In my book I have this sentence:

> 生徒が学校へ行こうと思って野を歩いていると、一ぴきのきつねが遠くにいるのをみた。

I understand the sentence, "The student, who is walking in the field while he
wants to go to school, saw a fox far away".

But what's the purpose of "と" here?
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2017-07-04T20:27:23.217
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2017-07-04T21:40:28.577
2017-07-04T20:35:08.237
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question
particle-と
と　particle after a full sentence
と in this case implies that something **unexpected** is following. "The
student was walking in the field to go to school, when he saw a fox far away."
Or we can emphasize like that to see the nuance: "Just when the student
thought of going to school and was walking in the field, he saw a fox far
away."
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-04T21:40:28.577
49041
2017-07-04T21:40:28.577
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answer