different + from/than/to?

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A clear victory for from:

From Google Ngram Viewer.

Top journals according to Google

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A list of the top 100 publications in various languages is produced by Google Scholar. The journals are ranked by their h-index and h-median metrics. You can read an explanation here.

The current top 10 English-language publications are:

  1. Nature
  2. The New England Journal of Medicine
  3. Science
  4. The Lancet
  5. Chemical Society reviews
  6. Cell
  7. Nature Communications
  8. Chemical Reviews
  9. Journal of the American Chemical Society
  10. Advanced Materials

 

You can also see the top journals in particular fields – for example, Business, Economics & Management.

Gutted

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  • World Cup 2018: ‘Gutted’ Harry Kane says England gave it their all as millions of Three Lions fans suffer World Cup heartbreak once more (The Sun)
  • Holly Willoughby and Kate Hudson lead an army of ‘gutted‘ stars on social media after England’s crushing World Cup semi-final loss to Croatia (Daily Mail)
  • ‘I’m absolutely gutted’: disappointed England fans speak of World Cup hurt from Russia (iNews)
  • Your Favourite Musicians Are Gutted About The England Result (Clash Magazine)

 

  1. A gutted fish is a fish whose guts – internal organs – have been removed, so that it can be cooked.
  2. A gutted house is a house whose interior has been emptied or destroyed, usually by fire.
  3. If a person is gutted, they are bitterly disappointed. This is British slang. The adjective is normally used in the predicative position (after a verb like be, become, grow, look or seem). However, the first two newspaper headlines are using it attributively (before the noun).

 

Sketch Engine

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Sketch Engine is an online tool for analysing text corpora in various languages. You can use it to find collocations, compare words, generate word lists, etc.

For example, you can find objects of the verb undergo:

  • surgery
  • transformation
  • treatment
  • renovation
  • change
  • training
  • testing
  • procedure
  • chemotherapy
  • examination
  • transition
  • therapy

 

British universities have free access only until the effective date of Brexit, i.e. 29 March 2019.

Jatt vs IELTS

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This week a new film arrives in Indian cinemas: Jatt vs IELTS. This Punjabi comedy tells the story of a small town boy struggling to get a high enough IELTS score to move to Canada.

There is singing and dancing, possibly on IELTS-related themes.

IELTS test taker performance

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The results for 2017 are summarized here.

For example, the average bands in the Academic test for speakers of these first languages:

First language Listening Reading Writing Speaking Overall
Arabic 5.63 5.37 5.06 5.88 5.55
Chinese 5.97 6.15 5.41 5.46 5.81
Indonesian 6.54 6.67 5.78 6.26 6.37
Japanese 5.90 6.09 5.41 5.59 5.81
Kazakh 6.06 6.04 5.51 5.81 5.92
Korean 6.20 6.21 5.46 5.79 5.98
Malay 7.03 6.86 6.07 6.54 6.69
Punjabi 5.92 5.47 5.56 5.67 5.72
Russian 6.74 6.71 5.89 6.52 6.53
Spanish 6.65 6.89 5.93 6.62 6.59
Thai 6.24 6.03 5.46 5.90 5.97
Turkish 6.42 6.42 5.70 6.22 6.25
Vietnamese 5.97 6.17 5.59 5.71 5.93

Credo Reference

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Credo Reference is a collection of online reference books. It can be browsed and searched like an encyclopedia.

For example, if you search for global warming, you are shown the topic page on climate change (“the now commonly used term, having replaced “global warming”), extracts from many books, a list of related topics (Climate change, Greenhouse gas, Kyoto Protocol, etc.), images, and a mind map.

It might be a good place to start research for your long essay or project.

Nexis

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Nexis is a database of newspapers and other news sources. It contains full-text articles.

For example, you can search for UEA in the headlines of UK national newspapers:

  • UEA criticised by notable alumni for ‘thuggish’ development plans (The Guardian, September 7, 2016)
  • UEA academics from different subject areas unite in disappointment at Brexit result (The Independent, June 24, 2016)
  • UEA fighter jet ‘missing’ during Yemen combat mission (mirror.co.uk, March 14, 2016)

 

I bet you never knew this university had its own fighter jet.

Statista

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Statista provides statistics, reports and infographics on a range of subjects: for example, social media, e-commerce, smartphones, China, the United States, the food industry, cosmetics, gaming.

  • Did you know that 78% of people in Thailand were interested in football, but in China and the US it’s only 32%?
  • In 2007 there were 59 million vehicles in China; in 2016 there were 194 million.
  • Last year McDonald’s was the most valuable fast food brand in the world with an estimated value of 98 billion US dollars, while the brand value of Starbucks was 44 billion dollars.

 

The Vogue Archive

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UEA has online access to every issue of the American Vogue, from 17 December 1892 to the present day. You can read the magazine exactly as it was printed, including the pictures and advertisements.

To leaf through the magazine, choose an issue and click on any item on the contents page. Then click on Browse this issue at the top of the page:

A Vision of Britain through Time

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A Vision of Britain through Time combines maps and population census data from 1801 to 2011. You can look up statistics for particular areas of the country. For example, here are some of the key findings about Norwich:

  • The population grew from 31,770 in 1801 to 132,512 in 2011.
  • The highest infant mortality rate recorded was 229.72 infant deaths per thousand live births in 1861, and the lowest was 3.94 in 2001.
  • In 1841, 50.16 per cent of all workers worked in manufacturing, but in 2011 this had fallen to 6.52 per cent.
  • The highest male unemployment rate recorded by the census was 14.95 per cent in 1991, and the lowest was 1.94 in 1951.
  • In 1911, 12.89 per cent of people were living in households with over 1.5 persons per room, but in 2011 this had fallen to .53 per cent.

 

Uh. Uh? Uh-uh. Uh-huh. Uh-oh.

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Do you know the meaning of these interjections?

uh

I’m thinking or unsure what to say next.

  • We’ll be meeting them at, uh, 4 o’clock.
  • Of course I still love you, it’s just, uh…
  • Uh, maybe.

Sometimes written as “er”.

  • She’s, er, busy.

uh?

What did you just say? What do you mean?

– Amy, Question 5?
– Uh?
– Please pay attention. What’s the answer to Question 5?

– I’m going to marry your sister.
– Uh?

uh-uh

No.

– Have you seen Bill?
– Uh-uh.

uh-huh

Yes or I understand/agree/am listening.

– Then we went on to the party…
– Uh-huh.
– … and Sarah was there – you remember Sarah?
– Uh-huh.
– … and she goes up to Tom and you know what Tom’s like.
– Uh-huh.

uh-oh

There’s a problem.

– Hey, the red light is flashing.
– Uh-oh.

– Isn’t that your teacher?
– Uh-oh.

For more information, try these definitions at Collins English Dictionary: uh, uh-uh, uh-huh, uh-oh.

Searching with site:

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When searching the internet, you can limit your search to a particular website or type of website. Put the word site: (with the colon) in front of a domain name such as uea.ac.uk or ac.uk.

For example, you could use these search terms to find information on Chinese societies at different universities:

Limit search to these websites Search terms
UEA chinese society site:uea.ac.uk
Edinburgh University chinese society site:ed.ac.uk
any British university chinese society site:ac.uk
any American university chinese society site:edu

 

Some other examples of searches:

  • probiotics site:nhs.uk
  • visas site:gov.au
  • peace site:mfa.gov.kp

 

The site: operator works on Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo.

For more information, see our Researching page.