Does "2 to 1" mean "in 3 persons there are 2 persons" would do so? Does "2 to 1" mean "in 3 persons there are 2 persons" would do so or "in 2 persons 1 person" would do so? Thank you!

Is there any difference between "at least' and "at the least"? Many online dictionaries define them as identical, but here is a multiple choice question: ___, American roots are no longer an easy selling point. Through much of the postwar period, US brands could play off this cachet; Levi's ad campaigns used wholesome themes of boy-meets-girl in a heartland American setting until the early 1990s. A At least B At the least C At most D At the most And the correct answer is B, the reference book provides no explanation. Please kindly tell me why.

skies had rained, snowed, hailed, and blown ink through the varying seasons of the year skies had rained, snowed, hailed, and blown ink through the varying seasons of the year.---Charles Dickens How to understand this sentence? rain, snow, hail, and blow are intransitive verbs, why they can be followed by an object "ink"? Sorry, I think I should provide the whole sentence: “There could not well be more ink splashed about it, if it had been roofless from its first construction, and the skies had rained, snowed, hailed, and blown ink through the varying seasons of the year.”--- David Copperfield

questions about agreement in emphatic sentences Does the sentence "It is the constructions which contribute to the major part of the meaning." correct? Does "is" need to agree with "constructions"?

how to say "a bit smaller" using one word I want to say the meaning of a word become a bit smaller when undergone certain changes, what word can be used in place of "a bit smaller". I don't know whether restriced, reduced, limited is appropriate.

Cooking a nutritious gruel ingredients: red date, peanut, water chestnut, red bean, pearl barley, glutinous rice. peel and dice the water chestnut, stone the date, wash other ingredients. put red bean, pearl barley, peanut and glutinous rice into a pot of water. stew for at least one hour, then add other more cookable material into the pot, stew for another hour. serve with brown sugar. it's very nutritious, most suitable for women, for it can generate and purify blood. link of food names: http://www.foodmate.net/english/speciality/4390.html