An English Reader on Science 4 страница

d) Рентген понял, что у этих лучей более широкий спектр.

e) Рентгеновские лучи дали врачам беспрецедентную возможность заглядывать внутрь человеческого тела.

f) Заинтригованный этими лучами, Рентген помещал на их пути предметы различной толщины и обнаружил, что они экспонируют фотопластинки в различной степени.

7. Find sentences in the text which are in the Passive voice and translate them.

8. The passive voice is often used in academic writing. Read the following information:

the passive voice is formed by putting the verb “to be” in the same tense as an active tense and adding the past participle of the active verb. When a verb is conjugated in the passive voice it is the verb “to be” that changes, the main verb having the same form – that of the past participle:

	Indefinite	Continuous	Perfect
Present	I am asked	I am being asked	I have been asked
Past	I was asked	I was being asked	I had been asked
Future	I will be asked	-	I will have been asked
Fut. in the Past	I would be asked	-	I would have been asked

The passive is used:

a) When it is not necessary to mention the doer of the action, as it is obvious who she/he is/was/will be: “Your hand will be X-rayed”.

b) When we don't know, or don't know exactly, or have forgotten, who did the action: “Titanium was discovered in the late 18^th century”.

c) When the subject of the active sentence would be the indefinite pronoun “one” (“you” – in colloquial speech): “One sees this sort of phenomena everywhere” = “This kind of phenomena is seen everywhere”.

d) When we are more interested in the action than in the doer: “A new university building is being constructed”.

e) A speaker may use the Passive to disclaim responsibility for disagreeable announcements: “The letter has been opened!” instead of “You've opened the letter!”

Prepositions with passive verbs:

When a verb + preposition (adverb) + object combination is put into the passive, the preposition (adverb) will remain immediately after the verb: “We must write to him” = “He must be written to”; “You can pour the liquid into this beaker quite safely” = “This beaker can be filled with the liquid quite safely”; “They threw away the old newspapers” = “The old newspapers were thrown away”; “He looked after the laboratory well” = “The laboratory was well looked after”.

Infinitive constructions:

Infinitive constructions are used after the verbs acknowledge, assume, believe, claim, consider, estimate, feel, know, presume, report, say, think, understand, etc.: “People said that he was the author of this paper” = “He was said to be the author of this paper”; “People think he has information which will be useful to us” = “He is said to have information which will be useful to us”.

9. Put the verbs into the passive voice. Do not mention the agent unless it seems necessary:

a) They haven't checked the results.

b) They didn't pay me for the work; they expected me to do it for nothing.

c) She didn't introduce me to the laboratory chief.

d) A loud noise distracted me.

e) A Japanese firm makes this equipment.

f) A machine could do this much more easily.

g) We can't use this device.

h) The examiner will read the passage twice.

i) They took the lecturer for a Frenchman: his French was so good.

j) You should have taken these books to the library.

k) We have warned you.

l) You shouldn't leave these documents on the desk; you should lock them up.

10. Put the verbs into the passive voice:

a) Everyone looked up to him.

b) All his colleagues will see him off (проводят) at the airport.

c) They took down the notice.

d) No one has taken out the cork.

e) People often take him for his brother.

11. Put the following sentences into the passive using an infinitive construction where possible:

a) We believe that he has knowledge and expertise that may be useful in this project.

b) You have to see it to believe it (two passives).

c) Don't touch this switch.

d) They shouldn't have told him.

e) People know that he is an excellent physicist.

f) We consider that she was the best scientist that Poland has ever produced.

g) We know that the expedition reached the South Pole in May.

h) We will have to get someone to see it.

i) It is impossible to do this.

j) Before they invented printing people had to write everything by hand.

12. Make a written resume of the text about Wilhelm Röntgen (10-15 sentences) and retell the text orally relying on what you have written.

Heinrich Hertz['haɪnrɪk hɜːts]

People who die before the age of 37 don’t often leave a huge legacy[19]. Heinrich Hertz was an exception. Born in Hamburg, Germany, Hertz studied at the Universities of Munich and Berlin, and started working with a group of eminent physicists that included Hermann von Helmholtz ['helmˌhɔlts] (1821-1894). While there, Hertz completed a PhD on electromagnetic induction in rotating spheres.

Born: 1857, Hamburg, Germany.

Education: Universities of Munich and Berlin.

Major achievement: made sense of electromagnetic radiation.

Died: 1894, Bonn, Germany.

Before reading the text, study the words in the right column (practise pronouncing those which are transcribed):

In 1883 Hertz became a lecturer in theoretical physics at the University of Kiel [kiːl][20]. Here he studied the recent electromagnetic theory of James Clerk Maxwell [ʤeɪmz klɑːk 'mækswəl] (1831–1879). This theory was based on unusual mechanical ideas about the ‘luminiferous ether’. Ether was a hypothetical substance supposed to fill all ‘empty’ space, and was thought to be the material that allowed light to travel through the universe. While another scientist performed some intriguing experiments that proved that this ether didn’t exist, Hertz looked at the equations used to make sense of electromagnetic theory. He found that if you could reconstruct these the idea no longer required ether. Electromagnetic theory had just taken a huge step further.   Moving to be Professor of Physics at Karlsruhe ['kɑːlzruːə][21] University in 1885, Hertz soon discovered the photoelectric effect – where ultraviolet radiation knocks electrons from the surface of metal and creates an electrical current – which is now the basis of many photovoltaic cells used on items from satellites to road signs.   Although Hertz realised the significance of the photoeleсtric effect, his attention was drawn elsewhere. In 1888, in a corner of his classroom, he generated electric waves using a circuit consisting of a metal rod that had a small gap in it. The gap was small enough for the circuit to be completed by sparks jumping across it. Hertz then showed that these sparks could be picked up on a second, similar set of apparatus some distance away in the room.   In further experiments he showed that, like light, the waves could be focused or reflected, and that they could pass straight through non-conducting materials. Originally called Hertzian waves, we now think of them as radio waves. Hertz saw no practical use for the discovery, but others were quick to see the relevance. An English mathematical physicist, Oliver Heaviside (1850–1925), said in 1891, “Three years ago, electromagnetic waves were nowhere. Shortly afterward, they were everywhere”.   The end result was that a young Italian by the name of Guglielmo Marconi [gɪl'jelməu mɑː'kəunɪ] (1874–1937) heard about Hertz’s discovery while on holiday in Austria. He rushed home and started developing the idea until he could transmit a signal for more than one mile. In 1901 Marconi transmitted a signal across the Atlantic from Cornwall to Newfoundland, and radio came of age.

Luminiferous [ˌluːmɪ'nɪfərəs] – cветоносный   Ether ['iːθə] – эфир   Hypothetical [ˌhaɪpə(u) 'θetɪk(ə)l] – гипотетический     Photovoltaic [ˌfəutəu vɔl'teɪɪk] cell – фотогальва-нический элемент To draw one’s attention to – привлечь чье-либо внимание Rod – стержень Gap – прорезь, пробел Apparatus [ˌæp(ə)'reɪtəs] – оборудова-ние Spark – искра, вспышка   Relevance – значимость   Shortly afterward – вскоре после этого   To rush – кинуть-ся, (зд.) быстро вернуться   To come of age – достичь зрелости

Tasks and exercises

1. Answer the following questions:

a) What can you say about ‘ether’?

b) What is the photoelectric effect?

c) What kind of experiment did Hertz perform in 1888?

d) Did Hertz see the practical value of his discovery?

e) What did Marconi achieve shortly after Hertz’s discovery?

2. Find words in the text that have the following meanings:

a) “to need smth, to depend on smth”;

b) “the tools and pieces of equipment that are needed for a particular activity or task”;

c) “a person or thing that does not follow a rule”;

d) “the path of wires and equipment along which an electric current flows”;

e) “to move around a central fixed point”;

f) “the quality of being valuable and useful to people in their lives and work”;

g) “initially”;

h) “a long straight piece of metal/wood/glass”.

3. Study the collocations in which some of the general scientific words from the text are used:

a) signal (n): weak/ strong / high(low)-frequency signal, acoustic/chemical/light/radar signal, to emit/transmit/generate a signal, to detect/receive/respond to a signal, to convert a signal into;

b) to complete: on time/accurately/correctly;

c) apparatus: experimental/laboratory/electrical;

d) distance: to determine/measure, over a distance (of), at a distance (of), within a distance (of);

e) practical: for practical reasons, be/seem/sound practical;

f) component: basic/central/standard/minor component.

4. Fill in the gaps:

The project has now been successfully _____. A light signal can ____ well over 16 km before it halves intensity. This is a very sophisticated piece of laboratory _____. The researchers discovered a common _____ in all three types of the organism. The sound can be heard over a _____ of 5 miles. The nerves carry these ____ to the brain. Team work was a crucial ____ in our success. The town is situated at a ____ of 20 miles from Oxford. A faint signal from the satellite was ____.

5. Make up 10 sentences with collocations from ex.3.

6. Translate into English:

«Герц приспособил индукционную катушку, чтобы генерировать гигантские искры в зазоре между парой небольших сфер на концах металлических стержней. Это была довольно обычная установка для демонстрационных опытов, однако Герц внес в нее кое-какие усовершенствования: стержни были длиннее, а сферы на концах, служившие конденсаторами, где накапливался заряд, больше, чем обычно. Ширину зазора можно было варьировать, а реостат (проводник с переменным сопротивлением) регулировал разность потенциалов в зазоре. Доведя сопротивление реостата до нуля, чтобы вызвать разряд, Герц с удивлением заметил, что слабые искры не прекращают проскакивать. На скамье рядом с прибором лежала еще одна металлическая катушка с парой контактов, куда были насажены сферы, а между ними оставлен зазор для искрового заряда. Во время работы с индукционной катушкой Герц (или, может быть, его жена) заметили не только ослепительную вспышку между сферами того контура, который катушка подпитывала, но и едва различимые искры в катушке поодаль (которая не была никуда подключена). Ученому выпал редчайший шанс. Как впоследствии писал он сам, «невозможно было прийти к этому явлению, основываясь только на теории» (Гратцер У., «Эврики и эйфории», с. 353-354).

7. Revise the collocations with general scientific lexis from the previous texts, and translate the sentences into English:

a) Исследование, по-видимому, показывает, что мои изначальные гипотезы были верны.

b) Ветряные турбины используются для производства электричества.

c) Применение какого из этих методов вероятней всего даст лучшие результаты?

d) Он изучал физику субатомных частиц у профессора Сейджера.

e) Эти соединения крайне нестабильны.

f) Обнаружение частицы, похожей на бозон Хиггса, стало научным событием, которое с наибольшим нетерпением ожидалось научным сообществом летом 2012.

8. Make a written resume of the text (10-15 sentences) and retell the text orally relying on what you have written.

Marie Curie [mə'riː 'kjuərɪ]

At a time when few women had the opportunity to experience the excitement of scientific research, Marie Curie introduced the world to the marvels of radioactivity. Her ground-breaking work sadly led to her death, as she had no way of knowing that radiation emitted from the materials she studied could trigger cancer.

Born: 1867, Warsaw ['wɔːsɔː], Poland ['pəulənd].

Education: the Sorbonne [sɔrbɔn], Paris.

Major achievement: discovered radioactivity.

Died: 1934, France.

Before reading the text, study the words in the right column (practise pronouncing those which are transcribed):

Born Maria Sklodowska, she grew up in Warsaw and moved to Paris, where she registered her name as “Marie” on arrival. Here she excelled in physics and maths and in 1894 was introduced to the Laboratory Chief at the Paris Municipal School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry, Pierre Curie [pɪ'e(r)], whom she married the following year.   Initially Marie researched the magnetic property of steels. Her focus changed in 1895 when Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays and, almost simultaneously, Frenchman Henri Becquerel [ɑː'nrɪ ˌbekə'rel] (1852–1908) found that minerals containing uranium also gave off unknown rays.   While many scientists concentrated on Röntgen’s works, Marie studied Becquerel’s uranium rays. Setting up a laboratory in a damp store room in the Paris Municipal School where Pierre was now a professor, she used a highly sensitive instrument that could measure tiny electrical currents that pass through air which had been bombarded with uranium rays. Pierre and his older brother, Jacques [ʒak], had invented the device 15 years earlier. She discovered that the strength of the rays coming from a material depended only on the amount of uranium it contained. In addition, the electrical effects of the uranium rays were unaffected if you pulverised the uranium-containing material, kept it pure, reacted it to form a compound, presented it wet or dry, or exposed it to light or heat. Her conclusion was that the ability to give out rays must be a fundamental feature of uranium’s atomic structure.   Curie then discovered that other materials gave off rays, and called the phenomenon radioactivity. When she found that a compound called pitchblende gave off more rays than was predicted from the amount of uranium in it, Pierre joined in her research. Together they discovered two new elements in the pitchblende, naming them polonium and radium.   These findings were controversial, but industrial companies started seeing potential in the work. Already they knew that the rays had value in medical imaging, but Marie started to show that they could damage biological tissue, a finding that led to their use in combating cancer. Marie also became aware that radioactive materials were often a source of heat, and started to speculate about the power that was potentially locked up in such substances – energy that other scientists would realise could be released in nuclear power stations and in deadly weapons.

To excel in [ɪk'sel] – отличаться, выделяться в какой-либо деятельности To introduce smb to smb – представить кого-либо кому-либо, познакомить Steel – сталь Simultaneous – [ˌsɪm(ə)l'teɪnɪəs] одновременный, синхронный Uranium [juə'reɪnɪəm] Give off – испускать, излучать To concentrate on smth ['kɔn(t)s(ə)ntreɪt] Store room – кладовая To bombard ['bɔmbɑːd] – облучать частицами, бомбардировать   To pulverise ['pʌlv(ə)raɪz] – распылять Compound ['kɔmpaund] – химическое соединение Fundamental [ˌfʌndə'ment(ə)l]   Pitchblende ['pɪʧblend] – уранинит, настуран, урановая смолка Polonium [pə'ləunɪəm] Radium ['reɪdɪəm] Controversial – [ˌkɔntrə'vɜːʃ(ə)l] противоречивй, дискуссионный To combat smth ['kɔmbæt] – бороться с Cancer ['kæn(t)sə] – рак Become aware of smth – понять, узнать что-либо To speculate about ['spekjəleɪt] – размышлять, допускать

Tasks and exercises

1. Answer the questions:

a) What was Marie Curie’s original surname?

b) How did she get acquainted with Pierre Curie?

c) What did she investigate at the beginning of her career? What made Curie change the focus of her attention?

d) What experiments with uranium did she carry out and what conclusions did she arrive at?

e) When did Pierre Curie join his wife in her research of radioactivity?

f) What elements did they discover?

g) What potential did Marie Curie see in the research of radioactive elements?

2. In the text find words that have the following meanings:

a) “to be very good at doing smth”;

b) “not changed or influenced by smth”;

c) “quality, feature of an object”;

d) “to harm or spoil smth”;

e) “done at the same time”;

f) “to give all your attention to smth”;

g) “to put smth in a place or situation where they are not protected or covered from smth”;

h) “able to measure very small changes”;

i) “causing a lot of discussion and disagreement”.

3. Study the collocations in which some of the general scientific words from the text are used:

a) laboratory: up-to-date, well-equipped, to set up/establish a laboratory;

b) to consist of: entirely/only/mainly;

c) to consist in: to consist in smth – to have smth as the main or only part (feature);

d) to depend: greatly/entirely/to some extent, seem to depend on smth;

e) conclusion: to reach/draw a conclusion, to come to/arrive at a conclusions, lead to/point to, correct/logical conclusion, false/wrong conclusion, to jump to a conclusion;

f) potential (n): to have/show enormous potential, to develop/realise (fulfill) potential;

g) instrument: devise/develop/invent, a set of, delicate/appropriate/
reliable/sophisticated instrument.

4. Fill in the gaps:

True education does not consist __ simply being told facts. You aren’t using your computer to its full ____. We don’t want to jump to the wrong ____. She donated money to ____ a physics laboratory. I can’t draw any _____ from these observations. The results of the experiment seem to ____ on the type of soil used. Joining this research group will help you to realise your true ____. It all points to the _____ that this kind of particles doesn’t exist. I run my own research _____. A molecule of water consists __ two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. This phenomenon can be simulated under ____ conditions.

5. Make up 10 sentences with the collocations from ex.3.

6. Translate into English:

a) Превратив одну из комнат Парижской муниципальной школы, где Пьер уже был профессором, в лабораторию, Мари Кюри ставила эксперименты, используя высокочувствительный прибор для измерения электрического тока, проходившего через воздух, облученный ураном.

b) Она обнаружила, что сила лучей, испускаемых тем или иным материалом, зависела только от количества урана, который в нем содержался.

c) Кроме того, электрические свойства урановых лучей оставались неизменными, если ураносодержащий материал измельчали, оставляли его в несмешанной форме или использовали для получения химических соединений, представляли его в сухом или жидком виде, или подвергали воздействию света и тепла.

d) Она сделала вывод о том, что способность производить излучение данного вида была фундаментальным свойством атомной решетки урана.

e) Эти открытия вызывали сомнения, но промышленные компании сразу увидели в них огромный потенциал.

7. Revise the collocations with formal and general scientific lexis from the previous texts, and translate the sentences into English:

a) Образцы нагреваются в лабораторных условиях.

b) Он измерил этот параметр при помощи хитроумного электронного устройства.

c) Далее мне хотелось бы обсудить непростую тему общей теории относительности.

d) Не могли бы Вы разъяснить эту мысль?

e) Оба эксперимента имеют схожие результаты.

f Медикамент производит сильное воздействие на мозг.

g) Студентам понадобится время, чтобы собрать данные.

8. Make a written resume of the text (10-15 sentences) and retell the text orally relying on what you have written.

Albert Einstein['ælbət 'ainstain]

Few people have left such a large mark in the public mindset[22] as Albert Einstein. Born in Germany into a Jewish family, Einstein had little success at school and showed no signs of becoming an international superstar, when, in 1901, he took a temporary job in the patent ['pæt(ə)nt, 'peɪ-] office[23] in Bern [bɜːn], Switzerland.

Born: 1879, Ulm, Württemberg (now Germany).

Education: University of Zurich ['z(j)uərɪk].

Major achievement: introduced the theories of special and general relativity.

Died: 1955, Princeton, USA.

Before reading the text, study the words in the right column (practise pronouncing those which are transcribed):

His private life at the time was complex. In the same year that he started work in the patent office, his Hungarian girlfriend Mileva became pregnant. Being born outside marriage was taboo, so they gave their child up for adoption, before marrying a couple of years later and then divorcing in 1914. In 1919 he married again, this time to Eva ['iːvə], his cousin, but it appears he was not an easy person to live with. In addition his cultural roots were frequently disturbed. Having started off with German citizenship, Einstein renounced it and became stateless before taking Swiss citizenship. He later reclaimed German citizenship, but the Nazis revoked this because he was a Jew. Finally he moved to America and became a citizen of that nation. Out of this chaotic life came some stunning scientific insights. In 1905, while working at the patent office, Einstein submitted four papers for publication. His papers on Brownian ['braunɪən] motion (movement), the photoelectric effect and special relativity are all probably worthy of winning Nobel prizes, and indeed the Nobel committee did award him the 1921 Prize in Physics for his work on the photoelectric effect. But while the photoelectric effect and brownian motion had given massive support to those claiming that atoms existed, relativity was something entirely new.   At first he introduced the idea of special relativity, in his 1905 paper “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies”. This theory integrated time, distance, mass and energy and was consistent with electromagnetism, but omitted the force of gravity. It challenged and overturned Newtonian physics by showing how the speed of light was fixed, and was not relative to the movement of the observer. One of the strengths of special relativity is that it can be derived from only two premises: 1. The speed of light in vacuum is a constant (specifically, 299,792,458 metres per second). 2. The laws of physics are the same for all observers in inertial frames.   Despite its simplicity, it had startling outcomes. Special relativity claimed that there is no such thing as absolute concepts of time and size; observers’ appreciation of these features was relative, said Einstein, to their own speed.   In 1915 he took the idea further and developed a theory of general relativity. According to this theory, gravity is no longer a force, but a consequence of what he called the curvature of space-time. Unlike special relativity, where reality is different for each observer, general relativity enables all observers to be equal even if they are moving at different speeds. The ideas are mind-breaking, but even though parts of them have been challenged, they formed the grounding for physics throughout the 20th century.

Complex ['kɔmpleks] – сложный, запутанный Taboo [tə'buː] – запрещенный Give a child up for adoption – отдать ребенка на усыновление (удочерение) To divorce – развестись Frequently – часто To disturb – беспокоить Citizenship – гражданство To renounce – отказаться Stateless – не имеющий гражданства Reclaim – требовать обратно, возвращать себе Nazi ['nɑːtsɪ] To revoke – аннулировать, объявлять недействительным, отзывать Jew [ʤuː] – еврей Chaotic [keɪ'ɔtɪk] – хаотичный Stunning – потрясающий Insight ['ɪnˌsaɪt] – по-нимание, озарение, проникновение в суть Submit a paper for publication – опубликовать статью To give support to поддерживать To claim – заявлять, утверждать Entirely – полностью Consistent with – последова-тельный, совместимый с To omit [ə'mɪt] – опускать To challenge – оспаривать, противоречить, бросать вызов To overturn – ниспровергать, опровергать To be derived from – быть выводимым из Premise – предпосылка Startling – удивительный Outcome – результат, итог Consequence ['kɔn(t)sɪkwən(t)s] следствие Curvature ['kɜːvəʧə] – искривление To enable smb to do smth – позволить кому-либо сделать что-либо

Tasks and exercises

1. Answer the questions:

a) Did Albert Einstein have a busy personal life?

b) Where did Einstein work when he made his first groundbreaking discoveries?

c) What were the papers he submitted for publication in 1905 about?

d) In what way did Einstein’s special theory of relativity overturn Newtonian physics?

e) What are the premises from which special relativity can be derived?

f) What are the outcomes of the theory of special relativity?

g) What is meant by the curvature of space-time in general relativity?

2. In the text find words that have the following meanings:

a) “intended to last for a short time”;

b) “to combine two or more things so that they work together”;

c) “in a state of complete confusion”;

d) “to question if an idea is right”;

e) “a result of smth that happened”;

f) “complicated, difficult to understand, made of many different parts”;

g) “the ability to see the truth about things and people”;

h) “in agreement with smth”;

i) “to say that smth is true although it has not been proved”;

j) “the quality of being easy to understand”;

k) “deserving”.

3 Study the collocations in which some of the general scientific words from the text are used:

a) support (n): to get/receive support, in support of smth, a lack of support, complete/full/total support;

b) to support: strongly/fully, be widely supported;

c) to claim: to rightly/wrongly claim that, try to claim;

d) to omit: completely/deliberately/accidentally;

e) to derive: smth from smth;

f) consequence: lead to, follow from, in consequence of, important/positive/possible consequence.

4. Fill in the gaps:

This substance is ____ from fish oil. The evidence strongly ____ his hypothesis. Some important details were deliberately ____ from the report. The scientists falsely ____ that they had made correct measurements. The plan received strong ____ from the research team members. This theory was widely _____ in the scientific community.

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