How would you interpret this sentence? How would you interpret this sentence ‘He learned the lessons before the rest of the pupils’? Does it mean the teachers taught him the lessons before they taught other pupils? Or does it mean he understood the lessons quicker than other pupils? In other words, how would you interpret the word ‘learn’ in the sentence? Does it mean the action of studying or the ability of studying? Thanks! It’s from The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by McCullers.the context: At the school he was thought very intelligent. He learned the lessons before the rest of the pupils. But he could never become used to speaking with his lips. It was not natural to him, and his tongue felt like a whale in his mouth. From the blank expression on people’s faces to whom he talked in this way he felt that his voice must be like the sound of some animal or that there was something disgusting in his speech. It was painful for him to try to talk with his mouth, but his hands were always ready to shape the words he wished to say. When he was twenty-two he had come South to this town from Chicago and he met Antonapoulos immediately. Since that time he had never spoken with his mouth again, because with his friend there was no need for this.