The usage of "how"

Dear native English speakers,

I have another question. The following passage is from a college entrance examination.
I'm not sure about the usage of "how" in the second sentence. Can it be replaced with "that"?

The rain forests are important not only for the animals, plants, and
people living there. A great benefit of the rain forests is *how* the
trees in rain forests turn carbon dioxide into clean air. The trees
store carbon dioxide in their roots, stems, branches, and leaves.
This helps to reduce pollution in the atmosphere and also limits the
Greenhouse effect, which raises the Earth's temperature. The
Greenhouse effect could cause the ice caps in the North and South
Poles to melt, raising the level of the ocean.

Hirashin

I'm no expert so wait for more replys.

My first substitution for "how" would be "the process by which" then maybe use "the way" but also "that" would work. Wait for someone who is better at grammar rules then me though.

Uncle Frank

I am so sorry, I am not a native speaker, but ... I'd add "a way" to Your sentence, and I'd remove "the" from trees like :

A great benefit of the rain forests is a way *how* trees in rain forests turn carbon dioxide into clean air.

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BTW, of course, it is not my problem, but ... why do You think that "trees store carbon dioxide in their roots, stems,..." and how that could reduce pollution in atmosphere?

Thank you for your help, Uncle Frank.ﾂ I'll wait for more 窶壺?册plies.
---------- Post added at 15:46 ---------- Previous post was at 15:43 ----------
Hello, ewww. Where are you from?
>why do You think that "trees store carbon dioxide in their roots, stems,..." and how that could reduce pollution in atmosphere?
As I wrote in the first message, it's from a college entrance examination. It's not me that wrote it. It seems that the author regards carbon dioxide as pollution.ﾂ
Hirashin

I think our English teachers are asleep on this one , LOL.

Hopefully you will get a few more replys.

Uncle Frank

:?

hirashin said:

Hello, ewww. Where are you from?

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I am from usa, but originally I am russian.

hirashin said:

As I wrote in the first message, it's from a college entrance examination. It's not me that wrote it. It seems that the author regards carbon dioxide as pollution.

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I am so sorry, I did not understand that it is and original quote from college entrance exam. I thought that You wrote it.
BTW, I do not like to start discussion about that citation, just want to notice that education level in Japan is not better than in USA

それはいいみちです Good luck!

Hi Hirashin,
In your sentence, you can replace "how" with "that" and it will certainly still make sense. I actually think it would make more sense this that way! However, the meaning will change a little.
The word "how" is used to describe a process.
Think about a conversation between two people about rain forest trees. Imagine it like this:
Clark: A great benefit of the rain forests is that the trees in rain forests turn carbon dioxide into clean air.
Hirashin: How? (Really what you are asking is how the trees turn carbon dioxide into clean air.)
Clark: The trees store carbon dioxide in their roots, stems, branches, and leaves. This helps to reduce pollution...
In my first sentence, what I'm saying is that the benefit is simply the clean air that is produced.
Now let's look back at the original quote:

hirashin said:

A great benefit of the rain forests is *how* the trees in rain forests turn carbon dioxide into clean air. The trees
store carbon dioxide in their roots, stems, branches, and leaves. This helps to reduce pollution in the atmosphere and also limits the Greenhouse effect, which raises the Earth's temperature.

Click to expand...

What this quote is saying is that the specifically how the clear air is produced is what is beneficial. Not simply the the fact that clean air is produced is beneficial.
This is why I actually think the word that makes more sense. Does it really matter how clean air is produced? Simply the fact that clear air is produced is pretty much always beneficial!

Hello, Clark. Thank you very much for your help.

Your explanation makes sense to me.

I hear "how" is sometimes used instead of "that". For example
"I hate how he always leaves the toilet seat up."

Do you ever hear or say this type of "how"?

Hirashin

Hi Hirashin,

It's my pleasure to help.

hirashin said:

I hear "how" is sometimes used instead of "that". For example
"I hate how he always leaves the toilet seat up."

Do you ever hear or say this type of "how"?

Click to expand...

Yes, absolutely. This is another good example of the word "how" being used instead of "that". Actually, in everyday conversations, people will use "how" like this all the time. It is almost as if "how" has developed this additional meaning/usage. It you want to be very technical or precise, I think it is an incorrect usage, but you will find it used like this everywhere, even on college entrance exams! People just don't think too much about the possible difference in meaning. It can be very subtle, and most of the times it doesn't even matter.

Sometimes it can be difficult to tell what the speaker means. Consider these examples, where a girl is talking to her friends:

1. I like that my boyfriend gives me massages. (The meaning of this sentence is clear and simple.)
2. I like how my boyfriend gives me massages. (The meaning may be interpreted different ways. Most likely, she means the same thing as sentence 1.)
3. I like how my boyfriend gives me massages. (This is the same as sentence 2, but maybe the sentence has a different meaning to her. Maybe she likes the specific technique that her boyfriend uses when he gives her a massage. She doesn't just like that he gives her a massage, she likes his specific technique. Most likely though, if you hear this sentence, it has the same meaning as sentence 1. This is just a new usage/meaning of the word how. That's just how people use the word commonly.)

It's strange, but in fact I think people would rarely say, "I like that my boyfriend gives me massages." It just sounds a little strange and less natural now, even though technically it has the most simple and correct meaning. Instead, people would almost always say, "I like how my boyfriend gives me massages." Then it's up to you to figure out if they mean it like sentence 2 or sentence 3 (almost always it's meant like sentence 2).

In most cases, it's easy to determine the meaning. Like, "I hate how he always leaves the toilet seat up." This will always mean, "I hate that he always leaves the toilet seat up." She doesn't actually care how he did it. Did he use his left hand or his right hand? Haha. She just cares that the toilet seat is up. In other cases, there might be a subtle difference in meaning (like my massages example).

Clark

Thank you very much for your detailed explanation.

You are a great teacher of English. I'm glad you are here.

Hirashin