This abridged version of Radford's Minimalist Syntax: Exploring the Structure of English offers a concise, accessible introduction to current syntactic theory, drawing on the key concepts of Chomsky's Minimalist Program. Assuming little or no prior grammatical knowledge, it leads students through a range of topics in English syntax, beginning at an elementary level and progressing in stages towards more advanced material. An extensive glossary is included and each chapter contains a workbook section with "helpful hints", exercises, and model answers, suitable for class discussion and self-study.
Literature (The New Critical Idiom)
Literature, the latest volume in the highly successful New Critical Idiom series, is at once a compact mine of information about the development and more recent discrediting of the concept of "literature," and a reflection on the contemporary nature, place and function of what the literary might mean for us today. Comprehensive in scope, it offers a concise history of the consitution of a canonic concept of "literature" from its earliest origins to the orthodoxies that occurred through the later nineteenth-century to the middle of the twentieth. It also traces its dismantling from the late-60s onward. Finally, the book attemps to recuperate a notion of "the literary" by way of a series of readings of diverse texts. It is an excellent primer for anyone who loves the written word.
Эта богато иллюстрированная книга познакомит любопытных с ключевыми вопросами науки о поведении животных. Вопросы для обсуждения, предложенные в конце каждой главы, можно использовать для полировки своего словарного запаса.
"Essential Animal Behavior" provides a comprehensive introduction to all areas of the subject: from the genetic and neurobiological control of behavior to the learning, development, and function of behavior in an evolutionary context. Social behaviour is also covered throughout the text.
Written in a concise and engaging style and carefully designed to meet the needs of students coming to the subject for the first time, the book includes the following features:
- key concept boxes
- focus on boxes
- chapter summaries
- guided reading to aid revision and further study
- case studies and boxed examples that reinforce essential points,
- questions for discussion.
This book is essential reading for degree-level students following modular programs in biology, zoology, and psychology.
The authors of The Science of Superheroes now reveal the real genius of the most evil geniuses.
Ever wonder why comic book villains, such as Spiderman's bionic archenemy Dr. Octopus or the X-Men's eternal rival Magneto, are so scary and so much fun? It's not just their diabolical talent for confounding our heroes, it's their unrivalled techno-proficiency at creating global mayhem that keeps comic book fans captivated. But is any of the science actually true? In The Science of Supervillains, authors Lois Gresh and Bob Weinberg present a highly entertaining and informative look at the mind-boggling wizardry behind the comic book world's legendary baddies. Whether it's artificial intelligence, weapons systems, anti-matter, robotics, or magnetic flux theory, this fun, fact-filled book is a fascinating excursion into the real-world science animating the genius in the comic book world's pantheon of evil geniuses.
Taken as a whole, this primer is a fun way to introduce young adults to a vast range of subjects—from the solar system to the mechanics of flight, bioengineering and beyond—but it may seem patronizing to adults.
"The Physics of Superheroes" applies the reality of physics to the fantasy of comic books. James Kakalios explores the scientific plausibility of the powers and feats of the most famous superheroes—and discovers that in many cases the comic writers got their science surprisingly right.
This terrific book demonstrates a number of important points. First, a subject that everyone "knows" is difficult and boring can, in the hands of a master teacher, be both exciting and fun. Second, it's a myth that only people particularly adept at mathematics can understand and enjoy physics. Third, superhero comic books have socially redeeming qualities. By combining his love for physics with his love of comic books, University of Minnesota physicist Kakalios has written a book for the general reader covering all of the basic points in a first-level college physics course and is difficult to put down. Among many other things, Kakalios uses the basic laws of physics to "prove" that gravity must have been 15 times greater on Krypton than on Earth; that Spiderman's girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, died because his webbing stopped her too abruptly after she plunged from the George Washington Bridge; and that when the Flash runs, he's surrounded by a pocket of air that enables him to breathe. Kakalios draws on the Atom, Iron Man, X-Men, the Ant-Man and the Hulk, among many others, to cover topics as diverse as electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, string theory and thermodynamics. That all of this is accomplished with enough humor to make you laugh aloud is an added bonus.
Literature (The New Critical Idiom)
