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China flagMaggie
question 'How the fuck should I know?' I asked him, loud enough to turn some heads in a nearby booth. And then: 'She was pregnant.' His face grew very still. ' What?' I struggled to keep my voice down. 'Pregnant. Six or seven weeks, according to the . . . you know, the autopsy. Did you know? Did she tell you?' 'No! Christ, no!' But there was a funny look on his face, as if she had told him something . 'I knew you were trying, of course . . . she said you had a low sperm count and it might take a little while, but the doctor thought you guys'd probably . . . sooner or later you'd probably . . . ' He trailed off, looking down at his hands. 'They can tell that, huh? They check for that?' 'They can tell. As for checking, I don't know if they do it automatically or not. I asked.' 'Why?' 'She didn't just buy sinus medicine before she died. She also bought one of those home pregnancy-testing kits.' Question: 'They can tell that, huh? They check for that?' -- what does ‘tell’ mean in this case?

Answers · 5

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According to the contexts and Oxford dictionary, I believe 'tell' means: to know, see or judge sth correctly. Here are examples: >>I think he's happy. It's hard to tell. >>As far as I can tell, she's enjoying the course. I believe the sentences from Stephen King`s fiction, Bag of Bones. "They" refers to the doctors.
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https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/tell Definition 5

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