Was bedeutet ---- Years ago I watched a Forensic Files episode where babies were dying inexplicably in an American town.
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Fortunately the problem was discovered and action could be taken. ----- ?

---- Years ago I watched a Forensic Files episode where babies were dying inexplicably in an American town. Turns out there had been a flood and many homes had basements where black mold had developed. The home heating systems were in those basements and the babies’ cribs were placed near the heating vents on their nurseries…with tragic results. Fortunately the problem was discovered and action could be taken. -----
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1) Does this "where babies were dying inexplicably in an American town." mean "during a certain period, many babies occasionally died"?
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2) Fortunately the problem was discovered and action could be taken.
"Would and could" are a headache to learners of English.
Please explain by rewriting the phrase with plain kinder garden English.

Antworten

MiniMeg

15 Mär 2021

Favorisierte Antwort

Englisch (US)

1) It does suggest "during a certain period." But I wouldn't say "occasionally." "Inexplicably" means "without a known reason." Another way to say this line is: "In an American town, some babies died for unknown reasons."

2) In the kindergarten English you requested:
"Luckily, they found out what the problem was. So, they could do something to fix the problem."

"Take action" means "do something."
"Action could be taken" is the same thing but in the passive voice, past tense.

Could/Would:
If you discover the reason for the problem, you CAN take action. You CAN do something to fix it. Action CAN be taken. This happened in the past, so it becomes, "...the problem was discovered and action COULD be taken."

One reason this is confusing is that in this sentence, "action WOULD be taken" is actually also grammatical. If someone were narrating the story, it would make sense for them to say "action would be taken" to describe what was going to happen next. In other words, "at this point in the story, they were about to fix the problem."

But in this paragraph, the person is not talking about what WILL happen. They are talking about what CAN happen when the problem is discovered. And since they're talking about the past, it's "could." They could fix it. They were able to fix it.

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EarleyGrave

15 Mär 2021

Englisch (US)

It means they were fortunate (lucky) to discover the reason the babies were dying.

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kama2

15 Mär 2021

Japanisch

@EarleyGrave Thanks.

EarleyGrave

15 Mär 2021

Englisch (US)

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MiniMeg

15 Mär 2021

Englisch (US)

1) It does suggest "during a certain period." But I wouldn't say "occasionally." "Inexplicably" means "without a known reason." Another way to say this line is: "In an American town, some babies died for unknown reasons."

2) In the kindergarten English you requested:
"Luckily, they found out what the problem was. So, they could do something to fix the problem."

"Take action" means "do something."
"Action could be taken" is the same thing but in the passive voice, past tense.

Could/Would:
If you discover the reason for the problem, you CAN take action. You CAN do something to fix it. Action CAN be taken. This happened in the past, so it becomes, "...the problem was discovered and action COULD be taken."

One reason this is confusing is that in this sentence, "action WOULD be taken" is actually also grammatical. If someone were narrating the story, it would make sense for them to say "action would be taken" to describe what was going to happen next. In other words, "at this point in the story, they were about to fix the problem."

But in this paragraph, the person is not talking about what WILL happen. They are talking about what CAN happen when the problem is discovered. And since they're talking about the past, it's "could." They could fix it. They were able to fix it.

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kama2

15 Mär 2021

Japanisch

@MiniMeg Thank you very much for your informative answer. It seems that I thought grammatically too much about the sentence construction of the story. Now, I understand "could" was just for the simple past.