I'm learning English and I have a paragraph as follows:
"A federal judge on Wednesday found Apple guilty of colluding with U.S. book publishers to pump up the price of e-books. While it’s far too early to say anything conclusively about the consequences of the ruling – Apple says it’s going to appeal the decision – experts believe U.S. District Judge Denise Cote’s thorough opinion makes it highly unlikely that Cupertino will make it out of this one with its dominoes still standing."
I do not understand what is the meaning of the phrase, "experts believe U.S. District Judge Denise Cote's thorough opinion makes it highly unlikely that Cupertino will make it out of this one with its dominoes standing still." These things are really complicated and confusing. "will make it out of this one with its dominoes standing still" mean?. I hope to receive an explanation of the native English speakers. Thank you.
Update:If you have time, please explain this whole passage: "experts believe U.S. District Judge Denise Cote's thorough opinion makes it highly unlikely Cupertino that will make it out of this one with its dominoes standing still." I am very grateful for this. Best regards.
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
This is what we call a metaphor - describing something as something else for dramatic effect. The dominoes are the metaphor.
Do you know the game dominoes? They are little blocks that you stand up on end, and when you push one over, they all go over one by one - it's called a domino rally.
So what they are saying is, Cupertino is unlikely to get out of this situation unscathed or unharmed. In other words, all his dominoes are going to come tumbling down one by one. They aren't real dominoes, it's just a metaphor.
I hope that helped :)
Jenny gave an excellent answer and I gave it a thumbs up.
I think you should know that you have used a grammatical term, "complex sentence."
in grammar, a complex sentence is one with a dependent clause. You may not have meant that.