Part of ellipses

[salaam]

I was looking at Valery's amazing hand held MP3 player or whatever.
http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...t=22693&page=2
I just wanted to know how this part was made. It's an ellipse but it's top is cut off. When I tried to emulate it, it ended up as other than an ellipse.
Also how do you make one side not feathered? I tried grouping it but this didn't work either.
Hopefully, once you give me the answer for this, I will easily be able to emulate the whole of his artwork.

Anas