Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[rice07]

Hi,

...

So how come a vessel whose cargo is so substantial that its loss can cause the world oil price to jump by more than a dollar (1) fall prey to a ragged band of Somali pirates (2) who, in all probability, scrambled on board from a couple of fast launches? How could one of the biggest man-made objects on earth become the victim of yet another hijacking in the waters off east Africa, an area that has witnessed more than 90 such incidents this year alone ( and (3) which on Saturday witnessed another, in the shape of a Hong Kong freighter called the Delight)? http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2008/11/24/2003429387

...

I number the above 1 to 3 to show where my questions are.

(1). I suppose fall is the verb of the subject a vessel. Is it a typo? And it should be falls?

(2). Does this clause mean " who competed in targeting at some objects for ransom so that they , in all probability, rushed on board from a couple of fast launches(perhaps even they weren't getting on the exact boat they were originally going to launch)?

(3). In this case, does which clause refer to an area? Based on parallelism, is(are) there any other clause(s) in the compound sentence in parallel with that which clause? In my fisrt thought, I would assume " that has witnessed more than 90 such incidents this year alone" was the parallel clause. I am in dire need of your help. Many thanks!

Sincerely
rice07

[Christine123]

2. I am not sure where you are getting that they competed in anything, but what it means is most likely the group of pirates boarded the ships very quickly, in a somewhat unorganized fashion.


3. Yes, you are correct. "Which" is referring back to "an area."

For the first question, I'm going to have to think about this one for a while. If anyone wants to jump in, please feel free. For some reason, it is sounding right to me to say "The vessel falls prey to a ragged band of Somali pirates,' but when I phrase it in a question: "How can a vessel fall prey to a ragged band of Somali pirates," putting the "s" on the end of "fall" does not sound right.

[rice07]

Hi Christine123,

Nice to have you again!

It is a bit tough for me, a non-native speaker of English, to use my own initiative to find out what the exact definitions of some words in the contexts were. Take, scramble, for instance.

scramble (verb)

1. ~ for sth to push, fight or compete with others in order to get or reach sth
=> The audience scrambled for the exits.

2. ~ to inf
=> Shoppers were scrambling to get the best bargains.

3. to cook egg by mixing the white and yellow parts together and heating them ...

4. to confuse sb's thought, ideas, etc. so that they have no order.

...

Deducing from the above, now that the pirates boarded the boats very quickly, in somewhat unorganized fashion, I would assume the reason for the pirates to rush was competing in targeting at some objects for the sake of- ransom. Perhaps I got another thought.

As to " So how come a vessel ... fall prey to ...", in fact, we see eye to eye on this point, but with too few examples in the dictionaries handy, this point has been bothering me for a while. Let's see the examples in the dictionaries.


LONGMAN:

how come? used to ask someone why something has happened
=> How come Tyler's still here?
(It seems like a singular verb in this case.)

OXFORD:

how come (informal) used to ask the reason for sth
=>' I think you owe me some money.' ' How come? '
(In this case, I cannot tell what on earth a sigular or other forms of a verb goes after 'How come' from the context.)

For question (3), I'm interested in knowing whether the author attempted to beautify the wording therefore to evade using repeatedly 'that' [ I mean ' Could the structure of the clauses be: an area that has witnessed more than 90 such incidents this year alone (and that on Saturday witnessed another, in the shape of a Hong Kong freighter called the Delight- Anyway, a way seems more understandable to me)]? Sorry if I'm being a bit slow for that. I do appreciate what you've done for me!

Sincerely
rice07

BTW, I guess I've figured out why the author used 'fall' but not 'falls' in that case in the newspaper. It is a kind of subjunctive mood. As to speaking of another example in LONGMAN DICTIONARY,' How come Tyler's still here?', it is, of course, not the subjunctive.

For question (3), 'and which' in that case is more appropriate than 'and that' I suggested, because 'which' relating an action back onto the subject(an area) seems to be more like it in comparison with 'that', a descriptor leading the relative clause to depict the antecedent- an area. May I have your comment about that? Open to any suggestions. Thanks a lot!