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Anonymous Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

What does 'it' refer to here?

"There were two things that got me through those hard days: sports and my parents. When I was playing basketball, I never got teased. I could take my sadness and turn it into points and blocked shots. My family, who always came to watch my games, told me to live like I played.
It took me a while, but by the time I got to university, I understood that I had to accept being different. I couldn’t change it, so I learned to appreciate it. After all, everyone is different in some way."

This is a paragraph from my textbook. In this paragraph, the writer says 'it took me a while,' and I don't quite understand it. Does it refer to 'living like I played,' or the fact that the writer understood she had to accept her being different? Please help me.
  

Top answer

Anonymous It took me a while, but by the time I got to university, I understood that I had to accept being different. The structure is equivalent to It took me a while to understand that I had to accept being different, in which "it" is a dummy "it' that is inserted when the infinitive phrase is placed at the end. So this comes from To understand that I had to accept being different took me a while.

  • Anonymous It took me a while, but by the time I got to university, I understood that I had to accept being different.
  • The structure is equivalent to It took me a while to understand that I had to accept being different, in which "it" is a dummy "it' that is inserted when the infinitive phrase is placed at the end.
  • So this comes from To understand that I had to accept being different took me a while.
  • CJ
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1 Answers
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AnonymousIt took me a while, but by the time I got to university, I understood that I had to accept being different.
The structure is equivalent to

It took me a while to understand that I had to accept being different,

in which "it" is a dummy "it' that is inserted when the infinitive phrase is placed at the end. So this comes from

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