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Park sang joon Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
The analyses of a text #3
The narrator recalls his adolescence.
Because the narrator's old friend Mr. Micawber who was the clerk for Uriah Heep, the partner of Mr.Wicfield, who is the narrator's great aunt's old friend and a local lawyer, exposed the illegal deeds, the narrator's great aunt came to get back her investment which Heep took.
But now Mr. Micawber is jobless and very poor, so the narrator's aunt suggested he should emigrate to Australasia with her financial help.
Now the narrator and her aunt visited Mr. Micawber.
Chapter 54 Mr. MICAWBER'S TRANSACTIONS
.................................
'Madam, you do us a great deal of honour,' he rejoined. He then referred to a memorandum. 'With respect to the pecuniary assistance enabling us to launch our frail canoe on the ocean of enterprise, I have reconsidered that important business-point; and would beg to propose my notes of hand - drawn, it is needless to stipulate, on stamps of the amounts respectively required by the various Acts of Parliament applying to such securities - at eighteen, twenty-four, and thirty months. The proposition I originally submitted, was twelve, eighteen, and twenty-four; but I am apprehensive that such an arrangement might not allow sufficient time for the requisite amount of - Something - to turn up. We might not,' said Mr. Micawber, looking round the room as if it represented several hundred acres of highly cultivated land, 'on the first responsibility becoming due, have been successful in our harvest, or we might not have got our harvest in. Labour, I believe, is sometimes difficult to obtain in that portion of our colonial possessions where it will be our lot to combat with the teeming soil.'
'Arrange it in any way you please, sir,' said my aunt.
'Madam,' he replied, 'Mrs. Micawber and myself are deeply sensible of the very considerate kindness of our friends and patrons. What I wish is, to be perfectly business-like, and perfectly punctual. Turning over, as we are about to turn over, an entirely new leaf; and falling back, as we are now in the act of falling back, for a Spring of no common magnitude; it is important to my sense of self-respect, besides being an example to my son, that these arrangements should be concluded as between man and man.'
I don't know that Mr. Micawber attached any meaning to this last phrase; I don't know that anybody ever does, or did; but he appeared to relish it uncommonly, and repeated, with an impressive cough, 'as between man and man'.
[David Copperfield by Charles Dickens]
1. I'd like to know if "turning over" means "because we turned over."
2. I'd like to know what "falling back for a Spring" means.
3. I'd like to know if I can replace "that" with "if."
4. And I'd like to know what act "does or did" indicates.
Because the narrator's old friend Mr. Micawber who was the clerk for Uriah Heep, the partner of Mr.Wicfield, who is the narrator's great aunt's old friend and a local lawyer, exposed the illegal deeds, the narrator's great aunt came to get back her investment which Heep took.
But now Mr. Micawber is jobless and very poor, so the narrator's aunt suggested he should emigrate to Australasia with her financial help.
Now the narrator and her aunt visited Mr. Micawber.
Chapter 54 Mr. MICAWBER'S TRANSACTIONS
.................................
'Madam, you do us a great deal of honour,' he rejoined. He then referred to a memorandum. 'With respect to the pecuniary assistance enabling us to launch our frail canoe on the ocean of enterprise, I have reconsidered that important business-point; and would beg to propose my notes of hand - drawn, it is needless to stipulate, on stamps of the amounts respectively required by the various Acts of Parliament applying to such securities - at eighteen, twenty-four, and thirty months. The proposition I originally submitted, was twelve, eighteen, and twenty-four; but I am apprehensive that such an arrangement might not allow sufficient time for the requisite amount of - Something - to turn up. We might not,' said Mr. Micawber, looking round the room as if it represented several hundred acres of highly cultivated land, 'on the first responsibility becoming due, have been successful in our harvest, or we might not have got our harvest in. Labour, I believe, is sometimes difficult to obtain in that portion of our colonial possessions where it will be our lot to combat with the teeming soil.'
'Arrange it in any way you please, sir,' said my aunt.
'Madam,' he replied, 'Mrs. Micawber and myself are deeply sensible of the very considerate kindness of our friends and patrons. What I wish is, to be perfectly business-like, and perfectly punctual. Turning over, as we are about to turn over, an entirely new leaf; and falling back, as we are now in the act of falling back, for a Spring of no common magnitude; it is important to my sense of self-respect, besides being an example to my son, that these arrangements should be concluded as between man and man.'
I don't know that Mr. Micawber attached any meaning to this last phrase; I don't know that anybody ever does, or did; but he appeared to relish it uncommonly, and repeated, with an impressive cough, 'as between man and man'.
[David Copperfield by Charles Dickens]
1. I'd like to know if "turning over" means "because we turned over."
2. I'd like to know what "falling back for a Spring" means.
3. I'd like to know if I can replace "that" with "if."
4. And I'd like to know what act "does or did" indicates.
Top answer
park sang joon 1. " No. The idiom is "to turn over a new leaf", which is a reference to turning the page of a book.
- park sang joon 1.
- " No.
- The idiom is "to turn over a new leaf", which is a reference to turning the page of a book.
- The meaning is that one's behavior will improve, one's habits will from now on be more honorable.
- The past (the old page/leaf) will be (more or less) forgotten; the future (the new page/leaf) will be different.
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3 Answers
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park sang joon1. I'd like to know if "turning over" means "because we turned over."No. The idiom is "to turn over a new leaf", which is a reference to turning the page of a book. The meaning is that one's behavior will improve, one's habits will from now on be more honorable. The past (the old page/leaf) will be (more or less) forgotten; the future (the ne
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Thank you, CalifJim, for yet another so very helpful answer from you. 
Turning over, as we are about t
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park sang joon1-1. Then I was wondering if "there is" is implied before "turning over."No. "turning over" and "falling back" may be interpreted as participial clauses that are (loosely) connected with the statement "it is important that ...". It is almost saying that the way that the business (between him and Aunt Betsy) is conducted is important for Micawb
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