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Reader question:
In this paragraph from the Economist (China: Responding to Disaster, May
12, 2008) – As Beijing prepares to host the summer Olympic Games in less than
three months, officials were quick to report that the city's dozens of Olympic
venues were built to withstand earthquakes and that none had suffered damage.
Authorities also said that no damage was observed at the massive Three Gorges
Dam, located on the Yangtze River, several hundred kilometres east of the
epicentre. That is just as well. Holding back an enormous reservoir, the dam was
built in the face of strong opposition from critics who gave warning, among
other things, that it would be vulnerable to earthquake damage that might cause
disastrous floods – What does "That is just as well" mean?
My comments:
First, my thoughts as well as yours are with the victims, survivors and
rescue workers at this difficult time for folks in Sichuan.
...
Now, definitions. "That is just as well" is a piece of nitty-gritty
English. Here, it means that's not bad at all or that's fortunate, considering
the circumstances.
The root of the phrase is "as well", meaning the same in effect as the
alternative. If you do one thing but you may as well do another, it means it
makes no difference one way or the other.
"Just as well", with the emphasis on "just", may in fact imply to a
preference. For example, if someone invites you and others to a dinner and you
tell them that you don't know if you can make it, they might say: "You may just
as well tell me you won't come." That means they'd prefer a definite answer
because then they could focus on others instead of keeping worrying about
you.
And in situations like this, a reason for that "preference" is usually
given in context, either explicitly or implicitly. For example in the Economist
story, what's been said or and implied essentially is this:
No damage to the Gorges Dam was reported. No damage either to stadiums
built for the upcoming Olympics in Beijing. That is fortunate, better than the
other way around because, you see, the dams had been facing criticism that they
might be vulnerable to earthquakes as well as be a potential eco-liability.
No-one wants to hear that they are not safe, certainly not now – in the
immediate run-up to the Olympics.
Alright, let me give you a few more examples so that you can get the hang
of "just as well" – Paraphrasing (in brackets) is mine.
1. There aren't many manual controls on the Sony T100. That is just as well
(That's perhaps better, for). Surely they would be difficult to access with the
small size of the buttons and the multitude of options crammed in the menus
already. The manual controls that are included are discussed in the following
sections.
- Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T100 Digital Camera Review,
digitalcamerainfo.com.
2. Bureaucracies are difficult to kill and NATO is unlikely to die soon.
That is just as well (That's perhaps not so bad, because): Abolishing it would
cause real traumas and tremors, and the organization does provide useful if
minor functions in military planning and training, as well as a forum.
- NATO is irrelevant: A Bureaucracy Whose Time Has Passed, International
Herald Tribune, May 24, 2003.
3. Still, this new rule cannot function properly in the longer run.
Eventually, an unexpected economic slowdown will lower revenue and raise
entitlement spending by so much that Congress will be politically incapable of
raising taxes or cutting spending fast enough to make up for the shortfall. That
is just as well (That's fine), because the tax increases and spending cuts,
encouraged by the new budget rule, do not make sense when the economy is
slowing.
- A Budget Built on Subterfuges, urban.org, November 23, 1999.
4. One either likes or dislikes China, and then proceeds to justify one's
likes or dislikes. That is just as well (There's nothing wrong with that,
perhaps), for we must take some sort of attitude toward China to justify
ourselves as intelligent beings.
- My Country and My People, Lin Yutang. |
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发表于 2016-7-9 23:48:49