Help to understand a phrase

[Falcon]

Hi,

I've got an e-mail from an American friend but I didn't understand what he did mean on this: "...and we have done quite a lot between Japan and the US with our parents..."
Could someone help me please? What's "...have done quite a lot..." mean in this sentence?

Thanks and Happy New Year!

Falcon

[Anglika]

There isn't really enough context, but I could interpret it as meaning that they all did a lot of travelling over the holidays.

[Falcon]

Thanks for answering.

Below, the entire phrase:

"Except any meat (wet or dry), it should not be a problem to send (unless the value is high enough to be taxable), and we have done quite a lot between Japan and the US with our parents -- ask them to send some local Japanese food which we could not get here."I didn't know what he want to mean with this.

Thanks again.

Falcon

[David L.]

"Except any meat (wet or dry), it should not be a problem to send (unless the value is high enough to be taxable), and we have done quite a lot between Japan and the US with our parents -- ask them to send some local Japanese food which we could not get here.

Any food is OK, but NO meat of any kind. There isn't any problem about sending food from Japan to the US - my parents and I have done it lots of times before, sending packages of local Japanese food not available in the US. BUT, if the value of the food sent in a package is over a certain amount of dollars, we have to pay a tax on it when it arrives here.

[Falcon]

Thanks David.

But what I didn't understand is when he said "...we have done quite a lot between Japan and the US". What is "done quite a lot"?

Thanks again.

Falcon

[rewboss]

It's an elliptical phrase, which means that there is some information missing from it; but the reader is expected to be able to understand what the information is from the context.

Inserting the missing information, we get the following:

We have done quite a lot of sending food between Japan and the US.

Elliptical phrases are extremely common: if we repeated every piece of information in every sentence, our letters and conversations would get very long and extremely boring.

[Falcon]

It's an elliptical phrase, which means that there is some information missing from it; but the reader is expected to be able to understand what the information is from the context.

Inserting the missing information, we get the following:

We have done quite a lot of sending food between Japan and the US.

Elliptical phrases are extremely common: if we repeated every piece of information in every sentence, our letters and conversations would get very long and extremely boring.

Now, I've got it!!

Thanks!

Falcon