By insisting upon his eating nothing else

Status
Not open for further replies.

Mher

Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2014
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
Armenian
Home Country
Armenia
Current Location
Armenia
Dear friends

Could you, please, paraphrase the underlined part. I cant understand how they managed to cure the patient.

"He was a troublesome patient; and we had much ado to keep him within bounds. For a long time he would eat nothing but thistles; but of this idea
we soon cured him by insisting upon his eating nothing else."

The patient was eating only thistles, and the cure was that they insisted that he continued to do so—that is how I read the sentence.
 

teechar

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Feb 18, 2015
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
Iraq
Current Location
Iraq
For a long time he would eat nothing but thistles
I take that to be an exaggeration. In other words, he did eat other food but pretended that he can only eat thistles. Or perhaps he thought he could fool them by eating only thistles for a while.

; but of this idea
we soon cured him by insisting upon his eating nothing else."
... they insisted that he continued to do so
That's right. They decided to give him only thistles, and he eventually relented and started eating other food again.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top