Archive for February, 2005
Estimados amigos:
Hoy os enviamos una cita publicada hace menos de un mes, que amablemente nos mandó Jorge Serrano Cobos.
“Sixty-five million years ago the Age of Reptiles came to a cataclysmic extinction known as The Great Dying. There is still controversy over what happened, but all theories agree that the dinosaurs died out because the environment changed and they couldn’t adapt. Librarians are well positioned to thrive. But the future is not what it used to be. Our enterprise is no longer an extension of the past”.
~ Abram, Stephen. “The Google opportunity“. Library journal, 130(2), 34-35. February 1, 2005. (free download)
Stephen Abram is President, Canadian Library Association, and Vice President Innovation, Sirsi Corporation.
Traducción:
“Hace 65 millones de años la Edad de los Reptiles llegó a una extinción cataclÃsmica conocida como La Gran Extinción. TodavÃa hay controversia sobre qué pasó, pero todas las teorÃas están de acuerdo en que los dinosaurios murieron porque el entorno cambió y ellos no se pudieron adaptar. Los bibliotecarios están bien posicionados para prosperar. Pero el futuro no es lo que era. Nuestra “empresa” [nuestra tarea] ya no es una extensión [de la] del pasado”.
Although this quote might cause some of us to worry about our professional future, remember that today is Friday and so we have to work on English (you can start to worry about whether our profession will survive over the weekend!)
SOBRE EL INGLÉS
Here are some comments for today:
1) Million: Note that the word “million” is not pluralized because a specific amount is indicated. And, for the same reason, there is no “of” between “million” and “years” as we would have in Spanish.
However if the sum were not specific, then the word “million” would appear as a plural, followed by a prepositional phrase as in Spanish: “Millions of years ago the Age of Reptiles.”
Another example: “The library has 2 million books”; “The library has millions of books”.
The same rule applies to other words denoting numbers: dozen, hundred, thousand, etc.
2a) Die out: Of course, the dinosaurs “died” individually, but the preposition “out” alters its meaning to: “become extinct”. It is also the way to describe a fire that ceases to burn: “The fire died out”; “El fuego se apagó”).
Look at how different prepositions alter the meaning of this verb in the following sentence: “The noise of the dinosaurs died down* as they died off** over the years; finally the entire species had died out***.”
*Die down: to lessen or become softer (sound, activity, etc.)
**Die off: to die, one by one (group)
***Die out: to become extinct (group)
2b) species = misma forma singular y plural
2c) Continuing with “die”, there is a noun which is spelt and pronounced the same, meaning “dado”; and also a type of instrument such as “matriz” o “troquel”. The Spanish expression “La suerte está echada” can be translated as “The die is cast”.
2d) Another verb is pronounced the same as “die”, though written differently: “dye”, meaning “teñir”. Compare how these two verbs are conjugated (the pronunciation is identical in both cases):
Die, died, dying
Dye, dyed, dyeing
Os deseamos un feliz fin de semana,
Alice Keefer & Tomàs Baiget
