0
Wholegrain Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

Can you interpret this short but difficult passage????

Scholars only occasionally consult a few of the books which every philosopher would consider any true intellectual writing about any subject of interest to all serious students of human culture should be familiar with and make all his or her students read.

http://books.google.ca/books?id=cqc8VqybPI0C&pg=
PA146&lpg=PA146&dq=%22ellipsis%22+shakespeare&source
=web&ots=lh-RBwxaIe&sig=cOpSleGOqJgPnUqmwnli
28NjeJo&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#
PPA155,M1

PAGE 155

Here's my interpretation of it:

Scholars only occasionally consult a few(=passage) of the books which(=passage) every philosopher would consider any true intellectual writing(,) about(refers to passage) any subject of interest to all(,) (something) serious students of human culture should be familiar with(,) and make all his or her students read(refers to passage).
  

Top answer

I fixed my post

— Wholegrain

  • I fixed my post
Free · every Monday

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.

12 Answers
0
I think the original author made a lot of errors.
0
0
I have a very low opinion of the passage. I'm not even sure if you parse it out that it really makes sense.
Bascially, all* philosophers believe that there are some books that are so crucial to understanding that anyone who wants to know anything needs to read them. Scholars rarely consult these books.
* All? How would he know? Has he polled them?
0
0
GG, I, too, have found myself unable to parse this sentence. Would you please help me with its structure (subjects, verbs, subordinate clauses)? What's the subject for the verb "should (be familiar with)"? If it's "all serious students of human culture", then what does the "to" of "interest to" refer to?
0
0
Can't you guys click on the link?

Ok, brb I will take a picture of it.
0
0
[URL=] [/URL]

It took me 5 min to "understand" it due to the awkwardness of the sentence. I obviously asked this question because of it being extremely weird and difficult to understand.
0
0
Wait, sorry I didn't read you guys... lol what does "parse" even mean?
0
0
Scholars only occasionally consult a few of the books which every philosopher would consider any true intellectual writing about any subject of interest to all serious students of human culture should be familiar with and make all his or her students read.

I think it means:

Scholars only occasionally consult some passage of the books, which every philosopher would consider AT AL
0
0
I don't think it is possible to neglect all the punctuations the sentence obviously needs.
0
0
I don't think there is a need for punctuations since some parts of the sentence were elided or don't need any.
0

Related Questions