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Likewise, President Joe Biden’s administration should aim to target NASA’s efforts at the things only it can bring about and for which there is not already a market: high-risk scientific research.

This sentence is from here.

My questions:

  1. What does "it" stand for?
  2. What "which" refers to?
  3. How can I break it up to several short sentences?
  4. Are there any tools to help me understand complex sentences?

Thanks!

Kevin
  • 111

1 Answers1

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Likewise, President Joe Biden’s administration should aim to target NASA’s efforts at the things [which] only it [NASA] can bring about and for which [things] there is not already a market: high-risk scientific research.

  1. So President Joe Biden’s administration should use NASA for those things only NASA can do.
  2. There are two relatives modifying things: only it can bring about is a bare relative clause (in which the relative pronoun has been omitted). This bare relative modifies things and is connected with the second relative (for which there is not already a market) by and. This implies that the second relative modifies the same noun and that the referent of the pronoun which is things.
  3. Breaking it in shorter sentences can make it clearer but repetitive:

Likewise, President Joe Biden’s administration should aim to target NASA’s efforts at high-risk scientific research. Only NASA can bring about such things/ research. There is not already a market for high-risk scientific research.

I would have said not yet instead of not already though.

  1. Modern Grammars often analyse the structure of sentences. You this particular question should be asked on ELU Meta.
fev
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  • Thank you! Another question, how do I know "it" refers to "NASA"? It seems not obvious to me. – Kevin Sep 19 '22 at 10:10
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    Common sense and context. President Joe Biden’s administration doesn't do high-risk scientific research. NASA does. Plus, the focus of the sentence is on NASA. – fev Sep 19 '22 at 10:12