Word or phrase meaning?

the _____, responsible for nearly one third of malware distribution in the last couple of quarters.

what does the sentence “in the last coumple of quarters” mean?

A quarter is a 3-month period, either Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, Jul-Sep, or Oct-Dec.

thank you, now I understand:grinning:

In this country, the process of buying a house is straghtforward. <-----does that mean “directly”?
when you have found the place you want to buy, you put in a written offer. :what is written offer?
what is “verbal offer”?
The offer may be conditional upon a builder’s report or mortgage fiance: what is “conditional” means in here, and what is “report” means in here?
Once all conditions have been met, the sale then becomes unconditional and fully binding. :what is “unconditional” and “fully binding” means?
At this point, the deposit is released to the owner and will not be refunded should you fail to settle. :what is “will not be refunded should you fail to settle”?
Should settlement be delayed for any reason, interest is charged on the outstanding amount until settlement is made in full. : what is “interest” means in this sentence?

I think you need a good dictionary :slight_smile:

What’s your native language?

You should be able to figure out “report” or “interest” (for example) with a dictionary or Google translate.

“fully binding” means that the buyer and seller must complete the sale.

“conditional” means that even if you make an offer, the offer may be refused if some other condition is not met.

“unconditional” is the opposite!

“settle” means you pay the full amount owing.

I looked it up, but I’m not sure the meaning fit in the sentence.

My native language is Chinese
report means a statement?
and interest means hobby?

Most of your questions are vocab related.

stra i ghtforward

Straightforward means it’s simple, clear, easy to follow, and uncomplicated.

An offer here is letting the owner know your intention to make the purchase . If you do so in writing, it’s a written offer. If you just tell the owner either face to face or over the phone, it’s a verbal offer.

Conditional sale is that the buyer and owner agree to some conditions that the house must meet for the offer to stand.

In this case, the offer will only stand when the house passes an inspection, which comes in the form of a report, as well as the buyer getting a mortgage.

It means the buyer now has to commit to buying the house, and there’s no backing out of the deal unilaterally.

So if the buyer fails to commit to buying the house, the deposit money he put down along with his offer would go to the owner, and the buyer won’t be able to get it back even if the buyer backed out of buying the house without the owner agreeing to it.

Like I said, most of your questions are vocab related. Interest is an additional percentage of the original amount added to the total. If I failed to explain that term to you, then you should look it up.

omg, thank you soooooooooo mcuh!!! that is very clear and helpful to me, thank you
:astonished::astonished::grinning::grinning:

The vegetation developed without browsing mammals. what is this sentence means?
Sheep, along with cattle and horses, were brought by early settlers as domestic stock.
what is “domestic stock” means in here?

“The vegetation developed without browsing mammals”-often times in a ecosystem (a system where plants, animals and other organisms live together and depend on each other) animals will help plants grow and spread in the following but not limited to these ways. Through improving the soil through defecating (pooping or peeing). Carrying seeds of the plant in such plants that stick on a animals fur, or even eating the fruits of the the plant having some of the seeds land on the soil. So meaning the plants in that area grew and spread without the help animals.

“Sheep, along with cattle and and horses were brought by early settlers as domestic stock” Domestic stock is any animal bred and or raised to be used by humans in a variety of ways such as shaving the sheep’s fur to be used for clothing, cattle for food from their meat, horses to carry and do labor.

what’s the difference between “suburb” and “suburban”?
for example: in the suburbs you can buy a home with amenities like a garage, pool or big back yard.
another sentence is Suburban life is a long way from all that action in the city and, if you want to …
these two sentence of the words" suburbs" and “suburban” what does that mean in each of them.
morever, I also found this :As nouns the difference between suburban and suburb
is that suburban is an automobile with a station wagon body on a truck chassis while suburb is the area on the periphery of a city or large town.
so “suburb” means a type of the car?
???

“Suburban” is the adjective of “suburb/s”, meaning the area surrounding a city associated with single-family houses, yards etc.
"Suburban " for a vehicle was originally the name of a large passenger vehicle


It was supposed to be good for the average suburban family for hauling kids and their sports equipment, usually as a second car- the name, like ‘coke’ or ‘aspirin’ has passed from a trademark into common usage.

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A suburb is a place (less than the town, normally the less business oriented, more living oriented areas surrounding the town), while suburban is an adjective that describes activities normally associated with being in/living in/characteristic of that place.

that’s very clear and helpful, thank you so much
:smile:

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I have a sentence that I don’t understand.
this allows us to simulate experiences, but we tend to imagine the outcome of one scenario(for example, passing an exam) as being radically different from another (failing the exam) in terms of impact.

“in terms of impact”, what “impact”, what area or which part are they talking about?