The trail soon saw British officers working

[JACEK1]

Hello all users!

The trail soon saw British officers working alongside the Australian Federal Police and US Immigration and customs officials to track down other perpetrators and begin to unravel the network.

Does "The trail soon saw British officers working" mean "As a result of gathering pieces of information/based on gathered pieces of information, British officers were soon working"?

Thank you.

 

[SlickVic9000]

(Not a Teacher)

Not sure if it's a physical trail or a "trail of evidence" they're talking about. They way the author is using 'trail' doesn't seem quite right. Can you give any further context for this sentence?

 

[Rover_KE]

I have removed the four question marks from the end of your title, JACEK. It's not even a question.

 

[Tdol]

Not sure if it's a physical trail or a "trail of evidence" they're talking about. They way the author is using 'trail' doesn't seem quite right. Can you give any further context for this sentence?

It's an online trail- they were tracking down paedophiles: Learning English - Words in the News - Philippines online child abuse arrests
I agree with SlickVic that it's a odd usage- I would say that the investigation soon saw British officers..., and I think that trail here is used in a similar way. so I think your interpretation is fine.

 

[JACEK1]

Taking into account your comments, I daresay that "The trail soon saw British officers working" could be expressed as "Based on/on the basis of the investigation, British officers were soon working".

 

[emsr2d2]

"Based on the basis of the investigation" is not natural English.

 

[JACEK1]

It is 'Based on/on the basis of the investigation'.

 

[emsr2d2]

It is 'Based on/on the basis of the investigation'.

I can only assume that you mean that it is either:

- Based on the investigation
or
- On the basis of the investigation

If that is what you meant, you should have capitalised the second "on" in your post to make it clear that it was an alternative beginning of a sentence.