Englsih for Science

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English for

Science 1Course Book

Faculty of ScienceMahasarakham University

Dr. Jolyon Dodgson

V. 1



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Introduction 3

Chapter 1 Reading 41.1 Skimming 41.2 Scanning 51.3 Skimming vs. scanning 5

1.4 Detailed reading – Studying the text 51.5 Critical reading - Including critical thinking 61.6 Active reading 71.7 Dictionaries and glossaries 71.8 Reading scientific papers (journal articles) 81.9 Practice reading English 91.10 Ways to improve your English reading comprehension 9

Chapter 2 Paraphrasing and Summarizing 11

2.1 Quotations 112.2 Paraphrasing and summary 112.3 Paraphrasing 122.4 Paraphrase: Write it in your own words 132.5 Summarizing 15

Chapter 3 Basic Grammar for English for science 17

3.1 Adverbs 173.2 Articles 193.3 Verb tenses 213.3.1 The present 223.3.2 The past 233.3.3 The present perfect 243.3.4 What other tenses are used in scientific and technical writing? 24

3.3.5 Points to check in your writing 25Chapter 4 Basic Scientific writing 26

4.1 Passive voice 264.2 Prefixes 274.3 Suffixes 304.4 Cause and effect linking words 334.5 Systems and processes 354.6 Style 364.6.1 Objectivity 364.6.2 Clarity 374.6.3 Formality 38

4.6.4 Hedging 41

Chapter 5 Poster Presentations 445.1 What is a scientific poster? 445.2 How to make your poster 45

Appendix 1 – Newspaper passages 51Appendix 2 – Short comprehension passages 60Appendix 3 – Long comprehension passages 62Appendix 4 – Reading passages 66Appendix 5 – Standard reading exercise 70Appendix 6 – Paraphrasing passages 71

Appendix 7 – Scientific articles 72



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Introduction

This book and the course book for the English for Science 2 course will cover theusage of English related to scientific work. The first semester will cover reading,writing summaries and poster presentations. This course book includes all the

information that will be used in the PowerPoint presentations in each of the classes.

You will need this guide in the classes as the lectures will use the examples in this book as starting points. You will also need the ‗English for Science 1 Exercise Book‘

as this contains all the exercises that you will do in the classes. You need to bring both books to all the classes. The most important sections will be explored in more detail inthe lectures. This guide could be printed so that two pages are on each side of a pieceof A4 paper. You should still be able to read it at that size and it will be cheaper to

print.

You will hopefully find this guide useful long after you have finished the English forScience course, as you can continue to use it as a reference.

Remember that to get better at anything and especially learning a foreign languageyou need to practice, not just in class but every day.

We hope that you will enjoy the class and wish you every success for completing it.

The English for Science Lectures



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1 Reading

The information that you will be taught in your lectures and practical classes is only asmall amount of the information that you will need to know if you are to be ‗good‘ at

what you do when you leave university. The rest of the information you will need to

find out for yourselves, most often from written sources, both while you are atuniversity and in later life. The vast majority of information published is in English.So you will need to be able to, at the most basic level, identify what a piece of text issaying and ideally understand all the information contained within it.

The strategies and techniques in this section will teach you how to obtain the mostrelevant information in the shortest time. They could also be used when you arereading information in Thai as well as in English. They are:

Knowing what you need to know, and reading appropriately. Knowing how deeply to read the document: skimming, scanning or studying. Using active reading techniques to pick out key points and keep your mind

focused on the material. Critically read and think about everything you read (books, journal articles,

magazines, lecture handouts) and decide if it is going to provide usefulinformation.

Using the table of contents for reading magazines and newspapers. Understanding how to extract information from different article types.

Before you start to read anything you need to know why you are reading it. If you areonly reading something because your lecturer told you to, you will be wasting your

time. Ask yourself – ‗why did my lecturer tell me to read this?‘ Once you havedecided what you are meant to be learning from a piece of writing you will be muchmore effective at remembering the information.

1.1 Skimming

Definition - Skimming is a reading technique that can help you to read more quickly,and then decide if the text is interesting and whether you should read it in more detail.Skimming is a fast reading technique. Use it to obtain the gist of a piece of text (i.e. toquickly identify the main ideas in the text).

Explanation

When skimming text:

do not read the whole text word-for-word. use as many clues as possible to give you some background information. For

example there might be pictures or images related to the topic. let your eyes skim over the surface of the text and, whilst thinking about any

clues you have found about the subject, look out for key words. read the title, subtitles and subheading to find out what the text is about.

read the first and last sentence of each paragraph. continue to think about the meaning of the text.



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1.2 Scanning

Definition - Scanning is a fast reading technique. It is a way of reading to look forspecific information in a text.

Explanation

When scanning text:

do not try to read every word. Instead let your eyes move quickly across the page until you find what you are looking for.

use clues on the page, such as headings and titles, to help you. in a dictionary or phone book, use the 'header' words to help you scan. You

can find these in bold type at the top of each page. if you are reading for study, start by thinking up or writing down some

questions that you want to answer. Doing this can focus your mind and helpyou find the facts or information that you need more easily.

many texts use A-Z order. These include everyday materials such as the phone book and indexes to books and catalogues.

there are many ways to practise scanning skills. Try looking up a favouriterecipe in the index of a cookbook, search for a plumber in your local telephone

book, or scan web pages on the Internet to find specific information.

Scanning is also useful when studying or looking to find specific information from a book or article quickly as there is not always time to read every word.

1.3 Skimming vs. scanning

The term skimming is often confused with scanning. Remember:

Skimming is used to obtain the gist (the overall sense) of a piece of text.o E.g. Use skimming to get the gist of a page of a textbook to decide

whether it is useful and should therefore be read more slowly and inmore detail.

Scanning is used to obtain specific information from a piece of text.o E.g. Use scanning to find a particular number in a telephone directory.

Sometimes you can use both reading methods. After you have skimmed a piece oftext to decide whether the text is of interest, you may wish to use scanning techniquesto locate specific information.

1.4 Detailed reading – Studying the text

Definition – Detailed reading is slower reading than skimming or scanning but muchmore information will be obtained from the text. In detailed reading you will readmost if not all of the words.



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Explanation

Detailed reading:

is a technique to use once you have decided if a text is useful.

should be used after you have skimmed and scanned a text. is a slower technique so should be used to obtain detailed information. should use active reading techniques. should also be critical reading.

1.5 Critical reading - Including critical thinking

Definition – Critical reading is a technique that identifies the reliability of a piece oftext and the therefore the value that should be placed on the information it contains.

Explanation

When critically reading text:

you are evaluating the text for reliability. you identify the author‘s point of view. you understand that one text will present only one portrayal of the information. you identify if the text is offering examples, arguing, appealing for sympathy

or making a contrast to clarify a point. Critical readers then infer what the text,as a whole, ‗means‘, based on the earlier analysis.

When critically reading you should try to accomplish the following goals:

to recognize an authors purpose. to understand tone and persuasive elements. to recognize bias.

None of these goals actually refers to something on the page. Each requires inferencesfrom evidence within the text:

Recognizing purpose involves inferring a basis for choices of content and

language. Recognizing tone and persuasive elements involves classifying the nature of

language choices. Recognizing bias involves classifying the nature of patterns of choice of

content and language.

Critical reading is not simply close and careful reading. To read critically, one mustthink critically to actively recognize and analyze evidence upon the page.

Critical thinkers:

are honest with themselves resist manipulation



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overcome confusion ask questions, no matter where the information came from base judgments on evidence look for connections between subjects are intellectually independent

1.6 Active reading

Definition – Active reading is a technique where you are thinking about andanalyzing the text as you are reading it.

Explanation

Active reading techniques are:

Underline or highlight key words and phrases as you read. When you return tothe text these will help you pick the important points quickly. Do not highlighttoo much as this will not help. Do not do this on borrowed books etc.

Write notes or questions next to the text in the margins. This should take morethought than highlighting so you might remember the text better. Do not dothis on borrowed books etc.

Use ‗Post-it notes‘ if you do not want to write in the book. These can be left

sticking out of pages so you can find the section again quickly. Make notes in your own journal of the main headings, keywords and ‗new‘

technical words.

Read the text critically. Have a set of questions you would like to haveanswered by the end of the text. You can create your own index of information so that you can find related

passages quickly in the future. Test your self sometime after reading the text by writing down all that you can

remember. Look for ‗signpost‘ words that help you understand the text. For example

‗most importantly‘, ‗in contrast‘, ‗on the other hand‘. Pay attention to the tables, figures and photographs. Make sure you understand

these.

1.7 Dictionaries and glossaries

A dictionary is a very important tool when reading any text. For reading English orwriting, a good paper English-Thai is very important. When your English skills

become better try to use an English dictionary where the definitions are also inEnglish.

Use a large dictionary which defines words rather than referring you to anothersimilar word that might also be unfamiliar to you. Also avoid dictionaries that usecomplicated words to define other words as you will then have to look up a second

word to understand the first.



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If you do not have your dictionary with you write down any words you do not knowand look them up later.

A glossary is a list of terms in a particular area of knowledge with the definitions forthose terms. You could compile your own glossary of technical terms that you come

across and use it supplement your dictionary when reading text, especially if you arereading large amounts of difficult technical material.

1.8 Reading scientific papers (journal articles)

Scientific papers:

present original, referred, in-depth information. are most often printed in English. are detailed. use experimental data to prove the author‘s claims. are written in formal English. are not always true.

Scientific papers follow set principles and are written in a specific way:

Title and author‘s names Abstract Introduction – including a paragraph stating the aims Methods

Results Discussion Conclusion – often included as the last paragraph of the discussion Acknowledgements References

You do not need to read all of a paper to get useful information. A useful order inwhich to read a paper can be:

Title – Form an initial guess about the article Keywords – Revise the initial guess

Abstract – Compare the guess with the abstract Aim – In the last paragraph of the introduction usually Introduction – This should give useful background information Conclusion and discussion – Did the authors manage to achieve the aim of the

paper? Figures and tables – Lists the data the conclusions are based on Methods and Results – These provide the specific information on how the

experiment was carried out and will usually be the most technical



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1.9 Practice reading English

To improve your ability to read and understand English you need to practice reading.There are other ways besides reading scientific literature which you can use to

practice your English reading skills.

Reading classic books online

If you have never had a chance to read the works of Dickens, Poe, or other classicalEnglish writers, you can find some of their works for free online. You can downloadentire books from Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page).You can get Dracula by Bram Stoker or the origin of Species by Charles Darwin. Italso has a section of children‘s books.

Subscribe to internet newsletters

If there is a hobby you are interested in, there will be authors writing newslettersabout it in English. If you search the web, it should be fairly easy to locate websitesthat sponsor free newsletters. These newsletters are ideal, because they provide youwith fresh and contemporary reading materials on a topic that you already knowsomething about.

Read news articles in English

Unlike years ago, you can have access to news in English whenever you want. If youare interested in particular area of the world, you may even want to dedicate yourreading time to those sections of the news. In most cases, you can find free newsresources on the internet (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/default.stm). Thesemay also be an excellent place for you to find the names of other websites that have

additional information that you might be interested in.

1.10 Ways to improve your English reading comprehension

Improving your ability to read English quickly and accurately takes a great deal of practice. Once you know the basic elements of the English language, you can selectfrom a wide variety of reading materials, including different methods of presentation.

Play word gamesIf you are looking for a way to improve your vocabulary and have fun at the same

time, crossword puzzles and other types of word game puzzles can be of immensehelp to you. If this is something that interests you, you might also consider Scrabble,word searches and other similar games.

Take notes on subjects that interest you

If you are reading a book on a topic that you enjoy, take some notes. These can bedirect samples from the text or you can try putting sections in your own words. Asyou write, you will also have an opportunity to think about the sentence structures andsee how ideas are conveyed. This will help you learn to discuss these topics in a waythat sounds more natural.



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Select materials that will challenge you

You need to constantly set new goals for yourself so that you continue to progress andimprove. For example, if you‘re able to work your way through a 100 page children‘s

book, it is time to start tackling a longer book or one on a more difficult topic.Regardless of which subjects interest you the most, you will be able to find some

books that are harder to comprehend than others. By applying yourself to the ones thatare more difficult, you will improve your English.

Read materials from many different authors

Considering the number of people that have websites, it is easy to sample a widerange of English writing styles. This will help you to learn about the flexibility of theEnglish language, as well as the means of expression that most people are comfortablewith. If you already know a great deal about a certain topic in your native language,you can use that background to help you read websites in English that focus on similarconcepts.

For the most part, once you know the basic elements of the English language, practiceand time will be your most valuable teachers. It is important to spend time readingmaterials that interest you in as many forms as possible. Over time you will seeimprovements in your comprehension of written English.



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2 Paraphrasing and summarizing

These three ways of incorporating other writers' work into your own writing differaccording to the closeness of your writing to the source writing.

Quotations must be identical to the original, using a narrow segment of the source.They must match the source document word for word and must be attributed to theoriginal author.

Paraphrasing involves putting a passage from source material into your own words.A paraphrase must also be attributed to the original source. Paraphrased material isusually shorter than the original passage, taking a somewhat broader segment of thesource and condensing it slightly.

Summarizing involves putting the main idea(s) into your own words, including onlythe main point(s). Once again, it is necessary to attribute summarized ideas to theoriginal source. Summaries are significantly shorter than the original and take a broadoverview of the source material.

Why use quotations, paraphrases, and summaries?

Quotations, paraphrases, and summaries serve many purposes. You might use themto:

Provide support for claims or add credibility to your writing

Refer to work that leads up to the work you are now doing

Give examples of several points of view on a subject Call attention to a position that you wish to agree or disagree with

Highlight a particularly striking phrase, sentence, or passage by quoting theoriginal

Distance yourself from the original by quoting it in order to cue readers thatthe words are not your own

Expand the breadth or depth of your writing

2.1 Quotations

There are several ways to integrate quotations into your text. Often, a short quotationworks well when integrated into a sentence. Longer quotations can stand alone.Remember that quoting should be done only sparingly; be sure that you have a goodreason to include a direct quotation when you decide to do so.

2.2 Paraphrasing and summary

Whenever you are writing, either for you own notes or as part of a lab report or essayyou will need to research and incorporate the writing of others into your own texts.Two unavoidable steps in that process are paraphrasing (changing the language intoyour own) and summarizing (getting rid of smaller details and leaving only the

primary points). These steps are necessary for three reasons.



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First, if you used the original writer‘s language without any changes, it limitsyour own learning; by paraphrasing and summarizing, you make a piece ofinformation your own, and you understand it better.

Second, the original writers did not write for the audiences you are targeting;

there are inevitably contents and language choices that will not necessarilywork for your audience.

Third, what authors write is considered to be their property, just like a coat ora car; by copying it (without giving credit), you can be accused of plagiarism.

Summarizing and paraphrasing are frequently used together, but not always.

2.3 Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is making different word choices and re-arranging words in such a waythat maintains the same meaning, but sounds different enough that readers will not bereminded of the original writer‘s words.

Example The current constitutional debate over heavy metal rock and gangsta rap musicis not just about the explicit language but also advocacy, an act of incitementto violence.

Inadequate paraphrase Today‘s constitutional debate about gangsta rap and heavy metal rock is not

just about obscene language but also advocacy and incitement of acts ofviolence.

Adequate paraphrase Lyrics in some rap and heavy metal songs that appear to promote violence,along with concerns about obscenity, have generated a constitutional debateover popular music.

Explanation

In the inadequate paraphrase, the meaning of the original is altered somewhat: it

claims that the debate is about advocacy AND violence, but it is supposed to be aboutadvocacy FOR violence. Also, too few of the words have been changed, and theorder of the sentence remains essentially the same. In the second attempt at

paraphrasing, enough changes have been made so that readers would not feel that theyare reading somebody else‘s words.

When you are paraphrasing, there are a number of strategies you can apply:

Locate the individual statements or major idea units in the original.

Change the sentence structure and the order of major ideas, while maintainingthe logical connections among them. For example, if the author you are

paraphrasing presents a generalization and then backs it up with an example;try using the example as a lead-in to the generalization. For an individual



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sentence, try to relocate a phrase from the beginning of the sentence to a position near the end, or vice versa.

Substitute words in the original with synonyms, making sure the language inyour paraphrase is appropriate for your audience.

Combine or divide sentences as necessary.

Use direct quotations from the original sporadically, limiting yourself toquotations of the most striking or interesting language. Do not quote very

plainly stated passages.

Compare the paraphrase to the original to ensure that the rewording issufficient and the meaning has been preserved.

Add the paraphrase into your essay.

Document the paraphrase — give formal credit to the original writer(s).

2.4 Paraphrase: Write it in your own words

Paraphrasing is one way to use a text in your own writing without directly quotingsource material. Anytime you are taking information from a source that is not yourown, you need to specify where you got that information.

A paraphrase is:

Your own rendition of essential information and ideas expressed by someoneelse, presented in a new form.

One legitimate way (when accompanied by accurate documentation) to borrowfrom a source.

A more detailed restatement than a summary, which focuses concisely on asingle main idea.

Paraphrasing is a valuable skill because:

It is better than quoting information from an undistinguished passage.

It helps you control the temptation to quote too much.

The mental process required for successful paraphrasing helps you to grasp thefull meaning of the original.

6 Steps to Effective Paraphrasing:

1. Reread the original passage until you understand its full meaning.2. Set the original aside, and write your paraphrase on a note card.3. Jot down a few words below your paraphrase to remind you later how you

envision using this material. At the top of the note card, write a key word or phrase to indicate the subject of your paraphrase.

4. Check your rendition with the original to make sure that your versionaccurately expresses all the essential information in a new form.

5. Use quotation marks to identify any unique term or phraseology you have borrowed exactly from the source.

6. Record the source (including the page) on your note card so that you can creditit easily if you decide to incorporate the material into your paper.



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What language changes do I make when paraphrasing?

Vocabulary

keep the specialised terms that are related to the topic, or thosefor which there are no synonyms, e.g. calcium, neutron, protein

do not change proper nouns (e.g. names of countries andorganisations), numbers, formulae

for the rest of your text, use different vocabulary whenever possible, especially simpler phrases and more commonsynonyms and expressions. Using your own words makes your

paraphrase fit in with the style of the rest of your text.

Grammar

the grammar of the original needs to be changed, so that the points you are reporting on fit in with the grammatical flow ofyour text

if your paraphrase is summarising and thus shortening theoriginal, this will involve reducing perhaps 3 or 4 sentences (ormore) down to one. This will require you to use a variety ofsubordinate clauses and adverbial or participle phrases.

Points to check in your own writing:

Are all my paraphrases relevant?

Have I paraphrased the points from my sources accurately?

Are my paraphrases of the right length? (not too short, not too long)

Have I added my own opinion to the paraphrases? If so, have I made it clearwhat are the original writer's points and what are mine?

Have I structured my paraphrases grammatically into my text, so as tomaintain a natural and logical flow?

Are they all properly referenced?

Examples to compare

The original passage:

Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a resultthey overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10%of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore,you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materialswhile taking notes. Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976):46-47.

A legitimate paraphrase:

In research papers students often quote excessively, failing to keep quotedmaterial down to a desirable level. Since the problem usually originates during

note taking, it is essential to minimize the material recorded verbatim (Lester46-47).



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An acceptable summary:

Students should take just a few notes in direct quotation from sources to helpminimize the amount of quoted material in a research paper (Lester 46-47).

A plagiarized version:

Students often use too many direct quotations when they take notes, resultingin too many of them in the final research paper. In fact, probably only about10% of the final copy should consist of directly quoted material. So it isimportant to limit the amount of source material copied while taking notes.

2.5 Summarizing

In many situations, you will not have to provide the level of detail that the originalwriter did. At such times, you should summarize, or remove minor details. Here‘s an

example:

Example

Overall, the first two quarters of 2008 have been profitable to the company. Nineteen of twenty departments report cutting costs at least twenty percent,and sales from fifteen departments have risen five percent, or about $5 million.Despite these positive developments, most department heads believe that theywill not be able to maintain these levels for the remainder of the year.

RevisionThe first two quarters of 2008 have been profitable, but the rest of the year isnot expected to be as good.

Unlike paraphrasing, the basic order of the original text is maintained. However,some words have been changed to close synonyms. When summarizing, avoidcutting too much important information.

How to summarize - say the same thing in fewer words

1. Read the whole of the original text quickly to gain an impression of its content

and its relevance to your work2. Highlight the main points as you read3. Make notes of your own on these points4. Put away the original and rewrite your notes in your own words in complete

sentences5. Begin your summary with a statement of the main idea at the start. Don't

forget to include referencing of your source.6. Using your notes, write out your subsidiary or supporting points in coherent,

well-connected sentences7. Re-read your work to check that you have included all the information that

you need.



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Points to check in your own writing:

In my summary, is there a clear thesis statement (with the writer's main idea)?

Does it give a reader who has not read the original a clear idea of what it said?

Does it include the writer's other main supporting points? Have I cut out

unnecessary detail and examples? Does the finished summary have the same balance of ideas as the original

text?

Is it written in simpler language than the original?

Do the ideas in the summary flow logically and in grammatically well-linkedsentences?

Example

Original text

‗At a typical football match we are likely to see players committing deliberatefouls, often behind the referee‘s back. They might try to take a throw-in or afree kick from an incorrect but more advantageous positions in defiance of theclearly stated rules of the game. They sometimes challenge the rulings of thereferee or linesmen in an offensive way which often deserves exemplary

punishment or even sending off. No wonder spectators fight amongstthemselves, damage stadiums, or take the law into their own hands byinvading the pitch in the hope of affecting the outcome of the match.‘ (100

words)

Summary

Unsportsmanlike behaviour by footballers may cause hooliganism amongspectators. (9 words)



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3 Basic grammar for English for science

3.1 Adverbs

Adverbs are words that modify the meaning of another word or even a wholesentence. They do this by providing an answer to such questions as ‗How?‘, ‗To what

extent?‘, ‗Where?‘, ‗When?‘, ‗How often?‘, and ‗In what manner?‘.

A slightly non-planar crack is treated as being perturbed fromperfectly planar reference crack.

To whatextent…?

The perturbation method we develop here applies to any crackgeometries.

Where…?

Finally, the normalised dynamic stress intensity factors are presentedin Figs.10 and 11.

When…?

Independently, using the same class as for material 1, we apply adifferent linear combination of all the nuclei of strain at the object

point of material 2.

In whatmanner…?

Which other words can adverbs modify?

They can modify:

Verbs Magnesium is a metal which burns brightly.

Adjectives This results in very large systems of equations due to the need to extendthe discretisation well away from the zone of interest.

Otheradverbs

This results in very large systems of equations due to the need to extendthe discretisation well away from the zone of interest.

A wholesentence

Conversely, when the second material is softer than the one containingthe fracture, it attracts the fracture towards the interface in the samemanner the stiffer material drove it away.

How are adverbs formed?

We can distinguish three types of adverbs:

Simple just, only, well, back, out, etc.

Compound therefore, hereby, herewith, etc.

Derived (mostly derived from adjectiveswith – ly)

equally, finally, markedly, sideways,clockwise, northwards



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What are the problem areas when using adverbs?

Confusing adjectives and adverbs

Adjectives and adverbs can express the same idea, but whereas you use an

adverb to modify a verb or adjective, adjectives can only be applied to nouns.

Adjective Adverb

Platinum has exceptional resistanceto corrosion.

Platinum is exceptionally corrosion-resistant.

Iron is easy to extract from iron ores.It is easy to extract from iron ores.

Iron can easily be extracted from ironores.

Position of the adverb in the sentence

Adverbs can be placed at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of asentence.

Using adverbs as sentence modifiers

In academic writing, adverbs and adverbial phrases are frequently used assentence modifiers. When they are used in this way at the beginning of asentence, they are normally separated from the rest of the sentence by acomma.

Using phrasal verbs

Phrasal verbs consist of a verb plus a preposition, or a short adverb acting likea preposition, that combine to create a meaning different from the usualmeanings of the individual words. Most of the words that make up phrasalverbs are short and frequently used. They function like normal verbs, but

because they are idiomatic, they can create special vocabulary problems fornon-native writers. Phrasal verbs are more suitable or appropriate for use ininformal English, though some are quite acceptable in scientific report writing.

Formal reduce in amount, remove, calculate, postpone, abolish,

conduct

Informal cut down, cross out, work out, put off, do away with,carry out



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3.2Articles

Correctly using and choosing the proper article is one of the biggest problems inEnglish grammar.

The indefinite articles, a / an, can be used to talk about objects or ideas in general

one particular person or thing, when it is mentioned for the first time,or when the reader does not know which one is meant, or when it doesnot matter which one.

The definite article, the, can be usedo when the noun is singled out as unique or specifico when the reader already knows which particular person(s) or thing(s)

etc you are talking about.

What are the basic rules for using the articles?

The indefinite article (a / an) is used with singular countable nouns referring to a non-unique item in general (separate objects, people, ideas, etc):

Singular Plural

A microscope Five microscopes

A scientist A large number of scientists

An experimental plan Several alternative experimental plans

The definite article (the) is used with nouns referring to a unique specific item. Anoun can have a definite article when:

It is modified by a superlative orordinal number

the first experimentthe last measurementthe most significant resultsthe only time

It refers to an entire type orspecies

The telephone can be used to transfer data.

It refers to an item previouslymentioned

They connected a phone line to a modem.The modem was connected to a computer inorder for the computer to access the internet.

There is only one of something orit is fully specified by the contextor background knowledge

The periodic table is often used in chemistry.The internet is now used by millions of peopleacross the world.

It is followed by of + noun phrase The coefficient of expansion of brass is0.000026oC.The importance of international co-operation is

emphasised in the report.



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Note: Some generalisations may be needed in scientific use, inwhich case 'the' is left out in long,complex, uncountable or pluralnoun phrases, in particular those

including an of + noun phrase. Inthese sentences, both options, i.e.using the articles or omittingthem, are correct.

(The) Little-known sources of air pollution aremisfires in a car's engine.(The) Creation of the simulation model allowsfor a degree of optimisation of (the) engine

performance.

What is the difference between countable and uncountable nouns?

The distinction between these two types of nouns is very important in English andunderstanding this will help you to use articles more accurately. Most nouns are eithercountable or uncountable, while some can be either, depending on the meaning or the

context.

Countable nouns are things we can count. We use them with the indefinite article a /an, and we can make them plural.

Car, table, job, experiment, employer, teacher, laboratory, suggestion

Uncountable nouns are things we cannot count. They include many abstract nounsthat you may use frequently in scientific writing. They have no plural form and cannot

be used with the indefinite article a / an. When you want to itemise these nouns, youhave to add a phrase like a piece of....

Information, advice, music, money, progress, research, work, travel, luggage,

The use of articles with countable and uncountable nouns is as follows:

Indefinite Definite

Countable – singular I‘ve got a new job. The job is interesting.

Countable – plural They‘ve got new jobs. The jobs are interesting.

Uncountable I‘ve got work now. The work is interesting.

Some words which are basically uncountable nouns can also be used as countablenouns with a somewhat different meaning, and this applies to many words inscientific and technical English.

As uncountable nouns, they refer to something general, e.g.metal, fuel, material, mass, velocity, pressure, power, water, analysis,science, sound, temperature

As countable nouns, they refer to something more specific, one or more of aset, e.g.

a soft metal, a carbonated water, a velocity of 25 m. per second, an analysis ofthis problem



21

Example sentences - Note that the countable version of the noun is used when it isdefined in some way, either by an adjective or an ‗of phrase‘.

Uncountable Countable

A thermometer measures temperature.Temperature is generally expressed indegrees.

The thermometer showed a temperature of over 50oC.The boy had a high temperature.

This factory produces steel. Cheaper mild steels are now being produced.

Water is composed of hydrogen andoxygen.

A water molecule is composed of two

hydrogens and one oxygen.

This problem is beyond humanunderstanding.

A clear understanding of the practicalimplications lies at the heart of successful

flow modelling.

How can I choose the correct article?

Here is a flow chart which may aid you in correctly choosing the proper article.

Enter noun phrase

Uncountable

Or

Countable General Use no article

Or

Specific Use the

Plural

Or

Singular General Use a / an

Or

Specific Use the

3.3 Verb tenses

In scientific and technical writing the choice of verb tenses is quite limited. The mostcommonly used tenses are:

the presentthe pastthe present perfect



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3.3.1 The present

The present tense expresses a constant, repeated, habitual, or customary action orcondition. It can also express a general truth or an action or condition that ishappening right now.

A constant action The Volga River flows southward to the CaspianSea.

A condition that is generallytrue

Mercury is the planet nearest the sun.

Not always but happening now Samantha feels happy.

The present tense of all verbs except be is the same as the base form of the verb. Toform the third-person singular of these verbs, add -s or -es to the base form.

Singular Plural

I lift. You lift. She, he, or itlifts.

We lift. You lift. They lift.

I am. You are. She, he, or it is. We are. You are. They are.

How is the present tense used?

It is used to state facts that are generally valid from the point of view of the writer.Therefore, use it in the following situations:

When writing about your topic or background.

Lasers are devices which amplify light andproduce beams of light which are very intense,directional, and pure in colour.Little is known about HPS systems, which arethe subject of the following chapter.

When explaining your purpose. Here we investigate the properties of the abovementioned metals.The perturbation method we develop hereapplies to any crack geometry as long as the

crack-face weight function solutions are knownfor the corresponding reference crack.

When presenting results, if thefindings are general facts.

In cases when the eigenvalue of interest is wellseparated from the others, K2 tends to increasethe natural frequencies of the forward and

backward waves but decrease the naturalfrequency of the reflected wave, just opposite tothe effect of M2.



23

When making general statements,e.g. in conclusions.

This observation indicates an obviousinconsistency that is avoided by theintroduction of generalised principles.The author believes that one particularapplication, where the results can be useful, is

the modelling of contact problems involvinganisotropic materials.

There are differences in the waythe passive and the active forms areused:The present simple passive is usedwhen describing a process or

procedure.The present simple active is

preferred in physical descriptions,

such as describing a piece ofapparatus or equipment.

The plotter represents another important outputdevice. The plotter makes hard copy of the

product represented by digital information inthe computer. Most CAD systems use a pen

plotter.

3.3.2 The past

The past tense expresses an action or condition that was started and completed in the past.

The dogs chased the car until it turned the corner.

Except for be all regular and irregular verbs have one past-tense form. The past-tenseform of be may be either was or were.

Singular Plural

I drifted. Youdrifted.

She, he, or itdrifted.

Wedrifted.

You drifted. Theydrifted.

I was. You were. She, he, or it was. We were. You were. They were.

How is the past tense used?

You use this when referring to specific tasks carried out, such as takingmeasurements, conducting experiments, describing methods actually used, or

presenting your results and conclusions from the particular piece of work.

The past simple passive is mainlyused when we report a particular

procedure related to only one particular occasion in the past.

In Fig.4 the uniaxial curve was calculated using Eq. /51/, the deviatoric stress-strain curvewas calculated using Eq./20/, and thehydrostatic stress-strain curve was calculated using Eq./52/.Experimental results were obtained by the useof surface wave transducers, which were

placed on two perpendicularly intersectingfaces of a polished aluminium block.



24

The past tense is also used in theintroduction to give historical

background or development in thefield of interest.

Technologists and craftspeople of earlycivilisations built huge objects. Algebra andtrigonometry were well understood andapplied during those early years. Constructionof the pyramids of Egypt and of Central and

South America required experience and thelabour of many people.I started my research at the beginning of thisterm.

The past tense is commonly used inacknowledgements.

The work, which led to this paper, was

sponsored by the Natural Sciences andEngineering Research Council of Canada. Thisfinancial support is greatly appreciated.

3.3.3 The present perfect

The present perfect tense expresses an action or condition that occurred at someindefinite time in the past. This tense also shows an action or condition that began inthe past and continues into the present. To form the present perfect tense, use has orhave with the past participle of a verb.

She has heard this song. (past indefinite action)They have remained at the hospital for three days. (action began in past,continues into present)

How is the present perfect used?

It is commonly used in theintroduction, particularly when youwant to recapitulate the state of theart and show what work has beendone and is still in progress.

Recent progress in materials science, thedevelopment of new sophisticated application-designed materials, and especially the uniquequalities of composite materials, have given arenewed interest in the problems arising whenseveral different material phases interact witheach other.This chapter has provided you with career

information that will help you decide whetheror not to pursue a technical degree.

3.3.4 What other tenses are used in scientific and technical writing?

Present Continuous

This can be found in reports on studiesor research, mainly in the introduction.You use it when you want to stress thatsomething is currently in progress or is

only temporary.

I am studying for a Ph.D. at BrnoUniversity of Technology.I am doing research into the problems ofindustrial waste.



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Past Perfect

This is not commonly used intechnical/scientific writing. However, itis the tense you would use if you wantto indicate that one action preceded

another action in the past.

The epoxy, a modified bisphenol that had

been mixed with an amido-amine hardener,was cast directly to the glass and cured atroom temperature for at least a week.

Future tense with willThis is not so frequently used as the

present and past tenses. Use it whenexplaining how you intend to presentinformation, give examples or describevisuals. It also indicates future events or

parts of your work that come later.

The following examples of convertingEnglish units will employ a techniqueknown as multiplying by the unit ratio.We will consider here the operatingenvironment.Item number I 'concrete' will be examined to clarify further the spreadsheet results.

Conditional

In technical and scientific writing, the

conditional is mainly used inacknowledgements:

The authors would like to acknowledge thesupport of the National Science Foundation

through Grant number CDR 589712.Both professionally and personally, I

should like to thank just some of the many people who have influenced this book.

3.3.5 Points to check in your writing

Within one paragraph, it is not usual to shift tenses unless there is a good reason to doso. The example below is the final paragraph of the introduction to a scientific paper.This paragraph:

summarises the purpose of the paper (in the past tense),

states the current state of development in the area of interest (present perfect),

indicates the aim of the paper (future tense), and

reports the results performed by the authors (past tense).

The purpose of the work presented here was to examine interfacial crackinitiation over a wide range of mode mixes. The analysis and development of asuitable specimen and biaxial device have already been described. This paperwill present the results and analysis of a series of experiments that were

conducted with various combinations of tensile and positive or negative shearloads.

When all verbs describe a sequence of actions or states, their tenses should be thesame. This is often the case in describing an experiment.

In the petroleum industry, one of the most widely used methods for enhancing production is the hydraulic fracturing process. The method involves packingoff a section of a borehole in the "pay zone" and hydraulically pressurizing ituntil the formation fractures. The fracture is then propagated by keeping the

borehole pressurized, typically by controlling the flow rate at the surface.



26

4 Scientific writing

4.1 Passive voice

Definition – The passive voice is a form in which the subject of a verb is the receiverof the action rather than the doer of the action being the subject.

Example

Active When did somebody invent television?

Passive When was television invented?

Explanation

The passive voice is used in scientific writing as the processes, reactions andmechanisms being reported are what the readers are interested in and not the personthat produced them.

The passive if formed by combining the verb ‗to be‘ and the past participle (-ed orirregular form) e.g. subject + ‗to be‘ (depending on tense) + past participle.

See section 2.7 for more information on passives.

Forms of “to be” (different tenses)

Tense Form of ‗to be‘

Present simple It is

Present continuous It is being

Past simple It was

Past continuous It was being

Past perfect It had been

Present perfect It has beenFuture (will) It will be

Future (going to) It is going to be

Future perfect It will have been



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Examples of active and passive forms

Active Passive

They* MAKE paper from wood pulp. Paper IS MADE from wood pulp.

Albert Einstein DEVELOPED the"Theory of Relativity".

The "Theory of Relativity" WASDEVELOPED by Albert Einstein.

They* IMPORT rubber from India. Rubber IS IMPORTED from India.

They* MAKE butter from milk. Butter IS MADE from milk.

Alexander Graham Bell INVENTED thetelephone in 1876.

The telephone WAS INVENTED byAlexander Graham Bell in 1876.

They* MAKE the 'fizz' in fizzy drinkswith carbon dioxide.

The 'fizz' in fizzy drinks IS MADE usingcarbon dioxide.

They* DROVE the first cars in Germanyin 1885.

The first cars WERE DRIVEN byGottleib Daimler and Karl Benz in 1893.

*When 'they' is used in these examples it does not refer to any person or group of people in particular.

4.2 Prefixes

Definition - Prefixes are small parts of words that are added to a word to change the

meaning. Prefixes are added to the beginning of a word.

Example

Prefix "happy" becomes "unhappy" when you add the prefix "un"("un-" means "not," so "unhappy" means "not happy")

Explanation

Prefixes:

are added to the beginning of words. can be added to nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

Chart of common negative and positive prefixes

Prefix Meaning Examples

Negative: anti- against antiglare, antistatic

de- reduce, reverse demagnetize, decode

dis- opposite feeling disagree



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dis- opposite action disconnect

il- not illegal

im- not impossible

in- not incomplete

ir- not irregular, irrelevant

mal- bad, wrong malfunction

mis- bad, wrong misdirect

non- not connected with non-programmable

un- not unmagnetized

under- too little underestimate

Positive: over- too much overload

re- do again reorganize

Chart of common prefixes of size


equi- equal equidistant

macro- large, great macroeconomics

mega- large, great megabyte

micro- very small microcomputer, microscopic

mini- small minicomputer

semi- half, partly semiconductor

Chart of common prefixes of location


ex- out exclude, extrinsic

extra- beyond extraordinary

infra- below infra-red

inter- between, among interface, interactive

mid- middle midbrain

peri- around peripheral, periscope



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sub- under subschema, subtraction

super- over supersonic

trans- across transmit, transfer

Chart of common prefixes of number


bi- two binary

cent- hundred centenarian

dec- ten decimal

hex- six hexadecimal

mono- one monochromatic

multi- many multiplexor, multicoloured

oct- eight octal

penta- five pentagon

poly- many polysaccharide

quad- four quadruple

semi- half semicircle

sept(em)- seven September

tri- three triangle

uni- one unicellular

Chart of common prefixes of time and order


ante- before antecedent

post- After postdated, post-natal

pre- before prefix, preceding, precedent

prime- First primary, primitive

retro- backward retrograde, retroactive



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Chart of other prefixes


a-, ab- without, away abiotic, abstinence

aqua-, hydro- water aquatic, hydrolytic

auto- self automatic

co- together with co-ordinate, co-operate

con- together with connect

geo- earth geology

hyper-, super- exceeding hypertension, superior

pro- before, in advance, forward programme, progress, procreation

vita- life vitalise

4.3 Suffixes

Definition - Suffixes are small parts of words that are added to a word to change themeaning. Suffixes are added to the end of a word.

Example

Suffix "paint" becomes "painter" when you add the suffix "-er"("-er" means "person who does something," so "painter" means "the

person who paints")

Explanation

Suffixes:

are added to the end of words. can be added to nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

Chart of noun-forming suffixes

Suffix Meaning Examples

-ance state performance

-dom domain/condition freedom

-ence quality of independence

-er, -or a person who programmer, operator, biographer



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-er, -or a thing which compiler, processor, calculator

-ian pertaining to electrician

-ing activity multiplexing

-ion action/state conversion

-ism condition/state magnetism

-ist, -yst a person who analyst, typist

-ity state, quality electricity

-ment state, action measurement, requirement

-ness condition of readiness, cleanliness, happiness

-ship condition/state relationship, partnership

-tion, -ation the act of compilation

Chart of verb-forming suffixes


-ate to make automate, activate, calculate

-en harden, widen, lengthen, shorten

-ify simplify

-ize/-ise computerize

Chart of adverb-forming suffixes


-ly in the manner of electronically, logically, comparably,slowly, quickly, automatically,carefully

Chart of adjective-forming suffixes


-able capable of being comparable

-al having the quality of computational, logical

-ar having the quality of circular, rectangular, cellular, regular

-ble capable of being divisible



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-ed having the quality of computed, processed

-ful characterized by helpful, careful

-ic having the quality of magnetic, automatic

-ical having the quality of electrical

-ish like yellowish

-ive having the quality of interactive

-less without careless, meaningless

-ous like, full of dangerous, insidious, miraculous

Chart of biological suffixes


-algia pain neuralgia

-ase designating, an enzyme amylase

-cidal killing bactericidal

-ectomy excision, cut away appendectomy

-gnosis knowledge, to know diagnosis

-gram record spirogram

-graph to write cardiograph

-itis inflammation appendicitis

-lysin, -lysis, -lytic

dissolve, destroy haemolysis

-lysis, lyso-, lyse- dissolve, destroy lysosome

-meter measure thermometer

-ology study of biology

-phyll leaf chlorophyll

-scope to view microscope

-sect to cut dissect

-sonic sound supersonic

-verse turn reverse



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4.4 Cause and effect linking words

Definition – Linking words are used to join to two sentences together. They are usedin scientific writing to indicate cause and effect of actions or in experiments. They canalso be used to compare ideas, contrast ideas and introduce examples.

Example

Conjunction I stayed at home, because it was raining

Transitions It was raining; therefore, I stayed at home.

Prepositions I stayed at home, due to the rain.

Explanation

Conjunctions and transitions are used to join two complete sentences (or independentclauses) together. See sections 1.16 and 7.7 for more information.

The most important conjunctions are ‗because‘, ‗as‘, ‗since‘ (which are used to

introduce a cause) and ‗so‘ (which introduces an effect). The most important

transitions are ‗therefore‘, ‗consequently‘ and ‗as a result‘ (which all introduce an

effect).

Prepositions are used to introduce a cause in the form of a noun phrase. See section1.14 for more information. The most important prepositions are ‗due to‘ and ‗because

of‘.

List of cause and effect linking words

Meaning Basic form and formal More formal Most formal

Additionalsofirst, second, third, etc.

additionally besidesfurtherfurthermorein addition

last but not leastnextnot only... butalsotoo

equally importantmoreover

similarly

Cause-effect

becausesincethentherefore

as a resultfor this reasonthus

accordinglyas a consequenceconsequentlyhence



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Comparison

alsoliketooas well

as well as both... andcompared toin the same waylikewise

neither... nor

by comparisonin common withsimilarlyin like manner

Contrasthowever

but

insteadneverthelesson the other hand

converselyin contrast toin opposition toon the contraryotherwisestillwhereasalthougheven though

Time

after a whileafter thatalsoat lastcurrentlyearliereventuallyfinallyfirst, second, third, etc.in the future

in the pastlastnextnow

afterwardat the same timeformerlyimmediatelyin the meantimelater

concurrently previouslysimultaneouslysubsequently

Example for examplefor instancein other words

as an exampleas an illustrationto exemplify

Summary-conclusion

finallytherefore

after all

all in allat last brieflyconsequentlylaston the wholethus

accordinglyas a consequence

in briefin closingin conclusionin shortto sum upin summaryto concludeto summarize



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4.5 Systems and processes

Definition - In scientific writing you often have to describe how something works orhow to perform an experiment. You need to describe the systems and processed thatyou used to obtain your results.

Example

You have to turn the computer on.After that you have to load your work.Before you can continue your work.

Explanation

When describing systems and processes you might have to explain:

Sequences Purpose (why to do something) Classification Examples Instructions General truths (an action will give such a result) Warnings

List of words for describing sequences

Sequencers Explaining Purpose Classifying

First (ly)...Second (ly)...Then ...

Next...After that...Having (previously)

been...At the same time...SimultaneouslyLastly...Finally...Before…

to...in order to....so that...in order that...

because

There are two types/kinds/sortsof.........can divided into 3types/categories....comes into the first category

Giving examples

For example

Take...for instance...such as...



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Examples of sentences for giving instructions, general truths and warnings

Instructions Use modal verbs You have to… (it's necessary to)

You mustn't… (it's wrong to)

You needn't… (it isn't necessary to)

You don't have to… (it isn't necessaryto)

Generaltruths

ACTION.......RESULTZERO Conditional Tense:IF + DOES (present simple),…… DO (present simple)

IF you press this key, the computer prints out the readingIF you open the door, the power isautomatically cut off

Warnings BE CAREFUL!!FIRST Conditional Tense:IF + DOES (present simple),

…… WILL DO (future)

IF you press this key by mistake, youWILL lose all the dataIF you don't wear goggles, chemical

drops MIGHT get in your eyes duringthe experiment.

4.6 Style

When publishing in English you need to take account of the general rules which have become accepted as the norm in academic communication. In writing technical andscientific papers in particular, you should aim to achieve objectivity, clarity and

precision. In addition, there are conventions governing the use of formal patterns,though the need to establish rapport with your audience and to make your writing

reader-friendly has an influence on determining your selection of formal or informallanguage phrases.

4.6.1 Objectivity

Objectivity is generally governed by the research topic although obviously it isindividuals who actually have to select, arrange and present their findings. Thus it isyour task, as the writer, to deal with your topic in a fair, objective and responsiblemanner, keeping your personal feelings out of your writing.

From a language point of view, objectivity and a neutral approach (impersonal style)may be achieved by using the passive voice and by avoiding ambiguous statements.Avoidance of confusing metaphoric elements, use of precise and well-establishedtechnical terms may add to effective writing and help to produce explicitness ofstandard academic description.

Using the passive voice in impersonal writing

Scientific writing is usually done in an impersonal style. Information and facts aremore important than personal opinions or attitudes. This style is also used to put acertain distance between the writer and the arguments proposed and thus makes them

more objective.



37

Personal/informal Impersonal/formal

We can distinguish limits to other

technical systems by

Limits to other technical systems can be

distinguished by…

In the present article I want to… The present article is intended to

contribute…

We tested thirteen SGS models… Thirteen SGS models were tested…

…and as a result we selected the superiorvariants…

…and as a result, the superior variants

were selected…

I assume that… It is assumed that…

The authors consider these results to be…

These results are considered to be…

Because we want to evaluate… In order to evaluate…

4.6.2 Clarity

Simplicity of text and of text composition are important prerequisites to readability.You should always try to write in a plain, clear and straightforward manner. Overlongsentences or lengthy chains of clauses and groups of words can easily prevent yourreader from understanding what you want to say. As a rule, you should not add morethan 2 to 3 clauses of any sort to form one sentence. Repeating words, signposting andusing linking devices which help the reader to connect and relate information areuseful ways of achieving clarity and readability.

Example paragraphs

1) The following overlong sentence is almost unintelligible:

Axis-boundary conditions for the SGS stresses in case of scale similarity andmixed-type models are specified in terms of GS velocities at the axis so as to

be compatible in the statistical mean with expressions for the axis valuesof...following from the kinematics of homogeneous axis symmetricturbulences as well as from the statistically averaged dynamic equations forthe GS velocity field taking into account statistically steady and homogeneousflow conditions.

This can be re-written, as below, in order to make the meaning clearer. The text isdivided into three shorter sentences and linking words and phrases added.

Axis-boundary conditions for the SGS stresses in case of scale similarity andmixed-type models are specified in terms of GS velocities at the axis. This isdone so that they are compatible in the statistical means...for the GS velocityfield. Statistically steady and homogeneous flow conditions are also taken intoaccount.



38

2) In the following paragraph, notice the use of the linking phrases, or semanticmarkers (in bold), which have been used in order to shorten sentences and make themunderstood more easily, thus improving readability:

In the first of this two-paper sequence, a highly automated method for

generating reduced-order dynamic macro models for electrostatically MEMSdevices was presented. The approach was to use selected linear elastic modesof the device as basic functions, and to express the kinetic and potential energyin terms of basis-function amplitudes and their time derivatives. It was

demonstrated that this procedure could, indeed, be executed nearlyautomatically, requiring only a few inputs from the designer to select

parameters for the macro model. However, while the procedure works well fornonlinearities produced outside the electric body, such as the non-linearelectrostatic force between the plates of a parallel-plate capacitor with one

plate being flexible, it fails to capture the correct mechanical structuralstiffness when the deflections become comparable to a typical thickness. This

effect is generally referred to as...

Expressing your ideas concisely

Being concise in your writing means expressing your ideas in as few words as possible. This involves not repeating what you say, cutting out irrelevant details andavoiding redundancy, that is, the use of unnecessary words. If your sentences are too'wordy', they are difficult for the reader to understand.

‗Wordy‘ sentences More concise sentences

We continued our activities in thedevelopment of new protocols for groupcommunication.

We have developed new protocols forgroup communications.

The different materials that contribute toan environmental impact havequantitatively different potentialenvironmental effects.

Different materials have differentenvironmental impacts.

4.6.3 Formality

Academic writing follows certain rules of formality which non-native writers shouldnot violate without very good reasons.

Colloquial words and expressions

Colloquial words and expressions are language items that are used in spoken andinformal English. They might have different meanings when used by different groupsof people or might be local/regional words that would not be understood by themajority of English speakers. They should not be used in scientific writing. Theywould include words such as:

stuff, a lot of, thing, sort of



39

Contracted verb forms

These are the representations in writing of verb forms normal in speech; a letter in theverb has been omitted, as indicated by an apostrophe. These contractions should beavoided in academic writing.

Wrong This is a problem of linear algebra which won`t be discussed here.

Correct This is a problem of linear algebra which will not be discussed here.

It is true that nowadays contracted verb forms can be found in scientific publicationsas they are increasingly regarded as a way of producing informality, thus creatingcommunication with the audience. However, as a general principle, contractions arestill not acceptable in technical-scientific papers and should be written out in full.

Use of the first person pronoun

It is normal practice to avoid using the personal pronoun "I" in scientific articles.Instead, "we" or "the team" are preferred. Some kind of switching between thedifferent forms may nevertheless be appropriate in order to make the reader moreinvolved in the argumentation. The switch from "we" or impersonal forms to "I" mayhelp to establish the sometimes more desirable informal relationship with the reader.

Examples of formal and informal words

It is often the case that formal words are longer than informal words, formal words aresingle words not multi-words and formal words are of French/Latin origin rather thantheir informal equivalents which are of Anglo-Saxon origin.

For example: "depart" is from French/Latin but "go" is Anglo-Saxon.



40

Formal Informal Formal Informal

amiable friendly initially at first

appear seem insane mad

ascend climb intermittently on and offassist help obtain get

cease stop opportunity chance

commence begin perspiration sweat

complete whole preserve keep

comprehension understanding principally mainly

consume use reject say no

decrease shorten relaxed laid back

deficiency lack release free

demonstrate show repair mend

depart go repeatedly again and again

desire want require need

energetic lively reside live

enquire ask residence house

finally in the end responsible in charge

finish end retain keepfortunate lucky subsequently next

immature childish sufficient enough

immediately at once superior better

incorrect wrong therefore so

indistinct dim transparent clear

inexpensive cheap vacant empty

inferior worse vision sight

inform tell



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4.6.4 Hedging

What is hedging?

Hedging means not making blunt, absolute or categorical statements; it means

avoiding over- generalisations; it means toning down the positiveness of yourstatements to allow for others to disagree with them.

Why is hedging important in scientific writing?

Authors of scientific articles generally write in an impersonal style in order to soundmore objective and convincing. They also want to avoid showing their personalattitude to their subject or an over-strong commitment to a particular conclusion, sohedging what they say is a way of accomplishing this. It thus involves not expressingthe truth of a claim too strongly.Too direct and straightforward argumentation may give the impression of over-

confidence and this could puzzle some readers, particularly British or Asian ones whomay consider it offensive.

What techniques can I use for hedging?

In order to avoid over generalising (especially in experimental descriptions) or toavoid being too critical or direct, there are a number of hedging phrases and othertechniques that can be used to help establish better communication and rapport withthe reader. These hedging devices are found quite frequently in introductions andconclusions.

Use of first person pronouns

It is best for writers to avoid describing their findings in the first person I / me / my,since normally these pronouns would only be used by famous and importantresearchers or representatives of schools. In general, structures with we / us / our are

preferred. This also has a rhetorical function: it implies the inclusion of the author as aco-member of a group. Thus if you want to state whether you are able to present

positive, successful results or not, you can say: We do not yet know...

Using tentative verb forms

Statements that are too direct or over-positive can be softened as in these examples:

Over-positive statement Hedged statement

The investigations of the present workcontribute to the model and filtercomponents of LES…

The investigations of the present workare intended as a contribution to themodel and filter components of LES…

We propose a methodologicalapproach…

We would therefore propose…

The use of equivalence factors for

ecotoxic effect should be rejected…

It is better for the use of equivalence

factors for ecotoxic effect to beavoided



42

Different variants of the disposalstructures must be transferred incomputer-aided modes…

It is recommended that different variantsof the disposal structures be transferred incomputer-aided modes...

Particularly useful verbs for hedging are seem to, appear to, tend to, as in these phrases:

Our data seem / appear to demonstrate that

indicate that

suggest that …

imply that

Our data do not appear to confirm that

Our data tend to support the hypothesis that …

Using modal verbs

Many modal verbs indicate tentativeness or a lack of certainty and can therefore beused to soften what you want to say. Particularly useful modal verbs for this are can /could / may / might / would.

Direct sentence Hedged sentence

It will be of interest to compose It might be of interest to compose

These findings suggest the followinginterpretation

These findings would / might / could suggest the following interpretation

X is due to Y X might / could be due to Y

Our data are expected to show Our data would be expected to show

From these results we conclude From these results we may conclude

This assumption also explains why This assumption may also help to explain

why

The present model is particularly useful

...

The present model should be particularly

useful

Finally, the insecurities of the evaluationhave to be discussed.

As a final step, the insecurities of theevaluation will need to be discussed.

Using adverbs

Using certain adverbs of degree and attitudinal adverbs can be used to soften whatyou say. They are especially useful when making generalisations, circumventinggiving exact numerical data (when necessary) or avoiding making a claim for absolutetruth.



43

Looking for oval pieces from the past, we found a long list but certainly thereare more examples…

Other modifying expressions:

a little, rather, somewhat, almost, nearly, quite, approximately, about



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5 Poster presentations

5.1 What is a scientific poster?

Posters are a special type of presentation. When well designed, they are not simply journal papers pasted onto boards. Nor are they mounted sets of presentation visuals.Rather, posters, when effectively designed, are something in between.

The purpose of scientific posters is to present work to an audience who is walkingthrough a hallway or exhibit. In poster presentations at conferences, the presenterusually stands next to the poster, thus allowing for passers-by to engage in one-on-onediscussions with the presenter. In other situations such as the hallways of laboratories,universities, and corporations, posters are stand-alone presentations for passers-by.For a poster to communicate the work, the poster first has to orient an audience that isnot seated, but that is standing. Often the audience has distractions of noise and

movement from other people.

First, the title of an effective poster should quickly orient the audience.

Here are some guidelines for poster titles:

Make the title the most prominent block of text on the poster.

Do not typeset the title in all capital letters (such text is difficult to read).

Use small words such as of, from, with, to, the, a, an, and and to separatedetails in the title.

While phrase titles are most common, some scientists and engineers effectively usesentence titles for posters that present one main result.

Second, the poster should quickly orient the audience to the subject and purpose.

One good test is whether the audience recognizes the subject and purpose within 20seconds of seeing the poster. Usually, a poster accomplishes this goal with a well-crafted title and with supporting images. Also, make sure that the type is large enoughto be read and that enough contrast exists between the colour of the type and poster's

background.

Third, the specific sections such as the results should be easy to locate on the

poster.

Once readers recognize what the work is, they decide how much energy to invest intothe poster. For instance, many will read only the motivation for the work, theobjectives (or goals) of the work, and then the final results. Others, who have a deepinterest in the topic, will try to read the poster from beginning to end. Given thesedifferent approaches to reading posters, another characteristic of an effective poster isthat specific sections are easy to locate.



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Fourth, you should design the individual sections of a poster so that they can be

quickly read.

The poster should not contain large blocks of text. Neither should the poster containlong sentences. If possible, the sections should rely on images: photographs,

drawings, and graphs.

5.2 How to make your poster

General format

Determine the one essential concept you would like to get across to theaudience.

Determine the size of the poster.

Preparing a poster will take as much time as you let it.Allocate your time wisely. If you have little experiencemaking posters, it will take longer.

A good way to start: Sketch it out!

Make a sketch of the poster. Arrange the contents in a series of columns.



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Place the elements of the poster in position:

The title will appear across the top. A brief introduction will appear at the upper left. The conclusions will appear at the lower right.

Methods and Results will fill the remaining space.

The Title

This part of the poster includes the title of the work, the authors‘ names, & theinstitutional affiliations. Think BIG!

The title should be readable from 15 - 20 feet away. If space permits, use first names for authors to facilitate interactions. Use abbreviations where possible.

Sequencing contents

A poster should use photos, figures, and tables to tell the story of the study. Forclarity, present the information in a sequence that is easy to follow:

Determine a logical sequence for the material you will be presenting. Organize that material into sections, e.g., Introduction, Methods, Results,

Discussion, Conclusions, &, if necessary, Literature Cited. (Avoid using toomany citations. If only a few are used, a literature cited section is unnecessary.Instead, cite as follows in the text: Clinton, B. 1993. Auk 107:234-246.).

You may wish to use numbers to help sequence sections of the poster. Arrange the material into columns. The poster should not rely upon your verbal explanation to link together the

various portions.



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Edit Ruthlessly! - There is almost always too much text in a poster.



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1. Posters primarily are visual presentations; the text should support the graphics.

2. Look critically at the layout. Some poster 'experts' suggest that if there is about 20-25% text, 40-45% graphics and 30-40% empty space, you are doing well.

3. Delete all redundant references and filler phrases.

4. An abstract may not be necessary. If you've kept the amount of text on your poster to a minimum, an abstract is likely redundant.

The poster is not a publication of record, so excessive detail about methods, or vast

tables of data are not necessary. Such material can be discussed with interested persons individually during or after the session, or presented in a handout.



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Illustrations

The success of a poster directly relates to the clarity of the illustrations and tables.

Self-explanatory graphics should dominate the poster.

A minimal amount of text should supplement the graphic materials. Use empty space between poster elements to differentiate and accentuate these

elements. Graphic materials should be visible easily from a minimum distance of 6 feet. Restrained use of 2 - 3 colours for emphasis is valuable; overuse is not.

Show no mercy when editing visual materials!

Use short sentences, simple words, and bullets to illustrate discrete points. Remove all non-essential information from graphs and tables. Lines in illustrations should be larger than normal. Use contrast and colours

for emphasis. Use colours to distinguish different data groups in graphs. Avoid using

patterns or open bars in histograms.

Poster text

Double-space all text, using left-justification; text with even left sides and jagged rightsides is easiest to read. The text should be large enough to be read easily from at least6 feet away.



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For section headings (e.g., Introduction), use bold, maybe a font size of about 36-42.For supporting text (e.g., text within each section & figure captions), use font sizes ofabout 24-28 (bold, if appropriate). In general, use font sizes proportional toimportance:

Largest font size- Title Next largest font size - Section headings Medium font size - Supporting material Smallest font size - Details

Keep in mind that san serif fonts are easiest to read. Choose one font and then use itthroughout the poster. Add emphasis by using bold, underlining, or colour; italics aredifficult to read. .



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The Poster's Background

The choice of a background colour is up to you. However, softer colours (pastels &greys) may work best as a background - they are easiest to view for hours at a time,and offer the best contrast for text, graphic, and photographic elements.

Miscellaneous comments

Because a poster is a visual presentation, try to find ways to show what wasdone - use schematic diagrams, arrows, and other strategies to direct the visualattention of the viewer, rather than explaining it all using text alone (i.e., likethe poster with way too much text below).

Design the poster to address one central question. State the question clearly inthe poster, then use your discussion time with individuals to expand orexpound upon issues surrounding that central theme.

Provide an explicit take-home message. Summarize implications and conclusions briefly, and in user-friendly

language. Give credit where it is due. Have an acknowledgments section, in smaller font

size (maybe 14 - 18 point), where you acknowledge contributors and fundingorganizations. Vary the size and spacing of the poster sections to add visual interest, but do

so in moderation. Do not wander too far away from your poster during the session; be available

for discussion!



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Appendix 1 – Newspaper passages

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Food scraps and farm waste to be chewed up to create energyAdapted from Lewis Smith environment reporter – The Times – February 17, 2009

Plans to build more than 1,000 anaerobic digesters to turn unwanted food and farmwaste into energy and fertiliser will be unveiled today. Anaerobic digesters breakdown organic waste naturally into a solid that can be used as fertiliser and a gas thatcan be burnt to generate heat and electricity.

Jane Kennedy, the Environment Minister, will declare anaerobic digesters thesolution to organic waste. She will also launch a task group with instructions to

identify how many should be installed by other sectors, such as the water industry, tomake anaerobic digestion ―a major source of renewable energy‖.

Other countries, notably Germany, have made widespread use of anaerobic digesters,and ministers are anxious to increase the number in Britain to reduce pressure onlandfill sites and to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Farms produce 90 million tonnesof waste, including manure and slurry, while a further 12 to 20 million tonnes ofwasted food and food scraps go into landfill after being thrown away by households,

businesses, restaurants and hotels.

Ms Kennedy hopes that an agreement with the National Farmers‘ Union and other

representatives of the agriculture sector will lead to the use of 1,000 anaerobicdigesters by 2020. At present there are estimated to be about 20. The digesters areexpected to make many farms self-sufficient in electricity. Any excess could be

passed on to the national grid.

The water industry, which has to deal with 1.73 million tonnes of sewage sludgeannually, is also likely to find a use for digesters. Similarly, ministers will expect

businesses and local authorities to increase the quantity of food waste that goes intothem. Ms Kennedy will point out that if all the organic waste in Britain wererecycled in this way, enough energy would be generated to provide two millionhomes with heat and electricity.



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Newspaper passage 2

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Drinking tea reduces risk of stroke

Drinking three or more cups of tea a day may significantly reduce the chances

of having a stroke, scientists claim.

Adapted from Richard Alleyne science correspondent – The Daily Telegraph – February 25, 2009

At least three cups of Indian or Chinese tea reduces the risk of a stroke by more thana fifth, according to researchers. A major study carried out by scientists at theUniversity of California in Los Angeles found that tea could well be a powerfulweapon in the fight against strokes.

"By drinking three cups of tea a day, the risk of a stroke was reduced 21 per cent,"said Dr Lenore Arab, professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine.

Dr. Sadat Shamim, a neurologist at Baylor University Medical Centre in Dallas,added: "We're getting more hard proof that this does change things, and it doesreduce the risk."

Researchers say it appears black tea and green tea have similar beneficial effects andare effective because they contain cell protecting anti-oxidants., which are usuallyassociated with fruit and vegetables and red wine.

"Right now, we believe that it's the antioxidants that are in the tea," Dr Shamim said.

More research is needed to determine exactly how tea affects the body, but DrShamim said doctors believe the compounds in tea may reduce damage to bloodvessels. Tea has several other advantages because it has no side effects, isinexpensive and is easily available.

Prof Arab said the effect was found in tea made from the plant Camellia sinensis, notherbs. Researchers speculate that the antioxidant epigallocatechin gallate or theamino acid Theatine in teas may be what helps.

Joanne Murphy, Medical Research Liaison Officer for The Stroke Association, said:

"We have known for sometime that antioxidants found in certain food and drink canhelp in the prevention of stroke and this research certainly furthers this thought.

"However, excess caffeine intake is believed to contribute to high blood pressure, thesingle biggest risk factor for stroke. Therefore we recommend moderate consumptionof tea as part of a health balance diet to help reduce the risk of stroke."



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Britain's rarest spider saved from the brink of extinction

Ladybird spiders, Britain's rarest and most colourful spider, has been saved

from extinction following a successful conservation programme.

Adapted from Louise Gray environment correspondent – The Daily Telegraph – February 13, 2009

The tiny spider was once a common sight on British heathland but by the early 90sthere were hardly any of the insects left because of loss of habitat to development.On the only remaining area where the species survived on a Dorset heathland therewere thought to be just 56 spiders left.

Natural England, the Government agency in charge of conservation, took action by breeding the spiders in captivity and releasing them onto heathland around the south

of the country, including Ministry of Defence land.

The latest count has revealed that the Ladybird spiders, so named for the male's redhot markings during the mating season, has soared twentyfold in just 15 years. Acount last year in the areas where the animals were reintroduced reported 1,000active animals.

Dr Helen Phillips, chief executive of Natural England, said the successful programme gave hope to other species under threat in the UK.

She said: "Heathland habitats have become increasingly fragmented and degraded inrecent decades, placing the fate of many of our species in the balance. There isnothing inevitable about this and no reason why we should simply accept

biodiversity loss as an unfortunate price of 21st century life. The success of theLadybird spider recovery programme shows what can be done and we are delightedat the very hopeful signs that England's most elusive spider is on the road torecovery."



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Ladybird spider creeps back from brink of extinction

Adapted from Lewis Smith environment reporter - The Times - February 16, 2009

The ladybird spider has been dragged back from the point of extinction in Britain,naturalists claim.

There were only 56 of the spiders in Britain, living on heathland in Dorset, when a breeding and reintroduction programme began more than a decade ago. The numberof ladybird spiders in the wild is now thought to be more than 1,000 and HelenPhillips, chief executive of Natural England, said there were grounds for optimismthat numbers would continue to increase. ―The success of this project marks a vital

win for the biodiversity of our important heathland habitats,‖ she added.

Loss of heathland to agriculture and other developments is believed to be the primecause of the spider‘s decline. Habitat conservation played a major part in thereintroduction programme.

The spider is so called because during the breeding season the male‘s abdomen turns

red with black spots.



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Did life begin on Earth more than once, ask scientists

Adapted from Ian Sample Science correspondent – The Guardian – February 15, 2009

Scientists have called for a "mission to Earth" to hunt for evidence of a secondgenesis that gave rise to life, but not as we know it.

The variety of life on Earth is widely considered to have evolved from a singlecommon ancestor, but it is possible that basic organisms emerged more than once,leading to multiple trees of life.

Paul Davies at Arizona State University told the American Association for theAdvancement of Science meeting in Chicago that scientists should explore unusualenvironmental nooks and crannies on the planet and look for micro-organisms thatthrive there. Any that live outside the boundaries of "normal" life could have evolvedindependently, he said.

"We must be open to the possibility that there's more than one tree of life," Daviessaid. "I'm not talking about mysterious shadow beings that we can't see, but themicrobial realm could contain denizens of second or subsequent genesis."

Microbes account for the vast majority of life on Earth and most have never beencharacterised or had their genetic make-up analysed. But finding out if any of thesemay have emerged separately will be difficult, because all of the techniques

biologists use only work for life that uses the biochemistry we are already familiarwith.

"We could be surrounded by little microbes intermingled with known life and becompletely unaware of the fact that these could be an alternative form of life,"Davies said.

If life did emerge more than once on Earth, the organisms might live in deep seavents, or in environments that are rich in arsenic, which would be highly toxic tonormal life. Unusual life forms could use arsenic the same way our own bodies andother organisms use the element phosphorus.

"If we could find an alternative form of life, and be sure it wasn't some bizarre new branch on the main tree of life, then we would have established this idea of a cosmicimperative that life will emerge wherever there are Earth-like conditions. I think thatwould be the biggest discovery in biology since Darwin. It would at a stroke showwe live in a universe that's intrinsically bio-friendly and one in which we are notalone," Davies said.



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Fish with four eyes can see through the deep sea gloom

Adapted from Lewis Smith environment reporter – The Times – January 8, 2009

A bizarre ―four -eyed‖ fish has been found to use a unique system of mirrors to protect itself from being eaten in the dark depths of the sea.

The brownsnout spookfish has been identified as the only backboned creature knownto use mirrors rather than lenses to get images into focus. The mirrors allow the fishto detect flashes of light made by creatures in the deep in more detail than would beachieved by eyes with lenses, giving it an early warning of predators.

Mirrors are better at providing focused images in the deep sea because they are moreefficient in the low light levels and they avoid imperfections in images created bylenses.

The brownsnout spookfish, Dolichopteryx longipes, has ordinary eyes with lenses pointing upwards, but alongside them are downward-looking eyes fitted with tinymirrored plates. The plates, thought to be made of guanine crystals, are arranged sothat the light entering the eye is reflected to a focused point on the retina, allowingthe fish to see what lurks below it.

―In nearly 500 million years of vertebrate evolution, and many thousands of

vertebrate species living and dead, this is the only one known to have solved the

fundamental optical problem faced by all eyes — how to make an image — using amirror,‖ said Professor Julian Partridge, of the University of Bristol. ―It‘s an

extraordinary animal. It is absolutely unique for a vertebrate. With mirrors it canmake a very bright, high-contrast image.‖

The mirrors are thought to be more efficient in the dark because they reflect more ofthe available light into the retina, whereas lenses absorb small quantities as the light

passes through them.

The mirror eyes are used to see bioluminescent light created by marine animalssignalling to each other or trying to lure prey.

Brownsnout spookfish were discovered 120 years ago but little was known aboutthem until one was pulled up from 2,000-2,600ft (600-800m) during a scientifictrawl in the Tonga Trench in the southern Pacific 18 months ago. It was the first livespecimen to be studied by researchers.



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Nearly a billion people go hungry every day – can GM crops help

feed them?

Adapted from Ian Sample, science correspondent – The Guardian – January 23, 2009

The Science Museum in London is running an exhibition until the end of May calledFuture Foods. It attempts to give a balanced view of the pros and cons of geneticallymodified crops.

The panel of experts included Bob Watson, the chief scientist at the Department forEnvironment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). He was joined by Tim Lang, professorof food policy at City University in London. Rodomiro Ortiz, director of resourcemobilisation at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre in Mexico,completed the panel.

Tim Lang spoke first and stressed that our way of producing food has to change fromthe post-1940s push for quantity. Yes, of course quantity is still important, he said,

but water usage, environmental impact and nutritional content have to be considerednow more than ever. Tim doesn't see GM as a technical fix that will put food in themouths of the hungry. He called for public ownership of GM technology, with thetransparency and distribution of benefits that comes with it.

Rodomiro spoke next, describing the work his organisation is doing to geneticallymodify wheat to grow under drought conditions. The crops are in trials at the

moment and if they are a success, similar strains of rice, maize and barley could benext.Bob Watson spoke last. He began by explaining that today the amount of foodavailable per capita has never been higher, how costs are still low, and yet stillaround 900m people go to bed hungry every night.

The major problem, said Watson, is not one that GM crops will solve. He stressedthe need for good roads to get crops to markets, and simple technologies that willhelp reduce post-harvest losses in Africa, which currently stand at between 30 and40%. "GM is a totally oversold technique," he said.

The debate that followed covered some interesting ground. How can we ensure GMfoods are safe when some countries do not have sufficient procedures for testing andevaluating any health issues? How do you ensure that farmers in the developingworld can plant higher-yielding GM crops without becoming dangerously reliantupon a company that has the power to hike prices or withdraw seeds without notice?

Though GM crops are common in many parts of the world now, they are still absentfrom the UK. Sir David King, the government's former chief scientist, said last yearthat Africa's ills are largely down to Western do-gooders who oppose GM in favourof organic food. He argued that organic food is a luxury Africa cannot afford andthat modern agricultural technology is needed urgently.



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Genetically modified grass 'escapes into the wildAdapted from SEAN POULTER – The Daily Mail - 09 August 2006

A genetically modified grass created in the USA for golf courses has 'escaped' intothe wild, threatening to create super-weeds.

The grass has been altered in the laboratory to give it an immunity to spraying withthe powerful weedkiller, Round-up. It is one of a number of second-generation GM

plants created by the powerful biotech industry to convince the public of the benefitsof the controversial technology. The point of the modification is to allow golf clubsto spray their fairways and greens so that weeds are killed off but the grass remainsgreen, strong and perfectly manicured. However, there are concerns that the escapeof this strain of grass into the wild will fundamentally effect the natural balance ofthe countryside. While it could, in theory, transfer its chemical resistance to wild

cousins creating super-weeds that could dominate vast areas.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is so concerned it is running its first fullenvironmental impact assessment of a GM plant. The plant called creeping bentgrass(Agrostis stolonifera) carries a bacterial gene protecting it from the weedkillerglyphosate, which is marketed under the name of Roundup. It has been created bythe Ohio-based firm Scotts in partnership with the US GM giant Monsanto.However, a team from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has foundthat GM pollen from the grass has contaminated a vast area around a test growingsite in Oregon. The team, lead by Dr Jay Reichman, found nine GM plants among20,400 plants sampled within a three mile radius of the test site. At least one of thesewas 2.5 miles away.

Bentgrass is a perennial so once in the wild it regrows year after year. It has manyrelatives in the US with which it can cross-breed or hybridise, potentially passing onthe glyphosate-resistance gene to other species. This, in theory, could see thecreation of so-called super-weeds which cannot be killed with conventionalweedkillers. If it were to reach environmentally sensitive wildernesses or establishesitself by waterways, it might be necessary to use highly toxic weedkillers to removeit. Dr Reichman, whose study will appear in the October issue of Molecular Ecology,said: 'It's a cautionary tale of what could happen with other GM plants that could be

of greater concern. 'I suspect more examples of this will show up.' A spokeswomanfor the US Department of Agriculture's Biotechnology Regulatory Services, said:'This is a perennial and has wild and weedy relatives and it's something we think weneed to know the environmental impact of before it's deregulated.'

While GM technology has been widely opposed in Britain, Europe and many other parts of the world, its introduction in the USA has been largely without controversy.Dr Baack said: 'I don't think people will worry about lawns and golf courses ifthey've not shown any worries already about GM food.'



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Appendix 2 – Short comprehension passages

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Genetically modified microbes will lead to a revolution in industrial

biotechnology

Adapted from The Economist, May 1st, 2004

Craig Venter, the man who led the privately funded project to sequence the humangenome, is someone who likes to mix business with pleasure. And, for a geneticistwhose passion is sailing, there can be few more satisfying ways of doing so thansampling genes in the Sargasso sea, near Bermuda. The samples he took there weresurprising. The sea had looked as though it was the oceanic equivalent of a desert,without nutrients, and with little life apart from the Sargassum weed that gives thesea its name. But when Dr Ventner ran his sample through his newly developedmethod for sequencing the DNA of an entire environment, some 1.2 million newgenes turned up from an estimated 1,800 species of a microbe previously unknownto science. An apparently empty sea was abounding with bacterial life.Such newly discovered genes are the raw material for the new, but rapidlydeveloping field that makes useful chemicals via genetically modified organisms. Itis part of what is known as industrial biotechnology, where cells from animals, plantsand bacteria are used to generate industrially useful products. The Sargosso results,outlined last week to the World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology andBioprocessing, in Orlando Florida, by Dr Venter‘s colleague Karin Remington,

suggest that there are a lot of useful raw materials to be found.

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Animal Farming and the Environment

Large numbers of farm animals, requiring huge quantities of feed (grown on vastareas of land using massive inputs of water, energy, fertilisers and pesticides),

produce enormous amounts of waste, causing serious pollution and environmentaldegradation. A range of solutions are suggested: The most compassionate approachto agriculture may be what we, at the Hudson Institute, call ―high-yieldconservation‖ – higher yield crops; higher yield pigs, chickens and cattle; higherefficiency irrigation, and higher yield tree plantations. . . Biotechnology seems to bethe most promising way to ease land conflict between people and wildlife in the 21stcentury. (Dennis Avery, The Hudson Institute)

In the UK and Europe, the way forward must be to encourage extensive animalfarming and mixed farming and to make environmental protection and animalwelfare a priority. This requires the end of subsidies that encourage high stockingdensities and overproduction and their replacement with subsidies forenvironmentally friendly methods of farming. (Compassion in World Farming Trust)We can adapt by moving down the food chain: eating foods that use less water andland, and that cause far less pollution, than meat production does. In the long run, wecan lose our memory of eating animals, and we will discover the intrinsicsatisfactions of a diverse plant-based diet, as millions of people already have. The eraof mass-produced animal flesh, and its unsustainable costs to human andenvironmental health should be over before the (21st) century is out. (Ed Ayres, The

Worldwatch Institute)



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EU puts ban on poultry imports from Thailand

Adapted from Tobias Buck - The Financial Times- January 24/25, 2004

The European Union yesterday banned chicken imports from Thailand, in an attempt

to stop the recent outbreak of avian influenza from spreading to Europe.Though the highly contagious disease, better known as bird flu, poses only a smallrisk to human health, Brussels fears that the disease could yet again devastate poultryfarms in the Union.The speedy reaction, coming on the same day that Thai authorities confirmed thattwo children had contracted the disease and a chicken butcher had died from

pneumonia, reflects the deep concerns of European consumers, who have over the past decade had to grapple with a string of food scares and animal health scandals.Thaksin Shinawatra, Thai prime minister, shrugged off the bans, saying they wouldhave only a ―trivial‖ impact on exports, which he expects to help the economy to

grow 8 per cent this year. ―Gross domestic product will be hit by only 0.1 per cent

and exports will be hit by 0.4 per cent,‖ he said. Yesterday‘s EU decision also comes less than a year after the last European bird flu

epidemic that mainly hit farms in the Netherlands, as well as in parts of Germanyand Belgium. In a desperate attempt to contain the disease, the Dutch at the timeordered the slaughter of more than 30m birds, equivalent to about one in three Dutchchickens.

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Fighting hunger today could help prevent obesity tomorrow

Reducing hunger and undernourishment in pregnant women and children could prevent them from becoming overweight and obese, and reduce associated healthcosts, in later life, according to a study released by the UN Food and AgricultureOrganization (FAO).The study pulls together a growing body of empirical evidence that suggests thathunger during pregnancy, ―programmes‖ foetal tissues to get the most out of the

food energy available, leading to overnourishment in adult life when coupled withgreater food availability and a more sedentary lifestyle.Many developing countries are currently facing this situation and the impact on theirhealth situation could be dramatic. Hunger today and more food availabilitytomorrow will mean that many will shift from hunger to obesity and become

vulnerable to one of the related non-communicable diseases (NCD‘s), such asdiabetes and coronary heart disease.Diets today, and in the forseeable future, do not comply with dietaryrecommendations made by a consultation of health experts convened by FAO andthe World Health Organization (WHO) last year. For example, the study says, 36

percent of all countries in the world already have populations consuming above therecommended maximum level of 300 milligrams per person a day of cholesterol,more than twice the rate of the early 1960s.Likewise, 34 percent of all countries exceed the 30% threshold of fat in the diet,compared to 18% forty years ago.



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Appendix 3 – Long comprehension passages

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Zoologger: The sharpest mind in the farmyard New Scientist – 09 February 2011 by Michael Marshall

Species: Ovis ariesHabitat: farms all around the world – a world that they secretly run.When we look for examples of intelligent animals, certain species always leap to mind. Ourselves ofcourse, and our close relatives the chimpanzees and other primates. Perhaps the cunning corvids – crows and scrub jays – with their prodigious memories and talent for deception. Dolphins and whalesare pretty bright. Many would even agree that there is a sort of intelligence governing the behaviour ofsocial insects like ants.But sheep? Sheep are just thick.Except that they aren't. Over the past few decades, evidence has quietly built up that sheep are anything

but stupid. It now turns out that the humble domestic sheep can pass a psychological test that monkeysstruggle with, and which is so sensitive it is used to look for neurological decline in human patients.Laura Avanzo and Jennifer Morton of the University of Cambridge were interested in a new kind ofgenetically modified sheep. These animals carry a defective gene that in humans causes Huntington's

disease, an inherited disorder that leads to nerve damage and dementia. The hope is that theHuntington's sheep could be a testing ground for possible treatments.For that to work, they reasoned, researchers will have to be able to track changes in the cognitiveabilities of the Huntington's sheep. So they decided to find out whether normal sheep could pass someof the challenging tests given to people with Huntington's. If the sheep passed, that would mean that theHuntington's sheep could be seen losing the ability as their disease progressed – and maybe regaining itif any treatments worked.So Avanzo and Morton put seven female sheep through a series of increasingly tricky challenges. Inone test the sheep walked into a pen that contained two buckets, one blue and the other yellow, withsome food in the blue one. Over the course of a few trials they learned what was going on and alwayswent to the blue bucket.When the researchers put the food in the yellow bucket instead, the sheep changed their behaviouraccordingly. They also mastered a subtler game in which the food was still in one of the buckets but the

clue to its location was the colour of a cone placed nearby, not the colour of the bucket itself. Next Avanzo and Morton stepped up the intellectual pressure, trying the sheep on intra-dimensional andextra-dimensional set-shifting. These tested the animals' ability to shift their attention, something thatrequires a high level of mental control.In intra-dimensional set-shifting, the sheep still had to choose a bucket based on colour, but the set ofcolours was different: instead of blue and yellow, the choice was purple and green. Humans find this

pretty easy. Extra-dimensional shifting is harder, as the sheep had to ignore the colour of the objects andinstead focus on their shapes.In a touching piece of scientific understatement, Avanzo and Morton note that their decision to do thesetests "was driven more by curiosity than expectation". Humans and other primates can do set-shifting,

but other large animals struggle with it – although researchers have persuaded mice and rats to do it.The task relies on the prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain that is much bigger in humans than otheranimals.

Impressively, the sheep passed the tests, learning to attend either to different pairs of colours or to theobjects' shapes as necessary. As well as being good news for the study of Huntington's disease, it's onemore step towards rehabilitating sheep's reputation.It really is about time we stopped making fun of sheep. They can not only recognise, especially sheepthey are socially close to – they can remember significant others for at least two years. They can alsodiscriminate breeds, preferring to look at their own.What's more, there is evidence that they can group plants by family and memorise. They havesophisticated social lives too: rams become long-term buddies and stick up for each other in fights.There are even claims that sheep in the UK have learned to cross cattle grids by rolling across them, butfurther research may be needed on that point.



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Pollution-trawling voyage finds ocean's plastic 'soup' New Scientist – 25 March 2011 by Ferris Jabr

If you trawl a fine mesh net through any of the globe's five subtropical gyres – giant ocean vortexeswhere currents converge and swirl unhurriedly – you will haul on deck a muddle of brown planktonicgoop, the occasional fish, squid or Portuguese man-of-war – and, almost certainly, a generous

sprinkling of colourful plastic particles, each no larger than your fingernail.Every flake of plastic cup or shard of toothbrush handle is a sponge for persistent organic pollutants(POPs) – potentially hazardous compounds that do not degrade easily and cling to any hard surface theyfind. The fate of all this plastic determines not only the health of marine life, but also our own; if fishare feasting on these toxic morsels, then we probably are too.Last month researchers from the 5 Gyres Institute in Santa Monica, California, and the Algalita MarineResearch Foundation in Long Beach, California, sailed into Piriápolis, Uruguay. They had justcompleted the third leg of the first expedition ever to study plastic pollution in the South Atlanticsubtropical gyre. In every single trawl, the team discovered plastic."This issue has only recently come to the public's attention," says Anna Cummins, co-founder of 5Gyres. "We're trying to document the issue and get baseline information because there is so little data."There are still significant gaps in the data the crew can collect, however. The nets that they use cannotcapture plastic particles that are smaller than one-third of a millimetre across. "After a certain size these

particles just disappear," says Cummins. "What is their ultimate state? They could very well breakdown to a size where they are ingested by fish."Cummins also explains that trawling gathers plastic particles from surface waters only. Different kindsof plastic may be suspended at different depths – a dreadful rainbow of rubbish spanning the oceanfrom top to bottom – but no one has done the research to find out.What 5 Gyres researchers are currently investigating, however, is whether surface-feeding fish areingesting plastic – and if so, what that does to them. Chelsea Rochman, who studies marine ecology andecotoxicology at San Diego State University in California, joined the 5 Gyres team in November for amonth-long trawl in the South Atlantic. In addition to sampling the water and plastic, Rochman used aspecial net to collect around 660 lanternfish – a ubiquitous family of small bioluminescent fish thatmake up around 65 per cent of all deep sea fish biomass. Lanternfish inhabit the dim depths during theday, but swim to the surface at night to feed, so if any fish would have plastic in their guts, it would bethese guys.

Back at her lab, Rochman has started analysing the water and plastic samples for the presence of POPs.She has also started slicing open the lanternfish so she can determine if they are eating plastic andwhether POPs are accumulating in their tissues. Rochman wants to see whether fish caught in highly

polluted areas of the gyres have more plastic in their guts and higher levels of POPs than those takenfrom less polluted waters. Confirming that distinction would suggest that fish are indeed consumingtoxic morsels.In another lab experiment, Rochman fed one group of fish a diet infused with plastic, and another groupa plastic-free diet. Preliminary results show that the fish which ate plastic endured significant weightloss and liver damage. "We are going to look for tumours, cell death and congestion in the organs thatfilter toxins," she says.Plastic in the ocean would not be so worrisome if only certain areas were polluted, but it appears totravel everywhere. Worse, it's hard to pin down exactly where, say, the remains of a candy wrapper

blown out to sea in China will eventually drift. One tool is providing some answers, however. For at

least two decades oceanographers have deployed thousands of Lagrangian drifting buoys, which aredesigned to map surface ocean currents rather than wind patterns or waves."We realised that our buoys are in fact a kind of marine debris," says Nikolai Maximenko of theUniversity of Hawaii in Honolulu, who collaborated with 5 Gyres researchers to identify which areas ofthe ocean should have especially high levels of plastic pollution. Wherever the buoys gather mostdensely, the reasoning goes, is also where plastic particles should cluster. That is what the researchershave found so far: all our plastic waste meets and circulates in the gyrating wastes of the ocean.More surprising is that despite the lure of the gyres, the buoys – and, therefore, probably plastic ingeneral – really get around. "It's amazing to see the global patterns," says Maximenko. "I just found outthat one surface drifter went very close to the North Pole in summer 2009, and another made two loopsaround Antarctica."What researchers have established so far is that the plastic in the oceans is persistent and pervasive.Investigations into what all this pollution means for wildlife and people are just getting started, but the

early signs are not reassuring. "The ocean is not infinite. It doesn't have room for our waste," saysCummins.



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Brain-computer implant has passed 1000-day milestone New Scientist – 25 March 2011 by Helen Thomson, biomedical news editor

A paralysed woman was still able to accurately control a computer cursor with her thoughts 1000 daysafter having a tiny electronic device implanted in her brain, say the researchers who devised the system.

The achievement demonstrates the longevity of brain-machine implants.The woman, for whom the researchers use the pseudonym S3, had a brainstem stroke in the mid-1990sthat caused tetraplegia - paralysis of all four limbs and the vocal cords.In 2005, researchers from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, the Providence VA MedicalCenter and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston implanted a tiny silicon electrode array the sizeof a small aspirin into S3's brain to help her communicate better with the outside world.The electrode array is part of the team's BrainGate system, which includes a combination of hardwareand software that directly senses the electrical signals produced by neurons in the brain which controlthe planning of movement.The electrode decodes these signals to allow people with paralysis to control external devices such ascomputers, wheelchairs and bionic limbs.In a study just published, the researchers say that in 2008 - 1000 days after implantation - S3 proved thedurability of the device by performing two different "point-and-click" tasks by thinking about moving a

cursor with her hand.Her first task was to move a cursor on a computer screen to targets arranged in a circle and select eachone in turn. The second required her to follow and click on a target as it moved around the screen invarying sizes.Leigh Hochberg, visiting associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and director ofthe BrainGate trial, told the website Medical News Today:However, the device did not perform perfectly - fewer electrodes were recording useful neural signalsthan they did when tested six months after implantation.The researchers say there is no evidence of any fundamental incompatibility between the sensor and the

brain. Instead, they believe the decreased signal quality over time can largely be attributed toengineering issues. Ongoing research means these issues are now less of a problem than they werewhen S3 received her implant.Speaking with Brown University's news service, lead author John Simeral, assistant professor of

engineering at Brown, said that they would like to further improve the sensitivity of the device:Hochberg says that S3's implant is still working and she is still participating in trials.



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I predict a riot: Where the next dictator will fall New Scientist – 03 March 2011 by Debora MacKenzie

NO ONE saw it coming. Three months ago the rulers of Tunisia and Egypt, Libya and Bahrain seemedfirmly in control. Dissent of any kind, let alone revolutionary change, was nowhere on the horizon.

Now it's anybody's guess which country will be next.

This is not unusual. The US military tries to predict political instability, and the results, while secret,have apparently been poor. "We have never once gotten it right," Robert Gates, US Secretary ofDefense, said last week.Scientists who study mathematically complex systems claim we can do better. They are planning tostudy recent events to devise better ways to predict a fall.Complex systems with many interrelated variables, such as ecosystems or societies, can accumulatestresses while showing no obvious change - until they reach a point where a small stress can trigger asudden shift to another stable state. For example, forests accumulate kindling until a spark ignites a fire.According to Yaneer Bar-Yam, who heads the New England Complex Systems Institute in Cambridge,Massachusetts, the stresses of poverty, unemployment and an absence of government accountability

built up in Middle Eastern countries with a large "youth bulge" of young adults without jobs, childrenor prospects. Then spiking food prices and the public suicide of one young Tunisian triggeredrevolution.

The key to predicting regime shifts, says Marten Scheffer of the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands, is to look beyond individual behaviour to seek simple laws that describe a population'scollective behaviour.Bar-Yam has previously used mathematical models to predict violence between ethnic groups. Thoughthe system's mathematics was complex, it yielded a simple result: ethnic violence flares when enclavesare a certain size. This successfully modelled 90 per cent of recent ethnic conflicts in India, Kenya,central Asia and former Yugoslavia. With the right data we can model other social changes, he says -though good social data may be hard to find.Scheffer, however, believes such data may not be necessary. "All complex systems exhibit certainsymptoms before a regime shift," he says, including slower responses to small changes, and a tendencyfor all players to behave similarly. Bar-Yam has found this behaviour pattern in the lead-up to marketcrashes. Scheffer is launching research to look for such symptoms in social systems, including theMiddle East.

In the past, Scheffer says, analysts focused on the trigger that sparks change, rather than the underlyingsystem. "We cannot predict the spark," he says, "but we can say when a forest has accumulateddangerous levels of kindling." Repressing revolution is not the way to achieve stability, he adds. Itwould be like preventing small forest fires, allowing kindling to accumulate until a big fire breaks out.But uncovering the symptoms of instability may warn societies to reform themselves before revolutionhappens.



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Appendix 4 – Reading passages

Skimming passage

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An extract from 'The path that led nowhere'

The mist clouded Harry's view as he woke up early that morning. Looking out of hissash window, he had expected to be greeted with the promised view of rolling hillsand animals grazing in the meadow below. Instead, the mist meant that he couldn'tsee for more than 20 metres.Harry had looked forward to his annual holiday. Working hard in the city centre, thedaily grind had started to get to him and he had had little time for pleasures such asrelaxation. The holiday had been booked for weeks. He had looked forward to acountry retreat, far away from the hustle and bustle of work. This apartment in aneighteenth-century mansion had caught his eye as it promised exquisite cuisine,

beautiful interior decor and a range of country pursuits such as clay pigeon shootingand horse riding.This Sunday morning though, many activities were cancelled due to the low-lyingmist. Anxious not to let the day slip away, Harry decided that a walk through thenearby forest would enable him to relax. So he set off just after breakfast.He headed towards the forest with a small packed lunch in case the mist preventedhim from returning to the mansion before lunchtime. As he walked along the path,the twigs snapped under his feet and the dew from the trees dripped on to hisshoulder. Harry heard the birds sitting in the trees above him, letting him know thathe wasn't alone.He had been told about a clearing in the middle of the forest that would greet him

with a comfortable bench, often used in the warmer summer months. Harry thoughthe was heading in the right direction but, over an hour later, he still hadn't reached it.By now he was getting worried. Another hour passed...then another hour...he wasstill walking amongst the tall oak trees. He decided to rest and sat on a fallen tree toenjoy his lunch.Feeling better after a rest and some food, Harry continued to try to find his way backto the comfort of his holiday accommodation. Surely, he would be back there soon?



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Scanning passage

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Beauty with Botox

Botox injections are one of the most popular cosmetic treatments in the world.

Celebrities like Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Liz Hurley are rumoured to bekeeping the wrinkles at bay this way.Sir Cliff Richard admitted to having had the treatment and now it is an increasingly

popular choice for ordinary women looking for a quick way to look younger.What is Botox? Botox is made from 'botulinum toxin', a poison produced by the bacteriumClostridium botulinum. This bacterium causes botulism - a severe form of food

poisoning. In small quantities, however, Botox merely interrupts nerve impulses tomuscles in the face.Botox first began to be used in 1980 to treat many muscle disorders such as lazy eye,eye ticks and uncontrolled blinking. Cosmetic treatments were pioneered by

dermatological surgeons in 1987. In small doses, Botox works by paralysing themuscles of the face which are used in frowning and raising the eyebrows. Whenthese muscles relax, the fine lines and wrinkles smooth out. Unfortunately, when it isoverdone, Botox treatment can leave the face with a lack of expression. This isreputed to have caused a problem for some actors.Armpit attack

Botox is reportedly a favourite with Oscar nominees who don't want to work up asweat on the red carpet. Some stars have injections in their armpits to paralyse thesweat glands there. This way they can receive their awards knowing they don't havesweaty patches under their arms and hand back their couture outfits unstained.How long does it last?

Injections take effect about three to seven days after treatment and the effect laststhree or four months. A treatment costs roughly £200. With repeated treatments,atrophy or thinning of the muscles occurs, which produces longer lasting results.Botox may be unsuitable for use around the mouth as the muscles there are importantfor facial expressions and eating.Side effects

Soreness or mild bruising can occur around the injection site. In rare instances patients may experience a droopy eyebrow or eyelid. Headaches can also occur.Since it is still a relatively new treatment, any possible side effects of long-term useare still unknown. Botox should only be administered by experienced and well-

trained doctors or nurses. A high dose could cause poisoning, or an exaggeratedeffect.Botox and Bollinger

Botox parties are causing concern amongst practitioners. People are receivingtreatments whilst sipping champagne. The American Academy of Dermatology haswarned against this practice. Alcohol and Botox do not mix well.

Not only can booze intensify bruising but it can also wash the toxin away from thetarget muscle.



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Reading passage

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Pulp Friction

Every second, 1 hectare of the world's rainforest is destroyed. That's equivalent to two

football fields. An area the size of New York City is lost every day. In a year, that adds up to31 million hectares -- more than the land area of Poland. This alarming rate of destructionhas serious consequences for the environment; scientists estimate, for example, that 137species of plant, insect or animal become extinct every day due to logging. In BritishColumbia, where, since 1990, thirteen rainforest valleys have been clearcut, 142 species ofsalmon have already become extinct, and the habitats of grizzly bears, wolves and manyother creatures are threatened. Logging, however, provides jobs, profits, taxes for thegovernment and cheap products of all kinds for consumers, so the government is reluctant torestrict or control it.

Much of Canada's forestry production goes towards making pulp and paper. According tothe Canadian Pulp and Paper Association, Canada supplies 34% of the world's wood pulp

and 49% of its newsprint paper. If these paper products could be produced in some otherway, Canadian forests could be preserved. Recently, a possible alternative way of producing paper has been suggested by agriculturalists and environmentalists: a plant called hemp.

Hemp has been cultivated by many cultures for thousands of years. It produces fibre whichcan be made into paper, fuel, oils, textiles, food, and rope. For centuries, it was essential tothe economies of many countries because it was used to make the ropes and cables used onsailing ships; colonial expansion and the establishment of a world-wide trading networkwould not have been feasible without hemp. Nowadays, ships' cables are usually made fromwire or synthetic fibres, but scientists are now suggesting that the cultivation of hemp should be revived for the production of paper and pulp. According to its proponents, four times asmuch paper can be produced from land using hemp rather than trees, and manyenvironmentalists believe that the large-scale cultivation of hemp could reduce the pressureon Canada's forests.

However, there is a problem: hemp is illegal in many countries of the world. This plant, souseful for fibre, rope, oil, fuel and textiles, is a species of cannabis, related to the plant fromwhich marijuana is produced. In the late 1930s, a movement to ban the drug marijuana beganto gather force, resulting in the eventual banning of the cultivation not only of the plant usedto produce the drug, but also of the commercial fibre-producing hemp plant. Although bothGeorge Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp in large quantities on their own land,any American growing the plant today would soon find himself in prison -- despite the factthat marijuana cannot be produced from the hemp plant, since it contains almost no THC

(the active ingredient in the drug).

In recent years, two major movements for legalization have been gathering strength. Onegroup of activists believes that ALL cannabis should be legal -- both the hemp plant and themarijuana plant -- and that the use of the drug marijuana should not be an offense. Theyargue that marijuana is not dangerous or addictive, and that it is used by large numbers of people who are not criminals but productive members of society. They also point out thatmarijuana is less toxic than alcohol or tobacco. The other legalization movement isconcerned only with the hemp plant used to produce fibre; this group wants to make it legalto cultivate the plant and sell the fibre for paper and pulp production. This second group hashad a major triumph recently: in 1997, Canada legalized the farming of hemp for fibre. Forthe first time since 1938, hundreds of farmers are planting this crop, and soon we can expect

to see pulp and paper produced from this new source.



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Critical reading passage

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Pulp Friction

The forestry industry: The forestry industry makes money from cutting down trees.

Therefore, they want to be able to continue to cut trees, and they want to discourageany alternative ways of producing pulp and paper.

The environmentalists: The environmental lobby want to protect the forests againstlogging companies, so they would like to show how destructive logging is, and howvaluable the forests are.

The hemp farming lobby: The hemp farmers would like the fibre hemp plant to belegal so that they can grow it. They want to show how useful it is for making paperand other products, and they would like people to understand the difference betweenthe marijuana plant and the fibre hemp plant.

The marijuana legalization lobby: These people would like marijuana to be legal.They are interested in linking the fibre hemp plant with marijuana because they thinkit may be possible to legalize BOTH kinds of plant. They want to show how usefulindustrial hemp is, and at the same time, they want to convince people that marijuanais harmless.

The Canadian government: The Canadian government has just legalized industrialhemp, but they want to keep marijuana illegal, so they want to show that it isdangerous. They also get lots of taxes from the forestry industry, so they do not wantto restrict logging too much.



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Appendix 5 – Standard reading exercise

1) Read only the title of the chosen text. What do you already know about the topic?In note form write down pieces of information you expect to find in the text.

2) Write down at least 5 key words or questions you expect to find in the text.

3) Is the text:A) an extract from a book? ………

B) a newspaper article? ………

C) a magazine article? ………

D) a scientific article? ………

E) a……………………………

4) When was it published? ……………………

5) Read through the whole text as quickly as possible. Don't worry about the wordsyou don't understand. Now write down, in not more than 15 words, the main theme ofthe text.

6) Ask yourself if the text may suit the needs that made you choose it as a source ofinformation.

7) Read through the text again trying to understand as much as you can. When you

come across a word which you don't know and which you think is important for thetext write it down and beside it write your idea of what it probably means. Use thedictionary only if absolutely necessary!

8) Divide the text into sections. Name the sections according to their function (e.g.introduction, main part(s), conclusion etc.) and give one content-related keyword foreach.

9) Write down the main idea of each paragraph or section using one sentence only.

10) Draw a diagram or a flowchart to show how the information in the text is

organized.

11) Which of the expectations/anticipations you listed in task 2 does the text meet?

A)…… B)…… C)…… D)…… E)……

12) What do you think of the text? Evaluate it in the light of your reading purpose.Give reasons for your evaluation.



71

Appendix 6 – Paraphrasing passages

1) "The Antarctic is the vast source of cold on our planet, just as the sun is thesource of our heat, and it exerts tremendous control on our climate," [Jacques]Cousteau told the camera. "The cold ocean water around Antarctica flows

north to mix with warmer water from the tropics, and its upwellings help tocool both the surface water and our atmosphere. Yet the fragility of thisregulating system is now threatened by human activity." From "CaptainCousteau," Audubon (May 1990):17.

2) The twenties were the years when drinking was against the law, and the lawwas a bad joke because everyone knew of a local bar where liquor could behad. They were the years when organized crime ruled the cities, and the policeseemed powerless to do anything against it. Classical music was forgottenwhile jazz spread throughout the land, and men like Bix Beiderbecke, LouisArmstrong, and Count Basie became the heroes of the young. The flapper was

born in the twenties, and with her bobbed hair and short skirts, shesymbolized, perhaps more than anyone or anything else, America's break withthe past. From Kathleen Yancey, English 102 Supplemental Guide (1989): 25.

3) Of the more than 1000 bicycling deaths each year, three-fourths are caused byhead injuries. Half of those killed are school-age children. One studyconcluded that wearing a bike helmet can reduce the risk of head injury by 85

percent. In an accident, a bike helmet absorbs the shock and cushions the head.From "Bike Helmets: Unused Lifesavers," Consumer Reports (May 1990):348.

4) Matisse is the best painter ever at putting the viewer at the scene. He's themost realistic of all modern artists, if you admit the feel of the breeze asnecessary to a landscape and the smell of oranges as essential to a still life."The Casbah Gate" depicts the well-known gateway Bab el Aassa, which

pierces the southern wall of the city near the sultan's palace. With scrubbycoats of ivory, aqua, blue, and rose delicately fenced by the liveliest grayoutline in art history, Matisse gets the essence of a Tangier afternoon,including the subtle presence of the bowaab, the sentry who sits and surveysthose who pass through the gate. From Peter Plagens, "Bright Lights."

Newsweek (26 March 1990): 50.

5) While the Sears Tower is arguably the greatest achievement in skyscraperengineering so far, it's unlikely that architects and engineers have abandonedthe quest for the world's tallest building. The question is: Just how high can a

building go? Structural engineer William LeMessurier has designed askyscraper nearly one-half mile high, twice as tall as the Sears Tower. Andarchitect Robert Sobel claims that existing technology could produce a 500-story building. From Ron Bachman, "Reaching for the Sky." Dial (May 1990):15.



72

Brain and Language 104 (2008) 262-269

ww.elsevier.com/locate/b&l

How aging afects the recognition of emotional speech

Silke Paulmanna, *, Marc D. Pell , Sonja A. Kotz

a,c

aax Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, P.O. Box 500 355, 04303 Leipzig, Germany

b School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University, Montre´al, Canadac

Day Care Clinic of Cognitive Neurology, University of Leipzig, Germany

Accepted 3 March 2007

Available online 10 April 2007

Abstract

To successfully infer a speaker's emotional state, diverse sources of emotional information need to be decoded. The present study

explored to what extent emotional speech recognition of 'basic' emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, pleasant surprise, sadness) difers

etween diferent sex (male/female) and age (young/middle-aged) groups in a behavioural experiment. Participants were asked to identify

the emotional prosody of a sentence as accurately as possible. As a secondary goal, the perceptual findings were examined in relation to

acoustic properties of the sentences presented. Findings indicate that emotion recognition rates difer between the diferent categories

tested and that these patterns varied significantly as a function of age, but not of sex.

• 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Emotion; Prosody; Vocal expression; Aging; Sex

1. Introduction

Communicating and understanding emotions is central

to human social interactions throughout the lifespan. From

the first moments of life humans express their feelings (e.g.,

babies scream when feeling pain, hunger, fear, or happi-

ness). In adulthood, individuals must decode the emotional

expressions of others efectively or risk a breakdown in

interpersonal communication. It is therefore of major

social relevance to understand how emotions are encoded

and decoded and to determine which factors influence these

processes. As a contribution to this literature, the present1

study investigated the recognition of 'basic' emotions from

speech in two distinct age and sex cohorts.

*

1

Corresponding author. Fax: +49 (0)341 9940 260.

E-mail address: [email protected] (S. Paulmann).

In order to stay coherent with the literature available we use the term

emotion ''recognition''. However, we would like to point out that several

authors (e.g., Banse & Scherer, 1996) have argued that most published

recognition studies may have studied discrimination processes (choosing

etween a limited number of response alternatives) rather than true

recognition processes. However, the likelihood of participants discrimi-

nating rather than recognizing an emotion is reduced with an increasing

number of response alternatives that were applied in the current study.

0093-934X/$ - see front matter _ 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2007.03.002

Much of the literature on emotional expression has

focused on emotional facial expression (e.g., Ekman,

1972, 1982, 1992). More recently, interest in emotional

speech, by which we refer to both the verbal-semantic con-

ent and the prosodic realization of an emotional utterance,

as increased (for a recent review see Juslin & Laukka,

2003). For instance, Banse and Scherer (1996) studied the

ecognition of emotional prosody and reported that accu-

acy rates varied significantly as a function of the emotion

category; whereas hot anger was recognized with 78% accu-

acy, recognition rates for panic fear, elation, or shame were

ll below 40% although still larger than expected by chance

Banse & Scherer, 1996). Most studies of emotional pros-ody demonstrate recognition rates that are approximately

four times higher than expected by chance (Pittam &

Scherer, 1993), although not all emotional categories are

ecognized equally well. Expressions of anger and sadness

re typically recognized more reliably from prosody than

expressions of fear and pleasant surprise (Banse & Scherer,

1996; Johnstone & Scherer, 2000). The high recognition

ates for these two emotions may be due to their distinc-

iveness at the acoustic level; a small literature on this

opic indicates that sadness is usually expressed with low

Appendix 7 – Scientific articles

mailto:[email protected]






73

S. Paulmann et al. / Brain and Language 104 (2008) 262-269

intensity, low speaking rate, and rather low pitch, while

anger is conveyed with high intensity, fast speaking rate,

and high pitch (Juslin & Laukka, 2003; Pell, 2001; Scherer,

1986; Williams & Stevens, 1972). The possibility that vocal

expressions of these and perhaps other emotions are

expressed in a 'universal' manner across languages is also

being explored (e.g., Thompson & Balkwill, 2006).Despite the growing research interest in emotional

speech there are still several open questions. For example,

it is under debate to what extent vocal emotion recognition

difers between male and female listeners. Evidence for pos-

sible sex diferences comes from studies on facial expres-

sion, where it has been suggested that women are more

responsive to non-verbal cues than men (e.g., Briton &

Hall, 1995). In addition, research on facial expression

reveals perception diferences between female and male

participants which might extend to emotional speech pro-

cessing; young women tend to rate male faces more posi-

tively than young men (e.g., van Strien & van Beek,

2000). To date, there is less direct evidence of sex difer-

ences in emotional speech perception. Some evidence sug-

gests that women are better than men in identifying or

discriminating emotional prosody (e.g., Bonebright,

Thompson, & Leger, 1996; Schirmer, Kotz, & Friederici,

2002, 2005). Not all existing studies have reported this

sex diference though (e.g., Fecteau, Armony, Joanette, &

Belin, 2005; Orbelo, Grim, Talbott, & Ross, 2005; Raithel

& Hielscher-Fastabend, 2004). Reasons for these diverse

results are probably manifold, but varying task demands

as well as the use of diferent methodologies and measure-

ments across studies are likely candidates.

Further to possible sex efects in vocal emotion recogni-tion, it has been noted that emotional speech recognition

declines with age (e.g., Allen & Brosgole, 1993; Brosgole

& Weismann, 1995; Kiss & Ennis, 2001; Orbelo et al.,

2005). For example, Kiss and Ennis (2001) investigated

the perception of emotional prosody in sentences with

and without lexical content. Their results showed that

younger participants significantly outperformed older par-

ticipants irrespective of the emotional category tested (Kiss

& Ennis, 2001). Moreover, Orbelo and colleagues reported

an advantage for comprehending both emotional and atti-

tudinal prosody in a group of young rather than older par-

ticipants (Orbelo et al., 2005). Similarly, a recent study of

facial emotion recognition (Calder et al., 2003) reported

that older participants showed lower recognition rates for

expressions of fear and anger, although not for disgust. It

is often argued that age diferences in emotional processing

may not be domain specific, but rather domain general

afecting, for example, attention or working memory (Fil-

ley & Cullum, 1994; Nicholas, Connor, Obler, & Albert,

1998). To reduce the potential efects of attention or work-

ing memory decline on emotional processing we thus opted

to test middle-age participants in the current experiment.

In comparison to previous studies in which the mean age

of older participants was 75 years, our middle-aged-group

comprised of participants with a mean age of 43 years.

263

In the context of this literature, the aim of the current

study was to clarify whether emotional speech recognition

difers as a function of sex and/or age. Male and female

articipants of two age cohorts (young and middle-aged)

istened to sentences and then identified the meaning of

he prosody in reference to six basic emotional categories

anger, disgust, fear, happiness, pleasant surprise, sadness)or a neutral category; the accuracy of each group was then

compared. To build on previous work in the literature, we

lso investigated whether the recognition rates in diferent

ge and sex groups could be predicted by acoustic dimen-

sions of the stimuli presented. Based on previous findings,

e predicted that the ability to recognize emotional speech

ould decline with increasing age, showing lower accuracy

ates for middle-aged as compared to young participants.

The efect of sex on emotional speech recognition was less

certain from the literature, although according to our

design, an efect of sex on emotional speech recognition

should lead to diferences for both young and middle-aged

articipants irrespective of their age.

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Participants

Sixty-four native German speakers (age range: 18-50

ears) participated in the experiment. Participants were

divided into four equal age- and sex-controlled groups,

esulting in two group dimensions. In the first dimension,

he results of 16 young women and 16 middle-aged women

ere contrasted against the results of 16 young men and 16

iddle-aged men (age range of both groups: 18-50 years).

In the second dimension, recognition rates of emotional

rosody of 16 young women and 16 young men (range

18-28 years) were compared to the performance of 16 mid-

dle-aged women and 16 middle-aged men (range: 38-50

ears); (see Table 1 for mean age of participants). All par-

icipants had a similar educational background, normal or

corrected-to-normal-vision, and no reported hearing

mpairment.

2.2. Stimulus material

The stimulus material consisted of 350 syntactically sim-

lar (SVO) sentences. The verb and noun of the sentences

ere controlled for word letter length, syllable length, word

frequency, initial sounds, and plosive consonants. Prior to

able 1

articipant information: the table displays the mean age in years (±

tandard deviation) for each sex and age group individually and grouped

ogether

articipants

oung

iddle-aged

ean

emale (years)

2.88 ± 1.89

3.44 ± 2.50

3.16 ± 10.67

Male (years)

24.0 ± 2.13

41.81 ± 3.35

32.19 ± 9.46

ean (years)

3.44 ± 2.06

2.63 ± 3.02



74

264


testing, sentences were grouped into one of the six basic

emotional categories (anger, disgust, fear, happy, pleasant

surprise, sadness) or into a semantically neutral category

(50 sentences per category). Four German actors (two

female, two male), two in each age cohort (young/mid-

dle-aged) were then asked to produce each sentence in

the respective emotional prosody. This resulted in a totalnumber of 1400 sentences.

Sentences were taped with a video camcorder (SONY

Digital Video camera Recorder MiniDV DCR-TRV60E)

attached to a high-quality clip-on microphone. The video

material was digitized and the voice-track was separated

from the visual-track. Within the current experiment,

only the voice material was tested. The voice material

was digitized at a 16-bit/44.1 kHz sampling rate and

the amplitudes were normalized (with CoolEdit Version

2000).

2.3. Acoustic analysis

The stimulus material was acoustically analyzed using

Praat (Boersma & Weenink, 2006). Primary acoustical

measurements (mean pitch, intensity, duration) were

entered in a series of one-way ANOVAs and results

revealed significant diferences across emotional categories

for mean pitch (F(6,343) = 744.18, p < 0.0001), mean

intensity (F(6,343) = 1024.95, p < 0.0001), and mean dura-

tion (F(6,343) = 39.45, p < 0.0001).

A discriminant analysis was performed to infer whether

the stimuli contained detectable acoustic contrasts which

might help listeners to correctly diferentiate the intended

emotion categories. In the analysis acoustic measurementsserved as independent variables whereas the dependent var-

iable was the intended emotional category. The vast major-

ity (83.3%) of the variance was accounted for the first

function described by this discriminant analysis. Pooled-

within-groups correlations between acoustics parameters

and the first canonical discriminant function scores

revealed that mean intensity drove the highest correlation

(r = .729). Mean pitch had the largest pooled-within-

groups correlation with the canonical discriminant func-

tion score (r = .809) in a second function that accounted

for 15.5% of the variance. In a third function, that

accounted for 1.2% of the variance, mean duration had

the highest pooled-within-groups correlation with the

canonical discriminant function score (r = .989). Fig. 1

illustrates how the canonical discriminant function scores

for functions one and two separate the emotional catego-

ries for each sentence. As can be seen, the first two func-

tions successfully separate sentences by emotional

category. Classification results obtained from the discrimi-

nant analysis revealed that the model identified 87.1% of

the sentences correctly. With the exception of disgust, the

model correctly predicted category membership for all

emotions above 80% correct (anger, 98%; disgust, 60%;

fear, 82%; happiness, 100%; neutral, 90%; pleasant surprise,

100%; sadness, 80%).

ig. 1. Results of a discriminant feature analysis in which the intended

motional category was predicted by three acoustic parameters (mean

itch, intensity, duration). Each sentence is plotted according to its

iscrimination scores for the discriminant functions 1 (highest correlation

ith mean intensity) and 2 (highest correlation with mean pitch).

2.4. Procedure

Each participant was comfortably seated in a chair at a

distance of approximately 60 cm from a computer screenith a seven-button panel placed before him/her. The sen-

ences were presented via loudspeaker located 70 cm from

he participant. The Event-related Run Time System

ERTS) (Beringer, 1993) was used to carry out the experi-

ental task. Participants were instructed to listen to a sen-

ence and to recognize the emotional prosodic category as

quickly and accurately as possible. Secondly, participants

ere asked to judge the stimulus intensity as quickly and

ccurately as possible (results not reported here). The trial

sequence was thus as follows: (1) presentation of a fixation

cross for 200 ms; (2) clear screen for 100 ms; (3) acoustical

resentation of a sentence with simultaneous presentation

of a question mark on the screen requesting emotional pros-

ody recognition; (4) a blank screen for 500 ms; (5) presenta-

ion of a number scale (++ + 0 À ÀÀ) requesting the

ntensity categorization; (6) inter-trial interval of 2000 ms.

esponse time was limited to 8000 ms to ensure spontaneous

eactions.

To control the length of the experiment, trials were

divided into four pseudo-randomized lists (350 sentences

each). In each list, all 50 sentences of each emotional cate-

gory were presented; however, lists difered with respect to

hich speaker had articulated the sentence. Each participant

as presented with one of the four lists. The presentation of

each speaker in each list was balanced as closely as possible



75


(12 vs. 13 sentences for each emotional category per

speaker).

3. Results

3.1. Accuracy rates

3.1.1. Descriptive statistics

Overall, emotional prosody recognition was well above

chance level (14%). As shown in Fig. 2, mean accuracy

rates for anger and neutral vocalizations were highest, fol-

lowed by disgust, sadness, and happiness. Expressions of

fear and pleasant surprise were recognized the least accu-

rately overall.

3.1.2. Analysis of variance (ANOVA)

Accuracy scores for the six emotion categories (+ neu-

tral) were submitted to a 7 · 2 · 2 ANOVA treating Afect

(angry, disgust, fear, happy, neutral, pleasant surprise, sad-ness) as a repeated-measures factor and participant Sex

(male/female) and Age (young/middle-aged) as between-

subject factors. Efect size was estimated by omega-square2

(X ), i.e., the coefcient of determination, which represents

the proportion of variance in the dependent variable

accounted for by the independent variable (interpreted in

a similar manner as r ). For between-subject designs, X

efect sizes greater than 0.138 are considered large efects,

indices between 0.048 and 0.138 are considered medium

efects, and values between 0.0009 and 0.048 are considered

small efects (c.f. Olejnik & Algina, 2003).

No main efect of Sex was found (p > .05), but the Ageefect was highly significant (F(1,60) = 29.74, p < .0001,

X = 0.31). Emotion recognition rates were generally higher

in younger participants than in middle-aged participants

(73.22% vs. 61.82%). The main efect of Afect was signifi-

cant (F(6,360) = 82.67, p < .0001, X = 0.39), although this

was informed by a significant interaction of Age · Afect2

conducted for each emotion category revealed that young

participants were significantly better at recognizing all

2

(F(6,360) = 3.21, p < .05, X = 0.017). Post hoc t-tests

265

Fig. 2. Accuracy (in %) of emotional prosody recognition according to the

age of participants. Bars show the correct responses for each intended

emotional category and error bars represent the standard errors.

emotion categories from prosody than middle-aged partici-

ants (all p < .05), except for pleasant surprise which did not

difer as a function of age (p > .05) (see Fig. 2).

3.2. Error analysis

3.2.1. Chi-square tests for error matricesChi-square analyses for each error matrix indicated that

articipant errors were not equally distributed (all

> .0001). As can be seen in Table 2, listeners frequently

confused pleasant surprise with happy sentences, and fearful

ith sad sentences. These patterns did not difer between

he age and sex groups.

3.2.2. Distribution of false alarms

The distribution of incorrectly recognized emotional

sentences split by age is illustrated in Fig. 3. Analyses

evealed that middle-aged participants made more errors

han young participants. Also, the figure shows that even

hough errors made by the two groups had a very similar

distribution, middle-aged participants chose the categories

eutral and pleasant surprise more often than young partic-

pants. Additional analyses revealed that middle-aged par-

icipants did not only make more misclassifications, but

hey had more time-outs (i.e., no hits during the given

ime-frame) than young participants (251 vs. 151).

3.2.3. Discriminant analysis by age group

To determine whether the overall Age efect was due to

sing acoustic cues diferently, errors were entered into an

dditional discriminant analysis. Sentences were grouped

ccording to their most frequent misclassification; thosesentences that had equally frequent misclassifications were

eft out of the analyses (92 sentences for young, and 67 sen-

ences for middle-aged participants). Results revealed that

errors made by all participants could not be successfully

redicted by the acoustic properties of the stimuli. How-

ever, the discriminant analysis for young participants

showed higher prediction accuracy (32.2%) than the dis-

criminant analysis for middle-aged participants (19.8%).

or young participants, 96.6% of the variance was

ccounted for by the first function described by the dis-

criminant analysis. Pooled-within correlations between

he acoustics and the first canonical discriminant function

scores revealed that mean intensity had the highest correla-

ion (r = .786). Mean pitch had the largest pooled-within

correlation with the canonical discriminant function score

r = .994) in the second function which accounted for

3.4% of the variance. For middle-aged participants, 84%

of the variance was accounted for in the first function

described by this discriminant analysis. Pooled-within cor-

elations between the acoustics and the first canonical dis-

criminant function scores revealed that mean duration had

he highest correlation (r = .835). There were no significant

correlations between acoustics and the second function

described by this discriminant analysis which accounted

for 16% of the variance.



76

266

Table 2


Error analysis: the matrix shows the confusion pattern for errors made in the emotional recognition task split by participant's age and sex

Group motion Intended emotion

Anger

—

8.84

9.340.51

0.88

1.90

11.03

—

6.92

4.90

0.31

2.20

2.27

6.41

—

8.14

7.730.51

1.39

2.28

7.88

—

7.61

6.47

0.31

1.70

1.89

9.51

Disgust

0.95

—

4.600

0.32

0.06

2.90

0.44

—

4.4

0

0.44

0.06

3.55

0.63

—

4.220

0.38

0.06

3.27

0.76

—

4.82

0

0.38

0.06

3.19

Middle-aged

Young

Female

Male

nger

isgust

earappiness

eutral

ls. surp.

adness

nger

isgust

ear

appiness

eutral

ls. surp.

adness

nger

isgust

earappiness

eutral

ls. surp.

adness

nger

isgust

ear

appiness

eutral

ls. surp.

adness

Fear

3.17

4.04

— 0.51

0.38

1.01

13.86

1.26

3.24

—

0.25

0.31

0.63

8.69

2.53

3.31

— 0.44

0.25

0.82

10.63

1.89

3.97

—

0.31

0.44

0.82

11.88

Happiness

0.51

1.22

0.33 —

7.88

44.55

0.32

0.63

0.95

0.52

—

3.45

50.94

0.30

0.32

0.83

0.26 —

5.23

46.11

0.19

0.82

1.34

0.59

—

6.09

49.40

0.51

eutral

5.65

8.39

11.3719.91

—

8.75

13.48

2.07

3.17

3.85

11.66

—

2.71

7.11

2.84

4.32

5.1316.55

—

25

9.16

4.86

7.23

10.11

14.98

—

6.18

11.37

ls. surp.

6.86

2.95

9.475.36

4.60

3.61

1.13

1.08

2.48

17.18

0.69

0.63

3.10

1.53

5.3319.39

1.64

2.05

4.86

2.50

6.61

3.10

3.64

2.17

adness

1.46

3.07

13.020.13

0.57

0.06

0.50

2.86

19.19

0.13

0.94

0.13

0.88

3.31

18.651.3

1.07

0.13

1.07

2.62

13.54

0.13

0.44

0.06

Values are the mean incorrect answers (in %).

ig. 3. The distribution of emotional error classifications across trials,

plit by age. Overall, 11,200 responses could be given by participants (50

entences per emotional category · seven emotional categories · number

f participants). The figure displays all errors for trials excluding time-

uts.

. Discussion

The present study investigated how the combined efects

of age and sex influence emotional speech recognition.

Taken together, our results confirmed that recognition accu-

acy rates vary significantly as a function of emotion cate-

gory when listening to emotional speech. Averaging across

emotions, an overall accuracy rate of 70% was obtained

hich is approximately five times higher than expected by

chance in our task and in line with previous research (e.g.,

Scherer, Johnstone, & Klasmeyer, 2003). Interestingly, our

findings further revealed an overall recognition advantage

for young participants over middle-aged participants on this

ask with the exception of one emotion category (pleasant

surprise). For example, we found that 37% of the sentences

ere classified incorrectly by middle-aged participants in

contrast to only 26% classification errors by young partici-

ants. In contrast, no efects of sex on emotional speech rec-

ognition emerged from our data. These results will be

discussed in sequence in the following paragraphs.

.1. Emotional speech recognition

Prior to the study, acoustic analyses revealed that there

ere obvious diferences in pitch, amplitude, and temporal



77


attributes of our emotional utterances that might help lis-

teners to correctly classify the intended emotional category.

As well, a discriminant feature analysis showed that cate-

gory membership for all emotional tokens was correctly

predicted by the acoustic measures in excess of 80% with

the exception of disgust (which still achieved 60% correct),

suggesting that the perceptual stimuli were distinct at theacoustic level. Nonetheless, even though listeners could

successfully decode basic emotions from speech samples

at a high level, our findings reafrm that some emotions

are recognized much better than others (e.g., anger was rec-

ognized better than pleasant surprise; review Fig. 2).

Studies that demonstrate how well particular emotions

are recognized from speech show rather mixed findings.

Some of these inconsistencies could be due to diferent

presentation modalities (e.g., with/without lexical context,

recognition at word/sentence level). Some emotions may

be more easily recognized if lexical information is available,

and there is behavioural and electrophysiological evidence

that semantic information cannot be ignored even if it is

not in the focus of a task (Besson, Magne, & Scho¨n , 2002;

Pell, Kotz, Paulmann, & Alasseri, 2005). Banse and Scherer

(1996) argue that some emotions are recognized more

poorly in sentences because of the limited ecological validity

of certain expressions in a sentential context. Diferences in

ranking emotional categories could also be due to biological

factors which can influence emotion recognition (e.g.,

detecting fear is necessary to survive, or recognizing anger

is necessary to perceive potential danger; e.g., Ohman &¨

Tasks that include emotion categories which tend to

yield high confusion rates are likely to influence the relativeranking of emotions in recognition studies. The current

results illustrate that recognition errors are not randomly

distributed; for example, pleasant surprise was frequently

mistaken for happiness, and fear was frequently mistaken

for sadness. It has been argued that emotions that are

acoustically similar are often misclassified (c.f., Banse &

Scherer, 1996). This may be particularly the case when

the semantic context is sufciently ambiguous as to the

intended emotional interpretation (e.g., confusion between

pleasant surprise and happiness); this may explain some of

the errors witnessed in the current study. Some researchers

also argue that misclassifications frequently involve emo-

tions of similar valence (e.g., happiness and pleasant sur-

prise) and arousal (i.e., anger and sadness are less often

confused than anger and fear; c.f., Scherer, 1986). Thus,

it is likely that emotional category recognition varies

between studies due to multiple reasons, such as the presen-

tation modality, the ecological validity of stimulus materi-

als, the diferent acoustic realization of stimuli, and

possibly biological factors.

4.2. Influence of sex on emotional speech recognition

Our investigation failed to uncover significant evidence

of sex-specific efects on emotional speech recognition.

¨

Mineka, 2001; Ohman, 2002; Williams & Mattingley, 2006).

267

In the introduction, we put forward several reasons that

could explain why some research has reported sex difer-

ences in emotional speech recognition (e.g., Briton & Hall,

1995; Bonebright et al., 1996; Grunwald et al., 1999; van

Strien & van Beek, 2000), while others have not (e.g., Fec-

eau et al., 2005; Orbelo et al., 2005; Raithel & Hielscher-

astabend, 2004). Based on the broader literature, onecould speculate that strong sex diferences are only detect-

ble in young participants, and then only under certain

ask-related conditions; electrophysiological data gathered

y Schirmer and colleagues suggest that women are pri-

arily faster to process emotional prosody than men, but

hey do not necessarily engage in diferent processing strat-

egies (e.g., Schirmer et al.,2002,2005). In addition, sex dif-

ferences are not found if young participants are instructed

o take emotional prosody into account when rendering

erceptual judgments (Schirmer, Kotz, & Friederici,

2005). Our results are thus in line with the assumption that

sex diferences only occur under implicit emotional prosody

rocessing situations. Another possibility is that sex difer-

ences are highly pronounced at the stage of expressing

ather than recognizing emotional speech; in a recent study

of emotional communication in three languages (English,

German, Arabic), we noted that the sex of the speaker

ad a major impact on how vocal emotions were expressed,

ut that these diferences were recognized similarly by male

nd female listeners of each language (Pell et al., 2005).

.3. The influence of age on emotional speech recognition

The present results reveal a clear decline in emotional

speech recognition with increasing age. This age efect isn line with general findings on emotion perception (e.g.,

rosgole & Weismann, 1995; McDowell, Harrison, &

emaree, 1994; Prodan, Orbelo, & Ross, 2007) and with

articular findings on the processing of emotional prosody

e.g., Allen & Brosgole, 1993; Kiss & Ennis, 2001; Orbelo,

Testa, & Ross, 2003; Orbelo et al., 2005). Based on physi-

ological evidence, women, but also men, undergo hor-

onal changes around 40 to 55 years of age that can

fect cognitive processes (e.g., Everhardt, Demaree, &

Shipley, 2006 for a recent review). A decline in attention

Filley & Cullum, 1994) and working memory (Nicholas

et al., 1998) have each been associated with increasing

ge. For instance, Filley and Cullum (1994) evaluated the

ttention of participants who were 50-69 and 70-90 years

of age (Filley & Cullum, 1994) and found that sustained

ttention starts to decline after the age of 70, while basic

ttention was not afected at all. Grunwald et al. (1999)

found that lexical emotion perception was associated with

n age-related decline in participants 60 years or older,

ut not in younger participants. Given that our middle-

ged group was younger than most aging groups studied

reviously, it is unlikely that emotion recognition abilities

ere confounded by a reduction in other cognitive capaci-

ies, although this confound may be present in the wider lit-

erature. Rather, the efects of aging on our data are likely



78

268


to be domain specific rather than domain general, i.e., due

to true changes in the recognition of emotional prosody as

a function of aging that appear to demonstrate a notably

''early'' decline in middle-aged adults in the auditory

modality.

Age-related diferences in emotion recognition can be

accounted for in several ways. First, it has been said thatdiferences in various cognitive domains between young

and old participants may be due to specific age-related

neuroanatomic changes (e.g., Filley & Cullum, 1994) and

this may also be true for recognizing emotional speech.

Some research suggests that emotion perception engages

diferent neural networks in young and older adults (see

Fecteau et al., 2005). For instance, Gunning-Dixon and

colleagues (2003) investigated the influence of age on emo-

tional face processing using a discrimination task; their

results imply that young participants rely on a diferent cor-

tical network to discriminate emotional faces (involving

visual, frontal and limbic regions) than older participants

(involving parietal, temporal and frontal regions). Along

similar lines, some authors have argued that emotional

prosody comprehension declines in older participants due

to asymmetric, age-related changes in the right hemisphere

(e.g., Orbelo et al., 2005).

Alternatively, age-related diferences in emotional

speech recognition could result from acoustic cues being

used diferently in young and older adults, a possibility that

is implied by our data. Results of a discriminant analysis

which attempted to predict group error patterns from

acoustic properties of the stimuli showed that emotional

misclassifications were better accounted for in the analysis

for young participants when compared to the middle-aged participants (32.2% vs. 19.8%). Thus, it appears that the

two age groups may have been using the acoustic cues of

the stimuli diferently or perhaps using diferent acoustic

cues altogether, for example those that were not captured

by the current measures. The fact that middle-aged partic-

ipants responded with a greater frequency of delays in the

recognition task (as evidenced by an increased number

time-outs) may constitute further evidence that the mid-

dle-aged group experienced trouble using the acoustic

input to categorize specific emotions.

In conclusion, our results establish that vocal expres-

sions of the basic emotions can be recognized at levels

that well exceed chance by both female and male listeners

who are young or middle-aged. Although we found no

evidence of sex efects in emotional speech recognition,

the age of participants influenced emotion recognition

from speech samples in a significant manner. In fact,

our data clearly show that emotional speech recognition

begins to decline already in participants who are mid-

dle-aged, potentially for several reasons (e.g., neurophysi-

ological changes, diferential use of acoustic cues, etc.).

Future studies are needed to investigate these issues more

closely by clarifying how emotional speech recognition

declines in the latter half of the lifespan, preferably using

a longitudinal design. Neuro-cognitive studies which spec-

fy changes in the underlying brain mechanisms that lead

o a decline in emotional prosody recognition will also be

aluable.

cknowledgments

The authors thank Beate Gu¨nther for help with partici-ant recruitment, Katharina Flach for help with data

cquisition, Marie Desmarteau for help with the acoustic

nalyses, and Dorothee Geyer for useful comments on sta-

istical analyses. This work was supported by the German

esearch Foundation (DFG FOR 499 to S.A. Kotz) and

y the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council

of Canada (to M.D. Pell).

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80

Environ Biol Fish (2008) 83:397-405

OI 10.1007/s10641-008-9360-8

he relative importance of orange spot coloration

and total length of males in female guppyate preference

Kenji Karino & Yoko Urano

eceived: 7 May 2007 /Accepted: 22 April 2008 /Published online: 21 May 2008

Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2008

bstract Female mate choice by multiple male traits

s an important current topic in animal behavior.

However, the relative importance among the multiple

cues in female choice is not explored in most cases.

Female guppies Poecilia reticulata use both the color

saturation of orange spots and the total length of

ales as mate choice criteria. In the present study, we

sed digitally modified video playbacks to examine

he relative importance of these two male traits to

female mate preferences. We initially examined the

effective difference in the color saturation of orange

spots as well as that in total length between two

stimulus male images. Females only showed a strong

reference for a bright male image (compared to the

dull image) when the difference in color saturation

as large (91% versus 25%). Conversely, females

only exhibited a preference for larger size when they

ere presented a choice between two relatively small

ale images (total length 26.0 mm versus 23.0 mm).

hen two male images in which both the two traits

ere modified were presented to females, they

rioritized male images possessing higher color

.

traits Carotenoid-based coloration Sexual selection.

Digitally modified videos

.

saturation of orange spots, indicating the color

saturation of male orange spots to be a more

important factor than the total length in their mate

choice. The color saturation of orange spots may

convey more reliable information about the males to

the females than their total lengths. These findings

imply that females may rank multiple male criteria

depending on relative benefits or costs derived from

their mate choice based on each criterion.

Keywords Female mate choice Sexually selected

.

. Karino (* :) Y. Urano

epartment of Biology, Tokyo Gakugei University,

ukui-kita 4-1-1, Koganei,

okyo 184-8501, Japan

-mail: [email protected]

Introduction

In many animals, females choose their mates on the

basis of morphological and behavioral traits (Andersson

1994). In some cases, it has been suggested that

females may obtain direct and/or indirect (genetic) benefits from their mates via their mate choice

(Andersson 1994; Alatalo et al. 1998; Kokko et al.

2003). For example, males possessing preferred traits

may provide more resources for the females, exhibit a

greater degree of paternal care for offspring, or

contribute to produce offspring with a higher genetic

quality (Gwynne 1984; Knapp and Kovach 1991;

Møller 1994; Qvarnström et al. 2000; Barber et al.

2001). Therefore, male signals that are used by



81

398

females to choose mates may indicate the male 'sesource holding potential, parental ability, or genetic

quality.

It has been suggested that females assess multiple

raits of males to choose their mates (Pryke et al. 2001;

Candolin 2003; Grether et al. 2004b). In fishes,

several studies have shown that females chose theirates assessing multiple male traits, for example

he three-spined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus

(Milinski and Bakker 1990; McLennan 2003), the

guppy Poecilia reticulata (Kodric-Brown 1993;

Endler and Houde 1995), and swordtails genus

iphophorus (Rosenthal and Evans 1998; Morris et

al. 2001, 2003; Fisher et al. 2006; Trainor and Basolo

2006). Each male trait often conveys different

nformation about the males to the females (cf.

Scheuber et al. 2004; Wagner and Basolo 2007). For

nstance, in previous studies, size of males indicatedarental ability (Downhower and Brown 1980; Côte

and Hunte 1989; Kolm 2002), frequent courtship

displays indicated energy reserves (Knapp 1995), and

conspicuous coloration indicated ability to resist

arasite infection (Milinski and Bakker 1990; Houde

and Torio 1992). Therefore, females may be able to

obtain more detailed information about the males by

assessing multiple traits than by assessing only single

raits. On the other hand, the relative importance

among several male traits to female mate choice may

differ (Schluter and Price 1993; Fawcett and Johnstone2003). When several male traits convey opposite

nformation, i.e., some traits indicate that a male is in

good condition, whereas other traits do not, it is

ossible that the females may prioritize the traits and

referentially utilize the trait that conveys the most

eliable information. However, the relative importance

among multiple male traits to female choice has,

n many cases, not been empirically demonstrated

(Wagner and Basolo 2007).

In the present study, we aimed to examine the

elative importance of two male traits to female matereference in the guppy. The guppy is a live-bearing

oeciliid fish that is native to the streams of Trinidad

and adjacent parts of South America (Houde 1997;

Magurran 2005). This fish exhibits remarkable sexual

dichromatism; males assume brightly colored spots on

heir bodies. The mate preference of female guppies

as been extensively investigated (reviewed by

Houde 1997). It is well known that females choose

heir mates on the basis of several male traits, such as


the area and color saturation of orange spots (Houde

1987; Kodric-Brown 1989; Houde and Endler 1990;

Houde and Torio 1992; Grether 2000), total length

(Reynolds and Gross 1992; Karino and Matsunaga

2002), and the frequency of courtship displays (Farr

1980; Nicoletto 1993).

Several studies have reported the efficacy and benefits of using digitally modified video techniques

to examine female mate preferences in guppies

(Nicoletto and Kodric-Brown 1999; Kodric-Brown

and Nicoletto 2001; Sato and Karino 2006) and other

fishes (Rosenthal and Evans 1998; Rosenthal 1999;

Rowland 1999; Morris et al. 2003; Trainor and

Basolo 2006). These techniques allow examination

of female preference for a particular male trait by

digitally manipulating only the target trait in videos of

the same males. For instance, Kodric-Brown and

Nicoletto (2001) have demonstrated the female mate preferences for male orange spot coloration and

display rate using digitally modified videos of males

with or without orange coloration and those exhibit-

ing high or low frequencies of courtship.

In this study, we examined the relative importance

of male orange spot coloration and total length to

female mate preference in guppies using digitally

modified video playbacks. The color saturation of the

orange spots of male guppies is known to be a

carotenoid-dependent trait, and thus indicates their

foraging ability for algae, a natural carotenoidresource (Grether 2000; Karino et al. 2007). Since

algal-foraging ability is a heritable trait (Karino et al.

2005), female guppies may be able to produce

offspring possessing a high algal-foraging ability by

mating with males expressing bright orange spot

coloration. On the other hand, by choosing males

possessing large total length, females can obtain

indirect benefits such as fast growth of their offspring

and high reproductive output of their daughters

(Reynolds and Gross 1992). However, the relative

importance of male orange spot coloration and totallength to female mate choice is unknown. In this

study, in order to demonstrate female preferences in a

dichotomous choice experiment, we initially exam-

ined the effective differences in both orange spot

coloration and total lengths between two digitally

modified stimulus male images that evoked a great

preference of the females to colorful or larger male

images. In order to clarify the relative importance

between male orange spot coloration and total length



82


n female choice, we subsequently examined female

reference for two male video images differing in

orange coloration as well as total lengths.

Materials and methods

e used laboratory-reared descendants of feral guppies

from the Hiji River (26°43′ N, 128°11′ E), Okinawa

Island, Japan. In this population, females prefer males

exhibiting large total lengths and high color saturation of

orange spots (Karino and Matsunaga 2002; Karino and

Shinjo 2004). The fish were housed in 40-l aquariums

n a laboratory at Tokyo Gakugei University. The

circulated aquarium water was maintained at 25-28°C,

and fish were subjected to a 12-h light/12-h dark

hotoperiod. They were fed newly hatched brine

shrimp nauplii and commercial flake food (Tetramin,etra Werke, Germany) daily.

To determine the average values and ranges for

oth orange spot patterns and total lengths among

ales in the natural population, we collected 55 adult

ales from a single site on the Hiji River in March

2005. Immediately after the collection, we recorded

mages of the right and left sides of the males using a

digital camera (Coolpix 2500, Nikon, Japan). The

ales were anesthetized using a 2-phenoxyethanol

solution in order to facilitate the recording. The

distance between the lens of the camera and the fishas fixed at 9.5 cm, and the setup was illuminated by

wo 23-W white lights. For calibration, scale and

color plates were displayed in the background of the

fish. The recorded images of the males were trans-

ferred to a computer (iBook G4, Apple, USA) and

analyzed using Photoshop CS (Adobe, USA). We

easured the area of all the orange spots on both the

ody and tail (caudal fin) as well as total area of body

and tail of each male. The values of these areas were

averaged between the right and left sides of the male.

he area of the orange spots was divided by the totalarea of the body and tail for each male to obtain the

elative orange spot area (percent). We also measured

he color saturation (percent) at six points in each

orange spot using Photoshop CS. We calculated the

average value of the six points as the score for each

spot. We used the average value of all orange spots on

oth the right and left sides of the males as the score

of the color saturation of their orange spots (see

Karino and Haijima 2004 for details). In addition, we

399

measured the total length (the length of a male from

the front of lower jaw that is most anterior part to the

end of the longest caudal ray) of each male to the

nearest 0.1 mm from a digital image.

To produce digitally modified video images of the

stimulus males, we recorded a courting male using a

digital video camera (GR-DV5000, Victor, Japan).We selected a male that exhibited a relative orange

spot area of 7.3%, which was similar to the average

value (7.0%) of the relative orange spot area among

males (n=55) in the natural habitat. The male was

placed in a small aquarium (14 cm×13 cm×7 cm

height). A female was presented to the male through a

clear partition. A 60-W daylight lamp was placed

10 cm above the aquarium. The aquarium had a black

background. Since males in the natural habitat often

exhibited courtship displays to females with dark

background such as shades of vegetation or rocks (our personal observation), the black background seemed

not to affect female preference. We recorded the

courting male using the digital video camera that was

placed on the side of the female compartment (4 cm×

4 cm×7 cm height) of the aquarium. Therefore, the

courtships of the male were directed toward both the

female and the video camera. The digital video

images were transferred to the Macintosh computer

and manipulated using DVD Studio Pro 3 and Final

Cut Pro HD (Apple). We chose successive frames

1(60 s in length, 30 frames s ) of the behavioral

sequences of the male in which the male exhibited

typical sigmoid courtship displays (Houde 1997). We

also recorded the empty aquarium using the video

camera and used this recording as a blank image.

Experiment 1: test of effective differences

To examine the effective differences in orange spot

coloration with respect to female preference, we

manipulated the color saturation of the orange spots

of two otherwise identical male images. The total

length of male images in the selected frames of the

video was adjusted to 24.0 mm, i.e., a value identical to

the average total length of males (n=55) in the natural

habitat. We adjusted the total length of the male

image to 24.0 mm through adjustment of the frame

size. We duplicated the frames of the male image.

Subsequently, we enhanced the color saturation of the

orange spots in one copy (hereafter referred to as the

bright male image) and reduced the color saturation in



83

400

he other copy (the dull male image) using the color

adjustment filter function of Final Cut Pro HD.

herefore, all orange spots of a male image exhibited

dentical color saturation such as 91%. We produced

four pairs of the bright and dull male images differing

n the color saturation. In the first pair, the color

saturation of the orange spots of the bright male imageas 91%, and that of the dull male image was 25%.

hese color saturation values were identical to those of

he highest and lowest values, respectively, among

ales in the natural habitat. In the second pair, the

color saturations of the two male images were 82%

and 34%. The corresponding color saturations in the

hird pair were 74% and 42%, and those in the final

air were 66% and 50%. These digital modifications

of the color saturation of the orange spots did not

affect the area of orange spots and coloration of the

other parts of the male images.We also modified total lengths of the two stimulus

ale images. The color saturation of orange spots in

hese male images was fixed as 58%; this was

dentical to the average value of the color saturation

of orange spots of males in their natural habitat. We

duplicated the male image, and increased the total

ength in one copy (hereafter, the large male image)

and decreased the total length in the other copy (the

small male image) through adjustment of the frame

size. Therefore, sizes of the male images were entirely

ncreased or decreased including body area andorange spot sizes, but the relative orange spot area

as fixed as 7.3%. We produced three pairs of the

arge and small male images. In the first pair, the total

ength of the large male image was 30.7 mm and that

of the small male image was 18.3 mm; these values

ere identical to those of the largest and smallest

adult males, respectively, in the natural habitat. The

otal lengths of the large and small male images in the

second pair were 28.6 and 20.6 mm, respectively. In

he final pair, the total length of the large male image

as 26.0 mm and that of the small male image was23.0 mm.

Since pregnant females are usually unreceptive to

he courting males (Houde 1997), we selected 12

ature virgin females (ca. 4-6 months after birth) as

est females. The test females were housed separately

from males. Because females that matured without

ever seeing males often mate indiscriminately during

he first encounter with males (Houde 1997), 1 day

rior to the experiment, all test females were exposed


through a clear partition to an aquarium that held 50-60 adult males. This preparation results in increased

selectivity among the naive, virgin females (Karino

and Matsunaga 2002). Since these 12 test females

were exposed to the same group of educator males,

the effect of the preparation on mate preference might

not differ between females. The four pairs of brightand dull male images and the three pairs of large and

small male images were presented to the 12 females

with random order to examine their preferences in a

dichotomous choice experiment. To examine the

female preference, we adopted an apparatus (Fig. 1)

and procedure similar to those used in Sato and

Karino (2006). We placed 2-3 cm of gravel at the

bottom of the aquarium and filled it with water to a

depth of 9 cm. The water temperature was maintained

at 25°C. Daylight lamps (15 and 20 W) were placed

10 cm above the aquarium. A dark screen was used tocover the aquarium in order to prevent disturbance.

Observations were conducted through a window (5×

10 cm) on the screen. A color liquid crystal display

monitor (FlexScan L367, Eizo, Japan) was placed at a

distance of 2 cm from one side of the aquarium

(Fig. 1). The two stimulus male images were

presented from the right and left sides of the monitor

to the test female. An area of 6×12 cm in front of

each male image was considered as the preference

zone (Fig. 1). A small central area (width, 6 cm) was

designated a neutral area and allowed us to easilyudge which male image was chosen by the female.

Digitally modified image

Monitor

6 cm

18 cm

12 cm 6 cm 12 cm

Fig. 1 Apparatus used for the female mate preference test.

Shaded areas within the aquarium indicate the preference zones



84


A test female was introduced into the aquarium

and provided a 10-min acclimation period. During the

eriod, two blank aquarium images were presented to

he female. Subsequently, a pair of stimulus male

mages (e.g., the bright and dull male images) was

simultaneously presented to the female for 7 min. We

ecorded the time spent by the female within thereference zone in front of each male image during

he final 5 min, i.e., the first 2 min were considered as

a period of acclimation to the male images. To

evaluate side bias in females, we conducted a second

rial in which the same male images were presented to

he same test females on the sides opposite to those in

he first trial. The second trial was conducted 24 h

after the first trial in order to eliminate the effect of

he first trial (Sato and Karino 2006). The time spent

y the female within the preference zone in both trials

as combined to analyze female mate preference andside bias.

Experiment 2: testing the relative importance of traits

o examine the relative importance of orange spot

coloration and total length of males in female

reference, we modified both the saturation of orange

spot coloration and the total length of the stimulus

ale images. We used the same frames of the male

mage as those used in experiment 1. We produced

wo pairs of the stimulus male images that exhibiteddifferent orange coloration and different total lengths.

In the first pair, one male image was enhanced in both

orange spot coloration (91% saturation) and total

ength (26.0 mm). The other male image was reduced

n both orange spot coloration (25% saturation) and

otal length (23.0 mm). The values for color saturation

of orange spots and total lengths in the stimulus male

mages were determined from the results of experi-

ent 1 (see Results). In the second pair, one male

mage was enhanced for orange spot coloration (91%

saturation) but decreased in total length (23.0 mm),hile the other male image was reduced for orange

spot coloration (25% saturation) and increased in total

ength (26.0 mm).

We selected 22 mature virgin females (ca. 4-6 months after birth) as the test females. These

females were different from the individuals used in

experiment 1. One day prior to the experiment, the

females were exposed through a clear partition to an

aquarium holding 50-60 adult males that were the

401

same group as used in the preparation in experiment

1. We presented these two pairs of stimulus male

images with random order to the test females and

measured the time spent by the females with each

male image. The apparatus and procedure for exam-

ining female preference were identical to those

adopted in experiment 1. If male orange spotcoloration is a more important factor than total length

for female choice, we predicted that the females

would prefer the male images possessing bright

coloration irrespective of the total lengths of the male

images. If females favor male total length over orange

spot coloration, then they should prefer the male

images possessing large total length irrespective of

the orange spot coloration of the male images.

Statistical analysis

In the statistical analysis, we used the relative time

spent by the females within each preference zone. The

time spent by a female for each male of the pair was

divided by the total time spent for both males to

obtain the relative time spent by the female. Similarly,

the relative time spent by the females within the

preference zone on the right or left side was also

calculated. The relative time spent by females for each

male (or side) was arcsine-transformed before analysis.

After the transformation, all data showed normal

distributions (Kolmogorov-Smirnov one-sample test,P>0.9).

In experiment 1, we performed two repeated-

measures ANOVAs, one to test for the effect of color

saturation of male orange spots on female preference,

and one to test for the effect of male total length on

female preference. The repeated-measures ANOVAs

were conducted with the relative time spent by each

of the 12 test females for male images as the

dependent variable, different pairs of stimulus male

images that exhibited different color saturation of

orange spots or different total lengths as the repeatedfactor. In experiment 2, to clarify the relative

importance between color saturation of orange spots

and total length of male images, we conducted two-

way ANOVA with the relative time spent by females

for each male image as the dependent variable, the

category of color saturation (the bright or dull male

images) and that of total length (the large and small

male images) as factors. We used StatView 5 (SAS

Institute, USA) for the analysis.



85

402

Results

Experiment 1: test of effective differences

Females exhibited significant preference for the bright

ale images over dull male images (repeated-meas-

res ANOVA: F 1, 20 =8.8, P=0.008; Fig. 2). Within-subjects, the effect of the male image pairs was not

significant (F 3, 60 =0.02, P=0.99). The interaction

etween the female preference for bright male images

and the difference in color saturation between the

ale image pairs was significant (F 3, 60 =3.0, P=

0.04). This result indicates that when the difference in

color saturation of orange spots between stimulus

ale images was greater, the female preference for

he bright male images increased (Fig. 2). Side-bias

for right or left side by the females was not significant

(repeated-measures ANOVA: F 1, 20 0.8, P=0.40;ithin-subjects, male image pairs, F

3, 60

=0.03, P=


1Large male image

Small male image0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

030.7 18.3 28.6 20.6 26.0 23.0

Total lengths of stimulus male images (mm)

Fig. 3 The relative time spent by test females with the large

and small male images in experiment 1. The values of the

relative time spent by the females are arcsine-transformed.Columns represent the mean and bars represent SE

0.99; the interaction between the side and male image

airs, F 3, 60 =0.9, P=0.42). Therefore, the female

reference for male orange spot coloration can be

demonstrated by using a pair comprising a bright

ale image exhibiting 91% color saturation and a dull

ale image exhibiting 25% saturation.

Female preference for the large male images was

1, 22=

1.0, P=0.34; Fig. 3). Within-subjects, the effect of the

ot significant (repeated-measures ANOVA: F

male image pairs was also not significant (F 2, 44=

0.01, P=0.99). However, the interaction between the

female preference for the large male images and the

difference in total length between stimulus males was

significant (F 2, 44 =3.5, P=0.04). This result indicates

that when the difference in total lengths between

stimulus male images was decreased, the female

preference for the large male images increased(Fig. 3). The female side-bias was not significant

(repeated-measures ANOVA: F 1, 22 =2.0, P=0.17;

within-subjects, male image pairs, F2, 44

0.1, P=

0.8

Bright male image

Dull male image0.89; the interaction between the side and male image

pairs, F 2, 44 =0.2, P=0.85). These results indicate that

a pair of large and small male images possessing total

lengths of 26.0 and 23.0 mm, respectively, is the most

effective to examine the female preference for male

total length.

Experiment 2: testing the relative importance of traits

Test females exhibited a significant preference for

male images possessing greater color saturation of

orange spots (two-way ANOVA, F 1, 83 =29.1, P<

0.001; Fig. 4). However, the female preference for

male images possessing larger total length was not

significant (F 1, 83 =0.9, P=0.35). The interaction

between the color saturation of orange spots and total

length of stimulus males was also not significant

0.6

0.4

0.2

091 25 82 34 74 42 66 50

Saturation of orange spots of stimulus male images (%)

ig. 2 The relative time spent by test females with the bright

nd dull male images in experiment 1. The values of the

elative time spent by the females are arcsine-transformed.

olumns represent the mean and bars represent SE

s

f e m a l e

b y

s p e n t

t i m e

R e l a t i v e

s

b y

s p e n t

t i m e

R e l a t i v e

f e m a l e



86


1

Bright male image

Dull male image0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0Large Small Small Large

Total lengths of stimulus male images

ig. 4 The relative time spent by test females with each male

mage in experiment 2 in which the two stimulus male images

iffered in both color saturation of orange spots and totalength. The color saturations of the bright and dull male images

ere 91% and 25%, respectively, and the total lengths of the

arge and small male images were 26.0 and 23.0 mm,

espectively. The values of the relative time spent by the

emales are arcsine-transformed. Columns represent the mean

nd bars represent SE

(F1, 83

0.2, P=0.64). The female side-bias was not

significant (two-way ANOVA: F

ale image pairs, F1, 83

1, 83 =0.04, P=0.84;

=0.8, P=0.39; the interactionetween the side and male image pairs, F 1, 83=1.4,

P=0.23). These results indicate that the orange spot

coloration of males is a more important factor than

ale total length for female preference.

Discussion

he results of the present study indicate that female

guppies prioritized the saturation of male orange spot

coloration over total length for their mate preferences.he color saturation of the orange spots of male

guppies is considered an indicator of their viability,

such as swimming performance (Nicoletto 1991),

strength of immune systems (Grether et al. 2004a),

and the algal-foraging ability (Grether 2000; Karino et

al. 2007). It is known that the intake of an algal diet

enhances the color saturation of orange spots of male

guppies, the growth of both sexes as well as the

eproductive efficiency of females (Karino and

403

Haijima 2004). In addition, Grether et al. (2004a)

suggested that carotenoid intake enhances the immune

system in male guppies. However, algae are scarce

resources for guppies in certain circumstances

(Grether et al. 1999; Karino et al. 2007). Since the

algal-foraging ability is a heritable trait (Karino et al.

2005), the females can produce offspring possessing ahigher algal-foraging ability and hence acquire greater

fitness via their mate choice for the color saturation of

male orange spots.

Body size is also a heritable trait in guppies

(Brooks and Endler 2001; Karino and Haijima

2001), and females enhance their offspring growth

and reproductive output of their daughters when they

mate with males possessing large total lengths

(Reynolds and Gross 1992). Nevertheless, it is

possible that the large total length in males may

include a deceptive signal to females. Some maleguppies elongate their tails in order to achieve a large

total length, even though their standard lengths are

small (Karino and Matsunaga 2002). By mating with

these long-tailed males, females incur certain costs

such as small body size and low reproductive output

of their female offspring (Karino et al. 2006a). When

two males possessing the same total length and

different tail length are presented to female guppies,

the females are unable to discriminate the long-tail

male from the short-tail male without physical contact

with the males (Karino and Matsunaga 2002).Therefore, the color saturation of orange spots may

convey more reliable and honest information about

the males than their total lengths to the females.

In experiment 1, female preference for large male

images was not observed when the size difference

between male images was largest. This result contrasted

with those of previous studies using live males

(Reynolds and Gross 1992; Karino and Matsunaga

2002) in which females preferred males possessing

larger total length. For example, Karino and Matsunaga

(2002) have demonstrated that when the difference intotal lengths between two stimulus live males was

greater, females exhibited stronger preference for the

larger males. One plausible explanation can be

proposed for the unexpected result. It is possible that

females viewed the largest male images as other

females. Female guppies are often larger than males

(Houde 1997). In the Hiji population, female guppies

also exhibited larger total length than males (Karino et

al. 2006b). Therefore, females in experiment 1 in this

s

f e m a l e

b y

s p

e n t

t i m e

R e l a t i v e



87

404

study might recognize the largest male images as other

females, even though the male images exhibited male-

specific traits such as orange spots. It is probable that

his result was partially due to lower discriminative

ability of females to male video images than live males

(discussed below).

In this study, the female preference for the highcolor saturation of male orange spots was manifest

hen the color saturation of the bright male image

as 91% and that of the dull male image was 25%.

However, a significant female mate preference in the

same study population has been documented using

ive males, in which the average saturation of orange

spot coloration of the bright males was 82% and that

of the dull males was 68% (Karino and Shinjo 2004).

herefore, when digitally modified videos of males

are used to examine the female preferences, a greater

degree of difference in color saturation between thestimulus male images was required than when using

ive males. These results suggest a limitation of the

digitally modified video playbacks in examining

female mate preferences. Similar limitations in apply-

ng digitally modified videos to demonstrate mate

references have previously been pointed out, includ-

ng a reduction in the intensity of the reproductive

ehavior caused by a lack of direct interaction

etween the test females and stimulus video images

(Nicoletto and Kodric-Brown 1999; Rosenthal 1999;

Rowland 1999). However, if the effectiveness of thedigitally modified video technique is verified, it may

rovide an excellent opportunity to examine the

elative importance among multiple male traits in

female mate preferences. Further studies using digi-

ally modified videos will be required in order to

examine the relative importance of other male traits in

addition to orange spot coloration and total length,

such as display rate and area of orange spots in the

ate preferences in female guppies. This information

ill suggest the relative benefits or costs of mate

choice for females on the basis of each male trait andas implications for the evolution of female choice

ased on multiple male traits.

cknowledgements We are grateful to A. Sato for help for

echnical supports and field survey and to two anonymous

eviewers for invaluable comments on the manuscript. This

tudy was supported by a Grant-in-Aids (#16570012 and

19570015) to K.K. from the Japan Society for the Promotion

f Science.


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