Question

Read the passage from Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography. In the Yellowstone the animals seem always to behave as one wishes them to! It is always possible to see the sheep and deer and antelope, and also the great herds of elk, which are shyer than the smaller beasts. In April we found the elk weak after the short commons and hard living of winter. What is the closest meaning of the underlined phrase as it used in the excerpt?

Answer 1

Answer:    Trials and tribulations

Explanation:  This is an example of repeating a word differently spoken for emphasis. It can also be pronounced differently as troubles and afflictions. In this nineteenth-century cliché, trial is actually a trouble, which is actually the same outcome when it comes to tribulation, so this phrase, that is, to say the word tribulation in a phrase, is actually superfluous. The phrase is still used today, though in a light form unlike in the nineteenth century, when the phrase was used for some great trouble according to the original meaning of the word tribulation. Today it can be used for, for example, the phrase, trial and tribulation of marriage.

In the context of this question, there is a reference to Theodore Roosevelt's description of Yellowstone's park, and Roosevelt was a great lover of nature and books, and often loved to stay in nature. He was also known for his concern for animals in national parks such as Yellowstone, as well as his concern for predator control, and later for completing predator control to ensure a natural ecosystem cycle and natural balance. Anyway, Roosevelt perceived nature and Yellowstone as a source of knowledge of national history and wanted to allow natural cycles to take place in the natural course. He expressed his concern for nature through linguistic phrases, such as the mentioned one, emphasising the seriousness of his concern for it.