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In the following text, what does "the latter scenario could hardly seem more implausible" mean?

The result suggests one of two scenarios. One is that arctic foxes gave rise to swift foxes, an evolutionary sequence that would depend on the arctic fox being much older than the fossil record currently indicates. The second possibility is that swift foxes gave rise to arctic foxes, likely during the height of a period of glaciation when tundra forming to the south of the ice sheets may have met the grassland habitat of the swift fox. On the one hand, the latter scenario could hardly seem more implausible. Swift foxes, after all, live on the arid, sun-baked prairies and open desert, where temperatures can top 120°F (49°C). It's hard to imagine a greater environmental leap from this environment to the frozen tundra. To have acquired over the course of a few hundred thousand years all the adaptations necessary for survival in such an extreme environment suggests a rapid rate of evolution.

tchrist
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ebrahimi
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    What do you think it means? That should be included in your question. – Lambie May 21 '23 at 17:23
  • Comments have been moved to chat; please do not continue the discussion here. Before posting a comment below this one, please review the purposes of comments. Comments that do not request clarification or suggest improvements usually belong as an answer, on [meta], or in [chat]. Comments continuing discussion may be removed. – tchrist May 21 '23 at 17:30
  • Which part specifically confuses you? – alphabet May 21 '23 at 18:40
  • @Lambie I think it means "highly likely or probable" but chatGpt say " highly unlikely or improbable". – ebrahimi May 21 '23 at 19:18
  • @alphabet On the one hand, the latter scenario could hardly seem more implausible. – ebrahimi May 21 '23 at 19:19
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    Good grief! We've got a modal (could), a negative adjective (hardly), a comparative (more), and another, negated, modal (implausible), all jammed together like logical sardines. Of course it's impenetrable (to use another negative). As Larry Horn put it, triplex negatio confundit. And modals always thicken the mix. – John Lawler May 21 '23 at 19:30
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    With a lot of effort one could probably work one's way out of the confusion that this unfortunate formulation causes and figure out what the author meant, but what would be the point? It is not the purpose of this site to rewrite badly written texts (unless some general insight is to be obtained by doing so, which does not seem to be the case here). – jsw29 May 21 '23 at 20:47
  • @Anton I tried to find it out before submitting it here. In the above comments, I wrote: I think it means "highly likely or probable" but chatGpt say " highly unlikely or improbable" – ebrahimi May 21 '23 at 22:59
  • (I cannot answer a closed question other than in a comment.) it means that the scenario is so unlikely that there is only very small chance of it being less likely. Your question was closed because you should have made a little effort to analyse it and then to share your consequent difficulties with us in the question (rather than later comments). But closure for mere formal reasons is unhelpful and unproductive when applied to an interesting question. Reopen. – Anton May 22 '23 at 06:58
  • @Anton I disagree: it still requires an interpretation and/or basic research. – Joachim May 22 '23 at 14:15
  • @jsw29 Well what’s the point of EL&U altogether? Perhaps we should just stick to single word requests? – Araucaria - Him May 23 '23 at 06:52
  • @Araucaria-Nothereanymore., note the parenthetical remark at the end of my comment. – jsw29 May 23 '23 at 15:40
  • @JohnLawler Surely good grounds for a re-open vote? – Araucaria - Him May 23 '23 at 21:41
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    @Araucaria-Nothereanymore. Not by me. It's very confused and incoherent, and just asks for translation. The OP has given no evidence that they would understand a coherent answer even if we could give one. – John Lawler May 23 '23 at 21:45
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    @JohnLawler You must be reading a different question from me, as I see no evidence of a request for translation. Why the big "Good grief! We've got a modal (could), a negative adjective (hardly), a comparative (more), and another, negated, modal (implausible), all jammed together like logical sardines. Of course it's impenetrable (to use another negative). As Larry Horn put it, triplex negatio confundit. And modals always thicken the mix." if none of that is worth commenting on? – Araucaria - Him May 23 '23 at 21:55
  • @JohnLawler I've reread the question and I'm even more confused. The question asks: 'In the following text, what does "the latter scenario could hardly seem more implausible" mean?' <-- You describe that as "very confused and incoherent." It seems a very simple and completely coherent question to me. How is it incoherent? – Araucaria - Him May 23 '23 at 21:59
  • @Araucaria-Nothereanymore. That was my comment. As for the question, it is a request for translation of an English sentence, a very complex and idiomatic (and not very well written) sentence. It can only mean one of two things -- either it is implausible or it is not -- and there are too many possible ways to determine which one was meant without asking the author. Certainly *I* have no idea, and if it were reopened we'd just get more opinions. – John Lawler May 24 '23 at 14:42

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On the one hand, the latter scenario could hardly seem more implausible.

= On the one hand, it would be difficult for the latter scenario to appear [to be] [any] more implausible.

In case you doubt this, that essential part of English "context" informs us

It's hard to imagine a greater environmental leap from this environment to the frozen tundra.

Greybeard
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  • He probably needs to learn that hardly usually means not. – tchrist May 21 '23 at 21:23
  • @tchrist I know hardly means not. Also, I know implausible is negative, So I think it should be a positive sentence, but some say it is a negative sentence. I cannot find the third negative word. – ebrahimi May 21 '23 at 22:55
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    @ebrahimi the word ‘implausible’ does not negate the whole clause. – Araucaria - Him May 23 '23 at 06:54