Hello,friends,I am coming again to ask you for help with my learing of English language,I've new questions

Question

Let look at this sentence,I have a question in there.
"With our historical background and our natural and human resources,it should be easier for us than it was for X-country to rise to the place of a first class power by a partial adaptation of western civilization."
My questions:1.What does the phrase of "by a partial adaptation of western civilization" mean in the context?
2.I am not alway able to use words like"of,to,for,"or whatever corectly,I know it hard to master them all,Do you have any good idea to suggest me improving my ability to use them all correctly,if you have such a idea,Please ,please tell me,Thank you.
3.In the sample,Can I change the past tense for prensent tense?Or Will you advise me better to pick up past tense?Any reason?
I do hope I am not bothering you guys with so many seemingly simple questions if you think I was giving too many questions.
Thank you.

Answer 1

1. Partial is an adjective that means "in part," "not 100%." Adaptation is a noun formed from the verb, "adapt." It means "to make [something] fit for or suitable for" and the noun is something that has been made to fit a situation or thing. So a "partial adaptation of western civilization" means to use parts of western civilization and make them fit into the civilization of X-country.

2. Work with the basic meanings of "of, to, and for." Of basically means possession, as in "the color of a rose." To basically means in the direction of, as in "Go to the store." For basically means purpose or object of an action, as in "He swims for his health."
When these very, very basic meanings are mastered, then you can branch out to the many, many other meanings of these words.
You have at this point come upon one of the most important and difficult features in English, and that is the constant and pervasive use of the Preposition to modify, qualify, and even change entirely the meaning of other words. Commonly, very commonly, a verb will have a preposition after it that changes the meaning of the verb.

3. "it should be easier for us than it was for X-country to rise" is best left alone. You could say "it IS easier for us..." and be grammatically correct, but you will lose the special meaning of "should be." "Should be" means that "easier" is only probable or likely - "is easier" means definitely. And the "than it was for X-country" must be in the past tense, as the meaning is that X-country has already risen to the place...

http://www.thefreedictionary.com

Here is a good resource, where you can find the information you need on the question of meanings and usage. Go there and do a search for "for" and you will see all the meanings and examples of how they are used. And you will see how heavily English relies on prepostions to derive meanings....

Answer 2

You are asking this question in a forum where a very high percentage cannot speak or write English even as well as you do. Many here do not care about the proper use of English at all.

With respect to #1: "a partial adaptation of Western civilization" means that the thought is to take part, but not all, of the ideas of the West and apply them to this particular circumstance, probably those ideas that are most compatible with the society and culture.

The best thing I can suggest to master use of words is to read as many books in English as possible, preferably classics or books where the language is used properly. Do this enough and you will get the general drift of things.

You can change the tense any way you want as long as you are consistent. For example, the tense of the statement of above sample could be changed by changing the tense of the verb:

Present tense-
"With our historical background and our natural and human resources, it IS easier for us than it was for X-country to rise to the place of a first class power by a partial adaptation of western civilization."

or past tense-
"With our historical background and our natural and human resources, it WAS easier for us than it was for X-country to rise to the place of a first class power by a partial adaptation of western civilization."

or future tense-
"With our historical background and our natural and human resources, it WILL BE easier for us than it was for X-country to rise to the place of a first class power by a partial adaptation of western civilization."

more or less.

Answer 3

The "partial adaptation" line seems to mean that they want to copy some, but not all, of western ways of doing things. Makes sense; you don't want to imitate Americans (for example) completely, because we have our flaws. You want to pick and choose carefully what you will imitate and what you will improve upon. This gives you the advantage of learning from other people's mistakes.

My advice to you with regard to the use of small words like of, to, for, etc., is to imitate the best writers you can. For example, "I am not always able to" -- "alway" is not even a word. There are rules, and you probably have a book of grammar, but the easiest way to learn is by imitation. You read something that sounds really right, and you learn from it.

As to past and present tense, the only past tense in your example sentence is about the X-country, which is presumably already developed. Therefore, there is nothing to change.

In any English sentence, reading it aloud will often help. If you stumble in reading it, or if the meaning gets a little confused, you probably need to go over it again. Often, it is good to break a long sentence up into two or more independent sentences, because errors creep in when you just run on and say whatever comes to your mind and you don't get the punctuation right and you may forget what you were trying to say in the first place. See what I mean? Short, simple sentences are more likely to be correct.

Learn by reading, writing and editing. Read good English, write the best you can, and review and edit carefully everything you write. It may help to work with another student and read and edit one another's work.

Answer 4

If you could ask or, say anything to Fred Weasley what would it be? Be more careful next time!(Because I'll have to resurrect him first if I want to tell him anything) You've had a strenuous day, how do you unwind, with elf made wine, firewhiskey, or a butterbeer? :P Butterbeer will do the trick! If you were able to spend, the day with one of Hogwarts' four founders, which one would you choose, and why? Gryfindor because I'm a true Gryfindor! A goblin and a house elf get into a fight who would be the victor? If you were witnessing such a brawl would you interfere? I would interfere if I knew the goblin or elf in question. I think that elfs are not fighting material and that the goblin has more chance of winning. Who would you rather go on a date with? Wizards: Alecto Carrow or Vernon's sister Marge? Witches: Fenrir Greyback or Morfin Gaunt? Can't I just take you out for a drink. You're as evil and as ugly as any of them, even more =D

Answer 5

1. "by a partial adaption of western civilization" means that the country adopts certain things from western civilization (europe, usa, etc). for example, think about japan, and how they still have their traditions but have integrated western aspects. it's not a complete change to western civilization, but you pick and choose what aspects you want to have in your country.

2. it would help to know what your native language is. its pretty hard to give a really good explanation of the differences between the three, especially on a website forum, so here are some websites to practice prepositions (to, of, for, are all prepositions). Most of these are made for speakers of English as a second language, so they should help.
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2006-21,GGLG:en&q=preposition+practice

3. the sample is a hypothetical situation, speaking about a possible future. if you wanted to change it to the past, it would change the meaning. it would say that the speaker's country rose to first-class power. if you want to change the meaning, you could change it to:

With our historical background and natural and human resources, it WAS easier for us... (etc etc)

--hope that helps!

Answer 6

those questions don't seem simple at all.
1) means that they will partially (half way, not totally) change western civilization (the empires in the western hemisphere).

2)For you to improve, practice talking in English with those words and read simple English books that are geared towards new readers (like kindergarden books) and get used to seeing those words. eventually, it will just sound right. I don't think when i say them. they just seem to fit places.

3)i am not sure what you exactly mean but i think the answer is yes you can.

Good luck with the English language. it is hard! but you will get the hang of it!

Answer 7

1) Using some, not all, of Western customs.
2) They are all prepositions. Find a good grammar book like Raymond Murphy's 'Essential Grammar In Use' that provides you with exercises to practice with.
3) In the example sentence, 'was' is past simple anyway. To put 'should' into the past, use the perfect modal 'should have been'. The difference lies in the fact that 'should have' + past participle refers to something that didn't actually happen, but people expected it to. 'Should' + infinitive means that we expect this to happen in the future.
Rather than trying to get your head round complicated things like this, your English seems to need improvement in very basic structures (and punctuation).