a few problems with a piece of official document (urgent)

[Tedwonny]

I came across an article the other day about the weather signals in HK and I have a few questions. Please help out

1) the author is 'Hong Kong observatory' --> why don't we need an article 'the' HK observatory?

2) It says "A tropical cyclone is centred within about 800 kilometres (km) of Hong Kong"

I'm not so sure why 'centred' is used instead of 'centering' as it is an active process here - the cyclone centering HK.

3) "Gale or storm force wind is expected or blowing generally in

Hong Kong near sea level, with a sustained wind speed of63-117 km/h from the quarter indicated and gusts which mayexceed 180 km/h, and the wind condition is expected to

persist."


This looks rather complex. I don't think it's regarded as good sentence structure, right?

Also isn't the prepositional phrase "from the quarter indicated" a bit strange?
shouldn't it be "as the quarter indicates (present tense and active voice)" or just "from the quarter"

A BIG THANK YOU!

[charliedeut]

I came across an article the other day about the weather signals in HK and I have a few questions. Please help out

1) the author is 'Hong Kong observatory' --> why don't we need an article 'the' HK observatory? The author is Cambridge University Press (random example). No need for 'the'.

2) It says "A tropical cyclone is centred within about 800 kilometres (km) of Hong Kong"

I'm not so sure why 'centred' is used instead of 'centering' as it is an active process here - the cyclone centering HK.

3) "Gale or storm force wind is expected or blowing generally in

Hong Kong near sea level, with a sustained wind speed of63-117 km/h from the quarter indicated and gusts which mayexceed 180 km/h, and the wind condition is expected to

persist."


This looks rather complex. I don't think it's regarded as good sentence structure, right?

Also isn't the prepositional phrase "from the quarter indicated" a bit strange?
shouldn't it be "as the quarter indicates (present tense and active voice)" or just "from the quarter"

A BIG THANK YOU!

charliedeut

[Tedwonny]

thanks what do the others think please?

[dhvh]

For question no. 2:
To my understanding, I don't think "centering" is appropriate since the word itself is common-used as a noun. If you consider "center" as a verb and express the idea of an ongoing process, it is likely to be incorrect. "center" as a verb is "to move something so that it is in the center of sth else". The cyclone is already in the center.

[charliedeut]

I came across an article the other day about the weather signals in HK and I have a few questions. Please help out

1) the author is 'Hong Kong observatory' --> why don't we need an article 'the' HK observatory?

2) It says "A tropical cyclone is centred within about 800 kilometres (km) of Hong Kong"

I'm not so sure why 'centred' is used instead of 'centering' as it is an active process here - the cyclone centering HK.

3) "Gale or storm force wind is expected or blowing generally in

Hong Kong near sea level, with a sustained wind speed of63-117 km/h from the quarter indicated and gusts which mayexceed 180 km/h, and the wind condition is expected to

persist."


This looks rather complex. I don't think it's regarded as good sentence structure, right?

Also isn't the prepositional phrase "from the quarter indicated" a bit strange?
shouldn't it be "as the quarter indicates (present tense and active voice)" or just "from the quarter"

A BIG THANK YOU!

Hi Ted,

Irrespective of the urgency for an answer, posting the same question twice in different parts of the Forum (you posted this question again today in the "Ask a Teacher" section, will not grant you necessarily more responses, and neither will it gain you the confidence of the other members, who will see you as an impatient poster.

Keep this in mind: people posting answers here are volunteers and sometimes more than one question (as is the case) need longer time to get answers.

charliedeut