Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[hiromi525]

The following paragraph is from a story of Abraham Lincoln.

At the age fo 21, Abe set out for Illinois. He worked at many jobs. He split rails for fences. He worked as a clerk in a store. He served as a village postmaster. Because Abe had to work, he could not always go to school. In fact, Abe had very little schooling, Even so, he did much reading and studying during his spare time. By 1837, he had passed the examination to practice Law. His self -education had paid off.

There are two points I couldn't understand.
What does rails mean.
I look up the word in the dictionary and it says that rail means a bar that is attached along the side or on the top of something such as stairs or a balcony. Is it passible to split a rail to make a fence?

2nd question is
Can I say that I do reading or I do studying.

[pugachevV]

In rural areas of America, in the early days, settlers, who were farmers, split trees (mainly cedar) along the longitudinal axis to make rails to enclose fields to prevent animals from straying.

They used to say they were 'splitting rails', but in fact they were splitting trees to make rails.

Yes. You can read without studying and you can study without reading, so it's OK to say "I was reading", or "I was studying", but not, "I do reading", or "I do studying."

[hiromi525]

[pugachevV]

You can say, "He did much reading and studying in his spare time. It works in the past tense; " He read and studied in his spare time" sounds better to me, but I do reading and studying in my spare time is not as good as, "I read and study...."

I guess it's a matter of personal preference.