Reply
Fri 5 Aug, 2005 04:58 am
Bonfil is currently awaiting data from great whites recently tagged near New Zealand, which could suggest whether those two populations are interrelated.
await: What is the difference between "await" and "wait"?
interrelated: What is the defference between "related" and "interrelated"?
Thank you.
In Middle English, to await meant to "keep watch" to "watch out for [something]" It now means almost the same thing as plain wait ; but there is a slight extra suggestion of alertness and expectation, even impatience, that wait doesn't have.
(NB also that while you await data, you wait for data - you can;'t "wait data".)
If the two shark populations are related, there is kinship between them. That might only mean that Group 1 had received some "new blood" from Group 2. If they are interrelated, that means that the kinship connection went both ways.
"new blood": New born sharks?
And I think "kinship" connection goes both ways. How can it goes only one way? Could you please explain that?
Well, I know nothing about shark relationships, but supposing some of Group 1 swam away to join Group 2, mated with them and had offspring, then the groups would be related, because Group 2 would be a mixture of Group 1 and Group 2. But if in addition some members of Group 2 swam away and mated with Group 1, the groups would be inter-related, because both groups would now be mixtures of each other.
New blood - I'm sorry, it's so hard to know what will be intelligible to a non-native speaker! It's a term from animal breeding. Everyone knows that if a small group of animals is bred together continually they will become inbred - that is to say they develop genetic faults and their quality deteriorates. From time to time you must bring in an unrelated animal, to stop this happening; this is called bringing in new blood or fresh blood.
Thank you. And I don't mind encounting new words if they're explained. After all, it's the way to learn a foreign language, right? I appreciate everything you've done for me. Thank you again.