Bernard concluded that there is no better assurance of long life, health, and happiness for a man than a woman well socialized to devote her life to taking care of him and providing the security of a well-ordered home.
This is from my textbook, I would like to understand it in grammatical sense.
What is the subject of the text in red? I mean i know it is woman, so is there omission before well?
maybe "who is" ? if this is right, when can I omit like that?
This form, "well something", seems to harken back to an earlier age. Some other examples are: You are advised to hire only those well trained - Teachers well schooled can teach anyone - A dog well taught will not bark at night.
Aside from "well schooled", I don't believe that I have heard much of this form, though I have encountered it in reading books from the 19th Century.
Probably (my guess) in the '60s-'70's, in the heyday of bra-burning feminism.
The point of 'well-socialized' is that people behave in a way that reinforces their society; girls are given dolls to care for (the more dependent the better - if they can wet themselves that's a real plus). This sort of socialization was said at the time to have been compromised by a self-serving male-chauvinist-pig conspiracy. The text is saying that she had been brought up in such a way as to be the ideal handservant to an old man in his dotage. (Speaking as an old man in his dotage I regard this sort of socialization as a Jolly Good Thing.
)
b
PS It's by no means unheard of for text books in ELT schools to be this dated. In one of my first posts I had to work from a textbook that held that such words as 'stenographer' were essential examples of 'current' business vocabulary.
Last edited by Tdol; 24-Oct-2012 at 18:05. Reason: boos -> books
One ESL book I was asked to use had a piece about UFOs which said that they had not only been seen by housewives and dogs, but also by professionals who should be taken seriously like lawyers and doctors. I couldn't bring myself to teach it. ;)
I'm curious now. How did the dogs convey that they had seen the UFOs? I can just about understand "Come quickly! Timmy fell down the well" but I've never yet been able to discern "Wow - I saw this amazing thing flying through the sky yesterday afternoon and I think it was from another planet!"
I'm not a teacher, but I write for a living. Please don't ask me about 2nd conditionals, but I'm a safe bet for what reads well in (American) English.
I think the housewife told the tale and said "isn't that right, Sparky?" to which the dog replied enthusiastically "woof!"