Would you kindly help me in English?

[StringJunky]

Synonym for follow, in context of the text: Trail

 

"Toward the end of the afternoon ,we trailed what seemed to be a large movement of chimmpanzees...". It means they were behind the chimps and going after them but keeping some steady or fixed distance away.

 

Clear, in context of the text, means empty of. In use, an example would be: "...empty except for columns of nut trees." . It means there was nothing there except for columns of nut trees.

Edited November 17, 2013 by StringJunky

[Cyrus the Great]

Atom, Thank you so much. your explanations are priceless and smashing.

 

so,would you please tell me what can be mean "one great open room" in context of the text?

Could you possibly readily tell me the reason why you do not use the word " the" before the letter context in the following example?

 

in context of the text.....

 

I mean why do not you say in the context of the text?!!

 

....................................................................................

..Their faces. which had taken on remarkable glowing expression of adoration , registered in my mind as entirely comprehensible.

 

 

It is about chimpanzees..

 

Would you kindly tell me what does as entirely comprehensible. mean here? of course , as regard to context of the text.

 

Thanks in advance

And what can be mean or another synonym for the letter "intelligent"?

 

I was looking at intelligent faces experiencing an emotion could be imagine to be love.

Edited November 17, 2013 by Cyrus the Great

[StringJunky]

Atom, Thank you so much. your explanations are priceless and smashing.

 

so,would you please tell me what can be mean "one great open room" in context of the text?

There was a big empty area with no trees in it.

 

 

Could you possibly readily tell me the reason why you do not use the word " the" before the letter context in the following example?

 

in context of the text.....

 

I mean why do not you say in the context of the text?!!

 

That would be the formal way to say it but to me, as a native English speaker, it is not necessary to add 'the' because nothing is lost in the meaning of that sentence leaving it out. I'm sure you have shorter ways of saying things in your language that are not formally taught.

Edited November 17, 2013 by StringJunky

[Cyrus the Great]

Why did you repeat my post?!

[StringJunky]

Why did you repeat my post?!

The above is called quoting. When there is more than one part to reply to in a question it is better to break it up into smaller parts and answer each part on its own so that there is less chance of confusion and it is clearer to understand. I will quote and answer the other parts of your previous post here:

 

Would you kindly tell me what does as entirely comprehensible. mean here? of course , as regard to context of the text.

 

'Entirely comprehensible' means 'completely understandable'. The author completely understood the expression on their faces.

 

 

And what can be mean or another synonym for the letter "intelligent"?

Clever.

 

On a side note, This is a 'letter': b . This is a 'word': dog. You are confusing "letters" when you should say "word" or "words". Letters are the alphabet symbols that make up the word and words are collections of alphabet symbols. The alphabet is our system of letters which is: a b c d e f...etc.

Edited November 17, 2013 by StringJunky

[Cyrus the Great]

Thank you so much.what can I put in this sentence, instead of "intelligent"?

The great accomplishment of homo sapiens is not technology , which has become bigger and easier than we are, mixed blessing.

 

 

Would you kindly tell me what cab be mean this sentence?

The great accomplishment is language , which has enabled us to accumulate and coordinate our achievements, insights, and mini creations.

Our big technologies are collective efforts, cultural products, all and always made possible by language.

 

 

Thank you so much. Would you possibly explain readily the following?

 

Our big technologies are collective efforts, cultural products, all and always made possible by language.

 

Thanks in advance

Edited November 17, 2013 by Cyrus the Great

[StringJunky]

You could use 'clever', 'bright' or 'able' in that sentence. You might find this site useful for synonyms. I have put in the word 'intelligent' for you to see:

 

http://thesaurus.com/browse/intelligent

 

The words with pink shading are closest in meaning to the word.

Edited November 17, 2013 by StringJunky

[Sato]

Thank you so much.what can I put in this sentence, instead of "intelligent"?

The great accomplishment of homo sapiens is not technology , which has become bigger and easier than we are, mixed blessing.

 

 

Would you kindly tell me what cab be mean this sentence?

The great accomplishment is language , which has enabled us to accumulate and coordinate our achievements, insights, and mini creations.

Our big technologies are collective efforts, cultural products, all and always made possible by language.

 

 

Thank you so much. Would you possibly explain readily the following?

 

Our big technologies are collective efforts, cultural products, all and always made possible by language.

 

Thanks in advance

 

"The great accomplishment is language , which has enabled us to accumulate and coordinate our achievements, insights, and mini creations.

Our big technologies are collective efforts, cultural products, all and always made possible by language."

 

This means that humans' greatest accomplishment is language, not technology, because our language has allowed us to put together, record, and organize our past achievements, insights, and inventions. It is saying that all the big technologies that we humans have made were because we could communicate with other people and groups using language, and save all of these discoveries and inventions on paper and by telling people through language.

 

Here is a key with some definitions that may better your understanding:

Homo sapiens: Humans, People

Language: Method of communicating, or Method of talking

Enabled: Allowed

Achievement, Accomplishment: A Thing that has been done successfully, like creating a technology or art

Insight: A deeper look into something; like looking deeper in nature as science, or finding the meaning of a painting deeper than colors in art

Technology: Creations that help humans, like machines and tools; simple technology is a hammer and complex technology could be a computer

Collective: With or because of many people or things | So, collective efforts are efforts by many people

Products: Things that come out of the work or effort of multiple people or things | So, cultural products are products of multiple cultures or multiple people in a culture

 

 

Edited November 17, 2013 by Sato

[Cyrus the Great]

Your explanations are priceless and Great.Thank you so much. I got all what you have said.

The primary reason for the search is basic curiosity - the same curiosity about the natural world that drives all pure science. We want to know whether we are alone in the Universe. We want to know whether life evolves naturally if given the right conditions, or whether there is something very special about the Earth to have fostered the variety of life forms that we see around us on the planet.

 

Source : http://www.ieltsg.com/search/label/reading%20practice%20test

....................................................

Would you kindly explain "life evolves naturally if given the right conditions, or whether there is something very special about the Earth to have fostered the variety of life forms" ?

I am so sorry because I made a mistake and post this here

[Sato]

"life evolves naturally if given the right conditions, or whether there is something very special about the Earth to have fostered the variety of life forms"

 

That statement is a bit ambiguous, but I'm guessing that "something very special" is referring to supernatural or divine reasons for why the Earth may have been able to have so many different life forms, and it is being contrasted to the scientific idea of life evolving naturally wherever the conditions (like atmosphere, temperature, etc) are suitable.

 

Here's another key:

Conditions: Things that must be in order for something else to be true | The conditions of me being able to breath are that I have functioning lungs and a nervous system

Foster: Help or encourage to survive, grow, or continue | Earth fosters the development of many life forms

Contrasted: Displayed as different

Ambiguous: Having multiple different meanings, so as to make one uncertain as to which one he should take

Supernatural: Of something not natural and disagreeing with what has been verified, like the idea that people get sick because of demons

Divine: From or because of an all-powerful being or god.

[Cyrus the Great]

Thank you so much.

 

The simple detection of a radio signal will be sufficient to answer this most basic of all questions. In this sense, SETI is another cog in the machinery of pure science which is continually pushing out the horizon of our knowledge.

Would you please tell me what "this most basic of all questions" means, in context of the text?

In addition. what can be meant this sentence " pushing out the horizon of our knowledge" ?

 

Moreover, what does " in this sense" mean?, and what do you usually use as an exact synonym for that?

Edited November 18, 2013 by Cyrus the Great

[Sato]

In the context of the passage (on the topic of astrobiology), the most basic or most fundamental of all questions in the field could be "is there other intelligent life in space?" which could be answered by an intelligently communicated radio signal. Less basic, or higher level questions, those which can be answered after the basic one, could be "does this intelligent life communicate via speech like us?" and "how many planets do these intelligent life forms inhabit?"

 

Horizon, while most concretely meaning the line where the earth touches the sky if you're staring down an ocean or desert, also means "the limit of something." This makes sense because the horizon is the limit to how far one can see, so the other definition applies to other limits. It is pushing out or increasing the limits of our knowledge.

 

In this sense is another way of saying in this context.

[Cyrus the Great]

I really thank you. I got all what you said.your explanations very help me.

 

Thank you

we have had civilization on Earth for perhaps only a few thousand years.

 

Could you as a native speaker tell me what you understand from this sentence?

Could you please tell me the reason why "likely to be far older on average than ourselves."?

Edited November 18, 2013 by Cyrus the Great

[Cyrus the Great]

One in a million.

 

One out of a million.

 

where/when do you usually prefer use them?

 

 

[StringJunky]

As the mood takes me. They mean the same thing. I would use both in any writing that required that kind of subject matter more than once for purposes of variety.

Edited November 18, 2013 by StringJunky

[DevilSolution]

I've only heard "one in a million", used when referring to someone or something unique or the probability of an occurrence; "you have one in a million chance of winning the lottery".

[Phi for All]

I've only heard "one in a million", used when referring to someone or something unique or the probability of an occurrence; "you have one in a million chance of winning the lottery".

 

Could there be a difference in focus? "One in a million" seems to focus more on the one unique item, where "one out of a million" seems to focus more on the huge sampling. I might use the former to stress uniqueness and the latter to stress the probability.

[pears]

1) Civilization appeared on earth a few thousand years ago, hence we have had civilization on earth for a few thousand years

 

2) The statement "Thus any other civilization that we hear from is likely to be far older on average than ourselves" is implied by the previous sentences which say: since the age of a planet is a several billion years then an alien civilization will be between zero and several billion years old. It's taking a probability based on there being more chance of finding a civilization in the range 'older than us' and 'younger than us'. 'older than us' would be between a few thousand and several billion years. 'younger than us' would be between zero and a few thousand. Since the older than us range is larger you would expect that age to be more likely.

 

Hope that helps and hasn't caused more confusion

[Endy0816]

Alien civilization: Billions of years

Human civilization: Thousands of years

 

1,000,000,000 compared to 1,000

[Cyrus the Great]

And , my last question:

 

Would you please tell me the way/methods which SETI does it? or how SETI pushes out our knowledge?

[StringJunky]

 

Could there be a difference in focus? "One in a million" seems to focus more on the one unique item, where "one out of a million" seems to focus more on the huge sampling. I might use the former to stress uniqueness and the latter to stress the probability.

Yes, you are probably right but it's quite subtle which would probably pass by a non-native speaker.

 

 

I've only heard "one in a million", used when referring to someone or something unique or the probability of an occurrence; "you have one in a million chance of winning the lottery".

I remember a TV advert: Eight out of ten cats preferred Whiskas.

 

Thinking about it, if the first number is 1 then you say "One in a,,," but if the first number is 2 or more it seems to flow better to say "2 out of 10" rather than "2 in 10".

Edited November 18, 2013 by StringJunky

[DevilSolution]

Thinking about it, if the first number is 1 then you say "One in a,,," but if the first number is 2 or more it seems to flow better to say "2 out of 10" rather than "2 in 10".

 

Yeh thats it i think.

[md65536]

One in a million.

 

One out of a million.

 

where/when do you usually prefer use them?

The connotation that I think of is...

One of a set of equals is one in a million, emphasizing inclusion in the set.

One separated from that set is one out of a million, emphasizing exclusion.

 

 

If you want to say "Anyone can win the lottery", one in a million equally likely winners will win. If you want to say "Most lottery players are losers", only one out of a million will be separated from all the losers.

 

Two out of ten people are weirdo outliers, while another two in ten people are exceedingly average people.

 

I don't think there's an explicit difference in meaning, just a subtle difference in emphasis that others might not even interpret the same way as I do.

Edited November 18, 2013 by md65536

[StringJunky]

I don't think there's an explicit difference in meaning, just a subtle difference in emphasis that others might not even interpret the same way as I do.

Yes I think you may well be right, depending on the writer's desired "focus", as Phi put it

[overtone]

There is also one of a million, one from a million, one to a million (more often "a million to one", but not always), one for a million, one over a million, one into a million, and so forth.

 

They each have their own meanings, because prepositions are not empty noises in English. The inclusion/exclusion distinction seems basic, and reflected in the meaning of the preposition well chosen (if you know the meaning of the preposition and you trust the author you can "sound out" the meaning of most uses - most are not idiomatic) but there are other aspects - one through a million, say, arrives from a different direction entirely. One against a million. One beside a million. One like a million. One worth a million.

 

A preposition establishes the relationship between the references of two other parts of the sentence - in this case the relationship between what was referred to by "one" and "a million". Clearly the relationship "in" is not the same as the relationship "out of". Although the exact distinction may be difficult to describe, there is one without doubt - a competent writer will not choose at random between them.

Edited November 19, 2013 by overtone