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Taka Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

accustomed to

It was not simply or primarily that these Europeans schoolchildren had a vastly more sophisticated knowledge of the human heart than we were accustomed to in the young or, for that matter, the old.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0671657151/ref=sib_fs_top/104-7819253-9514341?ie=UTF8&p=S01C&checkSum=EJ7omx0cyZ3YeaxiAvdV%2BMu2FBksUV%2FGycTTROlTm8k%3D#reader-link

What exactly does 'we were accustomed to (the knowledge of human heart) in the young or the old' mean here? Our (i.e. Americans') understanding of how much knowledge young or old Americans generally had about human heart?
  

Top answer

They have more knowledge than the writer was used to, than the writer expected to encounter. The children knew more about the heart that the writer would have expected, based on prior experience with people of that age - but they also seemed to have more knowledge than adults too. )

— BarbaraPA

  • They have more knowledge than the writer was used to, than the writer expected to encounter.
  • The children knew more about the heart that the writer would have expected, based on prior experience with people of that age - but they also seemed to have more knowledge than adults too.
  • )
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2 Answers
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They have more knowledge than the writer was used to, than the writer expected to encounter.

The children knew more about the heart that the writer would have expected, based on prior experience with people of that age - but they also seemed to have more knowledge than adults too.

(I don't know if they mean "the human heart" in terms of emotions or in terms of anatomy.)
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Good. The same as I thought. Thanks, GG!

(I don't believe it's about anatomy, by the way)
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