Two bad guys
Dear Dr English,
I find the words Òhit manÓ and ÒgunmanÓ often in newspapers; do they mean the same thing or not? Thank you.
Suphap Malaiwan
One thing in common about the two nouns is that they refer to Òa bad guy,Ó but otherwise the meanings are different. A hit man is a person who is hired by terrorists or gangsters to kill people.
Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel was assassinated by a hit man two weeks ago.
A gunman is someone who uses a gun to commit a crime such as murder or robbery, as in the following sentence taken from a piece of news published in The Nation recently:
ÒGunmen raided two Shiite homes in Diyala province, a hotbed of IraqÕs Sunni-Arab insurgency, and shot and killed 21 men in front of their relatives, police said yesterday.Ó
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Wide of the mark
Dear Dr English,
What does the expression Òwide of the markÓ in the following sentence mean? ÒNew investigations into the code for life suggest that the assumption that humans are genetically almost identical is wide of the mark, and the implications
could be resounding.Ó
Thanks.
Nitida Sribunroeng
When you talk about something being Òwide of the mark,Ó you are saying that it is a long way from being correct. The sentence tells us that the belief that human genes are almost exactly the same is wrong and this suggestion could be a big or serious matter.
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How ÒthoughÓ works
Dear Dr English,
Can you explain the function of ÒthoughÓ in this sentence? ÒWe are not giving up hope, though.Ó Thank you very much.
Somdej Prapanpojanart
ÒThoughÓ has many functions but from the sentence in your question ÒthoughÓ is an adverb added at the end of a comment, which seems to oppose what has just been said earlier.
I am starving; but I donÕt want to eat, though.
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