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Catttt Posted 11 years ago
Vocabulary
Would not a Chinese call that orchid ‘perfect’
I have problem with question and negative form of the highlighted sentences in the following context. Can I rewrite them like this:
A Chinese may know an orchid ugly according to the rules he has absorbed. The same way that we tend to judge human bodies by their resemblance to Greek statues that have become traditionally symbols of perfectness.
Context:
The pattern that painters found in the visible world was not the one laid up in heaven but the remembered shapes they had learned in their youth. Would not a Chinese call that orchid ‘perfect’ which corresponds most closely to the rules he had absorbed? Do we not tend to judge human bodies by their resemblance to those Greek statues that have become traditionally identified with the canon of beauty?
A Chinese may know an orchid ugly according to the rules he has absorbed. The same way that we tend to judge human bodies by their resemblance to Greek statues that have become traditionally symbols of perfectness.
Context:
The pattern that painters found in the visible world was not the one laid up in heaven but the remembered shapes they had learned in their youth. Would not a Chinese call that orchid ‘perfect’ which corresponds most closely to the rules he had absorbed? Do we not tend to judge human bodies by their resemblance to those Greek statues that have become traditionally identified with the canon of beauty?
Top answer
I'm not sure why you have change "perfect" to "ugly" in your paraphrase. It may be that you are misunderstanding the purpose of "not". Both sentences are rhetorical ones with suggested answers of "Yes".
- I'm not sure why you have change "perfect" to "ugly" in your paraphrase.
- It may be that you are misunderstanding the purpose of "not".
- Both sentences are rhetorical ones with suggested answers of "Yes".
- In other words, the writer is effectively asking the reader to agree with these opinions: A Chinese [person] would call that orchid ‘perfect’ which corresponds most closely to the rules he had absorbed.
- We tend to judge human bodies by their resemblance to those Greek statues that have become traditionally identified with the canon of beauty.
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2 Answers
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I'm not sure why you have change "perfect" to "ugly" in your paraphrase. It may be that you are misunderstanding the purpose of "not". Both sentences are rhetorical ones with suggested answers of "Yes". In other words, the writer is effectively asking the reader to agree with these opinions:
A Chinese [person] would call that orchid ‘perfect’ which corresponds most closely to th
A Chinese [person] would call that orchid ‘perfect’ which corresponds most closely to th
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You are right. The use of "would" made me confused. I thought that "would" in this context referred to an unreal situation, giving a negative meaning to the sentence.
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