That

Question

The world's people have sought comfort in the good life that material gains of technology could gain.Question #1: What does 'that' in bold refer to? 'Comfort (in the good life)' or 'the good life'?Question #2: About 'could' in bold, does that indicate an actual past event or not?

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,
The world's people have sought comfort in the good life that material gains of technology could gain.

Question #1: What does 'that' in bold refer to? 'Comfort (in the good life)' or 'the good life'?
It seems pretty clear to me that it refers to the latter. If I meant the former, I'd definitely reword the sentence to make that clear.

Question #2: About 'could' in bold, does that indicate an actual past event or not? I have no real idea what the writer means. It seems like a strange word to chose.

The whole second part of the sentence seems to me to be poorly worded, especiallythe repetition of

. . . that . . . gains . . . could gain.

If I were to try to make better English and better sense of it, I'd consider something like this.

The world's people have sought comfort in the good life that the material gains from technology (can) provide.
or more simply
The world's people have sought comfort in the good life that technology provides.

Now that I've crtiticized it, are you going to tell me it waas written by somebody famous?

Clive

Taka · Answer

Oops! Sorry, Clive. The original was actually this:

The world's people have sought comfort in the good life that material gains of technology could bring.

Even when it's 'bring', do you think 'that' refers to 'the good life'?

And what about the question about 'could'? Does that 'could' imply the past?

Clive · Answer

Hi,

The world's people have sought comfort in the good life that material gains of technology could bring.

Even when it's 'bring', do you think 'that' refers to 'the good life'? Yes

And what about the question about 'could'? Does that 'could' imply the past? More than 'imply'. It definitely refers to the past. It even suggests to me that the writer thinks technology may no longer bring such material gains.

Clive

Taka · Answer

CliveThe world's people have sought comfort in the good life that material gains of technology could bring.Even when it's 'bring', do you think 'that' refers to 'the good life'?

Yes

Hmm...Well, initially I thought so, but I found this in another text:

We are softened by the comforts technology brings to our lives.

so I thought it might refer to the comfort.
Clive More than 'imply'. It definitely refers to the past. It even suggests to me that the writer thinks technology may no longer bring such material gains. Clive
How can you tell it with such confidence from the one which doesn't refer to the past as this kind of 'could'?

·These could be right.
·She irritates me so much that I could scream.

Clive · Answer

Hi,
Clive
"The world's people have sought comfort in the good life that material gains of technology could bring.Even when it's 'bring', do you think 'that' refers to 'the good life'?

Yes"

Hmm...Well, initially I thought so, but I found this in another text:

We are softened by the comforts technology brings to our lives.

so I thought it might refer to the comfort. This is not really a sufficiently identical example.

____________________

The world's people have sought comfort in the good life that material gains of technology could bring.

Clive
" More than 'imply'. It definitely refers to the past. It even suggests to me that the writer thinks technology may no longer bring such material gains. Clive"
How can you tell it with such confidence from the one which doesn't refer to the past as this kind of 'could'? That's a hard question. Perhaps the Present Perfect places 'the seeking' sufficiently in the past to make me feel that.

·These could be right. It's the rest of the sentence that influences my thinking, not the word 'could' by itself.

·She irritates me so much that I could scream. Note this uses Simple Present, not Present Perfect.

To give a 'present' meaning, in my opinion a native speaker would say
The world's people have sought comfort in the good life that the material gains of technology can bring.

Clive

Taka · Answer

OK. Thanks, Clive.

That

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