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Zuotengdazuo Posted 10 years ago
Vocabulary
What does "that never was" mean?
I've seen this pattern in many contexts such as article titles like "the golden age that never was" "the greatest machine that never was" "the Gulf War victory that never was", etc.
What makes me want to look up this pattern in the first place is its appearance in an article from GRE test.
The quotation goes like this:
1. What does the pattern "sth that never was" mean? Does it have the same meaning regardless of context?
2. How to interpret this part "A desire to throw over reality a light that never was"?
Thank you, teachers.
What makes me want to look up this pattern in the first place is its appearance in an article from GRE test.
The quotation goes like this:
Questions I want to ask are:
A desire to throw over reality a light that never was might give way abruptly to the desire on the part of what we might consider a novelist-scientist to record exactly and concretely the structure and texture of a flower.
1. What does the pattern "sth that never was" mean? Does it have the same meaning regardless of context?
2. How to interpret this part "A desire to throw over reality a light that never was"?
Thank you, teachers.
Top answer
1) Broadly speaking, i means 'something that never really existed'. eg There is an old war movie in which the British army tries to convince the German army that the corpse of an ordinary soldier is actually the corpse of an important officer who was carrying important army plans. The movie is called 'The man who never was'.
- 1) Broadly speaking, i means 'something that never really existed'.
- eg There is an old war movie in which the British army tries to convince the German army that the corpse of an ordinary soldier is actually the corpse of an important officer who was carrying important army plans.
- The movie is called 'The man who never was'.
- 2) A desire to look at past reality in a way that never existed.
- eg A woman has a bad husband.
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2 Answers
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1) Broadly speaking, i means 'something that never really existed'.
eg There is an old war movie in which the British army tries to convince the German army that the corpse of an ordinary soldier is actually the corpse of an important officer who was carrying important army plans. The movie is called 'The man who never was'.
2) A desire to look at past reality in a way that never ex
eg There is an old war movie in which the British army tries to convince the German army that the corpse of an ordinary soldier is actually the corpse of an important officer who was carrying important army plans. The movie is called 'The man who never was'.
2) A desire to look at past reality in a way that never ex
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Thank you very much. I see.
My original understanding of the phrase is the same as yours, but I wasn't sure.
Broadly speaking, i means 'something that never really existed'.
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