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From: "alexander koryagin" <koryagin@erec.ru>

F2EP
Hi, Ardith Hinton! How are you?
on Monday, 30 of January, I read your messsage to alexander koryagin
about "Q of an article (sent through demos gate)"

 ak>> So, it's better not to use "due to" to introduce an adverb phase.

 AH> Agreed. I generally prefer to err on the side of caution. OTOH, I
 AH> hope my readers will feel free to take the risk of experimenting
 AH> with sentence structures they haven't mastered yet. If something
 AH> doesn't quite work the way the author intended, somebody will
 AH> help. That is what we're here for.... :-)

 ak>> Maybe the rule "it is better to use 'due to' after 'to be' only"
 ak>> is easier to remember?


 AH> Makes sense to me. I remembered it the same way... [chuckle].

Yeah, the rule is easy to due to its simplicity. ;-)

 ak>> Human eyesight is so imperfect. When a man is concentrated on the
 ak>> ball he DOESN'T SEE ANYTHING ELSE. It was the idea of this test.
 ak>> It is the main trick any fakir uses during his performance.


 AH> We adjust the focal length of our eyes according to what we want
 AH> to look at... in which case surrounding objects may appear
 AH> blurred.

I don't think it is an explanation. In fact, the performance I told of
was shown on the TV screen, and the focal length was always equal. The
problem is, I think, that concentration prevents eyes from casting
quick glances across the whole scene. When we are in our natural
condition our eyes are constantly scanning the things in front of us.
If we somehow block this scanning process we become almost blind.

BTW, The same situation is with our hearing ability. When we are
concentrated on some thoughts, sounds etc, we don't hear any other
sounds which are not connected with the subject we concentrated on.
Especially it is lamentable at school, during lections. ;-) A student
that is dreaming away of something during the lesson remembers nothing
after it. Well, if he dreams well, of course. 

 AH> When we want to take a closeup shot of a flower or a
 AH> person's face we adjust our cameras in much the same way. We're
 AH> often bombarded with so much visual & auditory input that our
 AH> brains may suppress our conscious awareness of details such as who
 AH> or what is strolling nonchalantly about the room while we're
 AH> determined to get an accurate assessment of a relatively fast-
 AH> paced series of events. Once you had some assurance that you'd
 AH> performed the assigned task correctly, you were able to relax &
 AH> take in more of what else was going on at the same time. I believe
 AH> distraction is indeed a very important element in the art of
 AH> illusion.... ;-)

From another side it is perfectly good. I.e. we have the situation when
a person voluntarily refuses to think of anything except a particular
object. Theoretically it is good for that object. But when we invent a
story and write it down, we have actually two things: a kind of an
image or even a movie in our brains and a process of writing when we
operate with grammar rules, spelling, etc. As a rule, the first
process detriments the second. We have to have a good balance in these
two things, and the best way to improve our general performance is
practice.

BTw, that is why I like Fidonet style talking. We can have long, good
quoted discussions - the things we actually cannot have at web forums.
Text is the main thing! There is no foolish pictures, a lot of empty
space, ads, etc.

 ak>> When I think hard what to write, I forget many things. 
 AH> given up on centuries ago. I understand that you are striving for
 AH> fluency & that you will probably recognize most of your own errors
 AH> without any intervention... [grin].

And anyway, it is a very useful when I am pointed at an error or two.
Every correction gives some power to be more attentive.

[...Skipped]
Bye Ardith!
Alexander (yAlexKo[]yandex.ru) + 2:5020/2140.91
fido7.english-tutor 2012



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