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Eipjoo Posted 13 years ago
Vocabulary
I could cheerfully . . .
I shook my head and started down the shaky ladder.
“Look at yourself!” Ned said. “You’re covered with tar.”
“Like a roof,” I said, getting a look at my filthy hands and my dress. Ned hooted with laughter and I managed a pathetic grin.
I could cheerfully have fed him to the pigs.
“It won’t come off, you know. You’ll still have it plastered all over you when you’re an old lady.”
I wondered where Ned had picked up this rustic folklore – it was probably from Tully. I knew for a fact that Michael Faraday had synthesized tetrachloroethene in the 1820s by heating hexachloroethane and piping off the chlorine as it decomposed. The resulting solvent would remove tar from fabric like stink. Unfortunately – much as I should like to have done– I hadn’t the time to repeat Faraday’s discovery. Instead, I would have to fall back on mayonnaise, as recommended in The Butler and Footman’s Vade Mecum, which I had come across one rainy day while snooping through the pantry at Buckshaw.
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What’s the meanings of the below clause or phrases
I could cheerfully have fed him to the pigs
piping off the chlorine
much as I should like to have done
“Look at yourself!” Ned said. “You’re covered with tar.”
“Like a roof,” I said, getting a look at my filthy hands and my dress. Ned hooted with laughter and I managed a pathetic grin.
I could cheerfully have fed him to the pigs.
“It won’t come off, you know. You’ll still have it plastered all over you when you’re an old lady.”
I wondered where Ned had picked up this rustic folklore – it was probably from Tully. I knew for a fact that Michael Faraday had synthesized tetrachloroethene in the 1820s by heating hexachloroethane and piping off the chlorine as it decomposed. The resulting solvent would remove tar from fabric like stink. Unfortunately – much as I should like to have done– I hadn’t the time to repeat Faraday’s discovery. Instead, I would have to fall back on mayonnaise, as recommended in The Butler and Footman’s Vade Mecum, which I had come across one rainy day while snooping through the pantry at Buckshaw.
***
What’s the meanings of the below clause or phrases
I could cheerfully have fed him to the pigs
piping off the chlorine
much as I should like to have done
Top answer
fed him to the pigs -- killed him piping off -- distilling; removing through a pipe much as I should like to have done -- even though I would very much have liked to (repeat Faraday's discovery)
- fed him to the pigs -- killed him piping off -- distilling; removing through a pipe much as I should like to have done -- even though I would very much have liked to (repeat Faraday's discovery)
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3 Answers
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fed him to the pigs -- killed him
piping off -- distilling; removing through a pipe
much as I should like to have done -- even though I would very much have liked to (repeat Faraday's discovery)
piping off -- distilling; removing through a pipe
much as I should like to have done -- even though I would very much have liked to (repeat Faraday's discovery)
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Mister Micawbereven thoughThank you very much. By the way, why don't English dictionaries get the phrase 'much as'? I found out only on Korean-English dictionaries online.
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eipjoo By the way, why don't English dictionaries get the phrase 'much as'?I cannot speak to that particular phrase, but English dictionaries pay less attention to fixed phrases and idioms than bilingual dictionaries do—presumably because of space limitations?
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