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Chan-Seung Lee
Joined: 03 Dec 2005
Posts: 1032
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 Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 1:11 am Post subject: questions |
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| Crossing the street from their house, in an empty lot between two houses, stood the rockpile. It was a strange place to find a mass of natural rock jutting out of the ground; and someone, probably Aunt Florence, had once told them that the rock was there and could not be taken away because without it the subway cars underground would fly apart, killing all the people. This, touching on some natural mystery concerning the surface and the center of the earth, was far too intriguing an explanation to be challenged, and it invested the rockpile, moreover, with such mysterious importance that Roy felt it to be his right, not to say his duty, to play there. |
1.'Crossing' and 'had once told' are correct gramatically?
2.What does the first underlined 'it' mean?
3.What does the second underlined 'it' mean?
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dragn
Joined: 17 Feb 2009
Posts: 450
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| Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 11:15 pm Post subject: |
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Crossing the street from their house, in an empty lot between two houses, stood the rockpile. It was a strange place to find a mass of natural rock jutting out of the ground; and someone, probably Aunt Florence, had once told them that the rock was there and could not be taken away because without it the subway cars underground would fly apart, killing all the people. This, touching on some natural mystery concerning the surface and the center of the earth, was far too intriguing an explanation to be challenged, and it invested the rockpile, moreover, with such mysterious importance that Roy felt it to be his right, not to say his duty, to play there.
1.'Crossing' and 'had once told' are correct gramatically? |
I admit that the use of crossing is rather perplexing in the above sentence, although it's possible that there is additional context that would make it more agreeable. It does seem quite odd, though, and off hand I don't see a way to justify it grammatically based on the given context.
Had once told is fine, and makes absolutely perfect sense. At some point in time in the past, prior to the present moment of the action in the story, someone had told him something. No problem.
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| 2.What does the first underlined 'it' mean? |
The first it refers to the explanation given to him by Aunt Florence as to why the rockpile in question could not be taken away.
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| 3.What does the second underlined 'it' mean? |
The second it is a dummy pronoun. It's understood to refer to what is mentioned following to be, which is his right to play on the rockpile. Take a look at this for more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dummy_pronoun
Hope this helps.
Greg |
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