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I've been reading this sci-fi novel.It's awesome.But there are some parts which i don't understand.Please help me with it!Thanks a lot!
Here's the quotation:
"A few people stop to examine Anderson's purchase, but even if Anderson thinks the price is low, they apparently find it too expensive and pass on.
The woman hands across the ngaw, and Anderson almost laughs with pleasure. Not a single one of these furry fruits should exist; he might as well be hefting a sack of trilobites. If his guess about the ngaw's origin is correct, it represents a return from extinction as shocking as if a Tyrannosaurus were stalking down Thanon Sukhumvit. But then, the same is true of the potatoes and tomatoes and chiles that fill the market, all piled in such splendid abundance, an array of fecund nightshades that no one has seen in generations. In this drowning city, all things seem possible. Fruits and vegetables return from the grave, extinct flowers blossom on the avenues, and behind it all, the Environment Ministry works magic with the genetic material of generations lost."
1、 Have "these potatoes and tomatoes and chiles,an array of fecund nightshades" already returned? Or just the charcter is picturing that these fruits would return someday?
2、I can't figure out what does "and behind it all, the Environment Ministry.....lost" mean.
Last edited by vincenthsu; 08/24/11 01:32 PM.
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stranger
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The Windup Girl is set in the 23rd century: Global Warming has raised the levels of world's oceans, carbon fuel sources have become depleted, and manually wound springs are used as energy storage devices. Biotechnology is dominant and mega corporations like AgriGen, PurCal and RedStar (called calorie companies) control food production through 'genehacked' seeds, and use bioterrorism, private armies and economic hitmen to create markets for their products. Frequent catastrophes, such as deadly and widespread plagues and illness, caused by genetically modified crops and mutant pests, ravage entire populations. The natural genetic seed stock of the world's plants has been almost completely supplanted by those that are genetically engineered to be sterile.
The current monarch of Thailand is a child queen. The capital city is below sea level and is protected from flooding by levees and pumps. The three most powerful men in Thailand are the Somdet Chaopraya (regent for the child queen), the chief of the Environment Ministry General Pracha, and the chief of the Trade Ministry Akkarat.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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The Thai kingdom has so far survived, in part because it has sealed itself off from the outside world, and through draconian measures managed to keep the food supply relatively safe. The Environment Ministry -- supported by the brutally patriotic "white shirts" -- maintains stringent border and biological security: It has been known to burn entire villages to the ground at the very first instance of deadly "blister rust," "cibiscosis" or "genehack weevil." However, in recent years, the Child Queen has allowed the upstart Trade Ministry to gain power and to encourage some small-scale foreign investment in the kingdom. - Washington Post (review)
not having read this book, I'd guess that those vegetables had vanished and been re-engineered, genetically, by the EM.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I agree with tsuwm. It sounds like he is actually seeing those vegetables in the market. They have gone extinct and the Environment Ministry has recreated them.
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stranger
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stranger
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got it ! Thank you guys!
Could you help me figure out the meaning of second sentence?
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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...."and behind it all, the Environment Ministry works magic with the genetic material of generations lost." I have not read the book vincent, but I will put forth this.... behind it all/behind the scene/not visible or unknowingly working on or in secret maybe. works magic/doing the impossible or improbable with genetic material of generations lost/from the past/thought gone/dead and maybe buried or stored somewhere...now as time and science has found new ways to develop and isolate gene material..its useful. Think..... Jurassic Park.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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And this time I agree with Candy, although I don't see that there is any secrecy implied in the sentence. There may be in the context of the book.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Right Faldo...I've read it again and I think the 'secrecy' was my invention. Just my mind running off....
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stranger
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stranger
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You guys are so sweet.I got it!Thanks a lot!!:)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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We seek only to serve, tho' I did not help a bit.
----please, draw me a sheep----
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