Can you help me with the meaning of this sentence in your won words, please?

Question

In this sentence:
"Though most of us have tended to seattle upon the nation as our most comfortable resting place, we have retained our propensity for vertical drift, failing to appreciate the value of a stable point of focus."

I've looked the words up in the dictionary, but can't understand the meaning of the whole sentence.
settle upon=determine
resting place=cemetery
vertical drift=wind blowing up (no sense)

I'd like someone to tell me that in their own words, if possible, please.

Answer 1

Erm... that truly is one of the worst, most clumsily worded sentences I have ever read. And it's the question for an essay, right? Eesh, your teachers need to seriously review their use of the English language.

I think by "vertical drift", they mean the tendency for people to uproot and either move out of their home town to other areas (whether large cities like London or other countries) - which you could easily argue is to do with peoples careers, the availability of work in this country, the cheaper living/housing costs elsewhere and the fact that there are far more glamorous places to live in the world. By "vertical drift", they mean the rhetorical meaning of the word - that is that the person is moving up in the world onto (assumed) "better" things (i.e. better job, larger house, moving to a more desirable area, etc).

By "failing to appreciate the value of a stable point of focus", they mean that people overlook the positives of where they are currently living in a "false" presumption that a "better" city or country might offer a better standard of living.

So to write out that question in English and not ye-olde-English, it would read something like this:

"Though most of us are quite comfortable to stay living in the place we were born, we still have the tendancy to move to other presumed 'better' areas for better jobs/bigger houses, etc and fail to appreciate the positives of our current situation and location by overlooking the meaningful goals in our lives."

Now answer the question. If you get it "wrong", you could quite easily argue that the question itself is "wrong" because it is so painfully, horrendously written.

Answer 2

Most of us are happy where we are (most comfortable resting place), but we still like to travel/try to better ourselves (propensity for vertical drift) and see if the grass is really greener (failing to appreciate the value of a stable point of focus). We forget, or just don't realise that stability comes from home, be that, the place or the people.

To cut it right down to basics, many of us spend a lifetime looking for something that is right there, ie the stability/love provided by home!

Try not to get too hung up on each individual word, take it as a whole.

Answer 3

I think part of the problem is that you are trying to define the words out of context. "Propensity for vertical drift" is not referring to wind or anything atmospheric at all just as "resting place" is not referring to a cemetary or anything dealing with morbidity. Instead this entire phrase is a reflection on the desire of the country to constantly be on the move. I believe it is basically saying that although most of the country has found their desired residential stability ( i.e. they do not tend to move around and relocate themselves and their family), many people are still dwelling in the phase of constant movement. I believe the author is attempting to explain how some people are still stuck in the "manifest destiny" mode and are trying to constantly be on the move looking for bigger and better things and not realizing the negative outlook of the their instability nor the potential gains of a steady and less fluid environment.

Hope this helps a bit.

Answer 4

What it means is that upon settling down, presumably in a house, area and job of your choice you exhibit the normal human trend of wishing for more or to better yourself. This is what is mean by vertical drift, in other words to move up in the world, as opposed to horizontal drift which is to settle for the same level. The writer is of the opinion that this urge, or propensity (liking), detracts from allowing one to appreciate what they have and be satisfied with it.

Answer 5

Without reading the other sentences that go along with this one or knowing the point of the paragraph, I would interpret this to mean that even though you are happy where you are, people always want to have more, therefore they are not able to fully appreciate what they have at the moment.

Answer 6

Though we think of out country as a comfortable place, we still have the tendency to not know how to be focused. It means that although we like to be comfortable, it's better to be focused and not comfortable.

Answer 7

Though we have tried to secure the nation, in spite of all our efforts, there remains drifting and blocks upon which we stumble.

Answer 8

Even though we have chosen to live in one country permanently, we still move from place to place within it because we don't really understand how nice it is just to stay in one place?

Answer 9

Basically, most of us realise that this nation is great and we shouldn't want for anything, but human nature has us wanting more, and doesn't allow us to be content. That's my take on it.

Answer 10

i would say that :_ although we feel safe in our own environment we have the ability and the need to explore other places or experiences and lose the fact that we are ok where we are.