C2 · 40 words

Evolution: variation, selection, inheritance

Variation, selection and inheritance, and the German words that credit nature with no intentions.

Der Kampf ums Dasein is the German rendering of Darwin’s « struggle for existence », and the phrase left biology long ago. A local paper can call a village bakery’s fight against the supermarkets ein täglicher Kampf ums Dasein; in ordinary speech it means scraping a living and holding on, and it sounds weary rather than heroic. The grammar is small but worth a glance: ums is um das, and das Dasein is simply existence, being there at all. In this list the phrase has to be read the way Darwin asked for his own: in a large and metaphorical sense. His example was a plant at the edge of a desert, which struggles against drought only in the sense that it depends on moisture. Nobody fights and nobody tries. What decides the outcome is how many offspring survive, and the German of the field keeps the everyday overtone of effort out of it.

The words

Verb (3)

abstammento be descended (from)VerbC1

Die Vögel stammen von kleinen Raubsauriern ab.Birds are descended from small predatory dinosaurs.

Separable; takes von and the dative.

sich herausbildento develop, to take shape (gradually)VerbC1

In der Isolation bildeten sich auf jeder Insel eigene Schnabelformen heraus.In isolation each island developed its own beak shapes.

Separable and reflexive; it needs no agent, which is why the field likes it.

sich durchsetzento become established, to prevailVerbC1

Eine Mutation, die mehr Nachkommen ermöglicht, setzt sich in der Population allmählich durch.A mutation that allows more offspring gradually becomes established in the population.

Separable and reflexive: hat sich durchgesetzt.

This list belongs to Nature, weather and living things — 42 lists and 1564 words that can also be practised as a whole.

Practise this list

Multiple choice and gaps, drawn from exactly these 40 words. Whatever you get wrong comes back tomorrow.