でしょう / 話した内容 / のに / 純子さんの友達 / 上手にをした

Hiya,


1. この昇進は、あなたの熱心で質の高い仕事ぶりを反映し たものでしょう。

Translation given: "This promotion properly reflects the quality and diligence of your work."

What is the reason for using でしょう in this case? How would the meaning/nuance change if です were used instead?


2. ジョンソンさんは日本の大学で勉強している留学生です 。日本語の授業で「日本語と文化」というテーマで発表することになりました。

...

ジョンソンさんは、さらに、話した内容をレポートにまとめるように先生に言われました。

My translation: "Mr Johnson is an exchange student studying at a Japanese university. At his Japanese language class he has been asked to make a presentation on the theme 'Japanese language and culture' ... Furthermore, Mr Johnson has been asked by his teacher to collect his remarks into a [written] report."

Does 話した内容 refer to the contents of the presentation? Is Johnson being asked to do two things: firstly make an oral presentation, and secondly produce a written report based on the presentation?


3. 海の深い所にも生物がいるのに人々は驚いた。

My translation: "People were surprised that there are creatures living even at the bottom of the ocean."

I assume in this case that の nominalises 生物がいる, and に marks the target of 驚いた. Is that right?

Assuming it is, how do we tell here that のに does not mean "although"? Is it purely because "although" would not make much sense, or is there some grammatical reason why it is not possible?


4. 純子さんの友達は、男の人はどうして彼女がいないと思 いましたか。

To me this looks like: "Junko's friends, why did the man think she was not there?" I don't understand the connection between the two parts of the sentence.


5. 調教師とイルカはお互いに私たちが予想したよりはるか にコミュニケーションを上手にをした。

Translation given: "The dolphin and trainer communicated much better than we expected."

Is there some typo at the end in ～を上手にをした?

1)
"Guess". The speaker is not the person who decided to promote him/her.

2)
That's right.

3)
Yes, your interpretation is correct.

There's no difference in grammatical structure.
海の深い所にも生物がいるのに、人々は海底を開発して破壊し ようとしている。

4)
The main topic 純子さんの友達 covers the whole sentence, i.e., the friend is the subject of 思いましたか. You can think the sub topic 男の人は as 男の人には. (彼女 means "girlfriend" in this case.)

5)
Yes, it should be 上手にした.

I don't mean to semi-hijack your thread, eeky, dear fellow, but I would like to ask where you get all these example sentences you work with. Are they from some sort of compilation that chose them to present certain grammar points? Are they typically in isolation? If not, about how much surrounding context do they supply?

You probably do more reading of Japanese.....at least reading isolated sentences....than any learner I have ever encountered. That sort of set me to wondering if you ever do any reading of Japanese text just for the heck of it or because you are interested in the information it contains. Reading Japanese for the same reasons and in the same way you read English, I mean. If not, it seems to me you've progressed to the point where you are capable of tackling it and would likely get a lot out of it. It's a very satisfying feeling to be able to just read a normal book in Japanese without stopping to look anything up (if you can read 80% of it, you can gloss over the rest) and it is a very good way to pick up new vocabulary, kanji, idioms, expressions, etc at the same time. If you feel up to giving it a try I'd be willing to go to the used bookstore and grab you a bubblegum-for-the-eyes type detective novel and mail it to you. All I ask in return is that you pledge to to your best to look up nothing whatsoever while reading it.

Thanks Toritoribe. So, does #4 mean "Did Junko's friend think 'Why does the man not have a girlfriend?' "? Somehow I am still not sure if I have grasped this properly.

Mike, some of the sentences I ask about are from tatoeba.org and are isolated. I try to read a few of these at random each day, mostly to try to expand my vocab, which is poor. However, most of the sentences are from textbooks and are typically from mini-stories, essays, dialogues, and sometimes excerpts from books, newspapers and magazines, etc., or whatever material the textbook decides to use. Also some are from textbook exercises that explain particular grammar or structure points. Often there is lots of context: I might read half a page of a story before I hit a problem sentence. However, to save time and space here I only mention context points that I think are necessary to inform the meaning. Thanks for your book offer; I have several "proper" Japanese books, and of course plenty of "proper" Japanese available via the Internet. I hope to progress to those things in due course, but for now they are still a bit too hard for me.

The sentence is asking Junko's friend's thought/opinion about the reason why the man doesn't have a girlfriend.

Toritoribe said:

The sentence is asking Junko's friend's thought/opinion about the reason why the man doesn't have a girlfriend.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I have deleted the follow-up question that I originally asked here. I see it now.