What does it mean?
1 What does " She had to knock loudly on the door before Silas heard." mean? For me, this sentence doesn't make a clear sense especially the phrase "before Silas heard". Here is the whole context :
"Oh dear! Working on a Sunday! That's bad! said Mrs Winthrop sadly. She had to knock loudly on the door before Silas heard. He said nothing, but opened the door to let them in, and She sat down in an armchair.
2 "He took the little bag of cakes she was holding out to him.". What does "holding out" mean here? I looked the word up in my dictionary but didn't find the proper meaning to fit the context.
Many thanks in advance!
Search from various English teachers...
Answers · 5
2
For the first part, it is referring to the fact that the female had to knock on the door in order for Silas to hear her, or at least to know she was there. It's also saying that she had to knock more or louder than normal for Silas to hear.
For the second part, "holding out" means that she was literally holding the bag of cakes for him to take. If it makes it any easier, when you want to shake someone's hand, you "hold it out" in front of the person for them to take.
Hope this helps!
1
As far as #2 is concerned, "holding out" isn't being used in the way you're thinking it is.
It's talking about her (presumably) offering cakes to him, and he took the little bags that were being offered/held out to him.
Sorry if this explanation was poor, a bit weird to explain for me. xD
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