#1 (permalink) Tue Apr 03, 2007 9:19 am Phrase: saffron detective stories |
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Hi,
Would you please help me procure a better understanding for:
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| They moved on from the desert stillness of the Schoenstrom station. The train creaked, banged, swayed. The air was nauseatingly thick. Kennicott turned her face from the window, rested her head on his shoulder. She was coaxed from her unhappy mood. But she came out of it unwillingly, and when Kennicott was satisfied that he had corrected all her worries and had opened a magazine of saffron detective stories, she sat upright. |
1. Does 'She was coaxed from her unhappy mood' mean: She was coaxed by Kennicott and as a result she got away from/got rid of her unhappy mood? 2. What is the function or grammatical meaning of the second 'had'? 3. What is 'saffron detective stories'?
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| Here--she meditated--is the newest empire of the world; the Northern Middlewest; a land of dairy herds and exquisite lakes, of new automobiles and tar-paper shanties and silos like red towers, of clumsy speech and a hope that is boundless. An empire which feeds a quarter of the world--yet its work is merely begun. They are pioneers, these sweaty wayfarers, for all their telephones and bank-accounts and automatic pianos and co-operative leagues. And for all its fat richness, theirs is a pioneer land. What is its future? she wondered. A future of cities and factory smut where now are loping empty fields? |
4. Is the 'where' = which = cities and factory smut? If so, is this usage reasonably common or just a 'literary usage'?
Many thanks in advance.
Haihao |
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Haihao I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 26 Oct 2006 Posts: 2471 Location: Japan
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