I wonder what "a rushing noise" means.
"Avada Kedavra" is a spell for killing curse in Harry Potter. It causes a jet of green light, and a rushing noise, resulting in instant death of the victim. Harry is the only person in the history of the magical world to have ever survived a direct hit of the killing curse.

1)I wonder what "a rushing noise" means. Rushing means the state of flowing quickly and fast and how is it compatible with the word "noise"? I feel like It is awkward to express the speed of "sound" with the word "rushing", because it is originally fast!

2)In the second sentence, why does the to-infinitive place take the present perfect form "have ever survived"? Is the intention of it to show that it happened in the past relatively, when compared with the present time of the the main clause?

Please help me understand it.

Question

I wonder what "a rushing noise" means.
"Avada Kedavra" is a spell for killing curse in Harry Potter. It causes a jet of green light, and a rushing noise, resulting in instant death of the victim. Harry is the only person in the history of the magical world to have ever survived a direct hit of the killing curse.

1)I wonder what "a rushing noise" means. Rushing means the state of flowing quickly and fast and how is it compatible with the word "noise"? I feel like It is awkward  to express the speed of "sound" with the word "rushing", because it is originally fast!

2)In the second sentence, why does the to-infinitive place take the present perfect form "have ever survived"? Is the intention of it to show that it happened in the past relatively, when compared with the present time of the the main clause?

Please help me understand it.

Answer

To give an example of "a rushing noise", imagine that you're standing a little too close to the edge of a train platform, when a train passes through without stopping. You hear the sounds of the train, but you also hear the "whoosh" of the air around you -- that's a rushing noise. Possibly another relevant example would be listening to the sound of fast-flowing water -- yes, there's the sound of the water itself, but most of what you're hearing is attributable to the speed and force of the fluid. Hope that makes it clearer, I'm a bit worried that I've just complicated things ha ha!

Answer

A "rushing noise" is a noise like the sound of wind or water. We sometimes use onomatopoetic words like "hiss" or "whoosh." I'm just guessing, but I think the "rush" in "rushing noise" is an imitation of the sound.