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АНГЛИЙСКИЙ ЯЗЫК ДЛЯ БУДУЩИХ НАУЧНЫХ СОТРУДНИКОВ

Учебное пособие

Санкт-Петербург 2010

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УДК 811.111(075.83) ББК 81.2:74.58(Я73)

В191

Р е ц е н з е н т ы :

Факультет иностранных языков, кафедра методики обучения иностранному языку РГПУ им. А. И. Герцена;

канд. пед. наук., доцент ЛГУ им. А. С. Пушкина Ю. Г. Давыдова

Н а у ч н ы й р е д а к т о р :

канд. пед. наук., доцент СПГГИ (ТУ) им. Г. В. Плеханова И. С. Лебедева

В191 Английский язык для будущих научных сотрудников: учебное пособие / Авторы-составители П. А. Васильева, И. С. Рогова, С. А. Свешникова. — СПб., 2010. — 64 с.

Учебное пособие содержит учебные и аутентичные тексты на английском языке с разработанным комплексом упражнений к каждому из них и грамматическую часть. Тематически тексты связаны с развитием науки и техники горного производства. В грамматической части представлены наиболее распространенные английские грамматические конструкции, встречающиеся в научных текстах, которые часто вызывают сложности при переводе у русскоговорящих студентов. Пособие состоит из трех частей. Тематика и виды заданий направлены на подготовку аспирантов и соискателей к сдаче экзамена кандидатского минимума по английскому языку.

УДК 811.111(075.83) ББК 81.2:74.58(Я73)

©Васильева П. А., 2010

©Рогова И. С., 2010

©Свешникова С. А., 2010

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CONTENT
ВВЕДЕНИЕ..............................................................................................................	4
PART I. SPEAKING	5
UNIT 1. Modern Science ..........................................................................................	5
UNIT 2. Russian Science ..........................................................................................	7
UNIT 3. Prominent Scientists .................................................................................	10
UNIT 4. Postgraduate Studies in Russia .................................................................	12
PART II. READING AND RENDERING	17
UNIT 1. Abstract and Summary Composing ..........................................................	17
UNIT 2. Coal Mining ..............................................................................................	25
UNIT 3. Alternative Sources of Energy..................................................................	31
UNIT 4. Pipelines....................................................................................................	38
PART III. GRAMMAR PRACTICE	45
UNIT 1. The Simple Sentence. Parts of the Sentence. The Composite Sentences:
Compound and Complex Sentences. Elliptical Sentences......................................	45
UNIT 2. Conjunctive and Relative Pronouns that, which, what.............................	48
UNIT 3. Active and Passive Voice .........................................................................	49
UNIT 4. The Infinitive ............................................................................................	51
UNIT 5. The Subjunctive Mood..............................................................................	56
UNIT 6. Modal Verbs .............................................................................................	57
UNIT 7. Emphatic Constructions............................................................................	59
UNIT 8. Introductory there, Substitute Words (that [of], those [of], this, these,
do, one, ones), Comparative Constructions (as ... as, not so ... as, the ... the)........	60
REFERENCES........................................................................................................	63

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ВВЕДЕНИЕ

Учебное пособие предназначено для аспирантов (соискателей) технического вуза, готовящихся к сдаче экзамена кандидатского минимума по английскому языку, и соответствует требованиям программы-минимума кандидатского экзамена по общенаучной дисциплине «Иностранный язык».

Целью пособия является развитие навыков говорения, умения делать резюме, доклад, сообщение на английском языке по темам профессиональноориентированного общения; совершенствование навыков и умений всех видов чтения (изучающее, ознакомительное, поисковое и просмотровое); формирование навыков письменной речи (составление и перевод аннотаций научных статей, а также краткое изложение содержания прочитанного в форме резюме).

Учебное пособие состоит из трех частей: Speaking, Reading and Rendering, Grammar Practice. Тематика текстов затрагивает проблемы современной науки и техники горной промышленности.

Комплекс упражнений включает целый ряд заданий тестового характера, широко используемых в современных зарубежных пособиях. Для развития навыков устной речи по специальности предлагаются разнообразные виды упражнений, направленные на снятие лексических и грамматических трудностей, вопросно-ответные задания, дискуссии и работу в парах. Упражнения можно использовать как для устной работы в аудитории, так и для самостоятельного выполнения.

Part I. Speaking

UNIT 1. Modern Science

Task 1. Read the passage about the 20th-century scientific revolution.

By the end of the 19th century, the dream of the mastery of nature for the benefit of mankind, first expressed in all its richness by Sir Francis Bacon, seemed on the verge of realization. Science was moving ahead on all fronts, reducing ignorance and producing new tools for the amelioration of the human condition. A comprehensible, rational view of the world was gradually emerging from laboratories and universities.

But this sunny confidence did not last long. One annoying problem was that the radiation emitted by atoms proved increasingly difficult to reduce to known mechanical principles. More importantly, physics found itself relying more and more upon the hypothetical properties of a substance, the ether that stubbornly eluded detection. Within a span of 10 short years, roughly 1895–1905, these and related problems came to a head and wrecked the mechanistic system the 19th century had so laboriously built. The discovery of X-rays and radioactivity revealed an unexpected new complexity in the structure of atoms. Max Planck’s solution to the problem of thermal radiation introduced a discontinuity into the concept of energy that was inexplicable in terms of classical thermodynamics. Most disturbing of all, the enunciation of the special theory of relativity by Albert Einstein in redefined physics as the study of relations between observers and events, rather than of the events themselves. What was observed, and therefore what happened, was now said to be a function of the observer’s location and motion relative to other events. Absolute space was a fiction. The very foundations of physics threatened to crumble.

Mechanical models were no longer acceptable, because there were processes (like light) for which no consistent model could be constructed. No longer could physicists speak with confidence of physical reality, but only of the probability of making certain measurements.

All this being said, there is still no doubt that science in the 20th century has worked wonders. The new physics — relativity, quantum mechanics, particle physics — may outrage common sense, but it enables physicists to probe to the very limits of physical reality. Their instruments and mathematics permit modern scientists to manipulate subatomic particles with relative ease, to reconstruct the first moment of creation, and to glimpse dimly the grand structure and ultimate fate of the universe.

The revolution in physics has spilled over into chemistry and biology and led to hitherto undreamed-of capabilities for the manipulation of atoms and molecules and of cells and their genetic structures. Chemists perform molecular

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tailoring today as a matter of course, cutting and shaping molecules at will. Genetic engineering makes possible active human intervention in the evolutionary process and holds out the possibility of tailoring living organisms, including the human organism, to specific tasks. This second scientific revolution may prove to be, for good or ill, the most important event in the history of mankind.*

Task 2. Copy down the underlined words and word combinations from the previous passage, look them up in the dictionary.

Task 3. Answer the following questions:

1.Who was the first to express the idea of the mastery of nature for the benefit of mankind?

2.What do you know about this scientist?

3.When did his dream seem become true?

4.How does the author of the passage illustrate the rapid development of science at the beginning of the 20th century?

5.What challenges did scientists face in the first decade of the 20th century?

6.What were the revolutionary inventions of the first half of the 20th

century?

7.How did Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity influence the development of science?

8.What examples does the author give to prove that “science in the 20th century has worked wonders”?

9.What other branches of science were influenced by the development of

physics?

10.Why do you think the author calling the second scientific revolution the most important event in the history of mankind, express concern that it may have some backlash?

Task 4. Make up a list of 5 (10 if you can) revolutionary inventions of the 20th century. Compare your list with your partner’s and rank your and your partner’s inventions in order of their importance. Report to the class the first three most important inventions, explaining in what way they influenced the development of science in the 20th century.

Task 5. Speak about some major invention(s) in your field of science in the 20th or/and 21st century. Pay attention to the following words and word combinations:

* Adopted from: Williams, L. P. The Rise Of Modern Science // Encyclopædia Britannica Online. URL: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/528771/history-of-science/29341/The- 20th-century-revolution.

Part I. Speaking	7

aim at understanding — стремиться понять to be concerned with — заниматься

to be interested in — интересоваться to be responsible for — отвечать за

to carry out research — проводить научные исследования

to develop — развивать, совершенствовать, конструировать to introduce — привносить, применять, внедрять

to make a contribution to — вносить вклад (в) to make use of — использовать

to meet needs — удовлетворять запросы, потребности to put forward an idea — выдвигать идею

result in — приводить (к)

to take advantage of — воспользоваться

to take notice of — обращать внимание (на)

to work out — определять, разрабатывать, улучшать характеристики

UNIT 2. Russian Science

Task 1. Read the text about the history of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

“Peter the Great founded the Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences in 1725 on the model of the Paris and Berlin institutions of the same kind. All initial members of the new Academy were foreigners. Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov was the first Russian scientist to become a member of the Academy.

Catherine II relied on the Académie Française as a model for the Imperial Russian Academy founded in 1783 with the primary task of improving the Russian literary language and preparing a Russian grammar and dictionary. Close relations between the two institutions were facilitated by the fact that a large number of the country’s leading scholars belonged to both academies.

In the eighteenth century, all presidents of the Academy of Sciences were aristocrats with close ties to the royal family but no interest in scholarship. In 1803, Alexander I granted the Academy a new charter that limited the choice of candidates for presidency to individuals with proven affinity with scientific scholarship. It also granted the Academy extended autonomy in administering its work and choosing individual and group research topics.

Despite the unceasing threats to academic autonomy during the reign of Nicholas I (1825–1855), the Academy recorded substantial progress in contributions to science.

In 1841 the Academy underwent a drastic organizational change: It absorbed the Imperial Russian Academy and made it one of its three departments.

The Academy welcomed the February Revolution in 1917, which brought an end to the autocratic system. The Academy acquired a new name — the Russian

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Academy of Sciences — and the geologist Alexander Petrovich Karpinsky became the first elected president. At the end of Imperial Russia, the Academy had fortyone full members. It had one of the country’s richest libraries, several museums, and a small number of under-equipped laboratories.

After the Bolshevik victory in October 1917, the new government reintroduced censorship that in some respects was more comprehensive and rigid than that of the tsarist era.

In 1925 the government gave financial support to the Academy of Sciences to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of its founding. Now renamed the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the institution received the first government recognition as the country’s supreme scientific body. The process of making the Academy a typical Soviet institution was generally completed in 1929, with Stalin now at the helm of the government and the Communist Party.

The history of the Academy in the Stalin era (1929–1953) has two dominant characteristics. On the one hand, the Soviet government made vast financial investments in building the Academy into a gigantic network of institutes and laboratories, concentrating on both scientific research and training new cadres of scientists. On the other hand, in the years of Stalin’s reign of terror in the late 1930s, a long line of Academy personnel landed in political prisons, from which many did not return.

The process of the de-Stalinization of the Academy began soon after Stalin’s death in 1953. The Academy played the leading role in reestablishing sociology and the rich national tradition in social psychology dominated by the internationally recognized legacy of Lev Semenovich Vygotsky. In 1957 it established a string of research institutes in Novosibirsk — known as the Siberian Department or Akademgorodok (Academic Campus) — concentrating, among other activities, on the branches of mathematics related to the ongoing computer revolution, the latest developments in molecular biology, and the new methodological requirements of the social sciences, particularly economics.

In 1974 the Academy had 237 full members and 439 corresponding members. In the same year the professional staff of the Academy numbered 39 354, including 29 726 with higher academic degrees. The Academy published 132 journals, a few intended to reach the general reading public.

In 1991, with the dismemberment of the Soviet Union, the name of the Russian Academy of Sciences was again made official. The new Academy brought an end to the monopoly of a single philosophy of science.*

Task 2. Answer the following questions:

1.Who is the author of the text?

2.What is the subject of the text?

* Adopted from: Vucinich A. The Russian Academy of Sciences // Russian History Encyclopedia. URL: http://www.answers.com/topic/russian-academy-of-sciences-1

Part I. Speaking	9

3.The history of the Academy is closely connected with the history of the country, isn’t it?

4.How many logical parts does the text fall into?

5.What is the main idea of each part?

6.Do you think the author’s attitude to the history of the Academy and our country is unprejudiced?

7.What do you know about the structure and activities of the Academy nowadays?

8.What is the role of the Academy of Sciences in the 21st century?

9.Do you know members of the Academy working in your field of research?

Task 3. Imagine that you are receiving a group of foreign scientists at your Institute. They are confused by the name “the Academy of Sciences”. Explain to them what it is and how it functions.

Task 4. The Academy of Science is “the country’s supreme scientific body”; would you like to be its member some day? Why? How far are you interested in taking up “pure science”? Or would you prefer carrying out research confining your attention to its application to practical affairs?

Task 5. Speak about your field of science/research. Tell the group what you know about its history and present development. Mention some latest achievements in your field of science. Describe the contribution of your research to science using the words and word combination from the list:

current branch/field of research field of science/research

latest/recent achievements/developments/advances to arise from

to be concerned with/to be engaged in the problem of to be different from

to be due to

to be interested in

to be mentioned in passing

to be of great/little/no interest/importance/significance/value/use to be only outlined

to be studied comprehensively/thoroughly/extensively to be the subject of special/particular interest

to deal with/to consider the problem of to differ

to follow/to stick to the theory/hypothesis/concept to increase considerably

to postulate

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to take up the problem to work on the problem

UNIT 3. Prominent Scientists

Task 1. Read the text about Vladimir A. Obruchev.

Vladimir Afanasyevich Obruchev, who was born on October 10, 1863 in the village of Klepenino in the upper Volga region, was an outstanding natural scientist, who made great contributions to the exploration of Asia. In 1881 Obruchev completed his high school education in Vilnius and then passed the entrance examinations of both the Mining and the Technological institutes in Petersburg. He chose the Mining Institute and completed his studies there in 1886.

On the recommendation of I. V. Mushketov, Obruchev was appointed to lead a survey along the railway in the Transcaspian steppe, which occupied him for three summers. In 1888 he was named the geologist of the Irkutsk Mining Administration. When the Tomsk Technological Institute was established in 1901 he became the head of its department of General Geology and was afterwards the dean of the Faculty of Mining for 9 years.

In 1912 he moved to Moscow. In 1918 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Geological Sciences in the University of Kharkov and became professor of the Tavricheskiy University in Simferopol, where he stayed until 1921. He then returned to Moscow and became a professor at the Mining Academy, where he headed the Department of Ore Deposits, undertook scientific research and acted as deputy vice-chancellor of the Academy.

For his great achievements the Academy of Sciences of the USSR named Obruchev a corresponding member of the Academy in 1921, and an active member in 1929. From this time on he was working in the Academy of Sciences and for 3 years, beginning in 1929, he was director of the Geological Institute. During World War II he was Academician-secretary of the Department of Geological and Geographical Sciences and as such led the scientific research of all academic institutes in this field.

Obruchev was among the first to advocate the organization of a special committee for the study of permafrost. He was president of this committee from 1930 to 1939. In this year he became director of the Permafrost Institute, which now bears his name, and held that position for the rest of his life.

One of Obruchev’s outstanding achievements is the exploration of littleknown lands that were often indicated by white areas on geological and geographical maps. He led several long expeditions across the deserts and mountains of Middle and Central Asia, Siberia, and China, which yielded a very large amount of new geological and geographical information.