Wu Ting
How would you interpret the ‘doors’ and the ‘door’? In the first passage, the author said ‘there were several doors with brass knobs’, while in the last passage, the author said ‘The porter rang the bell, then knocked on the door, then he opened the door and went in’. The author seemed to be inconsistent here. Did he want to say the porter opened one of the doors? Thanks. It’s from A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (Chapter 13).The elevator rose steadily and stopped. The man holding the feet opened the door and stepped out. We were on a balcony. There were several doors with brass knobs. The man carrying the feet pushed a button that rang a bell. We heard it inside the doors. No one came. Then the porter came up the stairs. "Where are they?" the stretcher-bearers asked. "I don't know," said the porter. "They sleep down stairs." "Get somebody." The porter rang the bell, then knocked on the door, then he opened the door and went in. When he came back there was an elderly woman wearing glasses with him. Her hair was loose and half-falling and she wore a nurse's dress.
May 24, 2016 3:11 AM
Answers · 1
It is a bit difficult to follow, and not perfectly clear. However, "The man carrying the feet pushed a button that rang a bell." - so they seem to know which button to push, and perhaps there were buttons beside all the doors. So at this point they seem to have chosen a door - I assume that is the same door that the porter was opening. he clue here is "the" - which has to refer to a single door identified before it is used.
May 24, 2016
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