<MSGID_1=3A3634=2F12.0_241b51d1@fidonet.org>
From: alexander koryagin <koryagin@erec.ru>

Hi, mark lewis!
I read your message from 24.09.2013 11:52

  ak>>> Yesterday, a Polish customs station was paralyzed by a Russian
  ak>>> truck loaded with matreshka dolls.
  ml>
  ml>> one needs to know what matreshka dolls are for this one to make
  ml>> sense and be funny...

  ak>> Do you think that there are many people who don't know what a
  ak>> matreshka doll is? IMHO, it is as well-known as vodka. ;-)

  ML> i think, without looking it up, that they are those dolls within
  ML> dolls...

    And there are record breakers. ;-)

<skipped>
  ak>>> It's difficult to search for Bin Laden in Afghanistan. Especially
  ak>>> if he is not there. (A new Chinese wisdom from Alex Ko )"/>
  ml>> ?? the use of "search for" in this one is not right... one can
  ml>> always and easily search for something where it may or may not
  ml>> be... instead "find" should be used... It's difficult to find Bin
  ml>> Laden in Afghanistan. Especially if he is not there.

  ak>> Yes, probably it sounds clearer. Although, for speaking practice,
  ak>> I can note that if we derive this phrase from the original one
  ak>> (about a cat and a dark room) we can find out that it is indeed a
  ak>> difficult task to search for anything in the complete darkness. So
  ak>> we have two difficulties:

  ML> hahaha... actually, there in the darkness, it is easy to search 
  ML> O

    It isn't there! 

  ak>> 1. Searching in the darkness (for something) is a difficult
  ak>> business.
  ML> i have to wonder what a blind person would say about that 

    Can he say something more different than me? In the darkness we will 
both search by groping. Well, I will probably turn on a flashlight. ;=) 
The main problem I will have is the possibility of searching in one 
place many times. Well, I can mark my path with chalk, writing 
everywhere that Alex Ko was there. When a sapper checked mines in a 
mine-strewn field he does something like that.

  ak>> 2. It is an especially difficult business if the something we a
  ak>> looking for is absent in the dark room, where we are searching.
  ML> absolutely true when it comes to finding the object of the search
  ML> 

_Finding_ is an optional part of any searching process.  You can 
easily find your object if you stumble against it.

<skipped>
  ML> is possible that both mean the same thing in the original language
  ML> or there was simply no concept of one or the other and the
  ML> translators simply took the most direct translation instead of
  ML> working with the context...

    Yeah, there are many ways to cook the cat. 

Bye, mark!
Alexander Koryagin
fido7.english-tutor 2013
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