Snippet of original message below. I'm really not posting this to be an ass; the question genuinely strikes me as difficult: Does "vanishingly unlikely" mean very unlikely, or quite likely ("quite <whatever>", I've learned, does not mean "extensively <whatever>" to foreign language people, just to native speakers of English), or does it depend on context? In this context, the meaning is obvious, at least to me (to wit: exactly the opposite of the literal meaning of "vanishingly unlikely"), but to someone a little challenged with reading comprehension, it might easily be a tripping point.
Going to graduate school with lots of foreign students has made me quite (ahem) sensitive to these types of grammar questions. I wonder how many such things we take for granted can really trip up our students.
-- C.O.
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From: John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>
To: Forum for Physics Educators <phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu>
Sent: Monday, February 23, 2009 3:36:53 PM
Subject: Re: [Phys-l] Students' READING abilities
It is vanishingly unlikely that students will be able to build many
such associations the first time they see unfamiliar material.