They were not unacquainted with misfortune, having endured more than their share of adversity.
what is the meaning of the underlined part?
It is perilously easy to decry so villainous a historical figure without trying to understand the motives for his reprehensible.
what is the meaning of the underlined part?
having had to suffer more problems than it seems the average person would face.
It is easy to condemn this historical person because of his wicked behaviour (the addition of ‘perilously’ indicates that it might be wrong – to the point of it being dangerous – to do so).
I changed the position of the article “a” . I there any problem?
Only the second is correct.
It is perilously easy to decry so villainous a historical figure without trying to understand the motives for his reprehensible.
What is “so villainous”? Is it adverb that is modifying decry?
It could be rewritten ‘such a villainous historical figure’.
They were not unacquainted with misfortune, having endured more than their share of adversity.
Means:
They were acquainted with misfortune(They were acquainted with misfortune) by suffering more problems than the average people suffered.
am I correct?
yes, that’s right.
It is perilously easy to decry so villainous a historical figure without trying to understand the motives for his reprehensible.
I still can’t work out the bold part. Could you please explain it little bit more?
I may be missing something that Beeesneees is seeing, but to me that sentence does not look grammatical. Are you sure you haven’t missed a word off the end?
My response was limited to the bold part. I assumed a missing word on the end.
The version at sat.xiaoma.com/SATtiankong/20110308/4071.html reads:
“… understand the motives for his reprehensible actions”.
Dozy,
Yes (they have opposite meanings, of course).
Dozy,
“You have missed a word off/at the end.”
Are both prepositions OK? So do they mean the same?
Yes, they are both possible. “off” would normally mean that the very last word has been omitted. “at” could mean the same, or it could mean another word near the end.
Dozy,
I am awaiting your answer.
You appearr to have received it. Dozy answered yesterday. Also, you might want to know that once again your choice of phrase makes you appear quite demanding.