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Below is a sketch of a 水螅 ("hydra") from a grade-8 biology textbook:

sketch of a 水螅
生物学,八年级,上册, 2013

The text writes the following (original):

外胚层有多种细胞,如刺细胞。刺细胞是腔肠动物特有的攻击和防御的利器,在触手处尤其多

I'm interested in the precise meaning of the last part, as it reminds me of the kinds of questions they like to ask on HSK exams, requiring precise interpretation of such phrases. The part in bold means something like:

...on the tentacles there are particularly many 刺细胞 (cnibolasts).

I'm not sure if this means:

  1. (almost) all 刺细胞 are on the tentacles;
  2. there are many 刺细胞 on the tentacles, but perhaps there are also many elsewhere too;
  3. the 刺细胞 are densely packed and readily found on the tentacles.

In particular, I'm a bit confused as to why they chose the word:

CC-CEDICT: 尤其 (yóu​qí​) especially / particularly

Question: What does 尤其 emphasize in the phrase 在触手处尤其多?

3 Answers 3

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In here, 尤其多 = 特別多.

刺细胞是腔肠动物特有的攻击和防御的利器,(它聚集於頭部), 在触手处尤其多。

刺细胞 is a peculiar weapon of 腔肠动物 to attack and defense, (it concentrates in the head), the count is especially high at the 触手处.

尤其 - Often used in the occasions to point out something with superior quality than, and stands out above, others in comparison. For example:

他門門課程都很出色, "尤其是"英文.

夜間到處是蚊蟲, 草叢和林木中"尤其多".

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刺细胞是腔肠动物特有的攻击和防御的利器,在触手处尤其多。

We can understand it as:

刺细胞是腔肠动物特有的攻击和防御的利器,[刺细胞]在触手处尤其多。

Since 刺细胞是腔肠动物特有的攻击和防御的利器, therefore 在触手处尤其多.

尤其 in this context can be replaced with 特别, which denotes the sense of "rather unusual".

The sentence implies, more or less, that other parts might not have so many. But that's not the point the author wants to address or emphasize.

What the author really wants to express is a 因果关系.

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外胚层有多种细胞,如刺细胞 (There are many kinds of cells in the ectoderm, such as stinging cells)

It already mentioned 刺细胞 is one kind of cell on the outer layer

在触手处尤其

And it is particularly numerous on the tentacles

Seems straightforward enough -- numerous stinging cells covered the entire creature, especially on the tentacles

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