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Pokh Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

Usage of article

As a result of the ground-breaking work of Barbara McClintock, many scientists now believe that all of the information encoded in the 50,000 to 100,000 of the different genes found in human cell are contained in merely three percent of the cell's DNA.



As a result of the ground-breaking work of Barbara McClintock, many scientists now believe that all of the information encoded in 50,000 to 100,000 of the different genes found in a human cell are contained in merely three percent of the cell's DNA.



As a result of the ground-breaking work of Barbara McClintock, many scientists now believe that all of the information encoded in the 50,000 to 100,000 of the different genes found in a human cell are contained in merely three percent of the cell's DNA.


As a result of the ground-breaking work of Barbara McClintock, many scientists now believe that all of the information encoded in 50,000 to 100,000 of the different genes found in human cell are contained in merely three percent of the cell's DNA.

Please help me to understand the usage of article in above sentence? Does the meaning change significantly with/ without using the before 50,000 to 100,000 of the different genes

and human cell
  

Top answer

Hi, As a result of the ground-breaking work of Barbara McClintock, many scientists now believe that all of the information encoded in the 50,000 to 100,000 of the different genes found in human cell are contained in merely three percent of the cell's DNA. You are talking about one cell, so you need to say ' a human cell'. As a result of the ground-breaking work of Barbara McClintock, many scientists now believe that all of the information encoded in 50,000 to 100,000 of the different genes found in a human cell are contained in merely three percent of the cell's DNA.

  • Hi, As a result of the ground-breaking work of Barbara McClintock, many scientists now believe that all of the information encoded in the 50,000 to 100,000 of the different genes found in human cell are contained in merely three percent of the cell's DNA.
  • You are talking about one cell, so you need to say ' a human cell'.
  • As a result of the ground-breaking work of Barbara McClintock, many scientists now believe that all of the information encoded in 50,000 to 100,000 of the different genes found in a human cell are contained in merely three percent of the cell's DNA.
  • Means that there are more than 100,000 genes found in a human cell.
  • You are speaking of some unspecified 50,000 to 100,000.
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3 Answers
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Hi,

As a result of the ground-breaking work of Barbara McClintock, many scientists now believe that all of the information encoded in the 50,000 to 100,000 of the different genes found in human cell are contained in merely three percent of the cell's DNA.
You are talking about one cell, so you need to say 'a human cell'.
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CliveAs a result of the ground-breaking work of Barbara McClintock, many scientists now believe that all of the information encoded in the 50,000 to 100,000 of the different genes found in human cell are contained in merely three percent of the cell's DNA.

You are talking about one cell, so you need to say 'a
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Hi,

Because 'cell' is a countable noun.

We say 'a cell' instead of 'cell' for the same reason that we say 'a chair' instead of 'chair'.

Clive

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