what's the meaning of"working form above downwards"?

Question

I can't understand the meaning of the phrase,"working form above downwards",or the meaning of the phrase"from above downwards"----this phrase also appear in "studied form above downs".

thank you ,Matt!
with your help,I begin to konw sth about the phrase.But,because I'm a englishi learner from China,can your give me a common explanans,or much more details? Thank you!

Answer 1

Literally, it means that something is above and working on something below it (downwards would be in the direction of down). If this were an instruction on how to do something, it's telling you where to stand. For example, you would want to dig a hole 'working from above downwards'... unless you're standing OVER the hole, it's hard to dig at all!

Sometimes people use this phrase in a non-literal sense. In that case, it is still referring to the relative position but not a physical position. So a king might solve a smaller problem in his country by 'working from above downwards'. It suggests that normally the person doing the work would be too good to do such work, but they're helping out from above anyway. Sometimes people describe God as 'working from above downwards'.

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

its like starting a book from the last page n finishing the book from the first page.