Discussion Groups / English Usage / July 2009

The rule I've found in every grammar I've read is that the simple past
tense is backshifted to the past perfect verb form in a reported
speech. It's most often added that some general truths don't need to
be backshifted but other exceptions to this rule are never mentioned.

I have learnt that the American educational system consists of at least
51 different systems, but how about the English-
Are there anybody here who can explain how the school system in the U.K.
is from kindergarden to comprehensive school and to the A-level college

What is the meaning of the last sentence in these sentences from David
Copperfield:
"I was born with a caul, which was advertised for sale, in the
newspapers, at the low price of fifteen guineas. Whether sea-going

"Another great fact confronting the modern world is the discovery of
the method of training professionals, who specialize in particular
regions of thought..."
Here, is the author meaning that the discovery has been made and the

"Clipping the Island coin," could it mean here cutting in pieces, to
get the scrap metal for minting the counterfeit? Or could it mean
"bypassing/shortchanging the Island coin?"
--

It seems to me that "dint" usually implies physical action -- by dint
of hard work -- which is consitent with its origins as a variant of
"dent".
What about time -- does the following make sense?

In The Independent, David McKittrick writes:
"All but a handful of Catholic families now remain in the village of
Ahoghill, ..."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/belfast-immigrants-warned-get-out-by-
tomorrow-ndash-or-you-die-1741463.html

Two of you have been very helpful.   Thank you, both.
Is the first line correct?  
It feels like jamais vu.   I must have seen it, but I don't remember
it.

What other expressions are common in English which have their origins
in logical fallacies?
Farhad

Could anyone please provide a firm answer for the following question.
Thanks in advance.
Does "be used to doing" express habitual action ?
She is used to playing tennis at weekends. Does she still play tennis

In past times, a poster called Mike3 has been arguing that the name
"Pacific Ocean" be changed to some sort of designation that makes more
sense to him, such as "Coruscic Ocean".  The person in question does
not seem to post to AUE on a very regular basis, but since I've just

I guess "the Season" means "the social Season."
Now, would that be the summer or the winter in England/London?
---
'I go to dances,' said Widmerpool; adding, rather grandly: 'in the

Re "A Walk After Dark" by Auden, p. 267
shown in full at this link:
http://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/wystan-hugh-auden/a-walk-after-dark-2/
In:

Freddy Flintoff has just announced that his retirement is 'not a knee-
jerk action'. No, it's to do with his knees, which no longer work as
they should.
--

What, would you say, are the meanings that work here for "circs" and
"ambit?"
Also any guess which "annus mirabilis when Parity fell" is he talking
about?  The year of the first A/H-bomb?