MODULE 1. READING AND SUMMARIZING INFORMATION

TASK 1

1) j; 2) k; 3) i; 4) g; 5) h; 6) n; 7) o; 8) c; 9) m; 10) f; 11) e; 12) e; 13) d; 14) b;15) a

TASK 2

Sample review

The article under reviewis entitled “The bionic age begins”. It was published in the “Discover” magazine in 2005.

The articledeals with the problemof using computer chips that can compensate for memory loss.The purpose of the research is to make a reliable, long-term connection between the hardware and the wetware, i.e. to create devices that employ electrodes to receive signals from and transmit them to the brain. It is shown that several groups of researchers have begun carrying out experiments on patients and even on animals. Special emphasis is placed on the fact that similar devices may be able to treat blindness, epilepsy, and Parkinson’s disease. A detailed description is given to the design of such devices as well as to the way they work.

For me this article is of general interest but of no professional significance, becauseI do research in the field of computer simulation. In my opinion it may be of interest to research teams engaged in studying bionic brain.

Module 4. Writing Letters

Unit 1

Assoc. Prof. Smirnov

Department of Physics

Southern Federal University

5 Zorge St.

Rostov-on-Don, 344090

Russia

 

February 21, 2010

Dear Dr. Johnson,

I wish to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of April 6 and to thank you for sending me the reprints.

I am now completing my experimental investigation and as soon as I work over my results I will prepare another contribution and send it to you for publication.

Looking forward to further cooperation.

Yours sincerely,

(signature)

V. Smirnov

Unit 2

Dear Professor…,

I'm writing to you in my capacity as Program Committee Co-Chair for the International Scientific Conference “Modern Problems of Microbiology and Biotechnology” to be held in Hamburg from October 1-8, 2010. I am writing to ask whether you would be willing to present a talk at the conference as an invited speaker. Invited talks will be one hour long, including a 10 minute question-answer session.

We have not yet established on which day your talk will be scheduled; should you accept this invitation, there is some flexibility we can use to accommodate your own scheduling preferences (although it would be on one of the main conference session days, Tuesday, October 3 through Friday, October 6.

In appreciation of your agreement to provide an invited talk, the Organizing Committee of the ISC would provide the cost of an economy class airfare from your home institution to the conference, hotel accommodations during the conference and free registration to the conference.

Unfortunately I will be away for an extended period of time and will not be able to read my email on a regular basis during this time. So, please, contact Professor Martha Palmer, an area chair and member of the ISC-2008 program committee, in your response. She has kindly agreed to coordinate the invited speaker sessions during my absence.

I do very much hope that you will be able to accept this invitation.

Sincerely yours,

(Signature)

Program Committee Chairman

Unit 3

Dear James Smith,

I’m sorry I have not replied earlier to your letter andmust apologize for not sending you the reprint you asked about until now.Unfortunately, I could not give proper consideration to your letter as I had to leave Russia on business for a month.

It gives me great pleasure to send you the reprint. I hope you will find the reprint helpful in your experiment. As soon as you get the final results of your experimental work, I would be grateful if you could send them to me as I wish to use them for plotting curves.

I am looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely,

Name

Unit 4

Dear Sir,

I am a long-time reader of the “Physical Review” and enjoy reading your papers. In the October issue of the journal of I’ve read your paper entitled… The investigation you are carrying out is of great interest for me and the methods you employ are excellent. I am writing to you to inquire whether it would be possible to get further information on your research from you personally.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely,

Name

Unit 5

Dear Sir,

I wish to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of April 6 informing about the deadline for the publication of the papers.I am most grateful to you for sending me your kind suggestion to collaborate with your journal and from the list of topics enclosed I have chosen … and will present a paper under the title … on time.

Sincerely yours,

Name