[General] "Up to the age of 30 or beyond it", What does it mean?

[pinbong]

Hi, Dear teachers and all:

Here I bring you another confusing sentence from our glorious national entrance examination for graduate school. To me it sounds like a brain twister. I admit I'm stupid, but I'm amused too.

Have asked this question elsewhere but I guess best thing to do is to ask from professional ESL teachers.

"Up to the age of 30 or beyond it, poetry of many kinds had given him great pleasure......But in his later years he could not stand to read one line of peotry."

I'm a bit confused with the "up to the age of 30 or beyond it" here. As the essay said, the man could not stand reading poetry in his later years. He enjoyed reading it "up to the age of 30". But how about " or beyond it"?? What does it mean? does it mean "a bit over 30" or "a bit younger than 30"?? If so, it's paradoxical, isn't ?

Would love to know the answer. Thanks

 

[billmcd]

Hi, Dear teachers and all:

Here I bring you another confusing sentence from our glorious national entrance examination for graduate school. To me it sounds like a brain twister. I admit I'm stupid, but I'm amused too.

Have asked this question elsewhere but I guess best thing to do is to ask from professional ESL teachers.


I'm a bit confused with the "up to the age of 30 or beyond it" here. As the essay said, the man could not stand reading poetry in his later years. He enjoyed reading it "up to the age of 30". But how about " or beyond it"?? What does it mean? does it mean "a bit over 30" or "a bit younger than 30"?? If so, it's paradoxical, isn't ?

Would love to know the answer. Thanks

"Up to the age of 30 or beyond it, poetry of many kinds had given him great pleasure......But in his later years he could not stand to read one line of poetry."
Certainly, the statements, taken in context and literally are confusing and if not, conflicting. First, my inference from the first clause suggests his entire life, "up to 30 or beyond". So, what is the significance of age "30"? Second, what is meant by "later years"? Does it mean over 30? If so, the conflict is that in the first statement he enjoys poetry (before and after age 30) and in the second statement he "couldn't stand" poetry "in his later years".

 

[bhaisahab]

"Until his early 30s, poetry of many kinds had given him great pleasure; But in his later years, he could not stand to read one line of it."
This makes much more sense.

 

[2006]

Hi, Dear teachers and all:
Up to the age of 30 or beyond it, poetry of many kinds had given him great pleasure......But in his later years he could not stand to read one line of peotry."


I'm a bit confused with the "up to the age of 30 or beyond it" here. As the essay said, the man could not stand reading poetry in his later years. He enjoyed reading it "up to the age of 30". But how about " or beyond it"?? What does it mean? does it mean "a bit over 30" yes or "a bit younger than 30" no ?? If so, it's paradoxical, isn't ? no
Would love to know the answer. Thanks

The first question is, do we know at what age he died? If he lived at least 'into his mid 40s', I don't think there is a problem. If he lived to an old age, even better.


To me "Up to the age of 30 or beyond it" means 'at least' up to age 30 and possibly for some years past the age of 30. The writer obviously doesn't know when exactly he stopped enjoying poetry. (also it likely happened gradually)


Regardless, by the time he reached his later years, (late 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s ,80s; whatever age that was), he had reached the point of hating poetry.


The second question is, what English question did you have to answer concerning that sentence?

 

[2006]

pinbong

So what do you think? Does that sentence make sense to you now or not?

 

[5jj]

it's paradoxical, isn't ?

It is rather pointless without something like, "or even a little beyond" in front of '30'

 

[Tdol]

It's poorly phrased, but it's just hedging to me- the person thinks he changed around thirty, but it could be a bit later- thirty or maybe a few years later. It's a paraphrase of something from Charles Darwin's autobiography:

Up to the age of 30 or beyond it, poetry of many kinds…gave me great pleasure, and even as a schoolboy I took intense delight in Shakespeare…. Formerly pictures gave me considerable, and music very great, delight. But now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry: I have tried to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. I have also almost lost any taste for pictures or music… I retain some taste for fine scenery, but it does not cause me the exquisite delight which it formerly did… My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts, but why this should have caused the atrophy of that part of the brain alone, on which the higher tastes depend, I cannot conceive… The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature.

Learn from Darwin - Desiring God

There are other forms there that we probably wouldn't use today (But now for many years I cannot endure) so it might be a dated usage.