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3. It is not unthinkable that there should be a 3rd World War.
Is this a completely ridiculous idea?
4. He thinks nothing of checking his answers again and again.
Does he mind checking his answers?
5. Nor is it only his own answers that he checks.
What else does he do?
6. It is not impossible that the experiment will fail.
The speaker is ______ ing the person he is addressing that the experiments _______ fail.
(modal verb)
7. Geology is by no means without practical importance. The speaker is aware that some people, including
the person he is addressing, may have the idea that geology ______________________________________ .
8. Her behavior makes her all but indistinguishable from a native Italian.
How does she behave?
9. It is not unknown for him to be less than punctual.
Is he ever late?
8.2 Read the following sentences and answer the questions.
1. There could never be any circumstance which could justifi anybody's saying anything of the kind.
Nevertheless he could hardly* keep himself from saying it.
* hardly = [1] almost not; [2] only with difficulty
a. Can you guess what kind of remark it probably was?
b. Did he actually make the remark?
c. Was he justified in what he did?
2. Even if she had never done anything like it before in her life, I would not have been surprised had she
done it now, so much had she matured in the course of that year.
a. Is «it» a good or a bad thing (and how do you know)?
b. Had she ever done anything like it before?
c. Why did the speaker expect her to do it now?
d. Did she do it now?
e. The speaker implies that, if she had done something like it before, then ____________________ .
f. What time does «now» refer to?
3. Nothing could have looked simpler, or been harder to accomplish.
a. Substitute an equivalent word for «looked».
b. The writer is contrasting the way it ____ (one word) with ___________.