Please check my understanding?
1. He (Bran) had been as helpless as a baby, no more able to defend himself than Rickon would have been.
(it's a third conditional, expressing an imaginary past situation which didn't happen, i.e. If Rickon had been in a dangerous situation, he would have been more able than Bran to defend himself)
2. A sinkhole in the center of the floor opened on what might have been an even greater cavern below, though the darkness made it hard to tell.
(imagined resemblance, i.e. what the sinkhole opened on resembled an even greater cavern below)
3. When they brought him word of the battle at Duskendale, where Lord Randyll Tarly had shattered Robett Glover and Ser Helman Tallhart, he might have been expected to rage. Instead he’d stared in dumb disbelief and said, “Duskendale, on the narrow sea? ..."
(this "might have" expresses the idea of "it is possible that something happened in the past". Compared with "dad been expected", this "might have" shows less confidence that he had been expected to rage)
Please check my understanding?
Thank you.
Top answer
First two your understanding is fine. Well done! The third example - we used 'might have been expected' to imagine the expectations of a hypothetical observer who knew the temperament of the man in question, and how they might have expected this man to react, based on previous observations of him.
- First two your understanding is fine.
- Well done!
- The third example - we used 'might have been expected' to imagine the expectations of a hypothetical observer who knew the temperament of the man in question, and how they might have expected this man to react, based on previous observations of him.
- This shows that his reaction in this case (staring in dumb disbelief) was unexpected and noteworthy.
- Let me know if that makes sense!
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First two your understanding is fine. Well done!
The third example - we used 'might have been expected' to imagine the expectations of a hypothetical observer who knew the temperament of the man in question, and how they might have expected this man to react, based on previous observations of him. This shows that his reaction in this case (staring in dumb disbelief) was une
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