Wu Ting
How would you interpret the last sentence? 1 How would you interpret the phrase ‘the birds were all good’? Does it mean the birds you hunted were fat and good to eat because they fed on grapes? Or does it mean the birds grew well and good to look? 2 How would you interpret the phrase ‘took a lunch’? I think it means you didn’t need to take food with you because you could eat at the peasants’ houses, right? Thanks. It’s from A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (Chapter 11).the context: At Capracotta, he had told me, there were trout in the stream below the town. It was forbidden to play the flute at night. When the young men serenaded only the flute was forbidden. Why, I had asked. Because it was bad for the girls to hear the flute at night. The peasants all called you "Don" and when you met them they took off their hats. His father hunted every day and stopped to eat at the houses of peasants. They were always honored. For a foreigner to hunt he must present a certificate that he had never been arrested. There were bears on the Gran Sasso D'Italia but it was a long way. Aquila was a fine town. It was cool in the summer at night and the spring in Abruzzi was the most beautiful in Italy. But what was lovely was the fall to go hunting through the chestnut woods. The birds were all good because they fed on grapes and you never took a lunch because the peasants were always honored if you would eat with them at their houses.
May 18, 2016 3:18 PM
Answers · 2
1.) "The birds were all good" means that they were all fine to hunt. Yes, it is because they ate grapes and got plump. 2.) Yes, you are correct about "you never took a lunch". That's exactly what it means. Don't confuse "to take a lunch" with "to take a lunch break" though. They mean two different things. :)
May 18, 2016
Yes the birds could be eaten ("were all good") Yes you could eat with the peasants. ("were always honored if you would eat with them ")
May 18, 2016
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