what does "of how " mean?

Question

But there is this sense that this county, as it was, was kind of a microcosm of how close the state of Wisconsin was. 

In this sentecne, why I have to use preposition "of" before how?

what does "of how " really mean?

how should I understand this?

Thanks in advance



Answer 1

Hi Dong.

Let's think about another way to rephrase the phrase "the county was a microcosm of how close the state of Wisconsin is".

Let's say, "the county was a a microcosm showing how close the state of Wisconsin is".

So, you can almost separate the sentence into 2 phrases: " the county was a microcosm of" and "how close the state of Wisconsin is".

A microcosm is a small part OF a whole, so the county is a microcosm OF a larger area (such as the state of Wisconsin).

How close the state of Wisconsin is shows us the DISTANCE. How shows us the way something is or is done. Think of the second sentence as a question: "How close is the State of Wisconsin?" Very close.

So, the microcosm is showing how close the State of Wisconsin is.

Let's look at another example.

"Be aware of how hard university is."

So, the verb phrase "be aware of" is just how it is constructed. The "how" is describing the difficulty of university. How hard is college? Very hard.

Be aware that university is hard.

I hope this helps!