eating them

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Peter Dune - 16 May 2004 18:36 GMT

The last paragraph in John Steinbeck's _Of Mice and Men_ reads: Curley
and Carlson looked after them. And Carlson said, "Now what
the hell ya suppose is eatin' them two guys?"

Can you tell me what is meant by "What is eating two guys?" ?

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Juergen - 16 May 2004 19:01 GMT

> The last paragraph in John Steinbeck's _Of Mice and Men_ reads: Curley
> and Carlson looked after them. And Carlson said, "Now what
> the hell ya suppose is eatin' them two guys?"
>
> Can you tell me what is meant by "What is eating two guys?" ?

Maybe "What's bothering them?" ... Haven't read the book, anyway.

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Enrico C - 16 May 2004 19:10 GMT

The Oxford Adv. L. Dictionary says:

| whatʼs eating him, etc.? (spoken)
| used to ask what sb is annoyed or worried about

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Enrico C - no native speaker

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Bill Bonde ( ''Stop this farce!'' ''Which one?'' ) - 19 May 2004 20:10 GMT

Let's see, George has just killed Lenny, his best friend, because Lenny
murdered Curley's wife, and George could not figure out a way this time
to save Lenny from himself. So after killing his best friend, he's
presumably relating all this, or at least the parts that won't maybe get
him arrested, to Slim.

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"Throw me that lipstick, darling, I wanna redo my stigmata."

+-Jennifer Saunders, "Absolutely Fabulous"

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John Ramsay - 20 May 2004 16:57 GMT

> > The last paragraph in John Steinbeck's _Of Mice and Men_ reads: Curley
> > and Carlson looked after them. And Carlson said, "Now what
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> presumably relating all this, or at least the parts that won't maybe get
> him arrested, to Slim.

There's some confusion here.

The quoted section may be from the end
of a chapter but it's not from the end
of the book.

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John Ramsay - 20 May 2004 21:02 GMT

> > > The last paragraph in John Steinbeck's _Of Mice and Men_ reads: Curley
> > > and Carlson looked after them. And Carlson said, "Now what
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
> of a chapter but it's not from the end
> of the book.

Cancel the above. It is the ending of the book.

Sorry.

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Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / May 2004

eating them