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This is a question from my English exam, where we are supposed to find the closest sentence to the main sentence. I did not understand what it means to be "second only" to something in this sentence:

The activity of coffee trading on the international market is second only to petroleum.

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    Please put all relevant information into the question itself. Links sometimes go bad.
    – Lawrence
    Commented Jan 26, 2020 at 13:13
  • You're not breaking it down in the right way - it means on the international market, coffee trading is second only to petroleum trading. In other words the only kind of trading that puts coffee trading in second place on the international market is petroleum trading. That tells you that petroleum trading must be in first place overall, followed by coffee. Other examples in inventiveness, she is second only to Mozart = only Mozart showed more inventiveness than her. As a playmaker, he is second only to XYX = only XYZ is a better playmaker than him.
    – JD2000
    Commented Jan 26, 2020 at 13:20
  • The sentence is poorly worded. It wants to compare trading to trading, but what it really compares instead is activity to petroleum. That makes zero sense to you because it actually does make zero sense.
    – ЯegDwight
    Commented Jan 26, 2020 at 13:24
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    It's just elision of parallel elements - the activity of coffee trading on the international market is second only to [the activity of] petroleum [trading]. It's not a sentence to be proud of, but I don't agree that it makes zero sense. In everyday life you come across loads of clumsily worded sentences, so I don't think it's unfair for something like this to be used in an exam.
    – JD2000
    Commented Jan 26, 2020 at 13:37
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    ... Following on from JD2000's first comment, 'B is second only to A' usually means 'Granted, A is superb and the best going, but B is very good too, only surpassed by A'. / The way you frame your question here is evidence that you would find our sister site, ELL, better suited to your requirements.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jan 26, 2020 at 15:14

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"second only to X" means that some measure is the second (largest etc.) with X being first.

So the largest amount of activity in international trading is petroleum, and the second largest is coffee.

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