Help me with English, please!

[Chlidonias]

Thanks!
Regarding to quoted text: what about "dense fur" instead of "good fur"? Is the word "host" not suitable in this case?

"dense fur" is perfect actually! Well done.

In that sentence, "host" does not make sense. I think I know what you mean by it but it is incorrect in that usage. You can host a person in your home. A city can host an Olympics. You could say a beaver hosts muskrats in its lodge. In the first two cases one item (a person or the Olympics) is provided with a place by the primary item (you or the city). In the third case one item (muskrat) is sharing a place with the primary item (beaver). It doesn't really work when the two items are mother and child. I'm not sure if that sounded even remotely understandable....

 

[Chlidonias]

The arctic fox is the only species of Canids which periodically change fur coloration according to season. Arctic foxes are active over the (whole) day and night. They dig long complex underground labyrinth dens with great amount of exits in sandy hills and shore terraces. Arctic foxes tend to form the monogamous pairs during the breeding season. Typical family consists of a male, a female and several pups. Arctic foxes usually have average 5–8 pups, but may be as many as 25 (the largest in the order Carnivora).
Food: small rodents, hares, birds, eggs, fish, carrion, berries and seaweed

How I should change text in bold to avoid saying "arctic foxes" again etc? I feel that second part of this sentence is not correct.

This is how I would write the paragraph (using the same basic wording):

The arctic fox is the only species of Canid [or "canid" or "Canidae"] which periodically changes fur coloration according to season. They are active at all hours, day or night, and dig complex labyrinth dens with numerous exits in sandy hills and shore terraces. Arctic foxes tend to form monogamous pairs during the breeding season, and a typical family consists of a male, a female and several pups. Litters average 5–8 pups, but there may be as many as 25 (the largest in the order Carnivora).
Food: small rodents, hares, birds, eggs, fish, carrion, berries and seaweed


The best way to avoid repetition of "Arctic Fox" is to alternate it with "They", and to start sentences in different ways (as I did with "Litters..."). Short sentences are good, but combining two short sentences into one allows you to avoid having to use "Arctic Fox" or "They" (as I did with your second and third sentences).

*This sentence - "dig long complex underground labyrinth dens" - has several redundant words. If you have "dig" then you don't need "underground"; "long" isn't really necessary if you also have "complex" and/or "labyrinth".

*The word for this - "Arctic foxes are active over the (whole) day and night" - is cathemeral, which means active at any hour. You could use this word with a quick explanation - e.g. "Arctic foxes are cathemeral (active at any hour)..."

 

[callorhinus]

The best way to avoid repetition of "Arctic Fox" is to alternate it with "They", and to start sentences in different ways (as I did with "Litters..."). Short sentences are good, but combining two short sentences into one allows you to avoid having to use "Arctic Fox" or "They" (as I did with your second and third sentences).

*This sentence - "dig long complex underground labyrinth dens" - has several redundant words. If you have "dig" then you don't need "underground"; "long" isn't really necessary if you also have "complex" and/or "labyrinth".

*The word for this - "Arctic foxes are active over the (whole) day and night" - is cathemeral, which means active at any hour. You could use this word with a quick explanation - e.g. "Arctic foxes are cathemeral (active at any hour)..."

I had an impression that long sentences are more usual for Russian, but not for English

Thanks for help and for the tips!

 

[callorhinus]

I hope this time commas are on their places

The corsac fox is immediate relative of the red fox and it is a minimized copy of red fox, but corsac’s fur is not as thick/dense and bright. Like other desert species, it doesn't drink a lot of water. Corsac foxes prefer not to dig their own burrows, but mostly use burrows of big rodents. When being detected, they often pretend to be dead. Corsac pairs/couples stay together for the whole life. They have only one brood of 4-6 pups per year, but there are reported cases of 11 pups born.

 

[Chlidonias]

I was going to come back to this but then I forgot. I would have thought someone else would have had some input before now though!

The corsac fox is immediate relative of the red fox and it is a minimized copy of red fox, but corsac’s fur is not as thick/dense and bright. Like other desert species, it doesn't drink a lot of water. Corsac foxes prefer not to dig their own burrows, but mostly use burrows of big rodents. When being detected, they often pretend to be dead. Corsac pairs/couples stay together for the whole life. They have only one brood of 4-6 pups per year, but there are reported cases of 11 pups born.

*The corsac fox is immediate relative of the red fox and it is a minimized copy of red fox, but corsac’s fur is not as thick/dense and bright.
The corsac fox is a close relative of the red fox, but it is smaller and the fur is less bright and not as thick.
I pretty much re-wrote that whole sentence, which I don't like to do because it changes your wording almost entirely, but the second half of the sentence was very cumbersome due to the repetiton of "corsac" and "red fox" (both used twice in the same sentence). I swapped the bit about "bright" and "thick" around as well so that it was easier to write. You can put "is an immediate relative" but "is a close relative" is much more easily understood by most people. "Minimised" does mean "made smaller" but in this sentence the use is incorrect (if used in this way, you would be saying that a corsac fox actually is a red fox which has been made smaller).

*Like other desert species, it doesn't drink a lot of water.
This sentence is fine. Except you would need to put "they don't drink..." to match the rest of the paragraph's following text. Which also means the previous sentence should also change to "...but they are smaller..."

*Corsac foxes prefer not to dig their own burrows, but mostly use burrows of big rodents.
This sentence is fine.

*When being detected, they often pretend to be dead.
Here it would be better to put "when threatened" or "when in danger". The word "detected" is technically correct but this isn't how it would be phrased in English.

*Corsac pairs/couples stay together for the whole life.
Here I would simply put "Corsac foxes pair for life" but "Corsac pairs stay together for their whole lives" is also fine

*They have only one brood of 4-6 pups per year, but there are reported cases of 11 pups born.
This sentence is fine, but "litter" is better than "brood". Brood is usually used for the chicks of birds rather than the babies of mammals.

 

[callorhinus]

I would have thought someone else would have had some input before now though!

Never mind. You are very good teacher, thank you!

I still make many mistakes in using articles. There are situations, when article is not needed. For instance, we can write "... fox with the vole in the mouth", but "... fox with the vole in it's mouth", without article before "mouth". Are there many situations like this?

 

[Chlidonias]

I'm not sure I'd be any good at explaining the rules around articles. I just know how to use them not how to explain how I use them.

One note on the above though - "fox with the vole in it's mouth" - should be its, not it's. This is kind of a tricky English thing. You would write "the monkey's banana" with an apostrophe because the banana belongs to the monkey - but you would write "its banana" with no apostrophe. That appears contradictory and I suppose it is. The very easy way to remember when to use it's and when to use its is that the apostrophe in this word signifies a contraction (combining two words into one word) - if the word means "it is" or "it has" then you use it's - otherwise no apostrophe.

For example:
*It's my banana is a contraction of It is my banana.
*It's taken my banana is a contraction of It has taken my banana.
*I took its banana - you cannot replace this with I took it has banana or I took it is banana - so no apostrophe.

 

[callorhinus]

I have more texts to check is the translation right, BUT this time it is not just training in translation. This time it was made by request of administration of our zoo. Just to be honest.

Here is the first text:

Lepus timidus
Mountain hare, Arctic hare, White hare
Class Mammals - Mammalia
Order Lagomorphs - Lagomorpha
Family Leporids/Rabbits and hares – Leporidae

Many people used to think hares are rodents, while these animals are grouped into the Order Lagomorphs. In Russia, the most known are two species of hares: white hare and brown hare. They got their names because of the difference in the colour: in the winter a white hare has a pure white fur, only the tips of the ears are black. In the summer it can be reddish-gray or dark gray with brown spots. The female hare on average larger than the male, fur colour is the same. The feet are large, especially in the winter, they become wider because of thick wool on them. This allows hare to run in the snow easier: it runs like snowshoeing.

Hare constantly carries a warm and soft featherbed: its fur is thicker on the belly than on the rest parts of the body. In frosty weather hare digs holes in snow up to 1.5 m length, and may stay there for a whole day. While digging burrow, hare condenses the snow, but does not throw it out. In the tundra burrows can be up to 8 meters, and are used as permanent shelters. In the summer hares sometimes occupy abandoned burrows of polar foxes and marmots.

Like other hares, white hare is a twilight/crepuscular and nocturnal animal. It feeds only at night, sometimes in the morning, when the night-time is not enough. In summer hares in the tundra switch to daylight feeding to escape/avoid the gnat. Searching for food, hare can overcome several kilometers during the night-time. Hare always goes the same way and does not change the places of feeding and rest.

White hare is an important object of sport hunting.

Diet: green parts of plants and fruits
Habitat: tundra, forests and partially forest-steppe zone
Limiting factors: diseases, predators
Dimensions: body length from 44 to 65 cm, rarely to 74 cm, ears up to 10 cm, tail 5 to 11 cm.
Offspring: 1 to 11
Weight: 1,6-4,5 kg
Lifespan: 7-17 years

 

[Chlidonias]

Here you go. I left it mostly as written, only correcting tenses, grammar, etc. However I re-wrote a couple of sentences so they worked better. I don't really like what I put at the end ("They have predictable habits ...") but I couldn't think of a better way to write it off the top of my head.

Note that you have used the English spelling for "colour" but the American spelling for "metres" and "kilometres" and "grey" (I have left your spellings as they were).


Lepus timidus
Mountain hare, Arctic hare, White hare
Class Mammals - Mammalia
Order Lagomorphs - Lagomorpha
Family Leporids/Rabbits and hares – Leporidae

Many people think that hares are rodents, but these animals are grouped into the Order Lagomorpha. In Russia, the best known lagomorphs are two species of hares: white hare and brown hare. They got their names because of the difference in the colour. In the winter a white hare has pure white fur, with black tips to the ears. In the summer it can be reddish-gray or dark gray with brown spots. The female hare is the same colour as the male but averages larger in size. The feet are large and in the winter they become wider because of thick fur on them. This allows the hare to run in the snow more easily, with the feet acting like snow-shoes.

The white hare constantly carries a warm and soft featherbed: its fur is thicker on the belly than on the rest of the body. In frosty weather the hare digs holes in snow up to 1.5 m length, and may stay there for a whole day. While digging burrows the hare condenses the snow, but does not throw it out. In the tundra burrows can be up to 8 meters long, and are used as permanent shelters. In the summer they sometimes occupy abandoned burrows of polar foxes and marmots.

Like other hares, the white hare is a crepuscular and nocturnal animal. [Here I personally would put something like "Like other hares, the white hare is mainly active at dusk and during the night" to make it more clear for people who don't know what crepuscular or nocturnal mean]. It feeds mainly at night, only sometimes in the morning when the night-time is not enough. In summer hares in the tundra switch to daylight feeding to escape gnats. When searching for food hares can cover several kilometers during the night. They have predictable habits and do not change the places of feeding and rest.

The white hare is an important object of sport hunting.

Diet: green parts of plants and fruits
Habitat: tundra, forests and partially forest-steppe zone
Limiting factors: diseases, predators
Dimensions: body length from 44 to 65 cm, rarely to 74 cm, ears up to 10 cm, tail 5 to 11 cm.
Offspring: 1 to 11
Weight: 1,6-4,5 kg
Lifespan: 7-17 years

 

[callorhinus]

Here you go. I left it mostly as written, only correcting tenses, grammar, etc. However I re-wrote a couple of sentences so they worked better. I don't really like what I put at the end ("They have predictable habits ...") but I couldn't think of a better way to write it off the top of my head.

I think it is better than my text anyway. Thanks!

Note that you have used the English spelling for "colour" but the American spelling for "metres" and "kilometres" and "grey" (I have left your spellings as they were).

I think "metres" is not (just) American English influence but mostly Russian order of letters. So it is my very old mistake.
I used to write "gray", and I thought it is just old version. Some dictionaries say so. I also thought the same about "autumn". Is that right then that "gray" and "fall" is more American words than common English?


Here is another text:

Dolichotis salinicola
CHAKOAN MARA
Class Mammals – Mammalia
Order Rodents – Rodentia
Cavy family – Caviidae

External similarity /resemblance to leggy hares, rabbits or some sort of small ungulates is explained by way of life of these rodents: they must run like chevrotains, and dig burrows like rabbits. Mary are active during the day. They feed in small groups, and move jumping like hares. However, unlike hares maras can move amble as well. Their long hind legs also adapted for fast sprint that maras do only in extreme cases.

These animals dig burrows themselves or use other animals’ burrows as shelters, in which maras not only spend the night, but also raise their offspring. Maras are monogamous. Litter/litters are able to run fast after only a few hours after birth. Males do not play big role in the raising/ upbringing of the offspring, but they tolerate its/ their presence and can even play with them.

Diet: grass, cereals, succulent species (cacti and bromeliads), fruits, seeds.
Habitat: dry plains overgrown with chaparral/ thorn

 

[LaughingDove]

I think it is better than my text anyway. Thanks!


I think "metres" is not (just) American English influence but mostly Russian order of letters. So it is my very old mistake.
I used to write "gray", and I thought it is just old version. Some dictionaries say so. I also thought the same about "autumn". Is that right then that "gray" and "fall" is more American words than common English?


Here is another text:

Dolichotis salinicola
CHAKOAN MARA
Class Mammals – Mammalia
Order Rodents – Rodentia
Cavy family – Caviidae

External similarity /resemblance to leggy hares, rabbits or some sort of small ungulates is explained by way of life of these rodents: they must run like chevrotains, and dig burrows like rabbits. Mary are active during the day. They feed in small groups, and move jumping like hares. However, unlike hares maras can move amble as well. Their long hind legs also adapted for fast sprint that maras do only in extreme cases.

These animals dig burrows themselves or use other animals’ burrows as shelters, in which maras not only spend the night, but also raise their offspring. Maras are monogamous. Litter/litters are able to run fast after only a few hours after birth. Males do not play big role in the raising/ upbringing of the offspring, but they tolerate its/ their presence and can even play with them.

Diet: grass, cereals, succulent species (cacti and bromeliads), fruits, seeds.
Habitat: dry plains overgrown with chaparral/ thorn

It's mostly all correct, I have just corrected a few minor errors.

In regards to what you said above: 'Gray' and 'fall' (in the sense of the season) are American versions which in non-American English would be 'grey' and 'autumn'.



Dolichotis salinicola
CHACOAN MARA (I have left it in capitals as that is how you had it)
Class Mammals – Mammalia
Order Rodents – Rodentia
Cavy family – Caviidae

The external resemblance to leggy hares, rabbits or some sort of small ungulate (I have removed an 's') is explained by the way of life of these rodents: they must run like chevrotains, and dig burrows like rabbits. They are mainly active during the day (assuming you mean mainly and not many, I think that was I typo on your part). They feed in small groups, and move by jumping like hares. However, unlike hares, maras can amble as well (I have removed the word 'move' and I don't think 'amble' is quite the best word here but I struggle to think of anything better). Their long hind legs are also adapted for a fast sprint that maras only do in extreme cases.

These animals dig burrows themselves or use other animals’ burrows as shelters, in which maras not only spend the night, but also raise their offspring. Maras are monogamous and young are able to run fast after only a few hours after birth. Males do not play a big role in the raising of the offspring, but they tolerate their presence and can even play with them.

Diet: grass, cereals, succulent plants (cacti and bromeliads), fruits, seeds.
Habitat: dry plains overgrown with chaparral/ thorn

 

[callorhinus]

It's mostly all correct, I have just corrected a few minor errors.

Thanks a lot! Not so minor errors though

And the last text (for today ):

Tupaia belangeri
NORTHERN TREESHREW
Class Mammals – Mammalia
Order Treeshrews – Scandentia
Family Treeshrews – Tupaiidae

Treeshrews – animal of the size of a squirrel, living in the forests of Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand, Indonesia, Sumatra, Java. Northern treeshrews have a thick fur, which is dark brown on the back and sides of the body, and orange-red on the belly/ abdomen. Animals’ paws have /equipped with sharp claws used for climbing trees; ears are medium-sized; large black eyes are located on the sides of the head.

Not only because of the appearance but also by/with their behavior Northern treeshrew is similar to Eurasian red squirrel. It hustles most of the time in the forest floor, searching for something to eat, and when it is in danger, as well as at night, hides in the trees. Northern treeshrews usually form monogamous pairs, but there were cases when the male mates with several females. Parents built a special nest for the offspring under roots or in hollows of the trees, paving it with dry leaves. The parents live in another nest. Surprising fact that during treeshrew childhood, which is lasting for about 36 days, the female with cubs holds no more than one and a half hours. It comes to them once in two days for 10 or 15 minutes to feed. After the month after birth is over, litters leave their nest and join the parents.

Diet: fruits and seeds, invertebrates and small vertebrates
Habitat: tropical forests

 

[Chlidonias]

It's mostly all correct, I have just corrected a few minor errors.



Dolichotis salinicola
CHACOAN MARA (I have left it in capitals as that is how you had it)
Class Mammals – Mammalia
Order Rodents – Rodentia
Cavy family – Caviidae

The external resemblance to leggy hares, rabbits or some sort of small ungulate (I have removed an 's') is explained by the way of life of these rodents: they must run like chevrotains, and dig burrows like rabbits. They are mainly active during the day (assuming you mean mainly and not many, I think that was I typo on your part). They feed in small groups, and move by jumping like hares. However, unlike hares, maras can amble as well (I have removed the word 'move' and I don't think 'amble' is quite the best word here but I struggle to think of anything better). Their long hind legs are also adapted for a fast sprint that maras only do in extreme cases.

These animals dig burrows themselves or use other animals’ burrows as shelters, in which maras not only spend the night, but also raise their offspring. Maras are monogamous and young are able to run fast after only a few hours after birth. Males do not play a big role in the raising of the offspring, but they tolerate their presence and can even play with them.

Diet: grass, cereals, succulent plants (cacti and bromeliads), fruits, seeds.
Habitat: dry plains overgrown with chaparral/ thorn

there are only two additional things I would change:

1) I would start the paragraph as "The mara's external resemblance to...." or "The external resemblance of the mara to...." because otherwise it is several sentences before you even name the animal in question (disregarding the title, which is separate to the text). For myself, I would substitute "external" with "superficial" as this is a more appropriate word for the context.

2) "Maras are monogamous and young are able to run fast after only a few hours after birth." - this should be two sentences as callorhinus originally had it, because there are two unconnected subjects. Maras are monogamous. The young are able to run fast just a few hours after birth. (You also had a redundant "after" in there).

 

[Chlidonias]

Thanks a lot! Not so minor errors though

And the last text (for today ):

Tupaia belangeri
NORTHERN TREESHREW
Class Mammals – Mammalia
Order Treeshrews – Scandentia
Family Treeshrews – Tupaiidae

Treeshrews – animal of the size of a squirrel, living in the forests of Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand, Indonesia, Sumatra, Java. Northern treeshrews have a thick fur, which is dark brown on the back and sides of the body, and orange-red on the belly/ abdomen. Animals’ paws have /equipped with sharp claws used for climbing trees; ears are medium-sized; large black eyes are located on the sides of the head.

Not only because of the appearance but also by/with their behavior Northern treeshrew is similar to Eurasian red squirrel. It hustles most of the time in the forest floor, searching for something to eat, and when it is in danger, as well as at night, hides in the trees. Northern treeshrews usually form monogamous pairs, but there were cases when the male mates with several females. Parents built a special nest for the offspring under roots or in hollows of the trees, paving it with dry leaves. The parents live in another nest. Surprising fact that during treeshrew childhood, which is lasting for about 36 days, the female with cubs holds no more than one and a half hours. It comes to them once in two days for 10 or 15 minutes to feed. After the month after birth is over, litters leave their nest and join the parents.

Diet: fruits and seeds, invertebrates and small vertebrates
Habitat: tropical forests

this one was a little complicated and I re-arranged several sentences. In particular the last section was very confusing - I had to read it a couple of times to see what you meant, so I re-wrote/re-shuffled that bit entirely (hopefully I understood it correctly!).

Additional note: behavior is American spelling (I think), English spelling is behaviour (I changed it to that because otherwise it looks wrong to me).

In terms of accuracy, are red squirrels really mainly ground-dwelling as suggested in comparison to tree-shrews? I know tree-shrews superficially resemble squirrels but I have always thought of red squirrels as being primarily arboreal (the ones I have seen in Russia were all in trees).

Anyway, here's the text:


Tupaia belangeri
NORTHERN TREESHREW
Class Mammals – Mammalia
Order Treeshrews – Scandentia
Family Treeshrews – Tupaiidae

Treeshrews are squirrel-like animals which live in the forests of Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. [I removed Sumatra and Java as these are both islands in Indonesia - and added Malaysia - you could conversely remove Indonesia and replace with Sumatra and Java] Northern treeshrews have thick fur which is dark brown on the back and sides of the body, and orange-red on the belly/ abdomen [either belly or abdomen are appropriate - I would put belly because it is easily understood by everybody]. The ears are medium-sized, and the large black eyes are located on the sides of the head. They have sharp claws used for climbing trees.

Northern treeshrews are similar to Eurasian red squirrels not only in appearance but also in their behaviour. They spend most of their time on the forest floor searching for food, but when in danger, as well as at night, hide in the trees. They usually form monogamous pairs, but sometimes one male mates with several females. Parents built a special nest for the offspring, lined with dry leaves and hidden under roots or in the hollows of trees. The parents live in another nest. It is a surprising fact that when rearing her young, the mother comes to the nest only once every two days and spends just 10 or 15 minutes feeding them. During the entire 36 day period when the young are in the nest, the mother's care amounts to no more than one and a half hours. At one month old, the young leave their nest and join the parents.

Diet: fruits and seeds, invertebrates and small vertebrates
Habitat: tropical forests

 

[callorhinus]

Additional note: behavior is American spelling (I think), English spelling is behaviour (I changed it to that because otherwise it looks wrong to me).

Thanks for help again!
It was my mistake, I usually use British/English version.

In terms of accuracy, are red squirrels really mainly ground-dwelling as suggested in comparison to tree-shrews? I know tree-shrews superficially resemble squirrels but I have always thought of red squirrels as being primarily arboreal (the ones I have seen in Russia were all in trees).
[I removed Sumatra and Java as these are both islands in Indonesia - and added Malaysia - you could conversely remove Indonesia and replace with Sumatra and Java]

I just translate the text, and not try to make it accurate unless this text is about animals which are known good by me. I excluded the most arguable sentences though.
Red scuirrels spend much time on the ground, especially when the trees are not close to each other. So their whole behaviour is not quite similar in this sense to treeshrews' one. I think the sentence is about similar action in danger and in night-time or something like that.

 

[callorhinus]

I need your help again
This time I will start with easy (I hope easy for for me too) text. Quite simple words and sentences made me hesitant surprisingly.


Domestic goose - Anser anser var. dom.
Class Birds – Aves
Order ?????? – Anseriformes
Family ?????? – Anatidae
Goose has been domesticated in the late Neolithic period. Domestic geese differ from other birds in/by that their ancestors were several wild species: greylag goose, that/which lives everywhere in Eurasia, swan goose, which lives in Asia, and is not found in Europe, and white-fronted goose in Northern Europe, living in the tundra.

The modern breeds of domestic goose have a lot of diversity, some of them keep the habits/behaviour of wild ancestors, while others significantly deviated from them/it. The only fact which unites them all is that they cannot fly or do it very badly. There are about 60 breeds of domestic goose, they are all belong to the same group - the meat breed/ table breed/ heavy breed.

Both males and females molt twice a year. The first molt is in the middle of the summer, the second is in the autumn. Plumage is dense, and protects geese of the cold. They can tolerate a temporary drop in temperature to -30° C.

Food: grass, cereals, vegetables
Habitat: domestic
Limiting factors: diseases (or just "disease"?)
Dimensions: body length up to 35 cm, torso girth up to 55 cm
Weight: 8-12 kg
Offspring: about 50-70 eggs per year
Lifepan: up to 20 years

 

[Hix]

I need your help again
This time I will start with easy (I hope easy for for me too) text. Quite simple words and sentences made me hesitant surprisingly.


Domestic goose - Anser anser var. dom.
Class Birds – Aves
Order – Anseriformes
Family – Anatidae

Geese were domesticated in the late Neolithic period. Domestic geese differ from other birds in that their ancestors were comprised of several wild species: the Greylag Goose, which lives everywhere in Eurasia; the Swan Goose is from Asia and is not found in Europe; and the White-fronted Goose from Northern Europe, living in the tundra.

The modern breeds of domestic goose are quite diverse, some of them keep the habits and behaviours of wild ancestors, while others significantly deviate from them. The only fact which unites them is that they cannot fly, or do it very badly. There are about 60 breeds of domestic goose and they are all belong to the same group - the meat breed/ table breed/ heavy breed.

Both males and females molt twice a year. The first molt is in the middle of the summer, the second is in the autumn. Plumage is dense and protects geese from the cold. They can tolerate a temporary drop in temperature to -30° C.

Food: grass, cereals, vegetables
Habitat: domestic
Limiting factors: disease
Dimensions: body length up to 35 cm, torso girth up to 55 cm
Weight: 8-12 kg
Offspring: about 50-70 eggs per year
Lifepan: up to 20 years

This is how I would write it. I have not amended the final sentence of the second paragraph because I think it needs a rewrite. I'd probably go with something like "There are around 60 breeds of the domestic goose and they all share one characteristic - they are all bred for the table and so are larger, heavier birds with more meat on them."

Note that I have only corrected the English; I make no claims on the accuracy of the content (as I'm not really into domestic species).



Hix

 

[Chlidonias]

pretty much what Hix says. However, one main point:

Domestic geese differ from other birds in that their ancestors were comprised of several wild species: the Greylag Goose, which lives everywhere in Eurasia; the Swan Goose is from Asia and is not found in Europe; and the White-fronted Goose from Northern Europe, living in the tundra.

you have changed the structure of the three parts after the colon so they do not agree with one another. For example, the part about the Swan Goose is written as if it is a stand-alone sentence. It should be phrased as follows:

"Domestic geese differ from other birds in that their ancestors were comprised of several wild species: the Greylag Goose, which lives everywhere in Eurasia; the Swan Goose, which is from Asia and is not found in Europe; and the White-fronted Goose, which is from the tundra of Northern Europe."

Domestic goose - Anser anser var. dom.
Class Birds – Aves
Order ?????? – Anseriformes
Family ?????? – Anatidae

*the common name for Anseriformes is usually "waterfowl"
*the common name for Anatidae is usually written as "ducks, geese and swans"
*generally the scientific term is put before the common term, as follows:

Class Aves - Birds
Order Anseriformes - Waterfowl
Family Anatidae - Ducks, Geese and Swans


I would also note (just because I have done so on other occasions with other words) that "molt" is the American spelling, "moult" is the English spelling.

 

[callorhinus]

Thanks for answers!

What is the normal way to name species (I mean common name): to use capital letter in every word (if it is not going after hyphen); to use capital letter only in the first word; or is it not necessary to use capital letter at all? In Russian we had the last option, in English I usually use second option.

What is the difference in using "bad" and "weak"? Are these words full synonyms in such a case I used "badly"?

"There are around 60 breeds of the domestic goose and they all share one characteristic - they are all bred for the table and so are larger, heavier birds with more meat on them." "Larger, heavier", not "large, heavy"? In Russian we had to have the object to compare in this case (so this form is called comparative form of the adjective).

On semicolons. In Russian I would use them in the sentence about three species of geese as Hix did, but I was not sure if it is normal in English. Is it?

 

[callorhinus]

And the next text at the same time. I found sentences not well enough constructed, especially "They nest...", but the most difficult was to choose suitable/appropriate words, so I'm afraid that text is quite weird for English-speaking people


Amadina sp.
Class Aves - Birds
Order Passeriformes – Passerines
Family Estrildidae – Estrildid finches

These animals are unusually attractive cheerful birdies. There are more than 30 species of estrildids, distributed in Australia, Southeast Asia, Africa, the islands of the Malay Archipelago. Colouration of feathers finches is very diverse: brown, white and fawn tones; red and black, blue and green, purple and yellow. Some birds change colour seasonally. The males in the mating season have colourful plumage, and at the rest time they are like females.

Estrildid finches gather in large flocks, sometimes up to a thousand individuals. They nest in pairs; leave the nesting sites and fly away rarely, but there are also species that have nomadic style of life and prefer to move from place to place. Nest of these birds is in the shape of an ellipse or a sphere, like all ploceidae’s nests, it is literally sewn or woven/wefted. Materials for nests are leaves and vegetable fibers.

The "singing" is quite specific and sometimes it is unpleasant: birds make a quiet chirping, whistling, buzzing, rumbling, hissing. Despite this, these lovely exotic birds instantly win the hearts of bird lovers. It is relatively easy to keep Estrildid finches in captivity.

Food: seeds of various herbs, animal food (small insects) in some species’ diet has an important place.