UNIT 1
1. Read the text to find the answers to the following questions:
a) What does your research deal with?
b) What are you engaged in at present?
TAKING A POST-GRADUATE COURSE
1 Last year by the decision of the Scientific Council I took post-graduate courses
to increase my knowledge in economics. I passed three entrance examinations - in
History, English and the special subject. So now I am a first year post-graduate
student of the Orenburg State University. I'm attached to the Statistics Department. In
the course of my post-graduate studies I am to pass candidate examinations in
philosophy, English and the special subject. So I attend courses of English and
philosophy. I'm sure the knowledge of English will help me in my research.
2 My research deals with economics. The theme of the dissertation (thesis) is
"Computer-Aided Tools for…". I was interested in the problem when a student so by
now I have collected some valuable data for my thesis.
3 I work in close contact with my research adviser (superviser). He graduated
from the Moscow State University 15 years ago and got his doctoral degree at the age
of 40. He is the youngest Doctor of Sciences at our University. He has published a
great number of research papers in journals not only in this country but also abroad.
He often takes part in the work of scientific conferences and symposia. When I
encounter difficulties in my work I always consult my research adviser.
4 At present I am engaged in collecting the necessary data. I hope it will be a
success and I will be through with my work on time.
2.Read passage 2 and answer the following questions: What is the theme of
your dissertation?
3. Read passage 3 and speak about your research adviser according to the
following plan:
1 Doctor's degree. 2 Scientific publications. 3 Participation in the work of
scientific conferences.
4. Inform your colleague:
a) what candidate examinations you have already passed;
b) what the theme of your dissertation is;
c) how many scientific papers you have published;
d) if you are busy with making an experiment.
UNIT 2
SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS
Before you read
1 Make a list of the household items you use at home. Which of them do you find it
most difficult to do without? Why?
2 Science can be used for the good and for the bad. Discuss with your partner the
pluses and minuses of technological progress.
Use the following phrases to express your opinion:
A) Verbs connected with beliefs and opinions
I’m convinced … [very strong feeling that you’re right]
I’ve always held that … [used for very firm beliefs]
I feel … [strong personal opinion]
I reckon … [informal; usually an opinion about what is likely to happen]
I suspect … [have a strong feeling about something negative]
B) Phrases for expressing opinion
In my view / In my opinion … [fairly formal]
To my mind … [fairly informal]
If you ask me … [informal]
Example: I reckon there will be staggering pollution due to the scientific progress, etc.
Reading
3. Now read the text to see if some of your predictions were correct.
THE ACHIEVEMENT OF SCIENCE AND
TECHNICAL REVOLUTION AND OUR DAY-TO-DAY
(PART 1)
By K. Siegbahn
As the years go forward our life becomes faster, a lot of new things appear, our
mind develops. It’s like a strong river which never ends to run and it is rapidly
spreading all over the earth. Many centuries ago people even couldn’t imagine that we
will be able to exchange information using telephone, fax, the Internet as fast as they
couldn’t think that there are a lot of planets except our earth and that people can fly
their. Nowadays we cannot imagine our life without such inventions like lamps, ovens,
central heating and others. People have invented the things to make our life easier. A
great invention such as transport plays one of the most important roles in our life. We
live in flats, can appear in different point of earth within a day, can say hello to people
who live in another point of the world. All those things are a product of technical
progress and it doesn’t stop to grow and develop. Nowadays we live surrounded by
machines and other inventions. And with new inventions we become happier because
nearly everything is made by machine not by ourselves. And from day to day appear
more and more new things. And we don’t think about how the first inventions were
created. The only thing we know that we never will return to the life which people lived
a lot of centuries ago because there is no way back. Everything is handy. We use at
home vacuum cleaners to clean the flat, ovens to cook, lifts to walk down in our houses,
lamps to make our flats light …. We even don’t think about when and where and who
invented them. Our century is a century of developing informational connection. Faxes,
TV, the Internet, and telephone became the most popular way of getting and sending
information. One of the greatest inventions of the century is a computer. It’s the coup in
the technology. When Charles Babbage (1792-1871), a professor of mathematics at
Cambridge University invented the first calculating machine in 1812 he could hardly
imagined the situation we find ourselves today. Computer becomes like a brain of
human but the only thing it cannot do is to feel. As everything computers also develop.
The possibilities of them are so wide. They can do more than 500000 sums in a fraction
of a second. Nowadays computers can pay wages, reserve seats on planes, compose
music. Also everybody knows the word CD-Rom, that stores information on a disk to
be read by a computer, e-mail, which becomes one of the ways to exchange
information, the Internet – a network that is a way to get information, to communicate
with people, to find everything you need. More and more people become Internet users
because we can do so many things on the Internet. You can chat, find job, pay bills, get
music, buy something, exchange information with other people in each point of the
earth by e-mail and a lot of other functions. It became a usual thing to be connected to
the Internet. It attracts people by a wide variety of different kinds of information. Of
course I use a lot of other things of technology at home. The question about technical
progress is very wide and it’s impossible to say about all inventions. And in conclusion
I want to say that the technical progress won’t stop and the machines will substitute
everything except one the human.
Comprehension check
4. Answer the following questions. Use the words from Exercise 2.
1) According to the writer, what are the inventions that make our life more comfortable
and sophisticated?
2) Can your century be regarded as a “century of developing informational
connection”? Why?
3) What does the writer mean saying “the coup in the technology” speaking about the
invention of the computer?
4) How do you understand the following statement - “to be connected to Internet”?
5) In which way have most outstanding discoveries made our life more comfortable and
sophisticated?
6) How was a new explosive (dynamite) invented by Alfred Nobel used later?
5. Make an outline of the article.
Focus on vocabulary
Give Russian equivalents to the following phrases:
- handy
- a vacuum cleaner
- the coup in the technology
- a means of storing information
- to substitute
- metal alloys
Summary
6. Write down the summary of the text.
Look back through the whole text and find:
- the reasons why scientific and technological progress accelerates the development of
civilization and makes our life happier and easier;
Discussion
7. Think of one invention without which your life could be very difficult. Answer
the following questions:
1) Why have you thought of this invention first?
2) What are the advantages and disadvantages of this invention?
3) Why is it so important?
UNIT 3
1. КЛИШЕ К АННОТАЦИИ:
Статья о … The article/The paper is about….
Статья выдвигают проблему The paper suggests the problem…
В статье обсуждается The paper discusses….
рассматривается considers…
исследуется examines…
анализируется analyses…
сообщается reports on …
затрагивается touches upon…
Целью исследования явилось The object of the study was…
Много (мало) внимания уделено Much (little) attention is given to…
В статье выдвигается идея The paper puts forward the idea…
Обсуждаются данные по Data on … are discussed
Проводится сравнение … A comparison of … with… is made
Описываются методы, The methods used for… are discussed
используемые для…
Настоящее исследование является The study is an attempt to …
попыткой
Особый интерес представляет… Of particular interest is…
2. Summarize the content of the article. Use the phrases:
- The article considers …
- A detailed description is given to …
- The objective of the article is to …
- The article concentrates on …
- The article puts forward the idea of/ that …
- The effect of … on … is discussed
- It is assumed that …
- It is recognized that …
- It is found that …
10. The article reports on …
- It is claimed that …
- The article is of great interest …
- Of particular interest is …
14. A comparison of … with … is made.
- The results of … are presented.
- It is shown that …
17. The article is of interest / no particular interest.
- The article covers such points as …
- It is pointed out that …
- It is shown that …
Sample summary
The impact of physics on society
The article “The impact of physics on society” by Etienne De Wolf has been published
on Europhysics News Website.
The article provides the reflection of the expert on the effects of a new scientific
discovery on society. The article consists of four logical parts.
The preamble states that “in the last decades, scientific knowledge and
technology have grown at a spectacular rate”. The author provides a set of examples
confirming this fact. The main idea of the first part is that the impact of science on
society can be possible only when the society is aware of such discovery and when it
has been made accessible to the masses. We can claim about the impact of scientific
knowledge and technology on society in case of any practical application of the
discovery.
In the second part the author states that only a very limited group of citizens, so
called “privileged people”, whose scientific education enables them to understand all
the benefits of a new scientific discovery, can derive these benefits and apply them
practically. In the light of this state of affairs the author reveals the importance of
“professional vulgarization” of science to make the benefits of a new scientific
discovery accessible to more people. Good vulgarization, namely scientific enlightment
of the public, should become the task for scientists and the mission of mass media,
cultural organizations and schools.
In conclusion the author claims that scientific discoveries have a substantial
impact on society only if they are practically applied. And for this conversion of science
into products, we need technology.
Summing up it is worth mentioning that the article is of a particular interest. It is
generally accepted that a new scientific discovery should have practical application and
become accessible to the masses. I suppose that the author examined all the issues of the
problem. I believe “The impact of physics on society” is worth the reader’s attention to
observe.
UNIT 4