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Angliholic Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

cut off the remaining bit of the cocoon

A butterfly struggled to force its body through a little hole in a cocoon. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could go. A man saw this and he decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and cut off the remaining bit the cocoon.

Hi,

I have difficult grasping the meaning of the bolded part. How should I interpret it correctly? Why doesn't it go like "cut the cocoon open?"
  

Top answer

Well, technically speaking, the man didn't cut the cocoon open since it was already open. The problem seems to have been that the opening wasn't big enough, so the man cut off a piece of the coocoon in order to make the opening larger. Maybe the writer meant this: "cut off the remaining bit of cocoon ( near the opening ) which was blocking the butterfly's emergence".

— Yankee

  • Well, technically speaking, the man didn't cut the cocoon open since it was already open.
  • The problem seems to have been that the opening wasn't big enough, so the man cut off a piece of the coocoon in order to make the opening larger.
  • Maybe the writer meant this: "cut off the remaining bit of cocoon ( near the opening ) which was blocking the butterfly's emergence".
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3 Answers
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Well, technically speaking, the man didn't cut the cocoon open since it was already open. The problem seems to have been that the opening wasn't big enough, so the man cut off a piece of the coocoon in order to make the opening larger. Maybe the writer meant this: "cut off the remaining bit of cocoon (near the opening) which was blocking the butterfly's emergence".
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YankeeWell, technically speaking, the man didn't cut the cocoon open since it was already open. The problem seems to have been that the opening wasn't big enough, so the man cut off a piece of the coocoon in order to make the opening larger. Maybe the writer meant this: "cut off the remaining bit of cocoon (near the opening) which was blocking the butterfly's eme
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cut off: cut and separated, cut away
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