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Old 19-Jan-2006, 21:22
HaraKiriBlade's Avatar
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Default Confusing sentence with commas

I'm still reading the introduction part of the book, Catch-22. (I really should get to the actual context already!) And as I was reading I came across to a rather confusing sentence. I need your help.

Quote:
It (the Great War of 1914-18) shattered settled notions of civilization and social order, old hopes for the advance of history, established faiths in humanism and heroism and sacrifice.
My question is, is 'shattered' the only verb in the sentence and 'established' just supporting 'faiths', or are 'shattered' and 'established' both verbs in the sentence? I initially thought the former is correct, but the commas confuse me. Any help on this would be very much appreciated, perhaps on not just the answer to my question but on what confused me.

Last edited by HaraKiriBlade; 19-Jan-2006 at 21:25.
  #2  
Old 20-Jan-2006, 06:03
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Default Re: Confusing sentence with commas

Shattered is the verb- established is an adjective to me. If it were a verb, you'd need 'and established'. The war shattered the established faiths.
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