divide families, break up families

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joham

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--University education does divide families in a way.
--I can't go along with that.

This dialogue is taken from the Collins Cobuild Usage. The Chinese translation of the first sentence is something like 'University education does break up families in a way', just like husband and wife get divorced, or brothers and sisters become separate in a war. I doubt if the translation is correct. I would think this sentence means ''University education does make families different from others in opinions about things" or "'University education does make family members different from others in opinions about things". Am I right?

Thank you in advance.
 

Rover_KE

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I would say your second interpretation is correct.

Rover
 

Raymott

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--University education does divide families in a way.
--I can't go along with that.

This dialogue is taken from the Collins Cobuild Usage. The Chinese translation of the first sentence is something like 'University education does break up families in a way', just like husband and wife get divorced, or brothers and sisters become separate in a war. I doubt if the translation is correct. I would think this sentence means ''University education does make families different from others in opinions about things" or "'University education does make family members different from others in opinions about things". Am I right?

Thank you in advance.
Yes, and if university education divides family members into groups who think differently, this tends to break up families.
I don't see a big jump between your (second) interpretation and the Chinese translation.
 
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