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:
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.)
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