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Chan-Seung Lee
Joined: 03 Dec 2005
Posts: 1032
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 Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 2:16 am Post subject: short of nuclear war |
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| In St. Croix, there are 100,000 mongooses, about twice as many as the human population. "It's impossible to eliminate the mongoose population, short of nuclear war. I'm not a prophet crying in the wilderness, but the potential for real trouble is there," says Horst. |
In the context, what does 'short of nuclear war' mean?
(I don't know why the author expressed 'short of nuclear war' all of sudden which I think is not related to the context.)
Thanks. |
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bakum123
Joined: 20 Aug 2004
Posts: 44
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| Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 3:21 am Post subject: |
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short of nuclear war
=(aside from) nuclear war
=(besides) nuclear war
=(except for) nuclear war
It means if it were not for a nuclear war |
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rice07
Joined: 26 Oct 2007
Posts: 385
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| Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 4:17 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| "It's impossible to eliminate the mongoose population, short of nuclear war. |
It can be rephrased this way:
Short of(=Without) nuclear war, it is impossible to eliminate the mongoose population. |
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