So, in the stormy mood of RS Hughes's Y Dymestl, the young Terfel had already understood something he would later bring to his interpretation of The Flying Dutchman; in WS Gwynn Williams's Tosturi Duw, the dulcet tone he brought to the word melyster (sweetness) was long-practised.
I had already understood from the response to my own book, Somewhere Towards the End, that the taboo on the subject of death, so heavy in my youth, was evaporating, and this was a striking example of how true this is.
Surrealism was originally a poetic and literary movement that sought to channel unconscious forces directly into expression, and throughout this exhibition the focus on war often feels like a confirmation in real terms of what poets had already understood: Man is beastly.
I had already understood the issue and to this day, regret it more than anything I have ever done.
In classical India, meditation was an inquiry into the nature of consciousness by those who had already understood the essence of religious dogma and thus the underlying purpose behind religion's moral codes.
No need to go and tell your parents that you have achieved because they had already understood you when the day you met them after the upset and cried for forgiveness.
Investors have already understood this prospect: Interest rates on long-term bonds have jumped recently.
It doesn't have to; sitting down to play Monopoly implies that you have already understood that.
And indeed, Mexico, although cross at the prospect of losing $800m a year of hard currency, has already understood that high international charges cut both ways.
It knows who you are, what you've already understood (or not) and decides what you're going to see next based on your performance.
