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Stenka25 Posted 12 years ago
Vocabulary
Problem of Agreement
The passage below is from 'The Rational Optimist.‘ In the second sentence, there is two ‘and’ and I’m not sure how they exactly agree within the sentence.
First, what I want to ask is the sentence doesn’t seems to need two ‘and’. I mean the sentence seems OK without former ‘and’ if we remove ‘of’ in front of ‘poverty.’
One more question, even though my statement above is OK, is there any specific reason the author use ‘and’ in front of ‘terrorism’? Thanks in advance.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748704122904575315242252586242
The more people are drawn into the global division of labour, the more people can specialise and exchange, the wealthier we will all be. Moreover, along the way there is no reason we cannot solve the problems that beset us, of ?economic crashes, ?population explosions, ?climate change and ?terrorism, of ?poverty, AIDS, ?depression and ?obesity.
First, what I want to ask is the sentence doesn’t seems to need two ‘and’. I mean the sentence seems OK without former ‘and’ if we remove ‘of’ in front of ‘poverty.’
One more question, even though my statement above is OK, is there any specific reason the author use ‘and’ in front of ‘terrorism’? Thanks in advance.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748704122904575315242252586242
The more people are drawn into the global division of labour, the more people can specialise and exchange, the wealthier we will all be. Moreover, along the way there is no reason we cannot solve the problems that beset us, of ?economic crashes, ?population explosions, ?climate change and ?terrorism, of ?poverty, AIDS, ?depression and ?obesity.
Top answer
The 'and's are to avoid the monotony of a long list. Their placement is arbitrary; I agree that placement between 'climate change' and 'terrorism' is a poor choice.
- The 'and's are to avoid the monotony of a long list.
- Their placement is arbitrary; I agree that placement between 'climate change' and 'terrorism' is a poor choice.
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2 Answers
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The 'and's are to avoid the monotony of a long list. Their placement is arbitrary; I agree that placement between 'climate change' and 'terrorism' is a poor choice.
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