Meaning of "lay preparing" [closed]
What is the meaning of lie preparing in following sentence?
For him, the globe lay preparing quintillions of years without one animal or plant.
and what he means by "without one animal or plant"? Is it idiomatic or archaic?
Solution 1:
To answer the second part of your question "without one animal or plant" means that there was not a single animal or plant in existence on Earth during that enormous span of time.
It is perfectly normal modern English. It is similar to "He goes through life without a thought for other people".