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Chan-Seung Lee



Joined: 03 Dec 2005
Posts: 1032
PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 2:00 pm    Post subject: what Reply with quote
Quote:
Coincidences seem to happen so often some people think there's a grander plan to the world in which we live than the reality we take for granted. Just this morning I was on the subway to work and saw a friend I hadn't met for years get off at the same stop as I do every day. I doubt there's much more to it than pure chance though. I mean, when you think about it you are bound to run into people you know from wherever they've been all the time.


1.What does 'a grander plan' mean?
2.What does the first 'it' which is in the quote mean?
3.What does the second 'it' which is in the quote mean?
4.What does 'pure chance' mean?
5.Would it be possibe for you to paraphrase the whole article for me?

Thanks.
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CP



Joined: 12 Jun 2006
Posts: 2875
Location: California
PostPosted: Wed May 13, 2009 12:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
To quote Kurt Vonnegut:

Fish gotta swim,
Bird gotta fly.
Man gotta ask himself,
"Why, why, why?"


The author is talking about random events, things that happen by chance, by happenstance, by coincidence, but which we try to understand and explain and give meaning to.

The grander plan would mean some great, mysterious design or plan of God or some other higher power, who makes things happen for His or Her own reasons. The author is saying that coincidences (things that happen near to each other in time and space) happen all the time, so often that we try to explain them as though they are part of a huge plan in the infinite mind of the Creator of the Universe.

The first it means the coincidence of seeing his friend by chance.

The second it means the whole idea of the commonness of coincidences.

Pure chance means just that, plain, ordinary random chance, happenstance. Not caused by any higher power, no deeper meaning.

Paraphrase: Things happen by chance. Just because you notice some coincidence, that is no reason to try to explain it by ascribing it to the work of some higher power.

Alternative paraphrase: Man gotta ask himself "Why, why, why?"
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