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mechanism of action and resistance biomarkers
know your orange
Oct 27, 2014 19:14
9 yrs ago
2 viewers *
English term

the arrival of an airport

Homework / test English Other Tourism & Travel
The following is an excerpt from an English proofreading test about tourist resorts in Greece:

"Kamari there has several new and modern hotels which provide luxurious accommodation, but you may be equally happy renting an inexpensive room near the seaside, where the facilities are basic but comfortable.
Perissa beach is also a wonderful place in the south of the island. It is a fine stretch of coastline—it's famous black sand made up of tiny particles of sand and stone. Perissa has blue sea, black sand, and blue skies—a formula that attracts thousands of visitors every year.
However, some will lament the arrival of an airport large enough to handle big jets from all over the Continent."

My guess is that the last sentence deals with the discomfort of hearing noise from a nearby airport. Is there anything wrong with the phrase "the arrival of an airport"? Should it read "the arrivals of an airport" or "the arrivals to an airport"? It is a proofreading, and not an editing test.
Responses
4 +1 the fact that an airport has been constructed
5 +5 the future construction of an airport
3 +3 probably all right

Discussion

Tony M Oct 28, 2014:
@ Václav I don't for a moment doubt all you say; but the fact remains that, linguistically, it just wouldn't mean that — unless, of course, Asker's text has much more serious flaws than are at first apparent ;-)
Václav Pinkava Oct 28, 2014:
@ Tony I was assuming that the text is a (hard-nosed) marketing of the resort, a translation. The lamenting (of noise) in such a text is counterproductive, and probably a mistranslation. Given that the very close airport to Kamari is Santorini (Thira), which has limited capacity but already makes enough noise, presumably, and has been there since the 1970s, the reference to the prospect (would-be arrival) of a larger airport is business wishful-thinking, rather than forty years of wailing about an airport which has already arrived, or fear of one which might expand (pie in the sky, given Greece's economics). Pure inference, and supposition, of course.
Tony M Oct 28, 2014:
@ Václav Unlikely, I feel: when combined with 'arrival', neither 'lament' or 'rue' would tend to mean 'regret the absence of the arrival'. One might say "Everyone lamented his early demise" — but it doesn't mean they WANTED him to die young!

For it to mean what you suggest, it would need to have been worded something more like "Lament the lack of a larger airport".
Václav Pinkava Oct 28, 2014:
lament here might be meant as in "to rue", and the regret may well be that there isn't a big airport near enough, yet. It is a text praising modern hotels etc, after all.
Trudy Peters Oct 28, 2014:
@Vladisslav What is NOT correct is "it's famous black sand..." Should read "its famous black sand... :)
DLyons Oct 27, 2014:
That's a second question.
Vladislav. (asker) Oct 27, 2014:
Thank you for clarification. Now I see that "arrival" is used in the sense of "construction."
I suppose that the use of "there" in the phrase "Kamari there has several new and modern hotels" in the first sentence is also correct.

Responses

+1
1 day 2 hrs
Selected

the fact that an airport has been constructed

It's already there: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santorini_(Thira)_National_Airp... and apparently handles Boeing 757, Boeing 737, Airbus 320 series, Avro RJ, Fokker 70, and ATR 72 planes, which all sounds rather noisy to me, especially the first three.
Peer comment(s):
agree Tony M
8 hrs
Thanks Tony
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
+5
3 mins

the future construction of an airport

This means that there are plans to build a larger airport, which will cause the cited lamentations. Nothing to do with actual flight arrivals.
Peer comment(s):
agree Jack Doughty
17 mins
agree Armorel Young
2 hrs
agree Trudy Peters
4 hrs
agree Arabic & More
7 hrs
neutral Václav Pinkava : see discussion
11 hrs
agree dhsanjeev : Text is correct. Its about the upcoming airport in that area.
3 days 6 hrs
Something went wrong...
+3
8 mins

probably all right

If you are actually doing "proofreading" then you have text to compare this to and it is either right or wrong. However, I suspect you are really doing an editing job even though you say otherwise.

There may be better ways of putting this, but I can see a native speaker writing it.

Peer comment(s):
agree Helena Chavarria : Reading between the lines, maybe the person who wrote the text was playing on words: 'the arrival of an airport', when it's more common to use 'arrival' when referring to planes and passengers, not the actual building!
4 mins
Thanks Helena. Yes, it could well be that.
agree Tony M : Yes, I think it might be more elegant to say 'the advent of...', since something as motionless as an airport can hardly 'arrive' anywhere. / LOL! Me too!
22 mins
Thanks Tony. I have a sttong preference for runways that stay where they are.
agree B D Finch : Yes, the text is OK as is.
1 day 2 hrs
Thanks Barbara.
Something went wrong...
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