Dear BobK,
I haven't heard from you for a long time.
No.2
I can't use "for". Is that right?
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thank you in advance.
Jiang
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobK  1 - it depends what you mean by "mean"! Or to put it another way, it depends what you mean by "because"  "Because he was nervous" can mean "in his nervousness", but tends to refer to a transient state: "He meant to give the taxi-driver a $5 tip, but on the day of the interview - because he was nervous - he gave him $50 by mistake." "In his nervousness" could just mean "because he was by nature a nervous person". So when you say 'does it mean "because"' you're right to suggest that it has something to do with causality - but that's not to say that it's interchangeable (it's a different word class, to start with).
2 You could say that, but to my ear it would sound better if you said
'It's not true that all people do things for reasons of self interest.' (There are a few collocations that use 'For reasons of ... <thing>' - state, convenience, safety...).You could also use 'in', but normally - again - to refer to transient states: "in a moment of forgetfulness, he didn't pick up the package"/"in a fit of stupidity I said I could do it this week". You could also use 'through' or 'by', but I'd say (other teachers may disagree) that those words tend to be used to express blame: 'You brought this on yourself through your own carelessness'.
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