Some questions

[belly_ttt]

"Reptles: cold blooded animals that creep or crawl along the ground whose skin is covered by horny plates or fish-like scales (eg: snakes, lizards, crocodiles and turtules). The majority lay eggs, but some give birth to live young"
Two questions need resolving.
1) Why did the author use whose skin is here? Isn't skin a countable word? In Oxford, they said that: Skin 1)[U, C] the layer of tissue that covers the body:
to have dark / fair / olive, etc. skin Ç The snake sheds its skin once a year. Ç cosmetics for sensitive skins Ç skin cancer
I cannot understand when it becomes an uncountable noun and when is not.
2) What do they mean by live young in the last line?
3) Is the term by nature equal to naturally?
ex: Mariam is bright by nature
Mariam is bright naturally?

[Anglika]

"Reptiles: cold blooded animals that creep or crawl along the ground whose skin is covered by horny plates or fish-like scales (eg: snakes, lizards, crocodiles and turtles). The majority lay eggs, but some give birth to live young"

Two questions need resolving.
1) Why did the author use whose skin is here? Isn't skin a countable word? In Oxford, they said that: Skin 1)[U, C] the layer of tissue that covers the body:
to have dark / fair / olive, etc. skin Ç The snake sheds its skin once a year. Ç cosmetics for sensitive skins Ç skin cancer
I cannot understand when it becomes an uncountable noun and when is not.

Skins is used when there are multiple skins - for instance: The Muscovy trade in sable skins was enormous.

In the sentence above, "skin" is generic to all reptiles, all of which have skins.


2) What do they mean by live young in the last line? The offspring of the reptiles concerned are not hatched from eggs, but as with mammals are delivered alive from the female body.

3) Is the term by nature equal to naturally?
ex: Mariam is bright by nature
Mariam is bright naturally?

Not quite. "By nature" means a person's character, while "naturally" means have born with a characteristic.

.

[belly_ttt]

Anglika,
Thank you for your explanation yet there are something I cannot take in:
What is multiple skin?
Do you mean the generic skin somewhat like make up of some selfsame substance?
Can we use skins there?
And can you give me examples on the usage of naturally and by nature?

[Anglika]

Anglika,
Thank you for your explanation yet there are something I cannot take in:
What is multiple skin? More than one skin - a fur trader will have many skins to sell.
Do you mean the generic skin somewhat like make up of some selfsame substance? Something that is common to the species - all members of the species have skin.
Can we use skins there? Where?
And can you give me examples on the usage of naturally and by nature?

He is argumentative by nature - it is his character to be argumentative.

He is naturally careful - He is careful as a matter of course
Naturally, we do not agree - Of course, we do not agree.
Miriam is naturally bright - Miriam was born clever.

[belly_ttt]

Can I use skins at "whose skins are" in the first paragraph?
He is argumentative by nature- you are describing the character of his?
Mariam is naturally bright- Do you mean something that she has when she was born, but why not by nature? Is by nature only use for describing character?