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Park sang joon Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
The analyses of a text #2
The narrator recalls his adolescence.
He came to his old nurse Peggotty's hometown Yarmouth to meet Peggotty's nephew Ham.
He is looking at a wreck on the shore.
Emily was Ham's fiance who had fled away with the narrator's best friend Steerforth leaving behind him, and was dumped.
Some ran wildly up and down along the beach, crying for help where no help could be. I found myself one of these, frantically imploring a knot of sailors whom I knew, not to let those two lost creatures perish before our eyes.
They were making out to me, in an agitated way - I don't know how, for the little I could hear I was scarcely composed enough to understand - that the lifeboat had been bravely manned an hour ago, and could do nothing; and that as no man would be so desperate as to attempt to wade off with a rope, and establish a communication with the shore, there was nothing left to try; when I noticed that some new sensation moved the people on the beach, and saw them part, and Ham come breaking through them to the front.
I ran to him - as well as I know, to repeat my appeal for help. But, distracted though I was, by a sight so new to me and terrible, the determination in his face, and his look out to sea - exactly the same look as I remembered in connexion with the morning after Emily's flight - awoke me to a knowledge of his danger. I held him back with both arms; and implored the men with whom I had been speaking, not to listen to him, not to do murder, not to let him stir from off that sand!
[David Copperfield by Charles Dickens]
1. I'd like to know if the blue clauses are the objects of "were making out."
2. I'd like to know if "was" means "had."
3. I'd like to know if "scarcely" means "narrowly."
4. I'd like to know what "out" means in "his look out to sea."
Thank you in advance for your help.
He came to his old nurse Peggotty's hometown Yarmouth to meet Peggotty's nephew Ham.
He is looking at a wreck on the shore.
Emily was Ham's fiance who had fled away with the narrator's best friend Steerforth leaving behind him, and was dumped.
Chapter 55 TEMPEST
.................................Some ran wildly up and down along the beach, crying for help where no help could be. I found myself one of these, frantically imploring a knot of sailors whom I knew, not to let those two lost creatures perish before our eyes.
They were making out to me, in an agitated way - I don't know how, for the little I could hear I was scarcely composed enough to understand - that the lifeboat had been bravely manned an hour ago, and could do nothing; and that as no man would be so desperate as to attempt to wade off with a rope, and establish a communication with the shore, there was nothing left to try; when I noticed that some new sensation moved the people on the beach, and saw them part, and Ham come breaking through them to the front.
I ran to him - as well as I know, to repeat my appeal for help. But, distracted though I was, by a sight so new to me and terrible, the determination in his face, and his look out to sea - exactly the same look as I remembered in connexion with the morning after Emily's flight - awoke me to a knowledge of his danger. I held him back with both arms; and implored the men with whom I had been speaking, not to listen to him, not to do murder, not to let him stir from off that sand!
[David Copperfield by Charles Dickens]
1. I'd like to know if the blue clauses are the objects of "were making out."
2. I'd like to know if "was" means "had."
3. I'd like to know if "scarcely" means "narrowly."
4. I'd like to know what "out" means in "his look out to sea."
Thank you in advance for your help.
Top answer
1. " 2. No.
- 1.
- " 2.
- No.
- " 3.
- No.
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6 Answers
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1. Yes: "They were making out to me...that the lifeboat had been...manned an hour ago, and could do nothing...that [as no man would be so crazy as to attempt to wade into the crashing surf with a rope and tie it to the ship] there was nothing left to try."
2. No. The sense here is: "They were making out to me, in an agitated way - I don't know how they were making it out to me, for t
2. No. The sense here is: "They were making out to me, in an agitated way - I don't know how they were making it out to me, for t
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Thank you, No Name One, for your so very helpful answer. 
3. Then, I was wondering whether or not he was composed.
3. Then, I was wondering whether or not he was composed.
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He's saying he was barely composed enough emotionally to understand anything that was being said to him.
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Thank you, No Name One, for your continuing support.'
Then I was wondering why I can't replace "barely" with "narrowly."
Then I was wondering why I can't replace "barely" with "narrowly."
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The words scarcely, barely, and narrowly have a similar sense, but they are not interchangeable in all situations. In the following, barely means the same thing as narrowly:
He barely/narrowly made it though the passage. (Scarcely does not have quite the same sense and would not be used here.)
In the following, scarcely means the same thing as barely:
I was scarcely/ba
He barely/narrowly made it though the passage. (Scarcely does not have quite the same sense and would not be used here.)
In the following, scarcely means the same thing as barely:
I was scarcely/ba
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Thank you, No Name One, for your continuing support.
Then I was wondering if "scarcely" indicates much less chance than "narrow
Then I was wondering if "scarcely" indicates much less chance than "narrow
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