How to Raise an Elephant (2)

To help with the costs of caring for Moses, Jenny started the Jumbo Foundation Elephant Orphanage. It's the first organization of its kind in Malawi. The foundation will take in other orphaned large animals. "Our orphanage is not only for elephants but all large animals like hippos, buffalos, rhinos, as no one will take them in, "said Jenny. The foundation's goal is to care for the orphaned animals and prepare them to be released into the wild.

Jenny quickly learned that an elephant baby needs more than just a special formula every two hours. Elephant mothers provide not only food but also shelter under their big bellies. Elephants can get sunburned, and Moses didn't have his mother's large size to protect him. He needed sunscreen and creams applied to his skin every day. A blanket was tied over his back during the day to protect him from the harsh African sun.

Moses needed company, especially at night, so Jenny would sleep next to him on a mattress on the floor.


Info Cloud
not only..., but also...

Twice, in today's lesson, we see the basic English sentence pattern "not only, but also".

Widely used in writing and speaking, this pattern is used to present two related pieces of information.

The first piece of information comes after "not only", while the second piece comes after "but also".

Right! And, here is the twist - both pieces of information are presented as somewhat surprising or unexpected, with the second piece being even more surprising than the first.

From our lesson, we learned about an orphanage for elephants. That's somewhat surprising. Not something you hear about too often.

Right! But the second piece of information, the orphanage taking in other large animals, like hippos and rhinos, is even more surprising.

When using the "not only, but also" structure, be sure that two pieces of information are parallel. In other words, if the first piece of information is prepositional phrase, the second piece should be as well.

Right! Finally, be aware that in this sentence structure, the "but" is sometimes omitted, and other times the "also" is omitted, like in today's text, but that doesn't change the sentence pattern's function.


Language Lab
orphanage n.
/ˋɔrfənɪdʒ/
a large house where children who are orphans live and are taken care of:
- Bobby was brought up in an orphanage.
- Claire was sent to an orphanage when she was just a baby.
orphan n.
a child whose parents are both dead:
- Nathan became an orphan at 10 when his parents died in an accident.

rhino n. plural rhinos [countable]
/ˋraɪno/
a rhinoceros
- The rhino suddenly charged toward the tourists' truck. 突然衝向
- Many rhinos are killed because their horns are valuable on the black market.

formula n.
a type of liquid food for babies that is similar to a woman's breast milk
- Mandy hasn't decided on which formula to give her baby.
a series of numbers or letters that represent a mathematical or scientific rule:
- The newly developed mathematic formula won the professor a Nobel Prize.

shelter n.
a place to live, considered as one of the basic needs of life:
- We used a big tree as our shelter during the rain.
- They are going to use the funds to provide food and shelter for homeless people.


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