Cards, money and information

НАУКА И ТЕХНИКА.

ВЕЛИКИЕ РУССКИЕ И БРИТАНСКИЕ УЧЕНЫЕ.

ВЕЛИКИЕ ОТКРЫТИЯ.

(SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY.

GREAT RUSSIAN AND BRITISH SCIENTISTS.

GREAT DISCOVERIES.)

 

Мурманск

 

ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ КОМИТЕТ РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ
ПО РЫБОЛОВСТВУ
МУРМАНСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ ТЕХНИЧЕСКИЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ

 

 

Кафедра

иностранных языков

 

НАУКА И ТЕХНИКА.

ВЕЛИКИЕ РУССКИЕ И БРИТАНСКИЕ УЧЕНЫЕ.

ВЕЛИКИЕ ОТКРЫТИЯ.

( SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY.

GREAT RUSSIAN AND BRITISH SCIENTISTS.

GREAT DISCOVERIES.)

Методические указания

по развитию навыков устной речи

для студентов младших курсов всех специальностей

 

Мурманск

 

 

Составитель – Смирнова Ирина Владимировна, старший преподаватель кафедры иностранных языков Мурманского государственного технического университета

 

 

Методические указания рассмотрены и одобрены кафедрой 29 сентября 2004г., протокол № 1

 

 

Рецензент – Т.П. Волкова, доцент, зав. кафедрой иностранных языков Мурманского государственного технического университета

 

Мурманский государственный

Технический университет,2004

 

 

ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ

ВВЕДЕНИЕ ………………………………………………………………….....4

SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC WORK……………………………………… ....4

TECHNOLOGY………………………………………………………………. 10

GREAT SCIENTISTS………………………………………………………….12

GREAT DISCOVERIES………………………………………………………..16

СПИСОК ИСПОЛЬЗОВАННОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЫ…………………………...26

 

 

ВВЕДЕНИЕ

 

Данные методические указания предназначены для формирования навыков говорения по теме «Наука и техника. Великие русские и британские ученые. Великие открытия» у студентов младших курсов всех специальностей.

Методические указания состоят из четырех разделов: каждый раздел включает в себя набор слов, текстов по теме и упражнений для работы на аудиторных занятиях, а также для самостоятельной внеаудиторной работы студентов.

Данные методические указания могут быть использованы как на аудиторных занятиях, так и для самостоятельной внеаудиторной работы студентов.

 

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY.

GREAT RUSSIAN AND BRITISH SCIENTISTS.

GREAT DISCOVERIES.

TASK 1.

Do you know Fleming from Posh?

You may think yourself an expert on TV shows, but how much do you know about the past?

A new survey of 18 to24-year-olds found they knew more about showbiz gossip than they did about classic books or famous people, or historical events.

It found nine out of ten could not name Alexander Fleming’s great discovery, while eight out of ten could not list three novels by Charles Dickens.

But a whopping 90 per cent could tell you the famous partner of a popular film star.

Here are the questions the whole nation is arguing over. Why not to test yourself and your friends – and find out who are the past masters and who are the kings of of current culture.

 

1. Can you name four British Prime Ministers between 1900 and 1945?

2. Can you name four members of the British Royal family?

3. What were the following individuals best known for?

a) Alexander Fleming

b) Ian Fleming

c) Charles Darvin

d) Virginia Woolf

4. Can you name?

a) three novels by Charles Dickens

b) three tragedies by Shakespeare

c) John Milton’s most famous poem

5. What were the following individuals best known for?

a) Douglas Bader

b) Oliver Cromwell

c) David Livingstone

d) Sir William Bragg

6. What are the following individuals best known for?

a) Sigmund Freud

b) Lucien Freud

7. What is?

a) A Poet Laureate

b) Nobel Prize

c) Eminem

8. Do you know four British Nobel Prize winners?

9. What do you most associate with?

a) Magna Carta

b) bitamins

c) U2

d) Alta vista

10. What are the following individuals best known for?

a) J.K. Rowling

b) Henry Cavendish

c) Seamus Heaney

d) William Caxton

e) Lara Croft

f) Henry Purcell

11. Who made the first artificial splitting of the atom?

12. In the Euro 2000, Euro 2004 who were the two opposing national sides?

13. What is the missing name in the following?

a) Troilus and …

b) Posh and …

c) TS …

d) Fat Boy …

 

 

TASK 2

1. Read the text and give two reasons of Mr. Aristides’s last hobby.

2. What attributes are used for a scientist?

 

A POOL OF BRAINS

Thomas Betterton, an outstanding promissing British scientist, disappeared suddenly from the conference he was attending in Paris. He is not the first young brilliant scientist to disappear. During the previous years quite a number of young talented and eminent scientists from France, Belgium, England and the USA have left their countries and are nowhere found.

The British Intelligence Service is interested in Betterton’s disappearance as his research is connected with security matters. His wife is kept under observation. The BIS agents follow her to Africa where she goes two months later. Mrs Betterton dies in hospital after air crash. The BIS decides to substitute Hilary Graven for Mrs Betterton as the latter resembles her very much.

Hilary Graven is met by somebody’s agents and taken to the “Unit”, a research centre, owned by Aristides, a world-famous multi-millionaire.

A few days later Hilary is invited to Aristides’s study where she has a conversation with the owner of the “Unit”. From the conversation she learns what kind of institution the “Unit” is.

“ I’m a businessman,” said Mr Aristides simply. “I’m also a collector. I have collected many things in my life. Pictures – I have the finest art collection in Europe. My stamp collection is famous. When a collection is fully representative, one goes on to the next thing. I am an old man, Madame, and there was not very much more for me to collect. So I came at last to collecting brains.”

TASK 3

 

Answer the questions:

 

1. Why is science so important in the modern world?

2. How does science help to keep peace in the world?

3. How does science help to solve the energy program?

4. What proves that the study of science is important for understanding the natural world?

 

TASK 4

 

1. Read these words about science, then say how you would continue this description:

 

“ Science is discovery. Science is fun. Science is understanding what makes a clock tick and what makes a car purr, what makes the Sun rises and what makes the Moon look so large on the horizon sometimes during the year.”

Rita Cromwell

 

3. Read these lines and comment on them:

 

“ Science is organized knowledge.”

“ Scientific work must have no object except to find out the truth.”

“ Science is built up of facts as a house is built of stones; but accumulation of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.”

“ True science teaches, above all, to doubt and to be ignorant.”

 

Use the phrases of agreement and disagreement.

 

TASK 5

Read the definitions of different branches of science and match them with the names of the sciences.

 

1. astronomy

2. biology

3. linguistics

4. psychology

5. meteorology

 

a. It is the science of the stars. It deals with celestial bodies such as our earth, its moon, the sun, the other planets.

b. It is the study of the way in which language works.

c. It is the science of mental life which studies human and animal behaviour.

d. It is the science of life. It deals with great diversity of life forms.

e. It deals with the scientific observation and study of the phenomena of weather and climate.

 

TASK 6

Read and remember the words:

1.

Science - scientist

Chemistry - chemist

Physics -physicist

Biology - biologist

Linguistics - linguist

Psychology - psychologist

Mathematics - mathematician

History - historian

Politics - politician

 

2. Read, translate and remember the words:

 

to apply, to engage, to be engaged in, to do research, to involve, to be involved in, to investigate, to succeed, to support, phenomenon (phenomena), technology, technological, to invent, to create, to supply, to found, to conclude, to inspire, to predict, to exaggerate, to contradict, spectacular discoveries

 

3. Form nouns ( Verb + -s(tion)= Noun) :

 

To decide, to conclude, to contradict, to inspire, to exaggerate, to recognize, to determine, to apply, to investigate, to invent, to create, to predict.

 

TASK 7

Read the text:

SCIENCE

 

Science is important to most people living in the modern world for a number of reasons. In particular, science is important to world peace and understanding, to the understanding of technology, and to our understanding of the world.

Science is important to world peace in many ways. Firstly, scientists have helped to develop many of the modern tools of war. On the other hand, they have also helped tokeep the peace through research which has improved life for people. Scientists have helped us to understand the problem of supplying the world with enough energy; they have begun to develop a number of solutions to the energy problem– for example, using energy from the sun and from the atom. Scientists have also analysed the world’s resources. We can begin to learn to share the resourceswith the knowledgeprovided to us by science. Science studies the Universeand how to use itspossibilities for the benefit of men.

Science is also important to everyone who is affected by modern technology. Many of things that make our lives easier and better are the results of advances in technology and, if the present patterns continue, technology will affect us even more in the future than it does now. In some cases, such as technology for taking salt out of ocean water, technology may be essential for our lives on Earth.

The study of science also provides people with an understanding of natural world. Scientists are learning to predict earthquakes, are exploring many other natural events such as storms. Scientists are also studying various aspects of humanbiology and the origin and developments of the human race. The study of the natural world may help to improve life of many people all over the world.

Basic knowledge of science is essential for everyone. It helps people to find their way in the changing world.

1. Find the English equivalents in the text:

 

Предсказывать землетрясения, ориентироваться в окружающем мире, иметь большое значение для достижения мира и понимания, результат технических достижений, улучшить жизнь, разработать ряд решений энергетической проблемы, создать современное оружие, элементарное знание науки, использовать возможности на благо человека, иметь огромное значение для нашей жизни, происхождение и развитие человеческого рода, проблема обеспечения мира энергией, сохранять мир, анализировать мировые ресурсы, Вселенная, сообща пользоваться ресурсами, давать людям понимание, знания, предоставляемые кому-либо наукой, быть связанным с современной техникой.

 

2. Translate into English, pay attention to the proper tenses of the verbs:

 

  1. Наука помогла разработать современное оружие.
  2. Наука находит все новые решения энергетической проблемы.
  3. Наука уже помогла людям научиться использовать энергию солнца и атома.
  4. Наука поможет нам научиться совместному использованию ресурсов.
  5. Ученые смогут предсказывать землетрясения.
  6. В течение многих лет наука помогает улучшать жизнь людей.
  7. Знания необходимы людям, чтобы ориентироваться в изменяющемся мире.

 

 

TASK 8

Read the passage and find out what in the author’s opinion the object of scientific work is. Use the dictionary when necessary.

 

SCIENCE AND SCIENTISTS

 

The man in the street has a very faint idea of the meaning of the word science. It includes, he feels, such pursuits as astronomy, chemistry and biology. He is not so sure whether engineering or medicine is science, and he is quite sure that politics, history, art, religion, and the like are not.

The scientist is more interested in doing scientific work than in defining it. He sometimes says that a piece of work or a book is “unscientific” and he usually means by the phrase that it is inexact; that it is badly arranged; that it jumps to conclusions without evidence, or that the author has allowed his personal prejudices to influence his report.

By scientific work, then, we mean that which is as exact as it possible, orderly in arrangement, and based on sound and sufficient evidence. Moreover, it must have no object except to find out the truth.

Perhaps science is more clearly defined by saying that it is firstly a vast collection of facts expressed in exact and unambiguous language in such a manner that any one who cares to take the trouble can test their truth; and secondly a collection of rules or laws which express the connection between these facts. This doesn’t sound very interesting but it is extremely important. As long as men hunted for knowledge in a random sort of way and believed each other’s assertions without testing them, knowledge made negligible progress. Once they began to make sure that their fact were right by doing experiments for themselves, science began to grow.

( from “The World of Science” )

 

1. Write down:

 

a) A list of subjects coming under the heading of science

b) The characteristics of scientific work

c) A list of subjects not coming under heading of science

d) The features of work that may be called “unscientific”

e) The two main characteristics of science

 

2. Exchange your opinions about the ideas on science and scientific work expressed in the article.

 

TASK 9

 

Read the articles from the dictionary and:

1. explain what is the difference between technology and technique

2. say what person we call a technician, an expert, a technologist

3. tell your group mates what we mean speaking about technocracy

4. say whom we call technophobe

 

TECHNIQUE - 1) a special skill or way of doing something, especially one that has to be learned (new techniques for producing special effects in movies);

2) the level of skill or the set of skills that someone has (a footballer with brilliant technique)

 

TECHNOLOGY – 1) knowledge about scientific or industrial methods or the use of these methods (nuclear technology; the application of modern technologies to something);

2) machinery and equipment used or developed as a result of this knowledge (The factory uses the very latest technology.)

 

TECHNOCRACY - a social system in which people with a lot of scientific or technical knowledge have a lot of power

 

TECHNOCRAT – a highly skilled scientist who has a lot of power in industry or government

 

TECHNOLOGIST – someone who has special knowledge of technology

 

TECHNOPHOBE – someone who does not like modern machines such as computers

 

TECHNICIAN – a skilled scientific or industrial worker; someone who works with and mends scientific equipment or machines (a laboratory technician)

 

EXPERT – someone who knows all about a particular subject of any sort (He’s an expert in music.)

 

 

TASK 10

 

 

Read the text and then discuss in groups the advantages and disadvantages of modern technologies:

 

TECHNOLOGY

Technology affects nearly every area of our lives …

 

Communication

We can talk to other people in almost any part of the world by phone, satellite, or computer. People can take part in teleconferencing, online discussions, or do some home shopping. But this can also mean that people may spend less time actually with their families and friends, and may spend much more time in their houses. This could have a very bad effect on local communities.

Work

a lot of boring or complicated jobs can now be done by computers, machines, or robots instead of people. Some manufacturing processes and services are now fully automated. This can lead to high unemployment as more jobs are done by machines or computers.

cards, money and information

Smart cards can carry a lot of information on a magnetic strip, and you can sometimes use them to work electronic machines. Soon we may no longer need to use coins or banknotes, as credit cards and smart cards can be used to pay for things. This can lead to cashless society. But some people are worried that confidential information stored on cards might be seen or used by other people. There has also been a big increase in card crime and computer fraud.

Medicine

Advances in medical science mean that many more diseases can be cured or treated than ever before. New techniques include the use of lasers in operations, and new equipment makes it possible for doctors to see what is happening inside a patient body on a monitor. But new treatments can also mean new moral or ethical problems, for example whether people should be kept alive by machines when naturally they would have died. Other people believe that all new medical techniques should be available to anyone who wants or needs.

Genetic engineering

scientists can use genetic engineering to grow crops and breed animals, which provide more food for people to eat. Genetic engineering or gene therapy can also be used to treat some diseases in humans. However, genetically engineered plants and animals, are unnatural and may affect the balance of nature. Biological weapons may be made that can change viruses which are normally harmless into viruses that can kill people. There may be harmful effects of genetic engineering that we do not know yet.

 

 

TASK 11

What machines are important in your life?

In pairs, put the inventions in order. Which do you think is the most important? Which has changed the world the most? Mark them 1 for the most important down to 10 for the least important.

 

The telephone

The car

The television

The plane

The space satellite

The atom bomb

The space rocket

The computer

The fax machine

The washing machine

 

Work in groups of four then. Try to persuade the others that your order is the right one.

 

Talk together as a class. What other machines would you add to the list?

 

What do you think are some of the greatest wonders of the twentieth century?

 

TASK 12

Read the text:

 

WONDERS OF THE MODERN WORLD

By Ann Halliday

 

I don’t believe that today’s wonders are similar in kind to the wonders of the Ancient World. They were all buildings and statues. In the last two centuries we have seen unprecedented technical and scientific achievements. These are surely our modern wonders. Here is my list:

 

Computers

They have already revolutionized the way we live and work. But it is early days for computers. We don’t know how much they are still changing the world. More computer wonders are yet to come.

Space travel

Only a few years before men were walking on the moon, reputable scientists declared that it was impossible. But in 1969 Neil Armstrong stepped out of his space capsule and made his famous statement: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Medical science

Surely nothing has done more for the comfort and happiness of mankind than the advance of medical knowledge! How many millions of people have benefited from the humble aspirin? How many lives has penicillin saved? Average life expectancy in Europe has risen dramatically over the last hundred years, from about 50 years in1906 to about 75 years today.

Agriculture

In 1724, Jonathan Swift wrote, “Whoever makes two blades of grass or two ears of corn grow where only one grew before serves mankind better than the whole race of politicians.” In 1709, whole villages in France died of hunger. Now in Europe we can’t eat all the food we produce.

We are still here

The last wonder of the modern world is simply that we are still here. We have bombs that could destroy the world but we have not used them. This is surely the greatest wonder of all!

 

1. Here are seven more statements made by the author about her choice of wonders. Which statement goes with which wonder?

a) Surgeons can perform the most amazing operations.

b) We see people from the warring countries shake hands.

c) Small children can program them, sometimes more easily than adults.

d) No government dares to use such weapons.

e) We produce enough to feed the world.

f) Progress in this area is slower now. Not as much money goes into research as in 1960s.

2. Complete the following with the correct auxiliary verb in the positive or negative form:

a) Computers …. already revolutionized the way we live and work.

b) We … know how much they … still changing the world.

c) Only a few years before men … walking on the moon, scientists said that it was impossible.

d) How many lives … penicillin saved?

3. Think what wonder(s) you can add to this list. Write an essay about it.

 

 

TASK 13

Answer the questions or express your ideas on these problems:

 

1. What is science? What kinds of science do you know?

2. What is the difference between science and technology?

3. Science is very important. It has changed and is changing our life. It affects our everyday life.

4. Science and technology do more good than harm.

5. Scientific discoveries can have many dangerous effects.

6. What is the greatest invention in your opinion? Speak about its advantages (may be disadvantages).

7. What scientists do we call great?

8. Say what one outstanding scientist you know. What is he famous for?

 

 

TASK 14

Read the statements and say whether you are agree or disagree with them:

 

1. Some people spend their life working on a scientific problem because they are paid large sums of money.

2. Great explorers went overseas because they were curious people.

3. One can be a scientist only in one field of knowledge.

4. It is the highest reward for your effort if you see you have made life for other people easier and more pleasant.

5. Some people are so ambitious that they want to belong to History.

6. They wished to glorify their country.

 

 

TASK 15

Why do we pay tribute to great scientists?

Give as many reasons as you can.

 

TASK 16

Write an essay about one great Russian/ British scientist.

 

TASK 17

Answer the questions:

 

1. Do you know any outstanding Russian or British scientists?

2. Which of them made which great discoveries?

3. Who invented the electric lamp?

4. Who discovered the Periodic Law of elements?

5. Who is the man standing behind the rocket industry?

6. Who is the first Russian cosmonaut?

7. What qualities must great scientist possess?

8. Is it enough to be talented to be called outstanding?

9. What Nobel Prize winners do you know? (Russian/British) For what achievements were they awarded?

 

TASK 18

Read the text about Alfred Nobel and say why he is remembered by the whole of mankind (give as many reasons as you find in the text):

 

ALFRED NOBEL – A MAN OF CONTRAST.

 

Alfred Nobel, the great Swedish inventor and industrialist, was a man of many contrasts. He was a scientist with a love of literature, and industrialist who managed to remain an idealist. He made a fortune but lived a simple life, and although cheerful in company he was often sad in private. A lover of a mankind, he never had a wife or family to love him; a patriotic son of his native land, he died alone on foreign soil. He invented a new explosive, dynamite, to improve the peacetime industries of mining and road building, but saw it used as a weapon of war to kill and injure his fellow men. During his useful life he often felt he was useless. “Alfred Nobel,” he once wrote of himself, “ought to have been put to death by a kind doctor as soon as, with a cry, he entered life.” World-famous for his works he was never personally well known, for throughout his life he avoided publicity. “I do not see,” he once said,” that I have deserved any fame and I have no taste for it.” But since his death, his name has brought fame and glory to others.

 

He was born in Stockholm on October 21,1833 but moved to Russia with his parents in 1842, where his father made a strong position for himself in the engineering industry. Most of the family returned to Sweden in 1859, where Alfred rejoined them in 1863, beginning his own study of explosives in his father’s laboratory. He had never been to school or university but had studied privately and by the time he was twenty was a skilful chemist and excellent linguist, speaking Swedish, Russian, German, French and English. Alfred Nobel was imaginative and inventive. He was quick to see industrial openings for his scientific inventions and built up over 80 companies in 20 different countries. Indeed his greatness lay in his outstanding ability to combine the qualities of an original scientist with those of a forward-looking industrialist.

 

But Nobel’s main concern was never with making money or even with making scientific discoveries. Seldom happy, he was always searching for a meaning of life, and from his youth he had taking a serious interest in literature and philosophy. He was always generous to the poor. His greatest wish was to see an end to wars, and thus peace between nations, and he spent much time and money working for this cause until his death in Italy in 1896. His famous will, in which he left money to provide prizes for outstanding work in Physics, Chemistry, Philosophy, Medicine, Literature and Peace, is a memorial to his interests and ideals.

 

( From “Reading for Adults” by R.Lewis, McVincent, S.Weir)

 

TASK 19

Read the texts 1 and 2 once and make a summary of received information:

 

TEXT 1