I am a new user to GregMat. I am confused about the problem I have shared with you. I have read the support/contrast and the words that change and don’t change the logic. In this particular problem, you have considered the word disaster to be the idea #1. However, after i read the words that change the logic, i also considered ‘could have been’ to be part of the idea #1 and assigned ‘-’ to it. so, it would multiply with the word disaster ‘-’ to tell that idea 1 is positive ‘+’. and this ‘+’ would multiply with the main logic word ‘inreality’ ‘-’ to get a bad word.‘-’. I know this is wrong but i don’t know where i got it wrong. I hope someone helps me on it, thankyou.
Why is “could have been” bad? It’s neutral, right?
It can sometimes imply a contrast. For example,
I could have been a football star.
That means I NEVER was a football star.
In this case, both “could have been” and “in reality” are implying contrast, but they don’t cancel each other out. They’re expressing the same idea. They’re reinforcing each other basically.
Here’s another example:
My dog went to the park. His dog, however, in a surprising move, completely unexpectedly, stayed home.
Notice how I said “contrast” like three times in a row. They don’t cancel each other out.