the closest of links?

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yamyam

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Hello, teachers.

Would you read the followiing?

Latin became an international language throughout the Roman Empire, but this was not because the Romans were more numerous than the people they conqurered. They were simply more powerful. Later, when Roman military power declined, Latin remained for a millennium as the international language of education, thanks to a different sort of power --- the religious power of Roman Catholicism.

There is also the closest of links between language dominance and economic, technological, and cultural power. Without a strong power-base, of whatever kind, no language can make progress as an international medium of communication. Language ...

Q: I don't clearly understand the structure of "There is also the closest of links". :-(
Is there anything hiding between "the closest" and "of links"? If not, would you explain it to me?

Thank you very much in advance for your help on this.

yam.
 
J

J&K Tutoring

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the closest of links is a poor choice of phrase here, for what is "the closest of links" but a direct link, so the writer should have used that simpler, more easily understood phrase if that's what he/she meant, or perhaps the writer could have stated that There is a close link between... if he/she wanted to be more general.

the closest of links is commonly used with the word not to express the opposite- that things are not closely linked.

A and B are directly linked in the English alphabet. D and L have not the closest of links.
 

yamyam

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Thank you very much for the instruction, Mr. J&K Tutoring.
Your explanation is quite clear and understandable to me.
Now I got it.

Thanks,

yam
 

bhaisahab

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Thank you very much for the instruction, Mr. J&K Tutoring.
Your explanation is quite clear and understandable to me.
Now I got it.

Thanks,

yam
"Now I have it" or "Now I've got it" or, even better, "I understand now". "Now I got it" is ungrammatical.
 

yamyam

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Oh, I didn't notice it!
Thank you very much for correcting the mistake.
Now "I've got" it!!

Thanks again,

yam
 
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