It's not a case of closer as such, but rather magnification. 1:1 is life size. The image on the negative will be the same size as it is in real life. A finger nail 10mm long will be 10mm long. When you get in printed it'll be bigger, but we're talking about negatives here as prints can be different sizes but all 35mm negatives are the same size. 1:2 means the image will be half the size. So a 10mm finger nail will be 5mm long on the negative. As a result more of what surrounds to finger nail will be in the picture. 1:4 means it'll be 2.5mm long. And so on.
You can, if you wish, say that 1:1 lets you get closer than 1:4. But, you can confuse yourself when you start talking about the minimum focus distance of a lens. That is, how close a lens can be to a subject and still be able to focus.
No questions are basic. "How do you spell apple?" can be seen a basic question. But when you pop out of the womb how many know how to spell it?