Today, I'm going to do a little test on you. I'm going to give examples first and let you guess out the meaning of a common English idiom.
I got the inspiration the other day from answering a question . Whenever I get a question , I scramble1 for the dictionary . And I often fail to get a satisfactory answer . Then I give as good an explanation as I can. At last, I offer concrete examples to help readers cement their impression.
This last practice is consistent with my age-old belief that language-learning is more a matter of practical use than a labyrinth2 of grammatical rules to puzzle over, more of a reality to experience than a mental problem to solve. Often, as I have often said in these pages, one can work out the meaning of a word, set phrase or idiom just by meeting them a few times. Yes, much in the same way we remember new acquaintances. The first times we face them, we don't recognize them. We sometimes try to remember them by murmuring their names . But however we may try, we fail.
We fail to remember their names because we have lately run into people of even higher rankings. That's why we fail to remember them they're simply not big enough names to merit our attention.
I'm joking, of course. The real reason we fail to remember them, the reason I want to raise here at any rate, is simply because that we do not meet them often enough.
Take classmates for example. There are 62 other fellow students in the room and you can't remember all their names and faces on the first introduction . But you meet them every day and soon enough you are able to match their faces with their names. All of them, even those you hate to remember. And you realize it's not such a great effort after all.
So therefore, today, I'm going to offer a little test on you, to check my little theory and, more importantly, what is called your feel for the English language.
Now, what does as much mean in a sentence like and he said as much?
Instead of explanations first, this time I'm giving examples first.
Example 1: This man's occupation is gone. He is lost if he returns to London. If I read his character right he will devote his whole energies to revenging himself upon me. He said as much in our short interview, and I fancy that he meant it.
Memoirs3 of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle.
Example 2: Loretta was different from other women. There was no masquerade about her. She was real. He said as much to Mrs. Hemingway, and more, who agreed with him.
A Wicked Woman, Jack4 London.
Example 3: A TOP Microsoft Corp executive said Yahoo Inc's advertising5 search partnership6 with 谷歌 Inc would leave only one major player in the Internet search business, and said he had been told as much by Yahoo's own chief executive last month.
Microsoft cites Yang comments on 谷歌-Yahoo deal, Reuters, July 15, 2008.
Alright, no more examples and, now that you've worked out its meaning on your own, no explanations.
Well done. Have a good weekend.