Johnyxxx
Senior Member
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2014
- Member Type
- Interested in Language
- Native Language
- Czech
- Home Country
- Czech Republic
- Current Location
- Czech Republic
Hello.
Can anybody tell me if I "I took up birds in the first instance" means "I took an interest in birds from the beginning?"
He had scarcely begun before he stopped. "I'm boring you," he said deprecatingly. "There's nothing much in the story. . . . You see, it all happened, so to speak, inside my head. . . . I don't want to seem an egotist. . . ."
"Don't be an ass, Tony," said Lamancha. "Every adventure takes place chiefly inside the head of somebody. Go on. We're all attention."
"It happened a good many years ago," Hurrell continued, "when I was quite a young man. I wasn't the cold scientist then that I fancy I am to-day. I took up birds in the first instance chiefly because they fired what imagination I possess. They fascinated me, for they seemed of all created things the nearest to pure spirit--those little beings with a normal temperature of 125º. Think of it. The goldcrest, with a stomach no bigger than a bean, flies across the North Sea! The curlew sandpiper, which breeds so far north that only about three people have ever seen its nest, goes to Tasmania for its holidays!
Jihn Bucha, Skule Skerry, 1928.
Thanks a lot.
Can anybody tell me if I "I took up birds in the first instance" means "I took an interest in birds from the beginning?"
He had scarcely begun before he stopped. "I'm boring you," he said deprecatingly. "There's nothing much in the story. . . . You see, it all happened, so to speak, inside my head. . . . I don't want to seem an egotist. . . ."
"Don't be an ass, Tony," said Lamancha. "Every adventure takes place chiefly inside the head of somebody. Go on. We're all attention."
"It happened a good many years ago," Hurrell continued, "when I was quite a young man. I wasn't the cold scientist then that I fancy I am to-day. I took up birds in the first instance chiefly because they fired what imagination I possess. They fascinated me, for they seemed of all created things the nearest to pure spirit--those little beings with a normal temperature of 125º. Think of it. The goldcrest, with a stomach no bigger than a bean, flies across the North Sea! The curlew sandpiper, which breeds so far north that only about three people have ever seen its nest, goes to Tasmania for its holidays!
Jihn Bucha, Skule Skerry, 1928.
Thanks a lot.
