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Stenka25 Posted 10 years ago
Vocabulary
The meaning of the underlined 'barren'
The meaning of the underlined 'barren'
The passage below comes from Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari.
https://books.google.co.kr/books?id=FmyBAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT13&dq=%22could+turn+impassable+barren+thickets+into%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjXr-WQocXNAhUIGZQKHWeJDgYQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=%22could%20turn%20impassable%20barren%20thickets%20into%22&f=false
Homo erectus, Neanderthals and the forefathers of Homo sapiens were using fire on a daily basis... Not long afterwards, humans may even have started deliberately to torch their neighbourhoods. A carefully managed fire could turn impassable barren thickets into prime grasslands teeming with game. In addition, once the fire died down, Stone Age entrepreneurs could walk through the smoking remains and harvest charcoaled animals, nuts and tubers.
In this passage, the meaning of the underlined 'barren' seems quite confusing.
How impassable thickets where a group of trees or bushes growing closely together can be 'barren'?
Can you give me any clue for me to figure out this conflicting phrase in meaning?
Regards.
The passage below comes from Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari.
https://books.google.co.kr/books?id=FmyBAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT13&dq=%22could+turn+impassable+barren+thickets+into%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjXr-WQocXNAhUIGZQKHWeJDgYQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=%22could%20turn%20impassable%20barren%20thickets%20into%22&f=false
Homo erectus, Neanderthals and the forefathers of Homo sapiens were using fire on a daily basis... Not long afterwards, humans may even have started deliberately to torch their neighbourhoods. A carefully managed fire could turn impassable barren thickets into prime grasslands teeming with game. In addition, once the fire died down, Stone Age entrepreneurs could walk through the smoking remains and harvest charcoaled animals, nuts and tubers.
In this passage, the meaning of the underlined 'barren' seems quite confusing.
How impassable thickets where a group of trees or bushes growing closely together can be 'barren'?
Can you give me any clue for me to figure out this conflicting phrase in meaning?
Regards.
Top answer
They were barren in the sense that nothing that could be useful to humans could grow or live there. It's not a word I'd use in that context.
- They were barren in the sense that nothing that could be useful to humans could grow or live there.
- It's not a word I'd use in that context.
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2 Answers
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They were barren in the sense that nothing that could be useful to humans could grow or live there. It's not a word I'd use in that context.
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