getting up
English translation: acquiring a working knowledge of
| 11:46 Sep 8, 2012 |
| English language (monolingual) [PRO] General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters | |||||||
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|  Selected response from: Charles Davis Spain Local time: 14:40 | ||||||
Grading comment
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| SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED | ||||
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| 4 +3 | acquiring a working knowledge of |
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| 4 | bring the conversation around to |
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Answers
11 mins confidence: 
bring the conversation around to Explanation: She is very good at bringing a conversation around to subjects that interest the other person, in this case Mr. Gryce's old books. (See Webster Dictionary definition below.) Example sentence(s):
Reference: http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?action=search&word=get&resource... |
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59 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +3
peer agreement (net): +3acquiring a working knowledge of Explanation: To "get up" a project or a piece of work can mean to prepare and organise it, but I have never seen "getting up" a subject used to mean introducing it into the conversation and have not managed to find it used with this meaning. However, it is a fairly common expression for acquiring a knowledge of a subject, usually with the implication that the knowledge is rapidly acquired and suitable for practical purposes but not very profound. It is applied, for example, to studying for an exam, or to a lawyer preparing a case: "8. informal ( tr ) to study or improve one's knowledge of: I must get up my history " http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/get up?r=66 "The ability to get up a subject quickly and to hold it clearly for a temporary purpose is not here in question" Modern Methods of Teaching History http://books.google.es/books?id=-KhLqJSLxZ8C&pg=PA128&lpg=PA... It can also imply a more thorough knowledge: "To _get up a subject_, is to make one's self thoroughly master of it.--_Bristed_." Benjamin Homer Hall, A Collection of College Words and Customs http://www.fullbooks.com/A-Collection-of-College-Words-and-C... This use of "up" or "get up" was certainly current in the early twentieth century when Edith Wharton wrote this passage. To be "up in" or "well up in" a subject is commonly found in nineteenth-century texts. Here is an article published in the New York Times in 1916 on Lloyd George, in which it comments on his "nimble and acquisitive mind": "He is much better at getting up a subject than at getting into it. One may whether he ever spent a year s hard thinking on anything" (last part of last column) http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F20C16FF3E... This reflects the "working knowledge" idea. So what Mrs Trenor is saying is that Lily is very good at learning about people's favourite subjects (or perhaps finding out what they are). So she is well prepared to talk about them. |
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