Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[fw]

Hello everyone.

Here is a paragraph below from a story about bats. The phrase �night-hunting goes way back in the history of all us mammals� in the first sentence sounds a little strange to me. What do you think?

It is probable, by the way, that night-hunting goes way back in the history of all us mammals. In the time when the dinosaurs dominated the daytime economy, our ancestors probably only managed to survive at all because they found ways of making a living at night. Only after the mysterious disappearance of the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago were our ancestors able to come out into the daylight in any significant numbers.

Best regards,
Fw

[lotus]

Hi fw,

I would take out the "all" and "us." It can be assumed that we are all mammals.

Night-hunting goes way back in the history of mammals.

For the entire article, I would edit it like so:

It is probable that nocturnal hunting goes way back in the history of mammals. During the time when the dinosaurs dominated hunting in the day, our ancestors probably only managed to survive, because they found ways to hunt at night. Only after the mysterious disappearance of dinosaurs about 65 million years ago were our ancestors able to come out to hunt in the daytime in any significant numbers.

My favorite dinosaurs: (excuse the spellings)

Brontosaurus
Spinosaurus
Pteradactyl
Ankylosaurus
Stegosaurus
Triceratops
Pachycephalosaurus

and Tyrannosaurus Rex!


--lotus

[redset]

Hey guys

Personally I think the original text is fine as it is, it just might be a little informal in style which is why it seems a little strange. The sentence which follows it is really talking about our ancestors, so the bit fw highlighted is connecting that with the fact that *all* mammals had to hide during the day. It's a mammals versus reptiles thing, so the 'all us mammals' part is drawing attention to the group we (and our ancestors) are a part of.

That's what I get from it anyway