[General] Interpretation of a sentence – Thanks guys.

[richuk]

Hey everyone, I posted a similar question last night but I’m sorry I didn’t word it very well (too confusing). Would anyone be kind enough to offer me their opinions now I have reworded my question please? Thank you very much .

‘What did you think of the Easter meal?
It was not as nice as the Christmas meals but we ate a lot more.’

The above sentence compares a single Easter meal to multiple Christmas meals. I initially assumed the ‘we ate a lot more’ applies to the Easter meal rather than the Christmas meals for the correct contrasting/contradicting clauses either side of the word ‘but’. However how can this be correct since more would be eaten in total at Christmas since there were more meals eaten (single Easter meal compared to multiple Christmas Meals)?

Is it because the single Easter meal is compared to any of the single Christmas meals rather than all of the Christmas meals combined? In this case it would be perfectly possible for more to be eaten at the single Easter meal. Does anyone agree?

How would you interpret the answer? Thanks guys :up:, my apologies for the repeat question.

 

[MASM]

I know what you mean now.

The sentence could just be generalizing any of the Christmas meals, because they were all before Easter. Obviously, they couldn't have eaten more in one meal than in the Christmas ones altogether (well, unless they were a lot more people :-D).
For me, it's still the same interpretation.
I don't know if that helps

 

[kfredson]

I know what you mean now.

The sentence could just be generalizing any of the Christmas meals, because they were all before Easter. Obviously, they couldn't have eaten more in one meal than in the Christmas ones altogether (well, unless they were a lot more people :-D).
For me, it's still the same interpretation.
I don't know if that helps

I agree. In fact, these sentences make it even clearer than the earlier ones. There were a bunch of different meals we experienced over the Christmas period. But at the Easter meal we ate more than in any [certainly not all] of those Christmas meals. I see no ambiguity.

 

[richuk]

I agree. In fact, these sentences make it even clearer than the earlier ones. There were a bunch of different meals we experienced over the Christmas period. But at the Easter meal we ate more than in any [certainly not all] of those Christmas meals. I see no ambiguity.

Hey thanks for your help guys . Would you say the same principal would apply to the original sentence (as this is the one I really need to try and interpret):

'What do you think of the Physics lesson?
It was not as fun as the Biology lessons but we learnt a lot more!'

Would you agree it means: ‘We had a bunch of Biology lessons that were more fun than the Physics lesson. But in the Physics lesson we learnt more than in any [certainly not all] of the individual Biology lessons’
Thank you very much

 

[MASM]

Yes, I would agree