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Kapa Posted 12 years ago
Vocabulary
Meaning
Hi dear friends,
Would you explain me the bold part? I am confused and missed the subject of the sentence. "They" refers to who?
“Max knows what style of interior decoration Charmaine prefers: she likes pretty wallpaper, with rosebuds or daisies. But in each house they’ve used, the vandals had been there long before them, from the time when they roamed from town to town and from house to house, smashing windows and bottles and drinking and drugging and sleeping on the floor and using the bathtubs as outhouses, back before they fenced Consilience in, and classified and sorted the vandals, and dealt with them. And they’d left their marks on the floral wallpaper: gang tags, and other things. Short, hard words, written in spray paint, markers, lipstick, and, a couple of times, something brown and crusted that might have been ***.”
Thanks
Would you explain me the bold part? I am confused and missed the subject of the sentence. "They" refers to who?
“Max knows what style of interior decoration Charmaine prefers: she likes pretty wallpaper, with rosebuds or daisies. But in each house they’ve used, the vandals had been there long before them, from the time when they roamed from town to town and from house to house, smashing windows and bottles and drinking and drugging and sleeping on the floor and using the bathtubs as outhouses, back before they fenced Consilience in, and classified and sorted the vandals, and dealt with them. And they’d left their marks on the floral wallpaper: gang tags, and other things. Short, hard words, written in spray paint, markers, lipstick, and, a couple of times, something brown and crusted that might have been ***.”
Thanks
Top answer
The first "they" appears to refer to the vandals. The second "they" appears to refer to a group of people that is supposed to be understood from the wider context. It could be a specific reference or a vague reference.
- The first "they" appears to refer to the vandals.
- The second "they" appears to refer to a group of people that is supposed to be understood from the wider context.
- It could be a specific reference or a vague reference.
- At vaguest, it could mean little more than "before Consilience was fenced in".
- "classified and sorted the vandals" seems to be literal.
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3 Answers
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The first "they" appears to refer to the vandals. The second "they" appears to refer to a group of people that is supposed to be understood from the wider context. It could be a specific reference or a vague reference. At vaguest, it could mean little more than "before Consilience was fenced in".
"classified and sorted the vandals" seems to be literal.
"classified and sorted the vandals" seems to be literal.
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What about "back"? Could I say "But in each house they(Max and Charmine)'ve used,....., back before they fenced Consilience in, and classified and sorted the vandals"?
"Short" here is adverb or adjective?
“Max knows what style of interior decoration Charmaine prefers: she likes pretty wallpaper, with rosebuds or daisies. But in each house they’ve used, the vandals had been there long
"Short" here is adverb or adjective?
“Max knows what style of interior decoration Charmaine prefers: she likes pretty wallpaper, with rosebuds or daisies. But in each house they’ve used, the vandals had been there long
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"back" means "back in the past".
"back before they fenced Consilience in" describes the period during which the vandals were active.
"short" is an adjective; "short" and "hard" both modify "words">
"back before they fenced Consilience in" describes the period during which the vandals were active.
"short" is an adjective; "short" and "hard" both modify "words">
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