had taken its toll
- Thread starter smelvanzq
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Context?
TheParser
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***** NOT A TEACHER *****
Hello,
1. "To take its toll" = to damage.
a. I am 75 years old. So Life has taken its toll on me: my hair is now all white, my hearing is getting worse, my feet
are starting to give me pain, etc.
2. "Mind you." = The Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (online) explains that sometimes we say something that is very strong. So we add another sentence to make the first sentence less strong.
a. Here are two bad examples of mine. I hope that they give you the idea:
(i) A man is talking to his neighbors: "Have you heard the bad news? An actor is moving into our apartment house. I do not
dislike actors, mind you, but ... (The speaker wants the listeners to know that he is not prejudiced against actors.)
(ii) A teacher says to her class: "Students, I want all of you to turn in the book reports by this coming Friday. Mind you, I will still
accept book reports on Monday if you have a good excuse." (The teacher wants her students to know that she is
not mean. If a student has an emergency, s/he can still hand in the book report after the Friday deadline.)
James
Hello,
1. "To take its toll" = to damage.
a. I am 75 years old. So Life has taken its toll on me: my hair is now all white, my hearing is getting worse, my feet
are starting to give me pain, etc.
2. "Mind you." = The Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (online) explains that sometimes we say something that is very strong. So we add another sentence to make the first sentence less strong.
a. Here are two bad examples of mine. I hope that they give you the idea:
(i) A man is talking to his neighbors: "Have you heard the bad news? An actor is moving into our apartment house. I do not
dislike actors, mind you, but ... (The speaker wants the listeners to know that he is not prejudiced against actors.)
(ii) A teacher says to her class: "Students, I want all of you to turn in the book reports by this coming Friday. Mind you, I will still
accept book reports on Monday if you have a good excuse." (The teacher wants her students to know that she is
not mean. If a student has an emergency, s/he can still hand in the book report after the Friday deadline.)
James
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It may interest some readers to know that this sort of 'toll' is related to the German Zoll - which travellers might have seen on multilingual signs 'Customs - Douane(s?) - Zoll'. (Note: this isn't an invitation to an unending digression about Grimm's Law, or to a string of examples thereof;-). I just thought this was a particularly interesting pair of meanings.)
The term 'toll' is still used in English in its non-figurative sense (something like 'charge for use') , often in compounds like 'toll-road' or 'toll-free'.
b
The term 'toll' is still used in English in its non-figurative sense (something like 'charge for use') , often in compounds like 'toll-road' or 'toll-free'.
b
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