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Expression: better off



 
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ESL Forums | English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
Put the bracketed verbs in the right tense: The superintendent of one... | the most formal way to propose a phone appointement
Message Author
Expression: better off Tue May 01, 2007 8:44 am  Expression: better off		  
Hi,

Could you help me out with the following passages?

Quote:
Half a dozen fingers pointed at the amputated wheel--he stared at it for a moment and then looked upward as though he suspected that it had dropped from the sky.
"It came off," some one explained.
He nodded.
"At first I din' notice we'd stopped."
A pause. Then, taking a long breath and straightening his shoulders he remarked in a determined voice:
"Wonder'ff tell me where there's a gas'line station?"
At least a dozen men, some of them little better off than he was, explained to him that wheel and car were no longer joined by any physical bond.
"Back out," he suggested after a moment. "Put her in reverse."
"But the WHEEL'S off!"
He hesitated.

1. Does the 1st underlined mean: some of them are a little more clear-minded than he was? If so, is it OK with 'little' in stead of 'a little'?
2. Does the 2nd mean: put the gear in reverse of the car?

Quote:
The caterwauling horns had reached a crescendo and I turned away and cut across the lawn toward home. I glanced back once. A wafer of a moon was shining over Gatsby's house, making the night fine as before and surviving the laughter and the sound of his still glowing garden.

3. Is the 1st a metaphor for a wafer-like light or just a description of the moon? If the latter is true, why 'a moon'?
4. Does the 2nd allude to the fact that the laughter and the sound were actually gone?

Quote:
Jordan Baker instinctively avoided clever shrewd men and now I saw that this was because she felt safer on a plane where any divergence from a code would be thought impossible. She was incurably dishonest. She wasn't able to endure being at a disadvantage, and given this unwillingness I suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young in order to keep that cool, insolent smile turned to the world and yet satisfy the demands of her hard jaunty body.

5. Deos the 1st refer to an airplane thus to suggest a sphere or a territory?
6. Does the 2nd mean: apt to this unwillingness?

Thank you!

Haihao
Haihao
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Joined: 26 Oct 2006
Posts: 1376
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answers Tue May 01, 2007 9:08 am  answers		  
Hi again,

1 Little and a little are different in what they suggest. Little on its own means not much but a little quantifies the extent/amount, indicating a specifically small amount/extent.

2 Yes this means put the car in reverse gear

3 This refers to the fact that the shape of the moon looked very thin/slight.

4 This suggests 'transcended' 'went beyond'

5 Yes, this 'plane' suggests intellectual level.

6 This suggests 'because of' this unwillingness.'

A
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Expression: better off Tue May 01, 2007 12:58 pm  Expression: better off		  
Thank you again, Alan! Now my yen's worth could suggest that 'some of them little better off than he was' means: some of them not quite better off than he was', couldn't it? Is 'better off' here = 'wiser' or 'richer'?

Thank you!

Haihao
Haihao
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Joined: 26 Oct 2006
Posts: 1376
Location: Japan
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Put the bracketed verbs in the right tense: The superintendent of one... | the most formal way to propose a phone appointement
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