Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[missdaredevil]

1. Hey, these pictures of dead presidents are just *heavy-duty* paper. I'm not accepting these crummy things for work anymore--and certainly* not so few of them."*

heavy-duty=with importance, in this case?

not so few of them.=the author wants to get more?

2. Money is a funny thing. It plays such a big role in our lives that we rarely stop to think that the cash we try to amass has almost no *inherent* worth.

inherent=part of the very nature of something, and therefore permanently characteristic of it or necessarily involved in it

Sorry I don't understand why inherent was put there?


3.Gold's value is still as intrinsic as it *gets.*

What does it get?

4.Traditionally, gold is where investors put their money when they want to make sure that inflation and instability *doesn't* eat it away--a safe haven, the mattress.

why isn't that *don't*?

Thanks a million

[CP]

1. By "pictures of dead presidents," the person is referring to American money. The bills have portraits on the face side, and most of them are of presidents.

They are printed on sturdy paper, and it really is heavy-duty paper, meaning paper that can withstand a lot of wear and tear.

And yes, "not so few of them" means he wants more.

2. It means that the paper currency and coins that we use are themselves not valuable, unlike something really useful and valuable like gold. Gold is valuable because it is scarce and has great properties: never tarnishes, great tensile strength, malleable, very beautiful, excellent conductor, etc.

3. The expression "as good as it gets" means "best." In the same way, "as X as it gets" means the most X possible. So the value of gold (because of all its wonder properties) really is intrinsic, and couldn't be more so.

4. The person is using "inflation and instability" as though it were a single thing, hence the singular verb. To me, it is better to use the plural, but a lot of people, especially in speaking, use the singular when they think of the multiple components as a single thing.
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