It was time for supper. There was much food on a long table. There was a big piece of cheese, a plate of vegetables, several plates of cold meat, some fruit, and many other delicious things.
(THE NEW JUNIOR CROWN ENGLISH COURSE 2, p.38)
スレッドのタイトルを全部大文字で表記することは大声で叫んでいるのと同じであるからやめようというルールが成立していると思うので、「THE NEW JUNIOR CROWN ENGLISH COURSE」というスレッドに書き込むのをやめました。内容は、元のスレッドの続きのつもりで書いています。みなさんもどうぞ。
There was a big piece of cheese, a plate of vegetables, several plates of cold meat, some fruit, and many other delicious things.
上の文章をこういうふうに考えたらいかがでしょうか:
There was a big piece of cheese. There was (also) a plate of vegetables. There were (also) several plates of cold meat. There was (also) some fruit. There were many other delicious things.
つまり、いくつかの短い文章を文節にして、ひとつの長い文章にしたわけです。There was a big piece of cheeseの後の部分はそのまま継ぎ合わせられた文節ですから、WereとWasの区別を守るのが面倒(というより、不自然)ですから、最初のWasで済ませているだろうと思います。
もし、上の文節を書き換えるとしたら、こういうふうになります:
There were several plates of cold meat, a big piece of cheese, a plate of vegetables…
Literally it means " What is this?"
However, it probably has a much stronger meaning like “What on earth is this?”
Or a much more comical meaning like…
‘What on earth (is this)?’ is safe.
‘What the hell (is this)?’ is a little rougher.
Young people might say ‘What the fuck?’ but that very much depends on the situation and you can’t say it to your grandmother (as you probably sensed). On the web you’ve probably seen the abbreviation WTF!? That’s what it stands for.
I’ve heard Americans say ‘What they hey?’
Old ladies around here might say ‘What the heck?’ (‘Heck’ is a euphemistic form of ‘hell’, which was widely considered blasphemy a few generations ago.)
There was a big piece of cheese; there was a plate of vegetables; there were several plates of cold meat; there was some fruit; there were many other delicious things.
背景にある発想は、もしセミコロンをつかって全体をワン・センテンスとして表記するならば上記のようなことになるのでしょうか。たしかに、このようにするときわめて冗漫な文章になってしまうので「there was/were 」の部分を省略し、セミコロンをコンマに変え、最後の並列項目の前に「and」を入れるということですね。