LEARN TO READ SCIENCE
(грамматические упражнения)
Вып. 4
STRUCTURE STUDY
1. MODAL VERBS AND THEIR MESSAGE
Pattern Study (23)
Pattern 23:
1) To be a successful scientist one must, at the very least, be able to
ask questions. – To be a successful scientist, it is necessary, at the
very least, for one to be able to ask questions.
2) If there was some one to put a question there must be some one,
sooner or later, to answer it. – if there has some one to put a
question it is almost certain that there will be some one to answer
it.
Pattern Practice (23)
A. If we to fly to other planets we shall have to design a gigantic spacecraft.
The conditions there must be as close to those of the Earth as possible so that we
will not have to worry about all the usual hardships of space travel.
The capability of man as a space researcher should be the subject of close
examination. The problem of overload is to come first. Depending on its direction
it is to be classified as longitudinal, transverse, or perpendicular. Next, the
problem of weightlessness is to be considered.
Each spaceman must know the design of his own craft, and he must be able
to maintain the systems during the flight. If some unforeseen situation develops he
should know where to look for the breakdown, and should be able to remove its
cause if the crew is to feel confident during the flight and experiments.
B. Planets like the Earth must be quite common. A question arises: What
sort of life might within our own solar system other than that on the Earth? It is
possible that simple forms of life may exist on Mars. Most astronomers would
agree that they are not to find any intelligent life on the other planets that circle our
sun. Intelligent life might exist on other worlds. If wonderful civilizations exist
among the stars, it is only natural that human beings would want to visit them, or at
least to communicate with them. But mankind may never be able to journey there
to meet the inhabitants because of the enormous distances involved. No wonder the
problem of intelligent life on other worlds should be so exciting.
C. 1. It has to be admitted that…. 2. One can conclude that…. 3. It will be
remembered that…. 4. It is to be stated that…. 5. It should be stressed that…. 6.
One would expect that…. 7. It must be borne in mind that… 8. One may think
that….
D. The method is not to be recommended. 2. It may or may not be the case.
3. You must not criticise your ideas while inventing them. 4. They need not be
counted. 5. One does not have to accept this viewpoint. 6. The fact cannot be
denied. 7. The instrument should not be relied upon. 8. The calculation won’t agree
with the observation. 9. The theory might not be valid for these conditions.
1. Friends may meet, but mountains. 2. A fool may ask more questions than
a wise man can answer. 3. Who seeks blows shall perish by blows. 4. He who
would search for pearls must dive below. 5. What can’t be cured must be endured.
6. What’s done cannot be undone. 7. If we can’t as we would, we must do as we
can. 8. People who live in glass houses should not throw stones. 9. The beggar may
sing before the thief. 10. None so deaf as those who won’t hear. 11. You may lead
a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. 12. Bad seed must produce bad corn.
13. Accidents will happen. 14. It would make even a cat laugh. 15. The cat would
eat fish but would not wet her feet.
Pattern Revision
Approaching the problem from another side, we may ask in which areas of
modern science the country should at all costs strive for supremacy and why
supremacy in it is of such necessity now or in the near future. Should equal
investments be made all along the broadest possible front of modern science –
from the study of the farthest galaxies to the biochemistry of micro-organisms – or
should a concentration of force be applied at several points only? If we recognize
that information on new scientific findings is exchanged very rapidly, no matter
whence it emanates, it may be adequate in some fields to carry on a minimum of
research, without contesting for a supremacy that might be very costly. At what
level should explorations of this type proceed?
Not only must these questions be answered – someone must decide them.
Government’s role in science is principally to do this. In fulfilling it, government
need not interfere in research itself, which would be as senseless as coaching a
football player during a game by bolding his foot.
In the context of these comments, I cannot undertake to discuss the concrete
means through which the government can develop its science politics. They have
to be founded on an assessment of many factors, including the obvious ones of the
immediate practical value of the research results the material costs of the
investment in the research, and the effects on the international competition in
science and the concomitant problem of prestige.
______________________
According to some authors, intelligent life on any planet should develop
exponently, with all the curves going infinitely upwards. The Earth’s civilization
has already reached a stage at which we have to admit that, with this trend of
development, mankind may face a really grave critical situation in the future, as the
resources of this planet are inherently exhaustible.
What alternative is mankind to choose under these circumstances, in order to
survive as a civilization ? Undoubtedly, an end must be put to the anarchic
development of the productive forces, to the uncontrolled growth of the
population, to the barbarous treatment of nature. Naturally these urgent tasks
facing the world can be successfully accomplished only with the establishment of a
scientifically organized world community, the is, with the triumph of communism
throughout the world. Yet, until then, no effort should be spared in trying to handle
the present-day situatie as best we can.
It is already obvious that the continuing growth of the productive forces
would, before too long, make this planet unsuitable for life as a result of heat and
waste pollution of the environment, overpopulation and the like. This prospect
makes some authors in the west speak of an urgent need to put a stop to unbounded
development of the productive forces and establishing a stringent control over
them.
However, it can hardly be imagined that a civilization (the Earth’
civilization, for one) would consciously restrict itself to a purely qualitative
development and abstain from any quantitative expansion. Such a situation would
seem most improbable indeed. For example, can a decree be passed that space
exploration shall be abandoned and no use shall be made of potentially unlimited
resources which are to be found outside this planet? Or, who should ban utilizing
outer space for accommodating the industries adversely affecting the industries
adversely affecting the Earth’s ecology? Clearly, once brought to life by the
technological progress, space exploration cannot be discontinued and is to be
carried on for the beni of those living on the planet Earth.
Pattern Practice (23)
1. In the past the island must have been inhabited by some primiti tribe but
now it has obviously been deserted. 2. The Moon, with its sof surface like damp
sand, might have been designed for descending spacecraft. 3. Under such an
ussumption they ought to have arrived at completely different conclusions. At least
they might have. 4. With our present day technology such phenomena could not
have been observed in the laboratory; what was registered must, in fact, have been
due to some malfunctioning of the recorder. 5. It is difficult to figure out what
actually happened. They may have changed their mends at the last moment and
may have set out in a different direction. Or else, they might be repelled by the
idea of loneliness, and could have made an attempt to return. 6. According to his
hypothesis, individual men could have covered the distance between the two
continents but would never have risked to take their families along. 7. His ides was
that these cosmic objects should have originated under such harsh conditions that
no analogy might be valid.
Reading Practice (23)
There are reasons to expect galaxies that must have condensed to brighter
than typical galaxies of the present epoch. The energy released by the collapse of
the protogalaxy would probably have been radiated away by not gas before most of
the stars formed. Moreover, the first generation of stars would have tended to be
heavier and more luminous in relation to their mass than the stellar population in
present-day galaxies. Although most of this energy would be radiated in the
ultraviolet, it would be received in the near infrared owing to the red shift. Robert
Bruce Partridge and Peetles at Princeton have suggested that it might be feasible to
detect such young galaxies evev though these may not have a red shift of about
10.
Check up for comprehension.
1. Is it a statement of facts or an hypothesis? 2. What are the words on
which your answer is based? 3. What is the difference between stars of different
generations?
Pattern Revision (23)
1. Until quite recently few people would be actually engaged in space
research, although quite a number would wonder whether we were alone in the
universe. 2. It has happened so often that it might be regarded as a law of nature.
3. It can be assumed that no living being, let alone a human being, would
ultimately survive under these harsh conditions. 4. For any primitive society to
accomplish such tasks the conditions must have been especially favourable. 5. If
we are to survive as a species all countries must join their efforts in handling the
problem of environment. 6. It was finally agreed that the information was not to be
made public or given to the press. 7. The same should have occurred on the Moon,
at least, it was only logical to expect it. 8. Even if any living organisms could have
existed on the planet at an earlier stage they ought to have disappeared. 9. The
biggest problem in the world could have been solved when it was small. 10. The
UN Charter states that no country shall pursue its policy by force. 11. At different
stages of research the scientist would be interested in different questions, the
”how’s” and ”why’s” being most difficult to find answers to. 12. Intelligence of
human quality is not to be achieved overnight, there ought to pass plenty of time
for anything comparable in complexity to human brain to evolve. 13. At this hour
the planet is not to be seen at all. 14. Those species that remained were soon to face
annihilation. 15. Uncontrolled development of science could lead to disaster. 16. A
true scientist will enjoy his work more than anything else and would often be
prepared to sacrifice his weekends and vacation in order to proposed withis
research. 17. A good dictionary is, of course, indispensible to anyone who would
know words and their use. 18. Life is full of stories of what might have been.
19. each hypothesis should be exhausted before any new ideas are introduced.
20. This suggestion implies that galaxies must have formed when conditions in the
universe were much more from those now prevaling. 21. They understand how life
might have originated under conditions that would appear alien to us now. 22. Any
doubts that Galileo may have felt as to the significance of his discovery were
removed nine months later when he observed the phases of Venus. 23. If this is so,
Venus must be highly unsuited to the support of life now, and must have been still
more so in the past. 24. However, to account for the non-constancy of the value
one needs to modify the model to one that satisfies the following requirements.
25. It has been the author’s experience and the experience of many reading
specialists that the students who read too slowly would have poor comprehension.
26. One would certainly have anticipated that the number of electrons in the rings
would remain uncharged.
2. MODAL SRUCTURES
Pattern Study (24-25)
Pattern 24:
The discovery of live on another planet would be a monument to our
age. – To discover life on another planet would be a monument to our
age. – If we discovered life on another planet, this would be a
monument to our age.
if,…even if,
Pattern Vocabulary (24)
if it were not for….but for
Pattern 25:
There is no problem which would be more exciting to almost
Everybody than that of extraterrestrial life.
Pattern Practice (24-25)
A. 1. More people were engaged in the project; 2. his views were presented
in a popular lecture; 3. the conditions on the planet were less hostile; 4. man had
learnt to cover such distances; 5. any of these conditions had been lacking; 6. all
other resources were exhausteu; 7. they had reached the same level of
development; 8. The environment were drastically changed.
B. 1. No intelligence would have developed on the earth; we would expect
life there; 3. they would interest almost everybody; 4. they would soon overcome
these difficulties; 5. we would have already explore other planets; 6. their
civilization would not appears so much alien to us; 7. they would figure out how to
make use of sea water; 8. no living being would survive.
1. If all the other data were lacking, we would still be justified in making this
conclusion. 2. To judge by this analogy would be risky. 3. But for these fortuitous
circumstances, the development of life on the earth would have required still
longer time. 4. For any primitive society to reach this level would inevitably take
plenty of time. 5. For a long time most scientist regarded it as a self-limiting
process which would never lead to anything actually different. 6. If it were not for
their close cooperation with other laboratories, the task would not have been
accomplished on schedule. 7. The observation by itself would not be alarming if
these creatures could be expected to act reasonably. 8. We have to seek some other
energy source that would supply us with the amount sufficient for the earth to
escape from the sun’s gravitation. 9. Under such circumstances the survival of the
crew would ultimately depend on the skill and ingenuity of the engineers.
Reading Practice (24-25)
THE EXPLORATION OF AN EXOTIC PLANET
Let us see what it means to explore a planet like the Earth. Imagine us living
on some other planet, say, Mars. Let us start with ground-based observations. If we
looked at the Earth from Mars using a large telescope, it would appear as a cloudcovered and distant planet. The bright features would soon be recognized as
clouds. The underlying dark features would represent the Earth’s surface. If we
studied the surface features for a long time, their accurate map could be
constructed. If spectroscopic investigation of the Earth’s atmosphere in the
ultraviolet, visible, and infrared regions of the spectrum were carried out, it would
give approximately correct information about such gases as oxygen, carbon
dioxide, nitrogen, and ozone. Investigations of the infrared spectrum of atmosphere
gases would indicate the variation of temperature and pressure with altitude. These
conclusions could be checked if we sent a spacecraft to orbit the Earth. The radio
signals from our spacecraft might provide some additional information. But if we
wanted to study the planet more thoroughly, we should have to send a land mission
to the Earth.
1. What techniques are available for exploring an exotic planet? 2. What
kind of information would be obtained with the help of a large telescope? 3. What
kind of information would be obtained from spectroscopic investigation? 4. What
would be the purpose of sending a spacecraft to orbit the planet? 5. What would be
the purpose of sending a land mission there?
Pattern Study (26)
Pattern 26a:
Situation I
It has been suggested
an end (should) be put to the
than
It is necessary
barbarous treatment of nature
Situation II
Some scientist suggest
intelligence should develop on any
that
It is probable
planet where conditions are reasonably
favourable for it.
Pattern 26b:
Situation I
In the hostile environment of space the astronaut must take precautions lest
he (should) be affected by radiation.
Pattern 26c:
Situation II
If you should travel in a spaceship, you would to get used to weightlessness.
Pattern Vocabulary (26). List 12.
26a, 26b:
26c:
that,…so that,…in order that,…lest
if,…in case,…provided/providing
Pattern Vocabulary (26). List 13.
Situation I
1. Verbs of initiation:
to advise
to demand
to insist
to order
to propose
2. Adjectives used as predicatives:
advisable – it is advisable
desirable – it is desirable
essential – it is essential
important – it is important
necessary – it is necessary
urgent – it is urgent
Situation II
1. Verbs of estimation and emotion:
to be afraid
to be sorry
to fear
to be surprised
2. Adjectives used as predicatives:
to recommend
to request
to require
to suggest
to urge
to suggest
to suppose
annoying – it is annoying
curious – it is curious
extraordinary – it is extraordinary
inevitable – it is inevitable
likely – it is likely
natural – it is natural
possible – it is possible
probable – it is probable
strange – it is strange
surprising – it is surprising
Pattern Practice (26)
A. It seems inevitable; measures must be taken; they insisted on obis
procedure; they were afraid; they suggested; it is desirable; it would be only
natural; it is strange; it is suggested; it is recommended; a suggestion was made.
B. Hat; in case; so that; in order that; if.
C. Someone should object to this project; a search for extraterrestrial life
should be continued; the space researcher should be physically fit; the technique
should prove suitable for the purpose; some primitive people should inhabit the
place; he should change his mind on the problem; any society should experience
ups and downs in its development.
1. The principle of relativity requires that the law of conservation of energy
should hold relative to every “Galilean” system of coordinates. 2. Newton
suggested that light be interpreted as a stream of particles. 3. It was suggested that
the atmospheric and temperature ranges of those planets should be different from
those of the Earth. 4. The instruments were packed carefully lest they should be
damaged during transportation. 5. Flying knowledge is necessary for a cosmonaut
so that he be able to control a spaceship. 6. The first Soviet cosmonauts made their
flights in order that the scientists should get answers to many fundamental
questions concerning space. 7. It is quite possible that a radio message from
civilization on some of the planets should reach the Earth. 8. It was quite natural at
that time that research and its propagation should be done by the same people. 9. In
case we should receive a message from an intelligent society, we must be prepared
in advance how to respond. 10. If such a fundamental principle should prove
invalid for at least one set of conditions, we will find ourselves in a very
unattractive situation.
Reading Practice (26)
PROBING THE UNIVERSE
Until quite recently man had no way of looking into space except through
optical telescope. Optical astronomy enriched science with profound knowledge of
the Universe. But for radio-astronomy, however, we should have never made such
new remarkable discoveries in the Universe as pulsars, radio galaxies, etc.
In should be emphasized that thanks to radio-astronomy, astronomers have
detected several dozen chemical compounds in the gas and dust clouds of
interstellar space. It is desirable that theorists and experimenters should try to
figure out how these compounds were made. It is believed that when gas atoms
collide with the dust, they would stick. The dust seems to act as if it were a
collector of atoms and facilitated their combination.
Further progress in radio-astronomy will demand that scientists should take
more and more advantage of instrumented satellites and shoul set up observatories
on the Moon and on planets so that they could carry out continuous observation of
space. In general, with longer observing times and with the help of cosmic
laboratories, the sensitivity of detecting far-away bodies and chemical compounds
would increase. More cosmic information would be obtained.
If use were made of such facilities as these, the next decade or so would
reveal the richest rewards of space science.
1. what are the latest discoveries in astronomy due to? 2. What is the actual
contribution of radio-astronomy to science? 3. What is the hypothesis of the
formation of chemical compounds in space? (What makes you think that this is a
hypothesis?) 4. What are the prospects of the nearest future development in the
field?
Pattern Revision (24-26)
1. If the Earth were stationary, the movement of the atmosphere would be
controlled almost entirely by temperature difference. 2. It is strange that these two
projects originating at two different laboratories should resemble each other in
such details. 3. Modern research in space requires that a scientist should be
informed about the main investigations in adjacent areas. 4. The martianologists of
the 19th century and the early 20th would have been quite shocked if they had
learned that the surface of Mars was as heavily created as that of the Moon.
5. Some people have proposed that the General Theory of Relativity should be
abandoned, and replaced with something less eccentric. 6. Even if Kepler had
accepted Tycho’s theory, in order to solve the triangle, he would still have needed
to know the direction of the line between Mars and the Sun. 7. If it were not for the
earth’s gravitation, the satellites would move through airless space in a straight line
and at a uniform speed. 8. It has been suggested that new knowledge and
experience recently obtained should provide a sound basis for further space
exploration. 9. But for the rapid development of computer techniques and
automation in our scientific age, space research would never made such great
progress. 10. Suggestions have been made that entire colonies of astronauts should
set out on journeys to the stare that would last for centuries. 11. Millions of
television viewers in the remotest corners of the Far North, Siberia and Far Fast
would not have watched Moscow TV programmes if it had not been for the
Molnija communication satellites. 12. Some astronomers believe that we had better
continuously ”listening” to the outer cosmos lest we should miss a message from a
far-away civilization. 13. The problem of environment is not to be treated as if it
were of local concern for this or that country. 14. Even if such an apparatus should
be developed, this would not solve the problem of travelling beyond the solar
system. 15. Every spacecraft is equipped with emergency systems so that the crew
should feel safe and confident during the flight.
General Revision
1. It would be wrong to think that the intellectual capacities of an individual
are inexhaustible. One should never waste one’s talent; time may come when one
might need it. 2. In order to contribute to the survival of man, as well as to protect
him from possible adverse effects of his productive activity, science must be a
man-centered system. 3. It is suggested that in the past the conditions on such
planets should have been so different from anything familiar to us that we cannot
actually judge by analogy. 4. At present scientists and engineers are designing
spacecrafts which are to operate for months and years in the outer cosmos under
very severe conditions. 5. It is obvious that to achieve high intelligence the
conditions there would have to be extraordinary favourable. 6. In any field, in
order to succeed in one’s career one should treat one’s as if it were of primary
significance for mankind. And this is what a good worker would do, whether
consciously or unconsciously. 7. It is only natural that different researchers should
approach the same problem differently. 8. If one were asked what was responsible
for Kepler’s discoveries, one undoubtedly exclusive, and it might wall be that the
observed fluctuations are due to a combination of effects. 10. For unmanned
planetary exploration the ideal guidance and control system would be one that
could appreciate the environment and change the system’s mode of operation to
meet changing conditions. 11. We can expect that the planets surrounding stars
older than the Sun would contain societies more advanced than ours, societies
which must have mastered the techniques of radio communication and harnessed
the power of transmitting signals over great distances. 12. But for space
meteorological stations we would not be able to observe the formation and
directions of hurricanes. 13. When something has been discovered it cannot be
undiscovered. We have to live with the consequences of our discoveries. 14. Even
if any living organisms could have existed on the planet at an earlier stage they
ought to have disappeared. 15. Such evidence has to be disregarded, even if it
cannot be accounted for, in the hope that it will eventually turn out to be false or
irrelevant. 16. To meet this deficiency Sommerfield advanced in 1915 the
suggestion that electrons need not revolve necessarily in circular orbits. 17. Why
should slides at most lectures be shown upside down or sideways? 18. Nowadays a
young scientist undergoes a very extended preparation before he may take a place
of more or less equal standing with other scientists. 19. For genius, the crucial
factor is to be born at the right time. If he might, genius should choose the morning
time of his science or a period of brewing revolution in it. 20. Let us examine the
preposition that only Shakespeare could have formulated the semantic structure
represented by ”Hamlet”. 21. The reader will have noticed that the notation has
been somewhat changed. 22. It is still debatable whether Mercury possesses an
atmosphere or not. Under present conditions it would retain oxygen and heavier
gases, but in the past when it was presumably hotter even than now, all gases
except the very heaviest would have streamed off into space. 23. Weeler suggests
that a time ought to come when chemistry and physics unite under a banner
bearing the motto ”multum ex parvo” , meaning that vast ideas can emerge from
tiny and subtle observations. 24. All the matter in the Universe would have been
burned to helium before the first galaxies started to condense and no normally
long-lived stars would have had a chance to be born. 25. Subject to your approval,
we have agreed that we may have an interview which will be televised. The
broadcasting companies understand, of course, that it’s up to you to agree to this
arrangement, and they have an alternate program ready which can be substituted if
you should object. 26. If the distance to the star were known, its light power would
be judged from its apparent brightness. 27. You can’t get hot water and cold water
out of the same pipe at the same time. 28. It has been claimed that the observation
cannot have been in error.
A TINY ATOMIC REACTOR IN A HUMAN BODY
A tiny heart stimulator that runs on atomic energy has recently been
developed in the USA. Earlier such stimulators were driven by electricity. Their
operation period was as short as 2-3 years, the operation period of the atomic
stimulator is 5 times longer (5 times as long).
The weight of the atomic stimulator is 300 g. It is 100 grams heavier than
that of the electric one.
The atomic stimulator makes use of Plutonium 238. Its half-life is as long as
86.4 years. It emits alpha-particles (nuclei of helium atoms). These particles are
absorbed by a shell surrounding the isotope, and, as a result, the shell is heated up
to as high as 1500C. Semiconductors convert some of the heat into electricity
sufficient to drive an impulses per minute. The impulses make the heart muscles
contract. The temperature of the stimulator is 20C higher than that of the human
body.
A. 1. Эта проблема уже давно стала предметом тщательных
исследований. 2. Человек мечтал о полетах к другим планетам задолго до
начала космической эры. 3. Чтобы освоить космическое пространство,
человек должен научиться жить и работать в нем длительное время. 4. Нам
нужно приступить к решению этой проблемы как можно скорее. 5. Пока
человек мечтает, он живет.
for a long time; before long; long before; as long as; long.
В. 1. Биосфера может быть пригодной для жизни в течение долгого
времени, во много раз более длительного, чем вся история человечества. 2.
Прибор устроен таким образом, что регулирует одновременно только один
параметр. 3. Им все время приходилось устранять возникающие неполадки,
которые в свое время трудно было предвидеть. 4. За это время можно решить
не одну проблему. 5. Время от времени они проверяли показания приборов.
6. Все хорошо помнят тот апрельский день, когда человек впервые проник в
космос. 7. Через какое-то время процесс, видимо, закончился.
at a time; all the time; for the first time; after a time; many times the length;
in this time; from time to time; for a long time.
5. REVISE IF YOU FORGET
IS PRIGRESS IN SCIENCE DUE TO OBSERVATION OR
CALCULATION?
In 1776 the German astronomer Johann Elert Bode published his celebrated
paper on a simple number sequence that seemed to fit the planetary orbit. It soon
became known as ”Bode’s law”. The law succeeded in making two excellent
predictions. The first predictions was that a planet should be at a distance of 19.6
astronomical units. The second prediction was that there ought to be a planet in the
enormous gap between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter, at about 2-8 units from the
sun.
Alas, the law failed for Neptune and Pluto, persuading many astronomers
that the law’s earlier successes must have been accidental. Other astronomers have
recently suggested that Pluto may be an escaped moon of Neptune, and that before
the two bodies separated Neptune could have been near the spot predicted by
Bode’s law.