Sometimes I do need native speakers' explanation which is more convincing.


Thanks again!!!

Li-Chun