VOA慢速英语2021--Modifiers in Science Writing

Modifiers in Science Writing 

Imagine you are learning about a science. Perhaps you want to read a science book, science news, or scientific research in English.

There are certain structures that are common to all of these kinds of writing.

In today's Everyday Grammar, we will explore the connection between science writing and modifiers - a word or group of words that describes another word or group of words.

Let's start with a few important terms and ideas.

What are modifiers?

In grammar, the word "modifier" includes several groups of terms – adjectives, participles, prepositional phrases, appositives, and more.

Modifiers can appear before or after a noun.

A noun and its modifiers can create a noun phrase – a group of words that acts like a noun in a sentence.

Let's consider an example.

You might read about "an interesting study." The words "an interesting study" make up a noun phrase. The word "an" shows the beginning of the noun phrase. The modifier is "interesting." It is an adjective that comes before the noun "study."

Modifiers can also come after a noun. Imagine you read a science story that says something like this:

Scientists found evidence of a large black hole.

In the example, the noun evidence is followed by a kind of modifier known as a prepositional phrase – the words of a large black hole.

In speaking, noun phrases commonly only have a noun, pronoun, or noun and determiner – a word such as the, this, a, and so on. So, you might hear someone say:

I called my friend.

In the example, the noun phrase is my friend. It has the noun, friend, and the determiner, my.

In writing, noun phrases are more likely to have modifiers that come before and after the noun. These modifiers are often more complex than what you hear in everyday speaking.

Writing and modifiers in science news

Let's explore some science stories that have appeared recently on VOA Learning English's website. You will see that modifiers play an important part in giving information about scientific studies.

For example, here is one story that reports findings from a study. The study used a high-tech¹ sensing device known as lidar.

A careful study of a large area in Mexico has found hundreds of ancient ceremonial centers.

The important noun is the word study. It forms the base of the sentence's subject. If the modifiers were taken out of the first part of the sentence, it would be this:

A study has found hundreds of ancient ceremonial centers.

Note that the sentence is still complete. Some of the details have been removed, but the sentence still has the elements of a complete sentence – subject, verb, object.

Note that the modifiers in the original report come both before and after nouns.

A careful study of a large area in Mexico ...

The adjective careful comes before the noun study. The phrase of a large area comes after study, and the phrase in Mexico comes after the noun area.

Let's see how modifiers play an important part in another science story.

Astronomers² say they have found evidence for the first time of a planet orbiting a star outside our Milky³ Way galaxy⁴.

Notice here that the subject of the sentence is very short – astronomers. But modifiers play an important part in the sentence's predicate.

The noun evidence is followed by the modifier for the first time, which is in turn followed by more modifiers - of a planet... and so on.

Closing thoughts

One way to think about the central idea of today's report is to imagine a skeleton – the bones that make up the basic structure of a person or animal.

On top of the basic structure there are increasing levels of complexity⁵ that create a living being – fat, nerves, muscles, blood vessels⁶, and so on.

In grammar, we have a basic structure that makes up the central meaning of a sentence - subject and predicate, noun or noun phrase and verb. Modifiers add weight or detail to the basic structure. The modifiers bring sentences to life.

The next time you are reading science news, scientific research, or really any kind of writing in English, pay careful attention to how the writer uses modifiers. Identify the basic structure of a sentence and then make note of how modifiers play a part in it.

Words in This Story

participle – n. grammar : a form of a verb that is used to indicate a past or present action and that can also be used like an adjective

prepositional phrase – n. grammar : a phrase that begins with a preposition and ends in a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase

appositive – n. grammar standing⁷ in grammatical apposition - an arrangement of words in which a noun or noun phrase is followed by another noun or noun phrase that refers to the same thing

determiner – n. grammar: a word (such as "a," "the," "some," "any," "my," or "your") that comes before a noun and is used to show which thing is being referred to

predicate – n. grammar: the part of a sentence that expresses what is said about the subject

1 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

2 astronomers   

n.天文学者，天文学家( astronomer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Astronomers can accurately foretell the date,time,and length of future eclipses. 天文学家能精确地预告未来日食月食的日期、时刻和时长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings. 天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪，为什么只有土星有光环。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 milky   

adj.牛奶的，多奶的；乳白色的

参考例句：

• Alexander always has milky coffee at lunchtime.亚历山大总是在午餐时喝掺奶的咖啡。
• I like a hot milky drink at bedtime.我喜欢睡前喝杯热奶饮料。

4 galaxy   

n.星系；银河系；一群(杰出或著名的人物)

参考例句：

• The earth is one of the planets in the Galaxy.地球是银河系中的星球之一。
• The company has a galaxy of talent.该公司拥有一批优秀的人才。

5 complexity   

n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物

参考例句：

• Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
• The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。

6 vessels   

n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人

参考例句：

• The river is navigable by vessels of up to 90 tons. 90 吨以下的船只可以从这条河通过。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All modern vessels of any size are fitted with radar installations. 所有现代化船只都有雷达装置。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。