That

That Bess married Harry straight out of high school was not surprising.


That + a sentence + v (I want to know what structure is in this sentence.)

And I understand the sentence in this way:

Bess married Harry immediately after having finished high school.

Here STRAIGHT means IMMEDIATELY

OUT OF means FINISH

Is it right????

"That Bess married Harry straight out of high school" is a subordinate clause. It may be easier to understand if you rearrange the word order:

"It was not surprising that Bess married Harry straight out of high school."

They mean the same thing, but putting the subordinate clause first subtly emphasizes it: the more important thing is that Bess married Harry straight out of high school, not that it was not surprising. This sort of emphasis isn't mandatory, though... saying it the other way around is perfectly acceptable.

Your understanding of the sentence is correct: "straight out of" could be reworded as "immediately after finishing". The phrase "straight out of" is somewhat colloquial.

- Kef

cJijla,

"That Bess married Harry straight out of high school was not surprising. "

Think of it like what is in the brackets is a noun:

"[That Bess married Harry straight out of high school] was not surprising. "

Is that a bit better?

cJijia,

You should try to work your imagination more too. When I think "straight out of high school," I think of a high school and I think of somebody moving straight out of it, finished.

Sort of like "go up in flames" and "go down in flames" having the same meeting, but I actually imagine them differently. For "go up," I think of a wraith-like figure on fire and floating slowly up into the air and going out with a poof. For "go down," I think of a person on fire running around who then finally collapses and explodes.

Imagination I think is important in language learning to get to native speaker level.

<"[That Bess married Harry straight out of high school] was not surprising. "

Is that a bit better? >

Not for me. Why should it be better?