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Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature / literature | | English term or phrase: anything more than an unfortunate bystander | The police never really believed that Laura was anything more than an unfortunate bystander, they were always convinced that Theo was the real target.
How can you explain this sentence? (The police believed or didi not believe that she was only a bystander?) |
| xxxfortunetelleKudoZ activityQuestions: 89 (none open) ( 5 closed without grading) Answers: 0
| Local time: 09:27
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| | English translation:The police believed that she was only an innocent bystander | Explanation:
When you use the expression in that way "never really believed she was anything more" it means to say that she WAS only that which she was, an innocent bystander. She was nothing *more* than that. She is reduced to a role less than the target. You agree that the target plays a bigger role in the story, so, Laura was not given a role more than simply a bystander.
In addition to that, the words "never really believed" suggests to us as the readers that the police were made to believe that she might have been more than a bystander. But the police never REALLY believed that, even though perhaps they could have given the impression that perhaps they did. If one says "I didn't really like it" it seems as if on second thought the person has decided to be honest and give her/his true feelings, even though they gave a different impression before.
So, in conclusion, the police quite simply believed that she was only an innocent bystander, nothing more.
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Note added at 21 mins (2007-10-15 15:27:59 GMT)
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Also - your clue is in the end of that same sentence "they were always convinced that Theo was the real target."
This clearly confirms that the police were convinced the real target was Theo (and not Laura). :-) |
| Selected response from:
Dalene West
Local time: 07:27
| Grading comment Thank you .)
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer |
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| Discussion entries: 0 |
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8 mins confidence:  peer agreement (net): +3 | |
The translation workplace 
