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Question:
"Many times I'm faced with the same problem - I encounter
a new phrase, know all the words in it individually but not when they are
put together. I want to look it up in the dictionary, but do not know
which word in the phrase to look up for.
"The latest example is in this headline: America's younger workers
losing ground on income. This is an article about young people not earning
as much as old people in the United States. My question is with the phrase
'losing ground'. I have a vague feeling I know what it is but the feeling
is a faint one. If I look up a dictionary, should I look up the word
'lose', or the word 'ground'? Or, is it a set phrase at all?"
Answer:
Many a time I have faced a same dilemma.
The thing to do is to look every word up unless you're sure the answer
lies with a particular one in the phrase. Do not take anything for
granted.
Take "many a time" for example.
"Many times" sounds right. "Many a time" sounds odd, as it did to me
years ago.
I doubted its grammatical legitimacy from the beginning. However, I
believe I did nothing with it the first few times I ran into the phrase. I
had perhaps taken it as a sort of a typo error or other. Or more probably
I did not think dictionaries could help anyway - I didn't know where to
begin even if I did want to look it up.
Then I read this in Great Expectations by the great Charles Dickens: "I
used to think, with a weariness on my spirits, that I should have been
happier and better if I had never seen Miss Havisham's face, and had risen
to manhood content to be partners with Joe in the honest old forge. Many a
time of an evening, when I sat alone looking at the fire, I thought, after
all, there was no fire like the forge fire and the kitchen fire at home."
"Many a time of an evening", that's got a nice ring to it. And if
Dickens says this, it's probably something worth picking up.
In the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, I looked up "many"
and I looked up "a" - and, you know what, I found an answer under both
entries.
Found under "many" is this: many a time
(old-fashioned ) often: I've sat
here many a time and wondered what became of her.
Under "a": used after such, what, rather and
(formal ) many to emphasize
what you're saying: What a day! I was late for work and my car broke down;
She had spent many a night (many nights) waiting for him to come home.
The point is, look every word in a phrase up if you're unsure what
you're looking for. Not to look up any, which beginners are wont to do,
just won't do.
Got to learn to trust a dictionary.
Speaking of which, the said Longman dictionary is good for learners of
English as a foreign language, in that it uses relatively simple words in
explanation. (If this sounds like advertising, I assure you I've not
taken a million-dollar paycheck for putting in this good word
- the Longman Group never offered it).
Lest we drift too far off, let's get back to the original question, to
recovering what looks like to be some lost ground among the young in the
earning (rather than learning) department. Look up 'ground', and you'll
find the answer.
I googled and found the story titled "America's younger workers losing
ground on income" (The Christian Science Monitor, Monday, February 27).
The gist of the story is this:
"A new survey shows that median
incomes fell for householders under 45, even as they rose for older ones,
between 2001 and 2004.
"Income fell 8 percent, adjusted for inflation, for those under 35 and
9 percent for those aged 35 to 44. The numbers add new weight to
longstanding concerns about whether younger generations of Americans will
achieve living standards that are better - or at least equal to - those of
their parents."
How sad it is to be young in America!
This is no grounds for concern to Chinese youngsters. Chinese parents
have made sure that their children live better than themselves - by
toiling their collective tails off when they were young and put up all
their savings in the bank to lavish on their children in future. Parental
care or perhaps parents have seen it coming - their children are not going
to make it the hard way.
Even with generous parents like these, the Chinese young may not want
to be too conceited. Daddies and mommies had relatively low-paying jobs in
their day. Their savings are not going to sustain the lifestyle of
pampered young tsars of today for long.
If you are young and want to maintain that lavish lifestyle, you
probably have to make some dough by yourself, which pits you against older
people in the battleground of money making in general.
I'm not surprised that older people, again speaking generally, make
more money than younger people make. After all, this is an old men's
world.
I know, I know, I know. Mao said something to the effect that the young
are like the morning sun, eight-o'clock, nine-o'clock, take your pick.
"Our collective hopes rest with you", says the Chairman.
Don't kid yourself, son. The morning sun is not hot. The morning sun,
even at 10 o'clock is not scorching. It is the sun at the meridian and
after that is hot and scorching. And we all know who that Red Sun is.
Saying what he was saying, the Chairman was making you feel good,
because he felt good. He doesn't mind giving you the future because he
prefers living in the now. And more power to him.
Anyway, don't take Mao's words for granted. He does not mean you are
going to get it all handed over to you in a silver plate. You've still got
to work for it. Only on that ground do you have any hopes of a better
future.
And a better work ethic is something the older generation is better
grounded in than the young are. Plus, the old have experience. They have
covered a lot of ground, been to places and seen some goings-on. They
therefore are more focused, less distracted (I've known 40-year-olds
playing computer games far into the night, but they're the exception
rather than the rule. Young people should not follow their example - you
won't get far that way, except far into the night with dry, red and
burning eyes along with a headache for hangover the next morning).
In short, aside from those who should've known better, the older are
generally wiser. All of these qualities are in play when it comes to work
and pay, helping the old gain ground one way or another.
Young people, on the other hand, feel better about themselves. This is
the only thing good about young people that I feel sure enough to say. I'm
sorry if it sounds like a knock. I think this is true: young people may
not be the best at a job, but they always tend to feel like they are.
I do hope this feel-good factor is enough to help the young in getting
their share from the pot.
I hope they at least have a better idea now on what loses ground, what
gains ground. The terms must have been derived from warfare. Wars are
about gaining greater control of territories, be it real wars or a tug of
war as a sport, both in olden times and in the latest US-led battle
against Bagdad.
One either wins ground or loses ground. "Losing ground" has therefore
come to mean losing an advantage to an opponent.
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