Exercise 10. Read the whole text again. Write an abstract of the text in three sentences.
ВОЛГОГРАДСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ ТЕХНИЧЕСКИЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ
(ВолгГТУ)
Кафедра иностранных языков
ПРОБЛЕМЫ СОВРЕМЕННОЙ НАУКИ
(тексты для дискуссии)
Методические указания
Волгоград, 1996
UNIT 1.
Exercise 1. Read the text to yourself and be ready for а comprehension check-up.
PURE AND APPLIED SCIENCE.
As students of science you are probably sometimes puzzled by the terms “pure” and “applied” science. Are these two totally different activities, having little or no interconnection? Let us begin by examining what is done by each.
Pure science is primarily concerned with the development of theories (or, as they are frequently called, models establishing relationships between the phenomena of the universe. When they are sufficiently validated these theories (hypotheses, models) become the working laws or principles of science. In carrying out this work, the pure scientist usually disregards its application to practical affairs, confining his attention to explanations of how and why events occur.
Exercise 2. Cheek up for comprehension.
1) Does the author give definition of both “pure” and “applied” science? 2) Find the word which is used as an equivalent of “sciences”. 3) When does a hypothesis become a principle of science? 4) What questions is the pure scientist concerned with? 5) Find the words equivalent to “how and why events occur”. 6) What is usually disregarded by the pure scientist?
UNIT 2.
Exercise 1. Read the text to yourself and be ready for a comprehension cheek-up.
MATHEMATIZATION OF NATURAL SCIENCES
Exact science in its generally accepted sense can be referred to as a family of specialized natural sciences, each of them providing evidence and information about the different aspects of nature by somewhat different working methods. It follows that mathematics in its pure sense does not enter into this frame, its object of study being not nature itself. Being independent of all observations of the outside world, it attempts to build logical systems based on axioms. In other words, it concentrates on formulating the language of mathematical symbols and equations which may be applied to the functional relations found in nature.
This “mathematization”, in the opinion of most specialists, is witnessed first in physics which deals with general laws of matter and energy on subatomic, atomic and molecular levels. Further applications of these mathematical laws and studies is made by chemistry and results in structural bonds between the elements of matter being established.
Exercise 2. Check up for comprehension.
1) What is generally understood by exact science? 2) How does the author describe “specialized” natural sciences? 3) Why does mathematics not belong to this family? 4) What is the objective of mathematics? 5) Is there only one definition of the objective? 6)What does the application of mathematical laws in chemistry result in?
UNIT 3.
Exercise 1. Look through the text concentrating en the beginning of each paragraph and write down a plan, either in English or in Russian (time limit - 10 min.).
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
1) Science problems can be roughly classified as analytic and synthetic. In analytic problems we seek the principles of the most profound natural processes, the scientist working always at the edge of the unknown. This is the situation today, for instance, within the two extremes of research in physics – elementary particle physics and astronophysica – both concerned with the properties of matter, one on the smallest, the other on the grandest scale. Research objectives in these fields are determined by the internal logic of the development of the field itself. Revolutionary shocks to the foundations of scientific ideas can be anticipated from these very areas.
2) As to synthetic problems, they are more often studied because of the possibilities which they hold for practical applications, immediate and distant, than because their solution is called for by the logic and science. This kind of motivation strongly influenced the nature of scientific thinking and the methods employed in solving problems. Instead of the traditional scientific question: “How is this to be explained?” the question behind the research becomes “How is this to be done?” The doing involves the production of a new substance or a new process with certain predetermined characteristics. In many areas of science, the division between science and technology is being erased and the chain of research gradually becomes the sequence of technological and engineering stages involved in working out a problem.
3) In this sense science is a Janus-headed figure. On the one hand, it is pure science, striving to reach the essence of the laws of the material world. On the other hand, it is the basis of a new technology, the workshop of bold technical ideas, and the driving force behind continuous technical progress.
4) In popular books and journals we often read that science is making greater strides every year, that in various fields of science discovery is followed by discovery in a steady stream of increasing significance and that one daring theory opens the way to the next. Such may be the impression with research becoming a collective doing and scientific data exchange a much faster process. Every new idea should immediately be taken up and developed further, forming the initial point of an avalanche-like process.
5) Things are, in fact, much more complex than that. Every year scientists are faced with the problems of working through thicker and tougher material, phenomena at or near the surface having long been explored, researched, and understood. The new relations that we study, say, in the world of elementary particles at dimensions of the order of 10-13 cm or in the world of super stellar objects at distances of billions of light years from us, demand extremely intense efforts on the part of physicists and astrophysicists, the continuous modernization of laboratories with experimental facilities becoming more and more grandiose and costing enormous sums. Moreover, it should be stressed that scientific equipment rapidly becomes obsolete. Consequently, the pace of scientific development in the areas of greatest theoretical significance is drastically limited by the rate of building new research facilities, the latter depending on a number of economic and technological factors not directly linked to the aims of the research. It may take, for example, more than 10 years from the initial decision to build a 100-200 billion electron volt accelerator to its completion. It should be borne in mind, too, that few measurements and readings given by these great facilities push science forward, results of any great significance being very rare forinstance, tens of thousands of pictures taken during the operation of an accelerator will have to be scrutinized in the hope of finding, among typically trite processes, signs of a new interaction or of a new event whose presence or absence may confine a theoretical idea.
Exercise 2. Read paragraph 1. Find the sentence containing the author’s prognosis and the word indicating that it is a prognosis.
Exercise 3. Read paragraph 2. What are the two motive forces behind synthetic and analytic research? What is the present-day relation between science and technology?
Exercise 4. Read paragraph 3. Give Russian equivalents of “striving to reach the essence...” and “the workshop of bold technical ideas”.
Exercise 5. Read paragraph 4. Follow the word “science” through the paragraph into copy out the words related to it in meaning.
Exercise 6. Read paragraph 5. Divide the paragraph into three parts with the following titles: Subject of Research, Tools of Research and Results of Research, Indicate the beginning of each part.
UNIT 4.
Exercise 1. Look through the text concentrating on the beginning and the end of each paragraph.
WHAT SCIENCE IS
1) It can be said that science is a cumulative body of knowledge about the natural world, obtained by the application of a peculiar method practiced by the scientist. It is known that the word science itself is derived from the Latin “scire”, to know, to have knowledge of, to experience. Fundamental and applied sciences are commonly distinguished, the former being concerned with fundamental laws of nature, the latter engaged in application of the knowledge obtained. Technology is the fruit of applied science, being the concrete practical expression of research done in the laboratory and applied to manufacturing commodities to meet human needs.
2) The word “scientist” was introduced only in 1840 by a Cambridge professor of philosophy who wrote: “We need a name for describing a cultivator of science in general. I should be inclined to call him a scientist”. “The cultivators of science” before that time were known as “natural philosophers”. They were curious, often eccentric, persons who poked inquiring fingers at nature. In the process of doing so they started a technique of inquiry which is now referred to as the “scientific method”.
3) Briefly, the following steps can be distinguished in this method. First comes the thought that initiates the inquiry. It is known, for example, that in 1896 the physicist Henri Becquerel, in his communication to the French Academy of Science, reported that he had discovered rays of an unknown nature emitted spontaneously by uranium salts. His discovery excited Marie Curie, and together with her husband Pierre Curie she tried to obtain more knowledge about the radiation. What was it exactly? Where did it come from?
4) Second comes the collecting of facts: the techniques of doing this will differ according to the problem which is to be solved. But this is based on the experiment In which anything may be used to gather the essential data – from a test-tube to an earth-satellite. It is known that the Curies encountered great difficulties in gathering their fact, as they investigated the mysterious uranium rays.
5) This leads to step three: organizing the facts and studying the relationships that emerge. It was already noted that the above rays were different from anything known. How to explain this? Did this radiation come from the atom itself? It might be expected that other materials also have the property of emitting radiation. Some investigations made by Mme Curie proved that this was so. The discovery was followed by further experiments with “active” radioelements only.
6) Step four consists in stating a hypothesis or theory: that is, framing a general truth that has emerged, and that may be modified as new facts emerge. In July 1898, the Curies announced the powerful radioactivity. This was the beginning of the discovery of radium.
7) Then follows the clearer statement of the theory. In December 1898, the Curies reported to the Academy of Sciences: “The various reasons enumerated lead us to believe that the new radioactive substance contains a new element to which we propose to give the name of Radium. The new radioactive substance certainly contains a great amount of barium, and still its radioactivity is considerable. It can be suggested therefore that the radioactivity of radium must be enormous”.
8) And the final step is the practical test of the theory, i.e. the prediction of new facts. This is essential, because from this flows the possibility of control by man of the forces of nature that are newly revealed.
9) Rote should be taken of how Marie Curie used deductive reasoning in order to proceed with her research, this kind of “detective work” being basic to the methodology of science. It should be stressed further that she dealt with probability – and not with certainty – in her investigation. Also, although the Curies were doing the basic research work at great expense to themselves in hard physical toil, they knew that they were part of an international group of people all concerned with their search for truth. Their reports were published and immediately examined by scientists all over the world. Any defects. In their arguments would be pointed out to them immediately.
Exercise 2. Read paragraph 1. Give Russian equivalents of: “a cumulative body of knowledge”, “a peculiar method practiced by the scientist”, “manufacturing commodities to meet human needs”.
Exercise 3. Read paragraph 2. Identify the words used by the author as equivalent to “doing so”, “a technique of inquiry”.
Exercise 4. Read paragraph 3. Identify the topic sentence. Give a Russian equivalent of “initiates”.
Exercise 5. Read paragraph 4. Identify the topic sentence. Follow the words “the collecting of facts” through their transformations into their equivalents and pronouns.
Exercise 6. Read paragraph 5. Identify the topic sentence and the illustrating sentences. Find the sentence describing the first step on the way to a hypothesis.
Exercise 7. Read paragraph 6. Find the sentence describing the nest stop in the development of the hypothesis (what word shows that it is a hypothesis?)
Exercise 8. Read paragraphs 7 and 8. Find the sentence describing the final step in the development of the hypothesis.
Exercise 9. Read paragraph 9. State the role of deductive reasoning in science.
Exercise 10. Read the whole text again. Write an abstract of the text in three sentences.
UNIT 5.
Exercise 1. Read the text without consulting the dictionary, pencil-mark the words that you do not understand. Divide the text into three parts, copy out the dominant noun in each part and suggest a title for each part.