alexfabbri/answersumm huggingface dataset:
Forum: ell.stackexchange.com
Tags: <politeness><slang>
Title: Is there a polite, formal way to say "sh!t happens"?
Question: I am trying to write an essay and the only phrase I can think of is "shit happens". I'm wondering; is there any formal way to say  shit happens ?

Answers:
sents: text: I think the closest expression with the same meaning and very similar connotations would be the French expression: C'est la vie.
text: meaning That's life.
text: You can use the French phrase as is because it is famous enough to be understood in any English speaking country.
text: Certainly there are some more possibilities to say it in a polite way as to avoid vulgarity: Stuff happens.
text: or you can use the English idiom : Worse things happen at sea. as a way of telling someone not to worry so much about their problems.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/3223/Lucian Sava
score: 48
sents: text: A polite and reassuring way:
text: "It could have been worse"
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/19170/Nikhil Banerjee
score: 20
sents: text: Lucian's suggestion of "C'est la vie" is a good one.
text: There are a few other ways you could express the same idea:
text: Depending on the context, you might want to reference Murphy's Law.
text: Murphy's Law is often stated as: Anything that can go wrong, will.
text: This is a phrase you would use if you were talking about things going wrong before they did, or how they could have been avoided.
text: If you're talking about something going wrong after the fact, and especially something that could not have been prevented, you could also say: That's life!
text: This is a more idiomatic way of phrasing Pazzo's suggestion.
text: The implication is the same: in life, things happen, good and bad, and you just have to deal with it.
text: For a more literary tone, you could use the Burns quote suggested by TRomano's comment, the actual original phrasing of which is: The best-laid schemes
text: o' mice
text: an' men Gang aft agley
text: This is often misquoted in more standard English as: The best-laid plans of mice and men Oft go awry.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/5807/chapka
score: 17
sents: text: Things happen in life that we may not like. or Bad things happen.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/None/
score: 9
sents: text: To avoid the expletive, you could just say "stuff happens", which is somewhat idiomatic (though not nearly so idiomatic as "shit happens").
text: That's still rather informal
text: but, in the right context and used only occasionally, informality can work well in an essay.
text: It lightens the mood.
text: Be careful not to over-use informality and be careful that it's only a little break from the serious stuff and that it doesn't ruin the flow.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/4468/David Richerby
score: 1

Summary of the answers:
Alternative suggestions include "it could have been worse", "c'est la vie", "stuff happens" or your could even refer to Murphy's Law, depending on the context.
Stuff happens, c'est la vie, it could have been worse and Murphy's Law are all things you could say.
Forum: ell.stackexchange.com
Tags: <sentence-meaning><conjunctions><negation>
Title: What does this saying mean? "To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty."
Question: " To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet  to think that one knows will lead to difficulty ." Lao Tzu  Source   I could not understand this quote since the words are not very clear.  For example, does the word "Not" negate the whole "to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty"?  Can someone explain it?

Answers:
sents: text: " To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.
text: "
text: - Lao Tzu The best thing is to know the answer, while thinking that you do not know.
text: Mistakenly being sure that you know the answer in cases where you actually do not know the answer will lead to difficulty.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/26296/Euan M
score: 2
sents: text: Breaking it up a little: "To know | yet to think that one does not know | is best; Not to know | yet to think that one knows | will lead to difficulty."
text: The two phrases are alike but reversed:
text: Knowing while not thinking that one knows is good.
text: Not knowing while thinking that one knows is bad.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/20120/modulusshift
score: 2
sents: text: The sentence can be changed like this: " The fact that you know something
text: but you believe you don't know it is better than the fact that you don't know anything
text: but you tell everybody you know.
text: The second fact might cause trouble."
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/25687/V.V.
score: 1
sents: text: In the original post's quotation, the word "not" just negates "to know".
text: The negation turns "something you know" (a "known") into "something you do not know" (an "unknown"). "not to know" is on the opposite side of the "yet" conjunction from "to think that one knows".
text: As Donald Rumsfeld explained : There are known knowns.
text: These are things we know that we know.
text: There are known unknowns.
text: That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know.
text: But there are also unknown unknowns.
text: There are things we don't know we don't know.
text: Lao Tzu was saying it is better to be underconfident
text: (not trust that you know something) than to be overconfident (to think you know something, but be wrong).
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/9100/Jasper
score: 1
sents: text: Better to question, than to think you have the only answer.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/27126/Alocyte
score: 1

Summary of the answers:
This means that it is better to question, than to think you have the only answer. Knowing while not thinking that one knows is good. Not knowing while thinking that one knows is bad.
It is better to question than to think you have the only answer.
Forum: ell.stackexchange.com
Tags: <phrase-usage><usage>
Title: What is the correct word for "turn off lamp" for a non-electric lamp?
Question: We often say turn off the lights. Is it correct to say  turn off the lamp  when referring to a non-electric lamp (lit by fire)?That doesn't sound proper. Which is the better phrase to use there?

Answers:
sents: text: If the lamp is lit by actual fire, I'd probably say: Put out the lamp.
text: This is like how you "put out" a barbeque or a camping fire.
text: Note that, at least where I am, "lamp" and "light" are now synonymous and it took me a while to figure out what difference you were implying between the electric lightbulb and your "lamp".
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/626/Lightness Races in Orbit
score: 38
sents: text: you can use douse the lamp or extinguish the lamp for a fire-lit lamp.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/57473/Preety Gurditta
score: 19
sents: text: A single word for ending fires of all kinds: extinguish : (transitive) to put out, as in fire; to end burning; to quench This works for all kinds of flame lamps equally well (as does the original, put out ): candles:
text: snuff , snuff out , put out , extinguish gas lights: turn off , put out , extinguish oil lamps: turn off , put out , extinguish burning torches: douse , put out , extinguish "Extinguish" and "put out" also appropriate for electric lights, for which I'd not use any of the other terms above.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/44500/Toby Speight
score: 12
sents: text: "Turn out the lamp" was also used more than 'off' in the times when lamps were oil or gas - see this ngram search .
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/9024/Pete Kirkham
score: 9
sents: text: Snuff or Snuff out applies specifically to lights based on fire: lamps, candles, torches.
text: It's perhaps a little bit old fashioned (though so are fire-based lights!)
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/31107/Beejamin
score: 8
sents: text: Your two choices in your scenario are Turn off the lamp.
text: which is most idiomatic.
text: Another possibility might be Shut off the lamp.
text: but less often used.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/26439/Peter
score: 3
sents: text: Blow out is an other precise phrase which can be used in this context.
text: It means: Be extinguished by an air current.
text: Example usage:
text: She blew out the candles , posed graciously for countless photographs and accepted cheek kisses galore.
text: Seattle TimesNov 29, 2016
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/56324/Codeformer
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
"Put out the lamp" is the term used in this context.
If the lamp is lit by actual fire, one probably say:   Put out  the lamp.
Forum: ell.stackexchange.com
Tags: <idioms><adjectives><idiom-request>
Title: We're waiting in a BIG or LONG queue?
Question: What's the idiomatic adjective for the noun " queue "?    I waited there in a very  long  queue.   or   I waited there in a very  big  queue.   Or maybe something else?

Answers:
sents: text: A "queue" is, by definition, line-shaped, therefore it makes sense to define it by its length rather than its size .
text: So "a long queue".
text: In contrast, a "crowd" is kind of blob-shaped, so you would say "a big/large crowd".
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/42184/Andrew
score: 29
sents: text: I can't argue with the logic of previous answers, preferring 'Long'.
text: But, as a native English speaker, I have to say that 'a big queue' would raise no eyebrows.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/14011/Laurence Payne
score: 19
sents: text: Either one is fine to my British ears.
text: Because of the physical shape of queues, any big queue has to be long, so the words have equivalent meaning in this case.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/4468/David Richerby
score: 12
sents: text: As this NGram query shows, long is the right answer.
text: This doesn't tell you why or even how to remember it , but I agree with Andrew's answer that long tends to be used for one-dimensional objects and big and large for higher dimensions.
text: An area can be long but not big; take the country Chile as an example.
text: It's long, and big when compared to my backyard but rather small next to its neighbour Argentina.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/18673/Glorfindel
score: 8
sents: text: Only "half-native" here but just today I used "big queue" and it certainly did not raise any eyebrows among the "full-natives" around me.
text: Additionally to the previous answers I'd say that "big" can be understood as a "category" containing "long" and other "shapes" of "big".
text: Therefore you could always use the superordinate "big" to replace any of the "subordinate" and more specific forms of "big".
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/16350/Patric Hartmann
score: 3

Summary of the answers:
A "queue" is line-shaped, therefore it makes sense to define it by its  length  rather than its  size, so it is "a  long  queue". However, "a big queue" would not be misunderstood by english natives.
A one-dimensional line would usually be described as long, while a two- or three-dimensional shape would be described as big. However, a long line could also be described as big, and it would not be considered too unusual to call a line big.
Forum: scifi.stackexchange.com
Tags: <story-identification><novel><alien-invasion>
Title: What Sci-Fi novel is about aliens who consider it simply convenient to exterminate the human race?
Question: I don't remember the title/author of a Sci-Fi novel, where the author demonstrated that in case of an encounter with a more advanced alien life form, they would consider most convenient for them to exterminate the human race instead of every other alternative...

Answers:
sents: text: I think this might be Killing Star by Charles Pellegrino and George Zebrowski.
text: After aliens destroy the Earth with relativistic bombs they explain to the last human that because all civilizations are potentially dangerous, and there's really nothing to lose by exterminating them before they get too strong, it was the logical choice.
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/1271/Pixel
score: 16
sents: text: Reminds me of The Screwfly Solution by James Tiptree, Jr - a short story in Warm Worlds and Otherwise. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Screwfly_Solution
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/847/Kate Gregory
score: 6
sents: text: Sounds a bit like "Protector" by Larry Niven.
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/638/Dima
score: 5
sents: text: In Stephen Baxter's Xeelee sequence, the Xeelee are fighting a dark energy enemy far superior beyond human comprehension and are simply annoyed that the humans keep pestering them with attacks in an attempt to bring"peace" to the universe by subjugating all other races.
text: The Xeelee are farsuperior to all other races including humans, and are forced by humans, whoinsist on attacking them while they are busy trying to save the universe fromthe dark energy photino birds, to simply and effortlessly wipe out the humanrace, though they save a small sample community of humans on an artificialworld with an artificial sun so they can continue to exist in a harmlessfashion; see Ring and Vacuum Diagrams by Stephen Baxter.
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/5430/Dacul
score: 5
sents: text: There's The Genocides by Thomas M. Disch.
text: Humanity isn't even noticed in that, or The Forge of God by Greg Bear, where we get annihilated just to be on the safe side.
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/10681/Steve Hughes
score: 5

Summary of the answers:
Suggestions include Killing Star by Charles Pellegrino and George Zebrowski; The Screwfly Solution by James Tiptree, Jr; Protector by Larry Niven; or The Genocides  by Thomas M. Disch.
Books where aliens consider it covenient to exterminate humans include Killing Star, The Screwfly Solution, Protector and The Genocides.
Forum: hinduism.stackexchange.com
Tags: <ganesha><festivals>
Title: What is the meaning of "Ganpati Bappa Morya"?
Question: I heard this many times but don't know what it means.   Is Ganpati another name for Ganesha?   What is bappa and Morya?

Answers:
sents: text: Regard less of true story of Moraya Gosavi, that doesn't make anysense to say "Ganpati Bappa Moraya"...
text: Actually splitting the word Moraya as "Mhora ya" means "come ahead and bless us" make sense here.
text: Thus "Ganapati Bappa Moraya" means
text: "Lord Ganesha Bless us"
text: (Here Bappa is used for Lord...)
text: If in case you're interested in reading one of the famous prayers with english translation, follow the link.
text: Ganpati Aarti (with Translation)
answer_details: author: hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/3568/mysql_user
score: 6
sents: text: Morya Gosavi was a prominent saint and the greatest devotee of Lord Ganesha.
text: Morya is associated with the name of lord Ganapati as veneration to this great devotee.
answer_details: author: hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/543/gaj
score: 4
sents: text: Morya is changed verson of mor+ yaaWhich is again changed from samor+yaaSamor= in front of some one
text: And yaa
text: =come That means morya
text: =samor yaa= be in front ( of us)= guide us
answer_details: author: hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/3742/Bhupendra Vyas
score: 3
sents: text: Yes, Ganapathi is another name of Lord Ganesha which means the Lord/Owner of all Shiva Gana (The army of Lord Shiva).
text: Bappa means Father/Lord and Morya refers to the greatest devotee of Lord Ganesha.
text: To understand the meaning completely, "Ganapathi Bappa Morya" alone is not sufficient.
text: The entire stanza "Ganapathi Bappa Morya, Purchya Varshi Laukar ya" is needed, which means "O Lord/Father Ganesha, come again next year fast".
answer_details: author: hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/859/AeJey
score: 2
sents: text: It is considered as a chant but have some Marathi meaning you need to consider.
text: Morya Mean1 Go ahead (for Visarjan ceremony happen.)2 It is
text: Marathi ward mohre ya mean pudhe Vha (for Visarjan ceremony happen.)3
text: It look like lolhapuri Language word mhore
text: ya(go ahead)ref:
text: Page on wordpress.com Quora Answer to Morya jodiif.wordpress.com http://www.karmayog.org/
text: yahoo QnA Another Yahoo QnA
answer_details: author: hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/3774/Pradeep
score: 2

Summary of the answers:
Ganapathi is another name of Lord Ganesha which means the Lord/Owner of all Shiva Gana (The army of Lord Shiva). The entire stanza "Ganapathi Bappa Morya, Purchya Varshi Laukar ya" is needed, which means "O Lord/Father Ganesha, come again next year fast".   
 This could mean "Lord Ganesha Bless us". Ganapathi is another name of Lord Ganesha which means the Lord/Owner of all Shiva Gana (The army of Lord Shiva). Bappa means Father/Lord and Morya refers to the greatest devotee of Lord Ganesha. "Ganapathi Bappa Morya, Purchya Varshi Laukar ya" means "O Lord/Father Ganesha, come again next year fast".