<PRE><B>Question 1208389</B>
&lt;pre&gt;
Ikleyn and I both interpreted the 9 cm the same way, as the depth of the water
in the bowl.  However, I interpreted the 42 cm as the diameter of the bowl and
Ikleyn interpreted the 42 cm as the diameter of the surface of the water, not
the bowl.  
Let&#39;s analyze this sentence as it was posted:&lt;/pre&gt;The water in a hemi-spherical bowl &lt;b&gt;&lt;font size=5&gt;is&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt; 42 cm across the top &lt;b&gt;&lt;font size=5&gt;is&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt; 9 cm deep.&lt;pre&gt;First of all, the sentence is very ungrammatical. It is of the form

&quot;X &lt;b&gt;&lt;font size=5&gt;is&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt; Y &lt;b&gt;&lt;font size=5&gt;is&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt; Z&quot;.

Such is a bad violation of English grammar.

The way I interpreted it was simply by omitting the first &lt;b&gt;&lt;font size=5&gt;is&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;.&lt;/pre&gt;The water in a hemi-spherical bowl 42 cm across the top &lt;b&gt;&lt;font size=5&gt;is&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt; 9 cm deep.&lt;pre&gt;Simply omitting that first &lt;b&gt;&lt;font size=5&gt;is&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt; makes it grammatically correct and perfectly 
clear and understandable as the way I interpreted it.

Ikleyn considered the sentence as though there were a period after the word &quot;top&quot;.  
In other words, she interpreted it as if it had been written like this:&lt;/pre&gt;The water in a hemi-spherical bowl &lt;b&gt;&lt;font size=5&gt;is&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt; 42 cm across the top.{{{matrix(1,3,&quot; &quot;,&quot; &quot;,&quot; &quot;)}}}&lt;b&gt;&lt;font size=5&gt;is&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt; 9 cm deep&lt;pre&gt;
Interpreting the sentence that way leaves the last part 

&quot;&lt;b&gt;&lt;font size=5&gt;is&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt; 9 cm deep&quot; 

dangling in the air, as just a predicate with no grammatical subject.
 
I maintain that mine is the more obvious way to interpret the ungrammatical
thing that was posted. 

We keep getting posts with bad English grammar.  I suspect it is because these
are being translated from another language into English by someone whose first-
learned language was NOT English. 

Edwin&lt;/pre&gt;</PRE>