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SweetFreedom Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

Stock every station?

1) Does "stock every station" mean "increase in numbers (of their members) in every place (where they could live)"?
2) Does "pair" mean "double in numbers"?
3) Does "the thousand" mean "the thousand kinds of the plants and animals"?
4) Does "to people" mean "to increase their numbers (of members)"?

Context:

In a state of nature almost every full-grown plant annually
produces seed, and among animals there are very few which do
not annually pair. Hence we may confidently assert that all plants
and animals are tending to increase at a geometrical ratio--that
all would rapidly stock every station in which they could any how
exist, and that this geometrical tendency to increase must be
checked by destruction at some period of life. Our familiarity with
the larger domestic animals tends, I think, to mislead us; we see
no great destruction falling on them, and we do not keep in mind
that thousands are annually slaughtered for food, and that in a
state of nature an equal number would have somehow to be
disposed of.

The only difference between organisms which annually produce
eggs or seeds by the thousand, and those which produce
extremely few, is, that the slow breeders would require a few
more years to people, under favourable conditions, a whole
district, let it be ever so large. The condor lays a couple of eggs
and the ostrich a score, and yet in the same country the condor
may be the more numerous of the two. The Fulmar petrel lays but
one egg, yet it is believed to be the most numerous bird in the
world. One fly deposits hundreds of eggs, and another, like the
hippobosca, a single one. But this difference does not determine
how many individuals of the two species can be supported in a
district. A large number of eggs is of some importance to those
species which depend on a fluctuating amount of food, for it
  

Top answer

SweetFreedom 1) Does "stock every station" mean "increase in numbers (of their members) in every place (where they could live)"? Yes. SweetFreedom 2) Does "pair" mean "double in numbers"?

  • SweetFreedom 1) Does "stock every station" mean "increase in numbers (of their members) in every place (where they could live)"?
  • Yes.
  • SweetFreedom 2) Does "pair" mean "double in numbers"?
  • No.
  • It means 'mate'.
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3 Answers
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SweetFreedom1) Does "stock every station" mean "increase in numbers (of their members) in every place (where they could live)"?
Yes.
SweetFreedom2) Does "pair" mean "double in numbers"?
No. It means 'mate'. Form pairs of male and female for the purpose of reproduction.
SweetFreedom3) Does "the thous
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Does "let it be ever so large" mean "let itself to produce off-springs as many as possible?"
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SweetFreedomDoes "let it be ever so large" mean "let itself to produce off-springs as many as possible?"
No. It means 'no matter how large it is'.

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