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Thread: Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an...

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    Почтенный гражданин oldboy's Avatar
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    Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an...

    Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral
    arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.
    Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.
    Is this "a sun" mentioned above?


    © The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Intro, p.3
    Thanks for correcting me.

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    Почтенный гражданин bitpicker's Avatar
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    Yes.
    Спасибо за исправления!

    Вам нравится этот форум, и вы изучаете немецкий язык? Вот похожий форум о немецком языке.

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    Завсегдатай Throbert McGee's Avatar
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    Grammatically speaking, the antecedent of this could possibly be "the western spiral arm" or "the Galaxy."

    However, the phrase a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles makes sense only if this refers to the yellow sun, in relationship to the "little blue-green planet." Note that the Galaxy is approximately 6x10^17 miles in diameter (600 quadrillion in American terminology), compared with a mere 9x10^7 miles between the Earth and the Sun!

    By the way, there's obviously no astronomical logic for using compass directions like "north" or "western" when talking about the Galaxy. However, a repeating theme of HHGG is that familiar human institutions like bureaucracy, and loud rock music, and fashionable restaurants where it's very difficult to get a table, are found throughout the Universe. So in that context, it seems perfectly reasonable that extraterrestrial civilizations would refer to "the unfashionable end of the western arm of the Galaxy."
    Говорит Бегемот: "Dear citizens of MR -- please correct my Russian mistakes!"

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    Почтенный гражданин oldboy's Avatar
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    Thanks a lot!
    Thanks for correcting me.

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