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Park sang joon Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
The analyses of a text #4
The narrator recalls his adolescence.
He came to his old nurse Peggotty's hometown Yarmouth to meet Peggotty's nephew Ham.
He is having a tempest.
'A wreck! Close by!'
I sprung out of bed, and asked, what wreck?
'A schooner, from Spain or Portugal, laden with fruit and wine. Make haste, sir, if you want to see her! It's thought, down on the beach, she'll go to pieces every moment.'
The excited voice went clamouring along the staircase; and I wrapped myself in my clothes as quickly as I could, and ran into the street.
Numbers of people were there before me, all running in one direction, to the beach. I ran the same way, outstripping a good many, and soon came facing the wild sea.
The wind might by this time have lulled a little, though not more sensibly than if the cannonading I had dreamed of, had been diminished by the silencing of half-a-dozen guns out of hundreds. But the sea, having upon it the additional agitation of the whole night, was infinitely more terrific than when I had seen it last. Every appearance it had then presented, bore the expression of being swelled; and the height to which the breakers rose, and, looking over one another, bore one another down, and rolled in, in interminable hosts, was most appalling. In the difficulty of hearing anything but wind and waves, and in the crowd, and the unspeakable confusion, and my first breathless efforts to stand against the weather, I was so confused that I looked out to sea for the wreck, and saw nothing but the foaming heads of the great waves. A half-dressed boatman, standing next me, pointed with his bare arm (a tattoo'd arrow on it, pointing in the same direction) to the left. Then, O great Heaven, I saw it, close in upon us!
One mast was broken short off, six or eight feet from the deck, and lay over the side
[David Copperfield by Charles Dickens]
1. I'd like to know what "down on the beach" means
2. I'd like to know if the subject of both "bore" and "rolled in" is "the breakers."
3. I'd like to know if the subject of "was" is "every appearance."
4. And I'd like to know what "short" means.
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 having a tempest.
Chapter 55 TEMPEST
.................................'A wreck! Close by!'
I sprung out of bed, and asked, what wreck?
'A schooner, from Spain or Portugal, laden with fruit and wine. Make haste, sir, if you want to see her! It's thought, down on the beach, she'll go to pieces every moment.'
The excited voice went clamouring along the staircase; and I wrapped myself in my clothes as quickly as I could, and ran into the street.
Numbers of people were there before me, all running in one direction, to the beach. I ran the same way, outstripping a good many, and soon came facing the wild sea.
The wind might by this time have lulled a little, though not more sensibly than if the cannonading I had dreamed of, had been diminished by the silencing of half-a-dozen guns out of hundreds. But the sea, having upon it the additional agitation of the whole night, was infinitely more terrific than when I had seen it last. Every appearance it had then presented, bore the expression of being swelled; and the height to which the breakers rose, and, looking over one another, bore one another down, and rolled in, in interminable hosts, was most appalling. In the difficulty of hearing anything but wind and waves, and in the crowd, and the unspeakable confusion, and my first breathless efforts to stand against the weather, I was so confused that I looked out to sea for the wreck, and saw nothing but the foaming heads of the great waves. A half-dressed boatman, standing next me, pointed with his bare arm (a tattoo'd arrow on it, pointing in the same direction) to the left. Then, O great Heaven, I saw it, close in upon us!
One mast was broken short off, six or eight feet from the deck, and lay over the side
[David Copperfield by Charles Dickens]
1. I'd like to know what "down on the beach" means
2. I'd like to know if the subject of both "bore" and "rolled in" is "the breakers."
3. I'd like to know if the subject of "was" is "every appearance."
4. And I'd like to know what "short" means.
Thank you in advance for your help.
Top answer
1. It's saying that the ship had been thrown onto the beach by the storm. g.
- 1.
- It's saying that the ship had been thrown onto the beach by the storm.
- g.
- denoting familiarity, or merely lubricating the sentence, though here we can reasonably assume that the beach is literally at a lower altitude than the speaker.
- 2.
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2 Answers
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1. It's saying that the ship had been thrown onto the beach by the storm.
"down" (and "up") are somewhat idiomatic in this sort of usage, and can be used in a semi-literal or non-literal sense, e.g. denoting familiarity, or merely lubricating the sentence, though here we can reasonably assume that the beach is literally at a lower altitude than the speaker.
2. Yes.
3. No
"down" (and "up") are somewhat idiomatic in this sort of usage, and can be used in a semi-literal or non-literal sense, e.g. denoting familiarity, or merely lubricating the sentence, though here we can reasonably assume that the beach is literally at a lower altitude than the speaker.
2. Yes.
3. No
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Thank you, GPY, for yet yet another so very helpful answer from you. 
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