Explain the following sentences in your own words, bringing out any implied meanings.

1. Fads, I submit, are the very negation of reason.

Answer: I believe following passing crazes show a complete lack of sound judgment.

2. One afternoon I found Petey lying on his bed with an expression of such distress on his face that I immediately diagnosed appendicitis.

Answer: One afternoon, when I went back to my dorm, Petey was lying on his bed. He wore such a depressed look that I came to the conclusion at once that he was suffering from appendicitis.

3. My brain, that precision instrument, slipped into high gear.

Answer: My brain, which is as precise as a chemists scales, began to work at high speed.

4. She was, to be sure, a girl who excited the emotions, but I was not one to let my heart rule my head. I wanted Polly for a shrewdly calculated, entirely cerebral reason.

Answer: She was beautiful and attractive enough to arouse the desires and passions of men, but I would not let feelings or emotions get the upper hand of reason or good sense.

5. She was not yet of pin-up proportions, but I felt sure that time would supply the lack.

Answer: She was not yet fully developed like pin-up girls but I felt sure that, given time, she would fill up and become just as glamorous.

6. In fact, she veered in the opposite direction.

Answer: In fact, she went in the opposite direction. This is a sarcastic way of saying that she was rather stupid.

7. If you were out of the picture, the field would be open.

Answer: If you’re no longer involved with her (if you stop dating her) others would be free to compete for her friendship.

8. Back and forth his head swiveled, desire waxing, resolution waning.

Answer: His head turned back and forth (looking at the coat then looking away from the coat). Every time he looked, his desire for the coat grew stronger and his resolution not to give away Polly became weaker.