Words and their use in common English can be confusing and raise more questions. Take for example this entry in today's On This Day (The Daily Telegraph): "2007 - Virginia Tech student Cho Seung-Hui shoots 32 fellow students and then himself in the deadliest peacetime shooting in US history." Note the use of "peacetime" which wasn't carried in other On This Days I looked at on the net (at least one of which didn't include this event at all). Does leave it open to some thought - especially if you think of "shooting" in terms of one or two people doing the shooting. Were the others in wartime, as opposed to "peacetime" - and what were they?
Other confusing language use - the report, also in The Daily Telegraph, of riot police at a Sydney university after they were called in response to a "disturbing" letter. They were at the campus yesterday "following last week's discovery of a letter in the student administration centre". Hmmm ... "a" letter, as opposed to "the" letter. All (or both) very confusing language.
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