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Former President Jimmy Carter will visit Venezuela next week to mediate
talks between the government and its opposition, which have been locked
in a power struggle since a failed coup.
"Former President" - not "The former President", so I guess we say "President
Carter" and not "The President Carter", even though we say "The President
will do something" when we don't mention his name.
"to mediate talks" - not "to mediate in the talks" or something like
that. I wonder if that would be OK, too...
"power struggle" - I think I've seen this phrase before.
"since a failed coup" - so I can say "He's been paralyzed since an accident"
(preposition use), not only "He's been paralyzed since an accident happened"
(conjunction use).
"since a failed coup" - not "since the failed coup". The author does
not assume we know about the coup.
"coup" - hey, I know this is pronounced [ku:]!
Jennifer McCoy, of the Atlanta-based Carter Center, told reporters
Saturday that Carter may be able to help break the political deadlock when
he visits beginning July 6.
"Jennifer McCoy of the Carter Center" - not "Jennifer McCoy from the
Carter Center" (in Polish I would say from). So we'd say "John Brown of
IBM", for example.
"Atlanta-based" - another way of saying "based in Atlanta". Guess I could
say I'm a "Wroclaw-based webmaster".
"told reporters Saturday" not "on Saturday" - seems we can skip the "on"
sometimes. "I met her Friday" would probably work as well as "I met her
on Friday".
"told that Carter may be able" - not "told that Carter might be able"
- lack of reported (indirect) speech. And my English teacher taught me to
say things like "She said she might stay" (not "She said she may stay").
"to help break the deadlock" - It looks like help can be used without
an object (it does not say "to help Venezuelans break the deadlock"), and
without to (it does not say "help to break the deadlock"). This is different
from some other verbs like force (we cannot say "The President will force
break the deadlock", we must say "The President will force Venezuelans to
break the deadlock.").
"when he visits" - not "when he will visit", even though it will be in
the future. I don't think I have ever seen will used in such a sentence.
"to visit beginning July 6" - interesting structure - I would say "to
visit on July 6", but here beginning replaces on. This may be the first
time that I've seen this phrase. It may be some sort of news jargon.
http://antimoon.com/how/readhow
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