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Thread: creatures of leaping lightning

  1. 09-Jan-2010, 11:10 #1
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    Bushwhacker
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    Cool creatures of leaping lightning

    Given the following paragraph,

    His sons and daughter would have had to be creatures of leaping lightning to have responded so swiftly to any bidding of the butler.

    Can "leaping lightning be understood as someting like "supreme intelligence" or the like?

    Thank You
  2. 09-Jan-2010, 11:12 #2
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    Default Re: creatures of leaping lightning

    Quote Originally Posted by Bushwhacker View Post
    Given the following paragraph,

    His sons and daughter would have had to be creatures of leaping lightning to have responded so swiftly to any bidding of the butler.

    Can "leaping lightning be understood as someting like "supreme intelligence" or the like?

    Thank You
    No, I would say it means "very fast".
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  3. 09-Jan-2010, 11:37 #3
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    Cool Re: creatures of leaping lightning

    Quote Originally Posted by bhaisahab View Post
    No, I would say it means "very fast".

    Thank You very much. Nevertheless, wouldn't it be tautological? Extremely fast and so swiftly seems to be the same.
  4. 10-Jan-2010, 00:19 #4
    Anglika
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    Default Re: creatures of leaping lightning

    But since the author chose to use a particularly vivid phrase to express the sense of speed, there is no tautology.
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