0
Jooney Posted 14 years ago
Grammar
Would
Hi,
During these three days, according to data from their glucose monitors, the volunteers’ blood sugar did not spike after they ate.
But that estimable condition changed during the second portion of the experiment, when the volunteers were told to cut back on activity so that their step counts would fall below 5,000 a day for the next three days. Achieving such indolence was easy enough. The volunteers stopped exercising and, at every opportunity, took the elevator, not the stairs, or had lunch delivered, instead of strolling to a cafe. They became, essentially, typical American adults.
Their average step counts fell to barely 4,300 during the three days, and the volunteers reported that they now “exercised,” on average, about three minutes a day.
Meanwhile, they ate exactly the same meals and snacks as they had in the preceding three days, so that any changes in blood sugar levels would not be a result of eating fattier or sweeter meals than before.
And there were changes. During the three days of inactivity, volunteers’ blood sugar levels spiked significantly after meals, with the peaks increasing by about 26 percent compared with when the volunteers were exercising and moving more. What’s more, the peaks grew slightly with each successive day.
(taken from The New York Times)
additional context:
1. Researchers at the University of Missouri are conducting an experiment on a group of volunteers to find out the correlation between inactivity and disease risk.
2. These volunteers are in shape health-wise, doing a lot more exercises than average American adults. (The average steps they take a day is about 13,000 vs. less than 5,000 steps for average American adults)
3. The researchers asked them to live a normal life(meaning they can exercise as usual) for the first three days and then, limited their activity as much as possible for the next three days, asking them to do those activities described in the above passage.
Q1) Is it factual would?
ex) She wrote a book. It would later become a best seller.
In my opinion, no. There is no implication that it is a realized event in the past, is there?
Q2) Did would result from reported speech?
ex) She said we would lose the battle unless we tried harder.
I don't think it is an exmple of indirect speech, either.
Q3) What kind of would is it?
I'd appreciate it if someome could explain this use of would. Thanks.
During these three days, according to data from their glucose monitors, the volunteers’ blood sugar did not spike after they ate.
But that estimable condition changed during the second portion of the experiment, when the volunteers were told to cut back on activity so that their step counts would fall below 5,000 a day for the next three days. Achieving such indolence was easy enough. The volunteers stopped exercising and, at every opportunity, took the elevator, not the stairs, or had lunch delivered, instead of strolling to a cafe. They became, essentially, typical American adults.
Their average step counts fell to barely 4,300 during the three days, and the volunteers reported that they now “exercised,” on average, about three minutes a day.
Meanwhile, they ate exactly the same meals and snacks as they had in the preceding three days, so that any changes in blood sugar levels would not be a result of eating fattier or sweeter meals than before.
And there were changes. During the three days of inactivity, volunteers’ blood sugar levels spiked significantly after meals, with the peaks increasing by about 26 percent compared with when the volunteers were exercising and moving more. What’s more, the peaks grew slightly with each successive day.
(taken from The New York Times)
additional context:
1. Researchers at the University of Missouri are conducting an experiment on a group of volunteers to find out the correlation between inactivity and disease risk.
2. These volunteers are in shape health-wise, doing a lot more exercises than average American adults. (The average steps they take a day is about 13,000 vs. less than 5,000 steps for average American adults)
3. The researchers asked them to live a normal life(meaning they can exercise as usual) for the first three days and then, limited their activity as much as possible for the next three days, asking them to do those activities described in the above passage.
Q1) Is it factual would?
ex) She wrote a book. It would later become a best seller.
In my opinion, no. There is no implication that it is a realized event in the past, is there?
Q2) Did would result from reported speech?
ex) She said we would lose the battle unless we tried harder.
I don't think it is an exmple of indirect speech, either.
Q3) What kind of would is it?
I'd appreciate it if someome could explain this use of would. Thanks.
Top answer
"
- "
Get the Weekly English Kit 📬
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.
8 Answers
0
In, "...so that their step counts would fall below 5000...", the verb "would" is a conditional (a conditional introduces doubt, tentativeness, uncertainty, etc.): They did such and such, and the anticipated result is likely to be such and such."
In, "...so that any changes in blood sugar levels would not be the result of eating...", the verb "would" is also a conditional: They did such a
In, "...so that any changes in blood sugar levels would not be the result of eating...", the verb "would" is also a conditional: They did such a
00
In, "She wrote a book. It would later become a best seller.", the verb "would" is nominally past, since we're talking about events in the past - you essentially have a past of a future event here. However, "would" is also a conditional, and a conditional automatically introduces elements of probability, uncertainty, tentativeness, etc. into a sentence.
You're describing factual events:
You're describing factual events:
00
In, "She said we would lose the battle unless we tried harder.", the verb "would" is a conditional: Such and such is very likely to happen unless you do such and such."
00
jooney
... the volunteers were told to cut back on activity so that their step counts would fall below 5,000 a day for the next three days.
... they ate exactly the same meals and snacks as they had in the preceding three days, so that any changes in blood sugar levels would not be a result of ea
00
0
Hi CJ,
Thank you very much for your answer.
To be honest with you, I don't really have a good grasp on this type of backshift. Actually, there is only a very brief mention of this type of backshift in Huddleston's book. He notes:
It is important to empasise that the backshift preterite is used much more generally than in reported speech. Compare:
A: This m
Thank you very much for your answer.
To be honest with you, I don't really have a good grasp on this type of backshift. Actually, there is only a very brief mention of this type of backshift in Huddleston's book. He notes:
It is important to empasise that the backshift preterite is used much more generally than in reported speech. Compare:
A: This m
00
jooneyCan I think of it this way?
They are cutting back their activity so that the counts will fall below 5,000.
[From the perspective of some point in the past, this (above? no.) is what the statement looks like. However, from the viewpoint of the moment
00
Related Questions