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1 As we rowed up to the front of her house, we saw through the window that the water level inside the house was the same as outside. Lizzie asked Brady to take us around to the back of the house, which had huge windows, so we could get a better view of the inside. 1 As we turned the corner, we looked into her living room, filled with floating furniture, and sitting on the couch was none other than Rocky! At first, he didn’t know what to make of us and just sat there staring at us, but as soon as he heard Lizzie scream his name, he started wagging his tail, 2 dove off the couch and started swimming around the flooded room. Lizzie jumped out of the boat and waded to a nearby window. The water came up to her waist. 1 As Rocky was swimming towards her, she picked up a rock and hurled it at another window about four feet away and shattered it. Brady, in the meantime, grabbed a crowbar from his boat and made short work of demolishing the window and basically ripping a hole in the side of Lizzie’s house. Rocky swam to the hole and paddled out into Lizzie’s arms. He howled and screamed for a good five minutes. Brady and I both had tears running down our cheeks. It was very touching to say the least. But the most fascinating thing was what we found inside the house. Now Rocky 3 was not a big dog. He was just a medium-sized beagle. But he 4 had somehow managed to schlep a big bag of dog food from the kitchen onto the couch and 4 had eaten just enough every day to keep himself alive.
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1 As we rowed | As we turned | As Rocky was swimming | In this passage, we have plenty of examples of using as to describe one action bleeding into another. You might wonder why I didn't use while. Well, while is used for actions that take place at the same time. For instance, I could say: While we rowed through the dirty water, we called out Rocky's name in case he was in earshot. Here, the rowing and the calling are happening at the same time. However, in the examples with as, it's like a transition from one action or situation to another — as if the camera were slowly panning from one thing to the other. Also note that unstressed as is usually pronounced [ɛz] in normal to rapid speech, so listen carefully and don't miss it.2 dove | The past form dove is considered American, whereas dived is British. | This verb has two meanings: (1) to jump into something head first and arms forward, or (2) to put on a scuba tank and swim under water. In this case, Rocky jumped off the couch head first, arms forward.___________________
3 was not | Here, I didn’t use the contraction wasn’t because I wanted to be somewhat emphatic. When we separate not like this and stress it, it gives the statement a nuance of «let me be very clear». You may also hear people say by no means: “Now Rocky was by no means a big dog.” This is why, when we don't use contraction, things may see more emphatic than you mean them to be.4 had managed | had eaten | Here, I use the past perfect because Rocky had done these things before we showed up. When you tell a story in the past tense, everything in the story that happened before that time in the past leading up to the time frame of your story, is expressed in the past perfect.
a good Sometimes the word good is used in front of numbers in making approximations with the nuance «I don’t want to exaggerate, but yes, it's this much or damn near close to it».
to schlepThis is kind of a humorous, lighthearted word for dragging or carrying something heavy somewhere. "There were no taxis at the train station, so I've been schlepping this suitcase for the past fifteen minutes. Is there a hotel nearby?"
to not know what to make of He was looking at us, but had no idea who we were, what we were. We also use this expression when we hear or read something, but don’t know how to interpret it: "Annie just sent me a text saying, ‘Thank you for your birthday gift. I’ve always considered you a friend — now I know better.’...I have no idea what to make of it."
to hurl To throw something with a lot of force. Figuratively, you can also hurl insults at something by saying a lot of extremely brutal things to them.
to make short work of [something] Did something really quickly and expediently — especially destroying or consuming something."I thought this birthday cake was going to be too big, but the kids made short work of it. Now I think it might've been too small!"
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