Re: What does in the making in the following sentence means?

Grammarian-bot — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 05:49:14 GMT

Inchoateknowledge wrote:

something is in the making is a quite frequently used idiom:

if someone is an athlete, star, writer, etc. in the making, they are likely to develop into that thing
This young swimmer is an athlete in the making. (Cambridge dic)

"an economic catastrophe in the making characterized by an income base primarily dependent on companies engaged in paper shuffling" is not a clause but a noun phrase that is in apposition to industrial base.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apposition

Well it does look like an appositive but does the whole text "an economic catastrophe .....in shuffling papers" is an appositive. And if it is, then it must be with the whole initial text "Hartford continues to lose its industrial base" since industrial base can't' stand for the rest of the sentence. But if that is true then a question arises whether the first and second part of the sentence (both before and after comma) isa noun phrase or not since both should be noun or noun phrase. Please explain.

Re: TOEIC question

CalifJim — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 07:34:13 GMT

The idiom is to have [amount of time] to (do something).
It means that the action described by the final infinitive must be done within the amount of time allotted.

The students had one hour to complete the exam.
We have three months to install the kitchen cabinets.
Martha and Sam have only three days to prepare for the party.

Focus on just the amount of time. The amount of time can be expressed in several additional ways with the help of prepositions like since, until, from, and to. These prepositions are used to show the temporal boundaries of amounts of time, so the amount of time is shown indirectly by mentioning the beginning and/or ending of the time period. (If only one of the two boundaries is mentioned, the other boundary normally defaults to now.)

The students have had since last Thursday to finish the homework. (The amount of time is from last Thursday until now.)
We have until March 17 to make a decision. (The amount of time is from now until March 17.)
Martha and Sam have from Wednesday to the end of the week to buy the ingredients. (The amount of time is from Wednesday to the end of the week.)

The words before and after are used differently. They specify when in time, usually with respect to a point in time as marked by some event. In this way they are similar to expressions like at 6 o'clock. They don't specify how much time either directly (as in one hour) or indirectly through time boundaries (as in until tomorrow).

after the concert says when (with respect to the time of the concert), not how much time.
before sunset says when (with respect to the time of sunset), not how much time.

Consider what is wrong here:

*We have at 6 o'clock to finish the job. (at 6 o'clock is not an amount of time.)
*We have after Tuesday to decide on a plan. (after Tuesday is not an amount of time.)

It is possible, although less usual, to combine the two sets of prepositions.

The men have had since before the end of last week to pave the road.
Sam and Yolanda have until after the 15th to send the invitations.
We will probably have until just before 7:15 to get to the box office and pick up the tickets.
Jack has from slightly after 8 until five minutes before 9 to clean the bedrooms.

I hope this helps.
CJ

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Re: What does in the making in the following sentence means?

Re: TOEIC question