OCG533, Fall 2001
Assignment 6, due 21 September 2001
Fixing noun phrases
Here are five sentences from the scientific literature. Each contains one or more noun phrases that need to be optimized. Find the problematic noun phrases and fix each. Give the reasons for your changes. Use everything you have learned so far in this course.
1. Sorption, diffusion, and degradation are the main processes determining the long-term persistence and biological activity of herbicides and other contaminants and their rate of movement through the unsaturated zone and potential for groundwater contamination.
2. We previously reported on the characteristics of indoor particle sources using data collected from an indoor particle study conducted in three nonsmoking homes in the Boston area during the winter and summer of 1996.
3. The island of Newfoundland lies in the path of prevailing winds that carry anthropogenic sulfur from emission sources located on the eastern North American mainland over the Atlantic Ocean.
4. The time scale for the records that are used for the investigation of the 100-ky cycle is based on the existence in these δ18O records of variability that is confidently associated with variations in axial obliquity (41 ky) and with the precession of the equinoxes (23 and 19 ky).
5. Current information about the concentration and composition, sources and methods for determining sources, and the relations among different size fractions of ambient particulate matter in polluted areas in the United States will be summarized.