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Park sang joon Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

A clause I don't understand

But if you don't share that assumption, you'll need to know a little more about the results of homeschooling before you start singing its praises. For that matter, you might even consider revising your own assumptions about what character traits homeschooling should encourage. Whichever intellectual road you take is fine. The point is, you can't make those decisions until you've figured out what assumptions about life and how it should be lived underlie the author's claims.
[Source: Reading for Results Ninth Edition by Laraine Flemming]
I think "it" indicates "life" but I don't know what role "and how it should be live" plays in the sentence.
So I'd like you to analyze the clause for me.
Thank you in advance for your help.
  

Top answer

park sang joon I think "it" indicates "life" but I don't know what role "and how it should be live" plays in the sentence. The sentence is abysmally constructed. The writer means this: The point is, you can't make those decisions until you've figured out what assumptions about life the author has made and how it should be lived underlie the author's claims.

— Mister Micawber

  • park sang joon I think "it" indicates "life" but I don't know what role "and how it should be live" plays in the sentence.
  • The sentence is abysmally constructed.
  • The writer means this: The point is, you can't make those decisions until you've figured out what assumptions about life the author has made and how it should be lived underlie the author's claims.
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11 Answers
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park sang joonI think "it" indicates "life" but I don't know what role "and how it should be live" plays in the sentence.
The sentence is abysmally constructed. The writer means this:

The point is, you can't make those decisions until you've figured out what assumptions about life the author has made and how it should be lived underlie the a
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Thank you, Mr.Micawber, for your very kind answer. Emotion: smile
Then, I'd like to know "that" is implied before "what summption."
And I'
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park sang joonI'd like to know "that" is implied before "what summption."
No. There hovers an optional 'that' after 'life'.
park sang joonI'd like to know why the author arbitrarily omit a subject and verb in a clause.
He erred.
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Thank you, Mr.Micawber, for your continuing support.Emotion: smile
I don't think now, we have the same opinion about the sentence structure.
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Since you don't accept my opinion, I will let another moderator mediate.
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I'm so sorry; I used wrong words.
I didn't udnderstand your explanation rather than we have different opinions.
I first thought "and how it should be lived" is an parenthesis but I can't figur out why there is "and."
And then, you said "what assumptions about life (that) the author has made."
But I don't understand how "what" conjunction can lead a phrase.
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And I am afraid I cannot understand your lack of understanding here. Surely you have met such common constructions:

...you've figured out what assumptions...the author has made and how [life] should be lived...

I know what you're doing.
He discovered who did it.
He forgot where he left it and what i
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Thank you, Mr. Micawber, for your magnanimously coming. Emotion: smile

The point is, you can't make those decisions until you've figur
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Aha! I see the problem, and I have indeed not explained correctly, since one of those clauses is actually subsumed in the other. It is a different structure than I was talking about before. Let me bracket the sentence and then ask you for further questions:

...you can't make those decisions until you've figured out what assumptions about [life and how it should be lived]
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Thank you, Mr. Micawber, for your continuing support.Emotion: smile
I'm such a fool; now, I'm fully understood.
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