Well, the authors just assumed that you are as smart as they were!!!! I speak Chinese, but that doesn't mean I just rattle off without explaination!!!!!!! Another thing that bothers me is reading old books were they talk about plays and stuff. I just read Ber-Hur and am now reading the Count of Monte Cristo. In both books, the authors talk about all this stuff that was probably well-known in their time, but now, no one has heard of it!!!! I don't have time (or money) to go surf the net for all the time just to find out what they mean.