May 19, 2009—

In a new book, documentary, and promotional Web site, paleontologist Jorn Hurum, who led the team that analyzed the 47-million-year-old fossil seen above, suggests Ida is a critical missing-link species in primate evolution (interactive guide to human evolution from National Geographic magazine).

(Among the team members was University of Michigan paleontologist Philip Gingerich, a member of theCommittee for Research and Exploration of the National Geographic Society, which owns National Geographic News.)

The fossil, he says, bridges the evolutionary split between higher primates such as monkeys, apes, and humans and their more distant relatives such as lemurs.

“This is the first link to all humans,” Hurum, of the Natural History Museum in Oslo, Norway, said in a statement. Ida represents “the closest thing we can get to a direct ancestor.”

Ida, properly known as Darwinius masillae, has a unique anatomy. The lemur-like skeleton features primate-like characteristics, including grasping hands, opposable thumbs, clawless digits with nails, and relatively short limbs.

“This specimen looks like a really early fossil monkey that belongs to the group that includes us,” said Brian Richmond, a biological anthropologist at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., who was not involved in the study, published this week in the journal PLoS ONE.

But there’s a big gap in the fossil record from this time period, Richmond noted. Researchers are unsure when and where the primate group that includes monkeys, apes, and humans split from the other group of primates that includes lemurs.

“[Ida] is one of the important branching points on the evolutionary tree,” Richmond said, “but it’s not the only branching point.”

At least one aspect of Ida is unquestionably unique: her incredible preservation, unheard of in specimens from the Eocene era, when early primates underwent a period of rapid evolution. (Explore a prehistoric time line.)

“From this time period there are very few fossils, and they tend to be an isolated tooth here or maybe a tailbone there,” Richmond explained. “So you can’t say a whole lot of what that [type of fossil] represents in terms of evolutionary history or biology.”

In Ida’s case, scientists were able to examine fossil evidence of fur and soft tissue and even picked through the remains of her last meal: fruits, seeds, and leaves.

What’s more, the newly described “missing link” was found in Germany’s Messel Pit. Ida’s European origins are intriguing, Richmond said, because they could suggest—contrary to common assumptions—that the continent was an important area for primate evolution.

Strong prose is a matter of practice and discipline and conscious awareness of the words you put on the page. There are rules for effective writing, and you can save yourself a lot of unnecessary grief if you take the time to incorporate them into your writing psyche.

These rules can’t make a good writer a brilliant one. But they can make an average writer a good writer, and a good writer better. They can turn a mediocre story into a memorable one.

And they’re a great guide for revising your work.

1. NEVER LET THE TRUTH GET IN THE WAY OF YOUR STORY. Creative writing is just that: creative. If the truth prevents you from telling your fictional story effectively, get rid of the facts and invent something that makes the story wor.

2. NEVER USE TWO WORDS WHEN ONE WILL DO. Less is more. Usually one powerful word will do the same job as two weaker ones. Instead of:

Andrea stared at the horrible, slithering mass of snakes.

Write:

Andrea stared at the writhing mass of snakes.

3. USE THE ACTIVE VOICE. The difference between adequate prose and good prose is the difference between passive and active voice. Make certain that active verbs drive your prose. Instead of:

There were a great number of dead bodies on the ground.

Write:

Dead bodies littered the ground.

4. USE PARALLEL CONSTRUCTION. Parallel construction allows you to write in the most interesting, economical fashion by aligning your verb tenses and uniting phrases with a common construction. Instead of:

The vampire bared his teeth and then, raising his claws to sharpen them, he started licking his chops. “Gotcha!” he said with a grin.

Write:

The vampire bared his teeth, sharpened his claws and licked his chops. “Gotcha!” he said with a grin.

5. KEEP RELATED WORDS TOGETHER. Linguistic studies have shown that most of us have a natural instinct for the placement of adjectives. We don’t say, “I have a blue shiny car.” Instead, we say, “I have a shiny blue car.” The same principle should be applied to sentences you write. Instead of:

Frankenstein noticed a large bloodstain in the rug that was in the middle.

Write:

Frankenstein noticed a large bloodstain in the middle of the rug.

6. REPLACE ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS WITH VIVID NOUNS AND ACTIVE VERBS. Cultivate the use of strong verbs and concrete nouns. They are the most powerful tools in a writer’s arsenal. Instead of:

Since the day Barbara met the werewolf, she felt very scared and frightened.

Write:

Since the day she met the werewolf, terror haunted Barbara’s heart.

There is no surer way to weaken your prose than to pepper it with adverbs. There are, of course, times when the adverb is appropriate and necessary. Choose those times carefully.

She looked longingly and lovingly at the chocolate.

Or:

She looked at the chocolate with longing and love.

Or better:

Her eyes consumed the chocolate.

7. DON’T OVEREXPLAIN. Give your reader the benefit of the doubt and allow him to intuit the meaning of the dialogue, rather than read about it. Instead of:

“I’m sorry,” Peter said consolingly.

Write:

“I’m sorry,” Peter said.

8. WRITE CINEMATICALLY. When you write, think visually. Language holds endless possibilities for a creative approach to expressing an idea.

Eddy Peters exemplified this when he wrote, “Not only does the English Language borrow words from other languages, it sometimes chases them down dark alleys, hits them over the head and goes through their pockets.”

9. VARY YOUR SENTENCE STRUCTURE. Using nothing but noun-verb declarative sentences makes for dull reading. Break up the monotony. Instead of:

John walked to the closet. He opened the door. He took one look inside and he screamed.

Write:

John walked to the closet and opened the door. Taking one look inside, he screamed.

10. CREATE INTEREST BY MIXING IDEAS. Mixing alien ideas and drawing unlikely parallels will make the writing fresh

She was the kind of girl who collected men like she collected speeding tickets. They both happened when she wasn’t paying attention.

11. LISTEN TO THE MUSIC OF THE WORDS. The best prose has a rhythm to it. Honour that rhythm. There have been days when I’ve spent half an hour searching the thesaurus for a word that has three syllables instead of two. Sometimes the difference is subtle, but it can make the reading experience more satisfying. Instead of:

Some writers catch on to the rhythm and they delight in the sound of the music as soon as they learn to write.

Write:

Some writers feel the rhythm and hear the music from the moment they learn to write.

12. AVOID WORD REPETITION. There’s nothing more tiresome for a reader than seeing the same tiresome words over and over in the same paragraph. This creates the overall impression that the reader is reading the same repetitive, tiresome prose over again and it tires out the reader. Note: The exception to this rule—the critical exception—is when you repeat a word for emphasis.

13. BEWARE OF IT. Grammarians call it an “obscure pronominal reference.” That’s when it is left dangling in a sentence without a clear reference to whom or what it refers. Double-check for dangling its. Where you find:

Kathy couldn’t believe it was happening.

Clarify:

Kathy couldn’t believe her sister was finally accepting the blame.

What is the difference between ‘in hand’ and ‘at hand?’ Thanks a lot.

Gareth Rees answers:

Hello Ajay. Thank you for your question about phrases, or expressions, that use the word hand.

First of all, I should explain that ‘in my hand’ has the straightforward, literal meaning that something is physically inside my hand, that I am holding something. However, the two phrases that you mention, namely ‘at hand’ and ‘in hand’, have metaphorical, rather than literal, meanings.

If you have something at hand, you have something conveniently near you. This something might be a book, a tool or a piece of information. For example:

e.g. Make sure the safety equipment is at hand when you start working, in case there are any problems.

e.g. I don’t have Sarah’s number at hand, so I’ll tell you it later.

We can actually use the phrase to hand with the same meaning, as in this example.

e.g. Can you tell me how many items we sold last month?

I’m afraid I haven’t got that information to hand. Can I tell you later?

The second expression, in hand, has a few meanings or uses. Firstly, if you have something in hand, then you have an extra amount of something, or you have more than you need. We may use this to talk about time, for example,

e.g. I’m not worried about finishing this essay before the deadline as I still have three days in hand.

If you follow football, you will often hear the following, Chelsea are two points behind the league leaders, Manchester United, but Chelsea do have a game in hand. This means that, at the moment, Chelsea have played one game fewer than Manchester United.

Secondly, the job, situation, topic or problem that you are dealing with at the moment can be described as the problem in hand. So, at the moment, the topic in hand is the meaning of the phrase ‘in hand’.

Thirdly, if you want to say that you are in control of a difficult situation, you can say that you have the situation in hand. For example,

e.g. Don’t worry about the preparations for the party, I’ve got everything in hand. You don’t need to do anything and it’ll all be ready in time.

So, I hope I have dealt with the matter in hand and I recommend that you keep the BBC Learning English website at hand whenever you are studying English, as you never know what useful things you might find in the archive.
___________________________________________________________________________
Gareth Rees has a BA (hons) in History and Philosophy of Science, TEFLA, and DELTA.
He has taught EFL, EAP and Business English in China, Spain and England, and he is the coauthor of the Language Leader Elementary and Pre-Intermediate English language course books (Pearson Longman). He currently teaches English in the Language Centre at the
University of the Arts, London.

‘If there is no struggle, there is no progress.’ - Frederick Douglass 

A couple of days ago, I had a very ‘raw’ discussion with my girlfriend about my life and our future together. She made a couple of points there and touched something inside me. I’ve been putting off important things for me, and in the end, for us. This blog itself is an example of this idleness of mine. Today’s quote seems very appropriate for us to discuss a little, don’t you think? I’d truthfully appreciate your comments on this issue. 

Don’t pay attention to the date. The Quote is still valid for today Friday, 27th March 2009. 

‘Read’ you soon.

‘Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.’ - Oscar Wilde

Discipline, values, good habits for example. It is extremely hard to learn how to become constant in doing something beneficial, don’t you think? Well, here’s today’s quote. Discuss…

achievement    /@”tSi:v.m@nt/ noun [C or U] 

something very good and difficult that you have succeeded in doing:

• Whichever way you look at it, an Olympic silver medal is a remarkable achievement for one so young.
  
• The Tale of Genji has been described as the greatest achievement of Japanese literature.
  
• It gives you a sense of achievement if you actually make it to the end of a very long book.

See the Vocabulary Zone for collocations on this word.

Japanese industrial output fell by a record 10 percent in January, yet more evidence that the world’s second largest economy is being hit hard by the slowdown. The country is suffering because of falling demand for its products abroad. Roland Buerk reports from Tokyo:

The drop in industrial production of 10 percent in January was even worse than the decline in December – setting a new and grim record as Japan sinks into its worst economic crisis since the Second World War.

The latest figures come just days after the Government said exports had nearly halved.Consumers around the world afraid of losing their jobs in the downturn no longer want to buy Japanese electronic gadgets and cars. The Japanese themselves are also shopping less -average household spending fell 5.9 percent in January compared to the same month a year earlier. Jobs are being slashed – the number of people unemployed rose by more than 200,000.

Japan was once seen as relatively immune to the global crisis because its banks are not as exposed to bad loans as those in the United States or Europe. But its reliance on foreign markets to drive its economy out of a long slump in the 1990s has left it painfully exposed. In the last quarter of last year Japan’s economy shrank by 3.3 percent, a far sharper decline than in the United States or Europe.

Roland Buerk, BBC, Tokyo

Vocabulary and definitions

Drop: reduction, becoming smaller

Decline: reduction, becoming smaller

Setting a new and grim record: here, showing that Japan’s levels of production are worse than ever before

Sinks into: enters, begins to experience (something bad)

Gadgets: devices or machines, usually small, that are used for a particular purpose or to perform a particular task

Slashed: cut, closed

Relatively immune to: not easily affected by

Exposed to: affected by (here, in a negative way)

To drive its economy out of a long slump: to help its economy to recover while it was in a long downturn

Shrank: reduced, became smaller

‘A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men.’ – Plato

Worthy characters are said to be one of a kind. I believe that what makes us that is accomplishment, that’s also today’s word. What do you think? Well, I hope you can make a comment on this. 

I’ve been busy checking your comments and HW guys! I hope to finish soon. 

Anyway, I also decided to change the look of the blog every month and this is the the new face of it. How do you like it? I would really like to know your opinion about the new appearance and tell me which one you find more friendly to use and follow, this one or the previous one? Well, thanks in advance for your comments. 

See you tomorrow everyone at classes! 

‘It’s the job that’s never started which takes longest to finish.’ – J.R.R. Tolkien

These days have been very hectic for me. I’ve been about to give this project up because of many reasons: lack of time, tiredness, but above all motivation. There are personal issues which everybody has to face from time to time, but it is hard to do so; especially when no confirmation or encouragement is found. However, today’s quote has ‘laid a hand on my shoulder’. I hope you find it useful too. Please comment on it.