1. "Scaled down" comes from reducing the scale (size) of something. Think "make smaller" essentially. So in this context where the celebrations have been made smaller, perhaps less people were invited, they won't do all the events they originally had planned as part of the celebration etc. 2. 'Go back behind' is wrong. 'Travel back' is a bit closer, really you wouldn't 'travel' since time travel isn't possible XD, but an English speaker would likely understand you if you said it. You could use "it may be worthwhile to look back at our history, and retrace the events that led to DU's opening..." 3. You could use "crowding at" or "congregating at" or "convening at". 4. Try to separate your ideas with full stops. Your first sentence is pretty good, but if you wanted you could split it after "drastically".

This is tricky! You're slipping up by saying "ways", when in fact you want to use the singular "way". Here's what would work: 1. "Any way of holding chopsticks is fine as long as you can eat with them" 2. "Whatever way you hold the chopsticks is fine as long as you can eat with them" 3. "Any way will do" The rest are a little clunky for a native speaker

1) "up front" just means the front of the car/bus/plane. This is just a peculiar phrase we use in English, for some reason we often say "up front" yet we don't really say "down back" but would maybe say "down at the back of the bus". It may have become common since "upfront" is also a word, which is used when we say "pay upfront" which means payment in advance. 2) "out west" just means West and is again another peculiar phrase - you would only say "out west" and not "out North/South and maybe out East, but "out West" is far more common (you would say "up North" and "down South" though). I'm just guessing here but I have a feeling it probably comes from American history when people mostly settled on the East coast and slowly moved "out West". The phrase "Opportunities seem more numerous out west" is probably referring to the money in California, either the Gold Rush, the farm work during the great depression, or modern Silicon Valley. 3) You're right this makes no sense, the sentence is just wrong. I have a hunch it's meant to say something like "The sea captain, an old hand at these matters instantly knew what was wrong with the sail".