By Writing letters, Nouns

Hi, I got these definitions and one example sentence from my young friend's Collins/Cobuild Compact English Learner's Dictionary and want to know the following. 1. Why the phrase "the type of surroundings" and not "the types of surroundings"? The setting for something is the particular place...

Hi, I got these definitions and one example sentence from my young friend's Collins/Cobuild Compact English Learner's Dictionary and want to know the following. 1. Why the phrase "the type of surroundings" and not "the types of surroundings"? The setting for something is the particular place...

I have some problems,they are the phrases about time: yet, today, so far, to date, up to now, recently, lately, up to these few days, this morning, now, up to present. what do they mean? Are some of them duration? Do some of them represent sometime/some time in the past? yet: 1.up to the...