男女羞羞视频在线观看,国产精品黄色免费,麻豆91在线视频,美女被羞羞免费软件下载,国产的一级片,亚洲熟色妇,天天操夜夜摸,一区二区三区在线电影
您現在的位置: Language Tips> Columnist> Zhang Xin  
 





 
In and of itself
[ 2007-11-27 11:48 ]


Steven asks:

In this sentence – However, firm's human resources, in and of themselves, did explain improved performance, and some firms gained IT-related advantages by merging IT with complementary resources – what does "in and of themselves" mean?

My comments:

This is a great question, Steven.

Small words pose the biggest challenge to Chinese learners of English, don't you think?

I've often said that anyone who thinks his/her English is good/bad can test themselves by looking up the first entry in a dictionary – the letter "a", that is – and check to see if they have mastered its many various idiomatic usages, such as in your writing, there should've been an "a" or "the" preceding "firm's human resources". Won't do without one – "a" if you're talking about firms in general, "the" if you're addressing a particular one.

Other usages of "a" include: twice a day; take a good look at this; a crushing defeat; a few weeks from now; a knife and fork; a particularly fine Columbian coffee; a certain Mr Quinton; many a sleepless night...

Sure, you should pay attention to long and winding words like hippopotamus, but you should mind shorter words more – I mean all the a's, the's, if's, but's and only's. Trust in four-letter words (no pun intended) and shorter. That way, in short, you'll go far.

"In and of itself", by the way, means just itself, when considered alone and not in connection with other factors. For example, it's commonly believed that money makes people happy, but money does not have the power in and of itself to make people happy (or unhappy). It takes happy (or unhappy) people to make it happen. In other words, if considered alone, money remains innocent.

Anyways as an adverb, "in and of itself/themselves" is similar to itself/themselves (for emphasis), or intrinsically (talking about things' inherent nature and qualities), or per se (Latin for in itself, by itself).

And here are two examples of "in and of itself/themselves" to help deepen the impression.

1. Vision loss linked to greater risk of early death (Reuters, September 9, 2007):

Older men and women with cataracts or age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) are at increased risk for suffering an early death, relative to older people without these two types of visual impairment, a study hints.

But it's not clear, the study team notes, whether the vision loss is simply a marker for deterioration due to aging or if, in and of itself, the conditions boost mortality risk.

2. New York Times Puts Reader Comments on Main Page - Good Idea? (www.readwriteweb.com, October 12, 2007):

Silicon Alley Insider spotted the New York Times web site displaying reader comments prominently under the top story on their front page today. The comments in-and-of themselves are not newsworthy – they came from a post on the site's news blog and the Times has linked to comment threads on the main page before. But this is, to anyone's recollection, the first time the site has actually displayed the actual comments themselves on the site.

我要看更多專欄文章

 

About the author:
 

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

 
 
相關文章 Related Stories
 

 

 

 
 

本頻道最新推薦

     
  In and of itself
  Don't be a bull in a China shop
  The man who can influence China
  It goes with the territory
  Rape of human dignity

論壇熱貼

     
  “重色輕友”怎么說
  求教The Yellow Brick Road 能否翻譯為"康磚大道"?
  How to say 正版軟件?
  請教“80后”怎么說?
  “鐵板燒”=?
  Six ways to stop dwelling on it(e-c)practice




主站蜘蛛池模板: 吉林市| 杭锦后旗| 冀州市| 德阳市| 济南市| 济阳县| 英超| 嘉荫县| 通榆县| 德令哈市| 丽水市| 沂南县| 信丰县| 安陆市| 沿河| 屏东市| 都安| 泾阳县| 昭苏县| 和平县| 浦东新区| 老河口市| 乌兰察布市| 建湖县| 嘉峪关市| 定兴县| 赫章县| 思茅市| 额尔古纳市| 凌云县| 剑川县| 江都市| 新化县| 海盐县| 汝南县| 沁水县| 准格尔旗| 奎屯市| 蓝山县| 彰化县| 象州县| 阜平县| 婺源县| 定陶县| 东乡| 凌海市| 饶河县| 平邑县| 沙田区| 新河县| 永德县| 伊吾县| 高陵县| 湖南省| 牙克石市| 甘南县| 祁阳县| 聂拉木县| 肇州县| 绵阳市| 静乐县| 灵璧县| 衡阳市| 通州市| 平和县| 广州市| 田阳县| 株洲市| 隆回县| 侯马市| 会理县| 故城县| 桂东县| 巴彦淖尔市| 石泉县| 汝南县| 碌曲县| 亚东县| 黄山市| 淳安县| 洪泽县| 沙雅县|