Read and translate the text. Analyze the use of modal verbs.
Text 3: Attending an academic conference
Why are you going to the conference? The major reason is that it's good for you:
- to see the people who've written papers you've read,
- to start to build relationships with other researchers in the field,
- to tell people what you're doing and to find out what they are doing, and to find out that you're at least as smart and good as many of those researchers.
Attending a conference is a professionally rewarding experience. In addition to socializing with colleagues from other institutions and a trip to a possibly exotic locale, the two main reasons to attend a conference are to hear presentations and to converse with other researchers.
Listening to presentations will inform you of what others are doing (sometimes more clearly than the paper, and in any event with a slightly different spin and the ability to ask questions), will inspire research ideas of your own, and will expose you to different styles of presentation.
As your career advances, you'll learn that even though listening to the talks is extremely valuable, hallway conversations can be even more fruitful. Do everything you can to cultivate such conversations: that is one of your chief jobs at the conference.
You should also tell others about your research. Think about how to frame your work to convey how interesting it is. This is an important skill not just for a conference but in general. Plan your pitch, practice it with your friends, and then further refine it through interactions at the conference. Remember to talk first about the goals of your research, and only then about the techniques you are using. You have to convince others that the work is worth hearing about before they will be willing to listen to the technical details.
You'll learn a lot from talking about your work – seeing what confuses people and receiving their ideas and suggestions, for example but remember that no one likes to be in a conversation in which they only listen. You always need to tell people about your work, but also be sure to ask others about their work (even doing so first). You'll also learn a lot by listening and asking questions. Keep an open mind, and try to deeply understand their research.
Feel free to approach other students to learn what they are doing and to spread the word about your own research. This is an easy way to expand your circle of acquaintances and eventually meet more well-known researchers. As a side benefit, in a few years, the students will themselves be more senior and may even be famous, and you'll already have a relationship with them.
If there's someone on your «hit list» of people you want to talk with at the conference, just go up to that person and join or start a conversation. If you have a topic to discuss, the person will be grateful to you for broaching it, and that person is unlikely to have known to approach you. Help others: make introductions and tell others of related works or people they should talk to.
So, you should work hard to attend lots of sessions and read lots of papers. But it's unlikely that you'll go to every session: some will be genuinely uninteresting to you. In addition, the most important part of a conference is «schmoozing», standing in hallways talking to colleagues.
Hang out some with the folks you already know. But don't do this exclusively, since you can do that elsewhere, but you can only schmooze with other folks here. Debriefing with each other on sessions, papers, interactions with others, etc. is of value, though, and you should do this with each other on occasion.
Text 4: Climate-Smart Agriculture: Global Science Conference
Over 300 participants from 35 countries, representing scientific institutions, universities, multilateral organizations, governments, international organizations, farmers’ organizations, private sector and civil society organizations convened at the 2nd Global Science Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture at the University of California, Davis, to explore avenues to move forward on scientific priorities in climate-smart agriculture and to catalyze transformative actions.
Participants presented key scientific findings relevant to climate smart agriculture, identified priorities for new research and explored potential opportunities to strengthen science-policy integration to wide global food security and nutrition, alleviate poverty, support sustainable development and promote ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes. The conference focused on three key themes:
- Sustainable farm and food systems: options for sustainable intensification, agroecosystem management and food systems;
- Landscape and regional scales: land use, ecosystem services and regional resilience;
- Integrative and transformative institutional and policy aspects: bridging across scales to link science and practice to ensure food security and nutrition, poverty alleviation and multiple ecosystem services.