Conjunctions

Question

Hello, please could you express your view on the following sentence:

It is generally agreed that his most successful achievement is the slow revelation of his main thesis as the arguments unfold.

Could the conjunctions while and when be used in this context as well? They don't sound so natural to me, after all.

Thank you for your answer!

Cool Breeze · Accepted Answer

To me, too, as is the best choice since it suggests that his arguments unfold piecemeal.

CB

Successor · Answer

Yes, we prefer as to say that when one thing changes, another thing changes at the same time.

As the cheece matures, its flavour improves.

As the paint dries, it changes from a light to a deep red.

We could also use 'While...' with a continuous tense:

While the cheece is maturing...

Cool Breeze · Answer

successorAs the cheece matures, its flavour improves.

I think you mean cheese, don't you? I didn't have much time when I wrote my previous post. There was something in your sentence that bothered me and since no one else has commented on it, I'll say afew words myself.

"It is generally agreed that his most successful achievement is the slow revelation of his main thesis as the arguments unfold."

The notion expressed in the sentence seems rather odd. I find it strange that a person's most successful achievement should be "a slow revelation of his main thesis". What is "a/the main thesis", anyway? The sentence needs rewording. Something like: It is generally agreed that his greatest achievement is his doctoral (?) thesis, in which he...

CB
PS. Due to reasons beyond my control I am forced to italicize everything after quoting your sentence. There's a bug somewhere.

Successor · Answer

The word 'thesis' refers to a well-known book that is a classic work in its field. The sentence itself is a direct quotation (but here out of a larger context, of course) from one of the language tests by the university of Cambridge.

Thank you for your comments!

Cool Breeze · Answer

successorThe sentence itself is a direct quotation (but here out of a larger context, of course) from one of the language tests by the university of Cambridge.

Here we go!

Back in the 1980s a colleague of mine used to receive letters from an Oxford University professor who didn't know where to put the genitive apostrophes.

CB

Successor · Answer

I understood the sentence so that the author of the book discussed his view or theory in an elaborate way, thus the word 'thesis' was used.

THESIS

- an idea or opinion about something that you discuss in a formal way and give examples for:

Their main thesis was that the rise in earnings was due to improvements in education.

Here is the original text:

Jon Wynne-Tyson was an original thinker whose best-known book ‘Food for a Future’ was published in 1975. In this classic work, a case was put forward for what can only be described as a more responsible and humane attitude towards the world’s food resources. It had gradually become clear to Wynne-Tyson that the economics and ecology of meat production did not make sense. What justification was there, he argued, for using seven tonnes of cereal to produce one tonne of meat?

Even today, the book’s succinct style makes it compulsively readable. Although his approach is basically an emotional one, Wynne Tyson goes to great lengths to back his every statement with considerable supporting evidence and statistical data. Thus, even those of us who are widely read in the subject of vegetarianism will gain fresh insights from this book. It is generally agreed that his most successful achievement is the slow revelation of his main thesis as the arguments unfold. The book concludes that a move away from an animal based diet to one which is based on plant sources is inevitable in the long term, in view of the fact that there is no sound nutritional, medical or social justification for meat eating. Regardless of whether you agree with such a conclusion or not, the book certainly makes a fascinating read.

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