<p>I literally have no idea what does this sentence mean. What’s this? All I recognize here is just an incoherent combination of words. Can someone “unlock” this sentence? </p>
<p>Throughout the twisting streets that she can see from her apartment curves an extended row of ruined old buildings.</p>
<p>Here are equivalent sentences, just rearranged/edited (in brackets) a little:</p>
<p>Throughout the twisting streets that she can see from her apartment [there] curves an extended row of ruined old buildings.</p>
<p>Or:</p>
<p>Throughout the twisting streets that she can see from her apartment, an extended row of ruined old buildings curves.</p>
<p>“Curves” is being used as a verb. Basically, there is a “row of ruined old buildings” that wind around the “twisting streets that she can see from her apartment.”</p>
<p>I am sorry. I still have trouble fathoming this :(</p>
<p>I don’t understand why the noun is used: []
Troughout the twisting streets that she can see from her apartment, [an extended row of ruined old buildings curves].
As for me, this sentence is not finished because it just has a noun at its end standing for no reason. For example, it may be
Throughout the twisting streets that she can see from her apartment, [an extended row of ruined old buildings curves]+action of [an extended row].</p>
<p>What is wrong?</p>
<p>“Curves” is used as a verb, not a noun. You could rearrange it like:</p>
<p>An extended row of ruined old buildings curves throughout the twisting streets that she can see from her apartment.</p>
<p>I don’t see an error.</p>
<p>“curves” doesn’t require an object. It means “move in a bending way.” Like…if you drive a car down a bending/curved road (as opposed to a straight road), then the car is curving. It doesn’t curve something. It just curves.</p>
<p>Here is an example of a sentence that holds the same structure:
Down the street I walked.
(I walked down the street.)
These two sentences mean the same thing. However, the prepositional phrase “down the street” can be inverted, switched from AFTER “I walked” to BEFORE “I walked.” The difference between the two sentences is a matter of style, but they essentially mean exactly the same thing. Sometimes writers feel the desire to put the prepositional phrase in the front of the sentence (“Down the street I walked”) to get it out of the way, so that the last part is the independent clause, “I walked,” in order to emphasize “I walked.” In some ways, what comes at the end of the sentence is the most important and the most memorable part of the sentence, so sometimes writers like inverting the sentence to place the subject and verb (and object, if there is any) at the end. If this doesn’t make sense to you, it’s OK. Just know that sometimes sentences can be inverted. Here are some examples of inverted sentences I thought of for you, with the non-inverted sentences in parentheses:
Under the tree is a treasure chest. (The treasure chest is under the tree.)
Soon will he succeed. (He will succeed soon.)</p>
<p>
For further explanation and more examples, here is the Wikipedia link to the entry for “inverted sentence”: [Inverted</a> sentence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_sentence]Inverted”>Inverted sentence - Wikipedia).</p>
<p>This topic isn’t very important for the SAT. It has to do more with style than with grammar/reasoning.</p>
<p>Throughout the twisting streets that she can see from her apartment curves an extended row of ruined old buildings.</p>
<p>“Throughout the twisting streets that she can see from her apartment” is the subject.</p>
<p>Deconstructed: A girl looks out the window of her apartment building. She sees twisted streets. On one of the streets, she sees ruined old buildings.</p>
<p>The streets are “curving” a long row of old buildings. The verb choice is a bit odd, really.</p>
<p>I understand it now! Thanks everyone! I appreciate your help!</p>