An English Reader on Science 5 страница

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

6. Translate into English:

a) В то время как фотоэлектрический эффект и броуновское движение свидетельствовали в пользу тех, кто утверждал, что атомы существовали, теория относительности была чем-то совершенно новым.

b) Эта теория объединяла время, расстояние, массу и энергию, а также не противоречила электромагнетизму, но в ней не учитывалась сила гравитации.

c) Одной из сильных сторон специальной теории относительности является то, что она выводима всего из двух основных предпосылок.

d) Согласно общей теории относительности, гравитация больше не сила, но следствие того, что Эйнштейн назвал искривлением пространства-времени.

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

a) Термин «кислотный дождь» был создан в 19 веке.

b) По мере старения организма скорость обмена веществ снижается.

c) Заселение этой территории людьми увеличивается обратно пропорционально росту количества животных.

d) Навыки невозможно передать напрямую от преподавателя к студентам.

e) Влияние наследственности лучше всего видно среди генетически идентичных близнецов.

f) Исследование сосредоточено на анализе сложного взаимодействия между живыми организмами и их средой.

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

Werner Heisenberg['wɜːnə 'haɪz(ə)nbɜːg]

When Newton looked at forces and movement he saw predictability[24], and developed explanations for everyday events. When Einstein reinvestigated the same issues[25] he concluded that reality was more complex, but it could be predicted if you took enough measurements. When Werner Heisenberg helped found quantum theory, he took physics into a world that was much less certain[26].

Born: 1901, Würzburg.

Education: University of Munich.

Major achievement: developed quantum theory.

Died: 1976, Munich, Germany.

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

In the 1920s Germany was an exciting place to work if you loved physics. While still in his early twenties Heisenberg met Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr (1885–1962), Linus Wolfgang Pauli ['laɪnəs 'wulfgæŋ pɔːlɪ, 'pau-] (1900–1958), and Max Born (1882–1970). Through their inspiration he looked again at the atom. Current theories speculated that electrons orbited a nucleus, much in the way that planets orbit the sun. As he collected data about the way atoms emit and absorb light he came up with a radically new idea.   Called ‘quantum mechanics’, the new ideas were hotly disputed, but they drew together the mathematics of matrices with physics of wave mechanics. Attracted to the world centre of debate, Heisenberg moved to Copenhagen [ˌkəup(ə)n'heɪg(ə)n] to join Born’s group of pioneering physicists. Here he spent a lot of time with Erwin Schrödinger ['ɜːrwɪn 'ʃrəudɪŋgə] (1887-1961) who was also actively trying to make sense of this area of physics.   The more Heisenberg studied mathematics, the more curious he became. He realised that if you knew the position of an electron, you couldn’t say anything about its momentum. Conversely, if you detect an electron’s momentum, you won’t be able to measure its position. In essence he was claiming that it was always impossible to predict what an electron would do next inside an atom, because of the uncertainty left when you try to measure it.   There are two ways of looking at this. One is to say that the experiments were just not sophisticated enough to do this, but give it a few years and someone would solve the problem. The other was to claim that this was a true reflection of a fundamental property of matter (described by quantum mechanics). Heisenberg presented this to Wolfgang Pauli in a fourteen-page letter in 1927 and then subsequently presented to the world his uncertainty principle.   Erwin Schrödinger’s famous thought-experiment illustrates Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. A cat, a sealed vial of poison and a small lump of radioactive material are placed in a box. The vial will open if one atom in the radioactive material decays. Since no one can predict when this decay will occur, there is no way of knowing whether the cat is dead or alive. While the box remains closed, the cat is therefore in a ‘superposition state’, being both alive and dead.

In one’s early twenties – когда ему (ей) было чуть больше двадцати Inspiration [ˌɪnsp(ə)'reɪʃ(ə)n] вдохновение, воодушевление     To be hotly disputed – активно обсуждаться To draw smth together – соединять что-либо Debate [dɪ'beɪt] дискуссия, дебат Area ['eərɪə] – область   Momentum [mə'mentəm] Conversely ['kɔnvɜːslɪ] – наоборот To detect smth – обнаружить In essence ['es(ə)n(t)s] – по сути   Sophisticated [sə'fɪstɪkeɪtɪd] – сложный, сложно устроенный   To seal – запечатывать Vial ['vaɪəl] – пузырек Lump – кусок To decay – распадаться To occur [ə'kɜː] – происходить Superposition – совмещение, суперпозиция State – Состояние

Tasks and exercises

1. Answer the questions:

a) What scientists did Heisenberg communicate with in his early twenties?

b) Why did Heisenberg move to Denmark?

c) What did he realise about the position and momentum of an electron?

d) Describe Erwin Schrödinger’s thought-experiment with the cat.

e) How did Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle influence modern science?

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

a) “to take in liquid, gas or some other substance from the surface or space around”;

b) “to discover or notice smth”;

c) “the quality of showing what will happen in advance”;

d) “a particular subject or activity, or its aspect”;

e) “happening now, in the present time”;

f) “an arrangement of numbers, symbols in rows and columns treated as a single quantity”;

g) “to move in a curved path around a much larger object”;

h) “to be destroyed gradually by natural processes”;

i) “in a way that is the opposite or reverse of smth”;

j) “in a way that concerns the most basic parts of smth”;

k) “(of a machine, system) clever and complicated in the way it works or is presented”.

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

a) issue (n): consider/deal with, number/range/series of issues, to focus on an issue;

b) to speculate: about/as to/on;

c) to dispute: to dispute a fact;

d) debate (n): encourage, promote, provoke intensive/lively debate about/on smth, subject of debate;

e) area: an area of research/study, to cover an area, an important/key area;

f) to predict: be widely predicted, be difficult/hard/impossible to predict, to predict accurately/correctly;

g) explanation: to offer an explanation, to provide smb with an explanation, accepted/traditional/comprehensive explanation, to lie in.

4. Fill in the gaps:

The possibility of carrying out such an experiment has been the subject of much ___. No one can ____ the fact that this is a very dense substance. The course covers two main subject ____. We really need to focus on this ____ and not get sidetracked. It is impossible to ____ with any certainty what effect this will have. The simplest _____ of Heisenberg’s achievements lies in his talent and knowledge. There was no point _____ about the possibility of the research group getting back together.

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

6. Translate into English:

a) Рассматривая физические силы и движение, Исаак Ньютон увидел в них предсказуемость и разработал научные объяснения для каждодневных событий.

b) Когда Эйнштейн вновь изучал эти проблемы, он пришел к выводу, что реальность была более сложной, но при этом предсказуемой при условии, что производится достаточно измерений.

c) В теориях того времени рассматривалась возможность, что электроны вращались вокруг ядра так же, как планеты вокруг солнца.

d) Называемые «квантовой механикой», эти идеи вызывали горячие споры, но они объединяли теорию матриц с волновой механикой.

e) В Копенгагене Гейзенберг провел много времени с Эрвином Шредингером, тоже пытавшимся разобраться в этой области физики.

f) По сути, он утверждал, что ни в коем случае не было возможным предсказать, каково будет поведение электрона в следующий момент из-за неопределенности, возникающей при измерении его параметров.

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

a) На семинаре обсуждался широкий круг вопросов.

b) Это крошечное устройство было разработано для измерения температуры.

c) В докладе намеренно были опущены некоторые важные детали.

d) Ученые ошибочно утверждали, что сделали верные измерения.

e) Если Вы присоединитесь к этой исследовательской группе, у Вас появится возможность полностью реализовать Ваш потенциал.

f) Всё это указывает на тот факт, что такого рода частиц не существует.

g) Я управляю собственной лабораторией.

8. Make a written resume of the text about Werner Heisenberg (10-15 sentences) and retell it orally on the basis of what you have written.

Arthur C. Clarke['ɑːθə siː klɑːk]

The idea that an object could be fired into space and then constantly fall towards Earth without ever hitting the ground seems a strange one, more fitted[27] to Arthur Charles Clarke’s famous science fiction, but this concept is the basis behind the geostationary [ˌʤɪɔu 'steɪʃ(ə)n(ə)rɪ] satellites that he brilliantly dreamed into existence.

Born: 1917, England.

Education: King’s College, London.

Major achievement: conceived[28] the idea for satellite communication.

Died: 2008, Sri Lanka [ˌsrɪ'læŋkə].

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

There are times when science fiction and science fact merge. Often Arthur C. Clarke was in the middle of the event, either as an instigator or commentator. While he is best known as an author of science-fiction novels, his innovative thinking in the early 1940 s led to the prediction that electronic communication would one day use satellites that stood still over the Earth. He wrote about his ideas in an article published in Wireless World magazine in 1945.   Although radio and television had been shown to work, Clarke realised that to provide reception across an entire country you would need to have repeater masts positioned every 50 miles, and link these with a massive network of co-axial cables. While that might be financially possible in areas of high population density, there was no way it could be cost effective over whole countries. Supplying a service involving sending programmes or messages across oceans was basically impossible. Television was a particular problem – the complex nature of the signal meant that it was more difficult to transmit than radio.   During the Second World War, Clarke saw the Germans develop rockets, and these fired his imagination. As he said in his article, if one of these rockets could travel at 5 miles per second it could “escape the Earth’s atmosphere and become an artificial satellite, circling the world forever with no expenditure of power – a second moon, in fact”.   If you sent up a rocket containing a communication satellite, and steered it so that it was over the equator, then it could fall in space, and constantly orbit the Earth. Clarke realised that if you positioned it approximately 42,164 km (26,200 miles) from the centre of the Earth, in other words approximately 35,787 km (22,237 miles) above mean sea level, then the speed with which it fell would be the same as the speed of the Earth’s rotation. Effectively it would hang still above a single point over the equator. By sending enough of these satellites into space, you could generate a network of transmitters that could relay messages to each other and beam them back to Earth with each one serving huge areas.   What started as a suggestion in a small magazine led to the 1965 launch of Early Bird, the first commercial geostationary communication satellite, and by 2000 there were over 300 satellites in the so-called ‘Clarke orbit’. Electronic communication now spans the globe.

To merge [mɜːʤ] – (зд.) совпадать Instigator ['ɪn(t)stɪgeɪtə]- подстрекатель, зачинщик Science fiction – научно- популярная фантастика Innovative ['ɪnəuveɪtɪv] Wireless – радио Magazine [ˌmægə'ziːn] – журнал Although [ɔːl'ðəu] – хотя Reception – прием (видимость, слышимость) Repeater mast мачта ретранслятора Co-axial [ˌkəu'æksɪəl] – коаксиальный Population density – плотность населения Cost effective – экономически эффективный To involve – включать Expenditure [ɪk'spendɪʧə] –расход     To steer – управлять Approximately [ə'prɔksɪmətlɪ] – приблизительно Mean sea level средний уровень моря Effectively – фактически, в сущности To relay – передавать, транслировать     To span the globe – охватывать весь мир

Tasks and exercises

1. Answer the questions:

a) In what capacity is Arthur C. Clarke known? Have you read any of his novels?

b) When did he come up with the idea of geostationary satellites?

c) Why was it difficult to provide reception across an entire country?

d) What did Clarke derive from the Germans’ experience in developing rockets during the Second World War?

e) What did Clarke’s suggestion consist in?

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

a) “to form an idea, plan in your mind”;

b) “very large, heavy and solid”;

c) “the use of energy, materials, time, etc.”;

d) “to combine 2 or more things to form a single whole”;

e) “actually”;

f) “the quality of radio and television signals that are broadcast”;

g) “to move in a circle”;

h) “introducing or using new ideas”;

i) “the opposite of natural”;

j) “to control the direction in which smth moves”.

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

a) existence: establish/prove the existence of, reveal/discover, be in/come into existence;

b) innovation: introduce/design/develop, encourage/stimulate, innovation in engineering;

c) to involve (make smth necessary): typically/usually;

d) nature: nature of a problem, to clarify/explain/provide an insight into the nature of smth;

e) speed: the speed of light/sound, at full speed, to move with a certain speed.

4. Fill in the gaps:

Mathematical astronomy was a great ____ by the Greeks of the 5th century BC. Inventions typically ____ minor improvements in technology. How do you explain the existence of closely related species in widely separated locations? The book provides an insight into the ____ of particle physics.

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

6. Translate into English:

a) Его инновационные идеи в начале 1940-х привели к предсказанию того, что электронная коммуникация однажды начнет осуществляться при помощи спутников, неподвижно установленных над Землей.

b) Поддержка сети, позволяющей посылать сигналы и программы через океаны, была практически невозможной.

c) Телевидение, в особенности, представляло проблему: сложная природа сигнала подразумевала, что его было сложнее передать, чем радиоволны.

d) Кларк понял, что, если установить спутник на расстоянии примерно 42,164 км от центра Земли (другими словами, 35,787 км над уровнем моря), то скорость его падения была бы равна скорости вращения Земли.

e) Эта идея лежит в основе геостационарных спутников, существование которых было блестяще предсказано Артуром Кларком.

7. Dr. Michio Kaku is a Japanese-born American theoretical physicist, futurist and ‘populariser’ of science. Two of his New York Times best sellers include “Physics of the Impossible” (2008) and “Physics of the Future” (2011). Have you read any of his books or articles? Translate the following extract about science fiction in physics, from one of his books, into English:

“Многие успешные ученые признавались, что первым шагом для них стало увлечение научной фантастикой. К примеру, великий астроном Эдвард Хаббл был еще в детстве очарован книгами Жюля Верна (Jules Verne). Начитавшись французского фантаста, он отказался от многообещающей юридической карьеры и вопреки желанию отца начал заниматься наукой. Со временем Хаббл cтал величайшим астрономом XX в. Воображение Карла Сагана (Carl Sagan), выдающегося астронома и автора бестселлеров, воспламенили романы Эдгара Райса Берроуза (Edgar Rice Burroughs) про марсианские приключения Джона Картера (John Carter). Подобно герою этих романов, Саган мечтал когда-нибудь исследовать красные пески Марса” (“Physics of the Impossible”).

7. Make a written resume of the text about Arthur C. Clarke (10–15 sentences) and retell the text orally relying on what you have written.

Stephen Hawking['stɪːv(ə)n 'hɔːkɪŋ]

Many people question whether humans will ever understand something as vast as the universe. Best-selling author and astrophysicist, Stephen Hawking has gone further than most in developing theories that make sense of current data.

Born: 1942, Oxford, England.

Education: University College, Oxford.

Major achievement: developed a complex understanding of the nature of the universe.

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

While Stephen Hawking was born in Oxford, most of his academic life has been spent at the University of Cambridge, first in the Institute of Astronomy and then at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. He has spent much of his career developing Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which had introduced the concept of space-time. In special relativity and general relativity, time and three-dimensional space are treated together as a single four-dimensional concept called space-time. A point in space-time is called an event, and an event must have four reference points: length, breadth, height and time.   Between 1965 and 1970 and working in collaboration with Roger Penrose (born 1931), Hawking devised new mathematical techniques to study space-time and then went on to apply this to the study of black holes. These features appear to have been formed by stars collapsing in on themselves and becoming so dense, and their gravitational fields so strong, that amongst other things, light can not escape their pull. In 1970 Hawking showed that combining quantum theory and general relativity indicated that black holes can emit radiation. From then on he started working to try and roll quantum theory and general relativity into what people hoped would become a ‘grand unified theory’.   A sign that this may be possible came when Hawking investigated predictions about the creation of the universe that flow from these two theories. He started by calculating that following the Big Bang many objects the size of a proton would be created. While a proton is incredibly small, these particles might have a mass of as much as ten billion tons. The large mass of these mini black holes would give then huge gravitational attraction and therefore they would be governed by general relativity, but their small size would make them also governed by laws of quantum mechanics.   Hawking’s mathematics also shows how it is theoretically possible that the universe can be finite, but at the same time have no boundaries or edge. One implication of this is a confirmation that it is possible to formulate laws of science that completely describe the way the universe began.   In 1979 Hawking was appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge. The man born on the 300th anniversary of Galileo Galilei’s (1564–642) death now held Isaac Newton’s (1643–1727) chair at Cambridge. He rose to fame with the publication, in 1988, of his book A Brief History of Time, which spent over 200 weeks on the Sunday Times best-seller list.

To be treated as – рассматриваться как     In collaboration with – сотрудничая с To devise – изобрести, разработать Dense – плотный Pull – притяжение   To emit – испускать From then on – с этого момента     Finite ['faɪnaɪt] – конечный, ограниченный Boundary – граница Edge – предел Implication [ˌɪmplɪ'keɪʃ(ə)n] подтекст; следствие Confirmation – подтверждение   To be appointed – быть назначенным Chair – должность заведующего кафедрой; кафедра

Tasks and exercises

1. Answer the questions:

a) What is Stephen Hawking’s main area of interest?

b) What books by Hawking have you read?

c) Where did he spend most of his academic life?

d) What did Hawking research between 1965 and 1970 and what did the results of his studies lead him to?

e) When did he start trying to unite general relativity and quantum mechanics and what came as a sign that this is possible?

f) What is curious about Hawking’s position at Cambridge?

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

a) “extremely large in area, size, amount”;

b) “to show, to point at”;

c) “to be considered in a particular way”;

d) “a particular way of doing smth; a method”;

e) “a line that marks the limits of smth”;

f) “the act of working with another person or in a group of people”;

g) “to invent smth new or a new way of doing smth”;

h) “a statement that shows that smth is true, correct or definite”;

i) “to estimate, to work out; to find a total amount, distance, value, etc.”;

j) “a force that pulls objects towards each other”;

k) “a standard by which smth can be judged or compared”.

3. The text contains some general scientific words. Study the collocations in which they are used:

a) career: the peak/height of your career, career ladder/path, to build a career, to start out on a career, a career choice/move;

b) point (n) (an essential aspect of smth): to the point, get to the point, basic point;

c) to devise: to devise a technology/mechanism/system;

d) technique: to allow/enable smth, develop/devise/pioneer, use/develop/apply, an effective/standard/ingenious technique, research/scientific/analytical technique;

e) field (subject/activity): to open up a field, to work in a field, an expert/leader in the field of, a research field;

f) to indicate: clearly, appear to/seem to;

g) to imply: clearly/usually/automatically, seem to;

h) implication (smth suggested but not said openly): clear/obvious, to carry/have/understand;

i) to confirm: be (un)able to, appear to/seem to, only/simply, officially.

4. Fill in the gaps:

The letter seems to ____ that the director knew about this project. The recent discoveries appear to ____ my original idea. I can’t answer that – I’m afraid that’s outside my ____. Moving to Caltech was a smart career ____. His remark seemed to have various possible _____. This ____ was pioneered in Caltech. He was at the peak of his ____ when he made his major scientific discovery. The plans were officially ____ yesterday. His remarks were brief and to the ____. We have an ingenious ____ for the storage of data. This discovery has opened up a whole new ___ of research. A new system has been ____ to control temperature in the lab. All of them are experts in their chosen ___. The figures ____ that the project can hardly be finished this year. It took me a few minutes to get to the ____. He is now working in the ____ of computer science.

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

6. Translate into English:

a) Большую часть своей карьеры Стивен Хокинг провел, разрабатывая общую теорию относительности Эйнштейна, введшего понятие пространства-времени.

b) Некая точка в пространстве-времени называется событием, и у любого события должны быть 4 параметра: длина, ширина, высота и время.

c) Сотрудничая с Роджером Пенроузом, Хокинг создал новые математические приемы для изучения пространства-времени и затем применил их к исследованию черных дыр.

d) Гравитационное поле черной дыры обладает такой силой, что свет, среди прочего, не может преодолеть ее притяжение.

e) В 1970 году Хокинг показал, что объединение квантовой теории и общей теории относительности указывало на способность черных дыр испускать радиацию.

f) Одним из следствий этого является подтверждение, что можно сформулировать физические законы, которые бы объясняли, каким образом появилась вселенная.

7. Read the following extract from Hawking’s latest book “The Grand Design” (in co-authorship with Leonard Mlodinow):

“Not everyone liked the big bang picture. In fact, the term “big bang” was coined in 1949 by Cambridge astrophysicist Fred Howle, who believed in a universe that expanded forever, and meant the term as a derisive description. The first direct observations supporting the idea did not come until 1965, with the discovery that there is a faint background of microwaves throughout space”.

Can you recall any similar examples when a natural phenomenon or hypothesis was given a derisive [dɪ'raɪsɪv][29] name or description and later it became an official term (for instance, the Kuiper [kaɪpə] belt)?

What point of view do you have on the problem of the universe contracting or expanding?

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

Revision

1. Translate the following terms into English:

кремниевый чип, оксид ртути, искривление пространства-времени, электромагнитная индукция, фотогальванический, красное смещение, цефеида, туманность, переменный ток.

2. Translate the following terms into Russian:

bell-jar, air pump, cathode ray, platinocyanide, pitchblende, Volta’s stack, geostationary satellite, insulator, graphite, phlogiston, caloric, electrophorus, magnetising current, fast transient circuit, momentum.

3. Translate the word combinations into English:

a) производиться в лабораторных условиях, изучать предмет, логически вывести что-либо, сложный прибор, расщепляемые материалы, запатентовать изобретение, аналогичный чему-либо, переустановить оборудование, выдвинуть идею, внешний стимул, внешние стимулы, четко разделенный,
в значительной степени, дискуссионная тема, эффективная технология;

b) часто ссылаться на что-либо, примерная оценка, широко признанный, высокостабильный, масштаб научной проблемы, столкнуться с трудностями, существенно повлиять на что-то, подвергнуться излучению, уловить сигнал, вовремя закончить эксперимент, по практическим соображениям, состоять из чего-либо, заключаться в чем-либо, прийти к преждевременным заключениям;

c) реализовать потенциал, изобрести набор инструментов, полностью зависеть от чего-то, привести к определенным последствиям, получить что-либо из, намеренно опустить (детали), сосредоточиться на проблеме, ключевая область исследований, всеобъемлющее объяснение, разъяснить природу явления, возникнуть (начать существовать), четко указывать на что-то, официально подтвердить, вне чьей-либо компетенции.

4. Below you can read a number of quotations belonging to some of the physicists whose biographies are used in the manual. Choose one quotation, prepare a 5 minute speech outlining your thoughts on the issues in question (try to use as many word combinations from ex.3 as possible), and present it to your groupmates:

Дата добавления: 2015-10-29