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Now the new generation so rapidly progresses that it is difficult..."

I am wondering if the bold part is good English.

nima
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    Ok, I was trying to answer this, but I can't quite understand the sentence enough to reform it. What does the word 'stage' here mean? Is this a figurative performing stage (like at a theatre), a stage of growth, or something else? As for the requested grammar, it can read ' is so rapidly progressing that...' or 'so rapidly progresses that...'. Once I have a feeling for stage, I can give you a bit clearer sentence to work from. – Michael Dorgan Jul 20 '15 at 17:06
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    Where did you find this? It has several problems that in combination leave it unintelligible (to me at least.) Can you paraphrase what is is supposed to mean? I am fairly sure the bold part is one of the many errors, but without understanding the overall meaning, I can't be certain. – Adam Jul 20 '15 at 17:07
  • Related (but not duplicated): http://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/39799/a-so-enjoyable-party-or-so-enjoyable-a-party – Adam Jul 20 '15 at 18:37

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Chad's answer is correct: "the new generation progresses so rapidly" is by far the more standard construction. N gram shows no uses of "so rapidly progresses", while "progresses so rapidly" is common. enter image description here https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=progresses+so+rapidly%2C+so+rapidly+progresses&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cprogresses%20so%20rapidly%3B%2Cc0

However, the construction is readily understandable, and "so (adverb) (noun)" is fairly common in poetry or if you wish to give the language an ornate or slightly archaic flavor. See the sixth line of St. Vincent Millay's "I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed". http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/i-being-born-woman-and-distressed-sonnet-xli

I, being born a woman and distressed

By all the needs and notions of my kind,

Am urged by your propinquity to find

Your person fair, and feel a certain zest

To bear your body’s weight upon my breast:

So subtly is the fume of life designed,

To clarify the pulse and cloud the mind,

And leave me once again undone, possessed.

Think not for this, however, the poor treason

Of my stout blood against my staggering brain,

I shall remember you with love, or season

My scorn with pity, —let me make it plain:

I find this frenzy insufficient reason

For conversation when we meet again.

WhatRoughBeast
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It's probably correct, but to me as a native US English speaker it sounds more natural to say

Now the new generation progresses so rapidly that it is difficult...

Chad
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