Passive structures and their message

Task 1.1. Identify the passive structures and the logical predicates, translate the sentences into Russian.

The problem was first recognized in the 19th century. Later an idea was suggested to apply it to practical things. Many possibilities for practical applications were analyzed. Some of these were tested by experiment. The experimental results were not generally accepted, and the idea was discarded. Then other consequences were deduced and a new model proposed. Recently the model has been modified and is now being used in many practical situations.

Task 1.2. Give English equivalents of the following Russian phrases using impersonal passive structures and adverbs " widely, " " generally" where required.

1. Говорят, что.... 2. Предполагается, что.... 3. Можно надеяться, что.... 4. Следует признать, что.... 5. Было найдено, что.... 6. Общепризнанно, что.... 7. Считают, что.... 8. Широко распространено мнение, что....

Remember some of the verbs taking a direct object in English but equivalent to Russian verbs followed by a preposition.

to affect - влиять (на);

to answer - отвечать (нa);

to approach - подойти (к);

to attend - присутствовать (на) (и активно участвовать);

to consult - консультироваться (y, c);

to enjoy – получать удовольствие (от), пользоваться;

to follow - следовать, следить (за);

to influence - влиять (на);

to join - присоединяться (к);

to watch - наблюдать (за).

Task 1.3. Identify passive structures followed by a preposition and give Russian equivalents.

1. This method has been referred to in an earlier paper. 2. I do not think this instrument can be relied upon. 3. The data cannot be accounted for by the existing theory. 4. This theory has been referred to as the " big bang" theory. 5. The best treatment of this syndrome is generally agreed upon. 6. Rapid development of chemical technology has been called for by the needs of the national economy. 7. The prolongation of life may be thought of as a feat of endurance rather than a race against time.

Task 1.4. Identify the structures and give Russian equivalents of the relevant part of the sentence.

1. The usual procedure is that information storage is followed by information analysis. 2. The procedure proposed provided the required mechanism of reaction. 3. The opening session of the Congress was preceded by a meeting of the General Assembly to elect a new president. 4. It must be admitted that the problem of science classification can be approached from several viewpoints. 5. There are fields which cannot be dealt with on a national scale only, such as environmental protection, space exploration and so on. 6. The difficulties encountered by anyone who attempted to solve the problem are much greater than those faced in the endeavour to reach the summit of Mount Everest. 7. In most important applications cotton has been substituted for by synthetic fibres. 8. The rate of the reaction is affected by the change in such parameters as concentration, temperature and pressure 9. Under these circumstances one is faced with a magnified form of a danger common to all inventions: a tendency to use them whether or not the occasion demand. 10. In most cases the solution of such problems is called for by industrial needs. 11. It is often argued that in the 20th century we are left with no expansion of wisdom and with greater need for it. 12. When at last the patient is allowed to sleep he will probably wake up after some 10 - 12 hours. 13. These ideas are hardly recognized as mathematics at all by the people trained in the classical branches of the subject. 14. Some aspects of the foregoing topics are dealt with in the next chapter, and a number of problems created by some of the new activities are mentioned but not discussed in detail. 15. Some diseases may show only when an organism containing mutant genos is influenced by certain factors of the environment. 16. No attempts have been made to list all the contributions in which different procedures have been developed and later used. 17. Recent discoveries in all sciences have been greatly assisted by the developments in contemporary research techniques dealt with in the last section of this book. 18. The congress attended by scientists from all the institutions concerned attracted much attention and was referred to as a most representative forum in this field. 19. An alternative to the models discussed above is the steady-state theory of continuous creation referred to earlier and depicted in Fig. 1.

Task 1.5. Give English equivalents of the italicized part of the sentences, using passive structures and the verbs: to affect, to allow, to attend, to develop, to deal with, to face, to follow, to make use of, to refer to.

1. 3a докладом последовала бурная дискуссии. 2. На скорость реакции влияет множество других факторов. 3. Этот вопрос будет подробно рассмотрен в главе III. 4. На этой стадии мы столкнулись с новыми трудностями. 5. Ему не дали возможности закончить эту работу. 6. В последнее время эта теория часто упоминается во многих статьях. 7. Семинар, на котором присутствовало всего 5 человек, прошел вяло и неинтересно. 8. Для того чтобы преодолеть эти недостатки, использовали новую методику, специально разработанную для данного эксперимента.

Task 1.6. Translate into English.

1. Проблема была впервые поставлена (осознана) в XVIII веке. 2. Предполагается, что полученные расчетные данные были проверены экспериментально. 3. Теория была принята большинством ученых после того, как были получены новые доказательства в ее поддержку. 4. (В статье) представлены новые данные относительно механизма этого процесса. 5. Это расхождение можно объяснить разными методиками измерения. 6. (В работе) использован новый метод расчета этого параметра и предложена новая модель процесса. 7. Особое внимание уделено сравнению экспериментально полученных результатов с результатами, предсказанными теоретически. 8. В лаборатории установлено новое оборудование.

Task 2. Translate the text.

SCIENCE. (I)

For many thousands of years the earth was inhabited by creatures who lived and died without passing on their experiences to following generations. These early fish, reptiles, birds and mammals could only «talk» to each other through the roars, calls and screams of the jungle. Yet, somehow, from these prehistoric beings a more intelligent animal evolved with a brain able to form the controlled sounds of speech.

This human being began to use rocks and trees to fashion weapons to help him hunt for food. Stones and spears were probably the first tools used by humans as extensions of their own bodies – the spear could travel faster in flight than man could run – and this ability to invent tools and pass on knowledge gave man a growing control of his surroundings. His search for new ways to survive and to improve his way of life continued through the ages thus the story of man’s world of science and invention was shaped.

Writing is known to contribute much to man’s experience accumulation, books printing being his greatest brainchild. As knowledge grew and the art of writing developed, parts of the story were recorded – some in one book, some in another. No man could remember all there was to know and writers found it useful to classify their knowledge under separate headings – much like a library arranges its books in sections so that the reader will know where to look for each subject. Science became separated into various branches. But its progress began only when man started to search for natural laws and principles, and produced theories, applying to scientific methods, such as: observation, analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, hypothesis and experimentation.

Give the right definitions for all terms.

Task 2.1. Translate the sentences.

1. Prehistoric man turned out to be the first inventor of tools and weapons. 2. The Greek philosophers are considered to have contributed much to the development of science. 3. Aristotle is known to have exercised a great influence on the principles of scientific thinking. 4. Psychology and economics prove to attract a great number of young researchers. 5. We think our scientific supervisors to help us much in writing theses. 6. Science is likely to develop new fields of research. 7. The ideas of professor Brown appear to produce a breakthrough in understanding of this phenomenon. 8. Every post-graduate student is expected to write a number of scientific papers. 9. A scientific supervisor thinks a post-graduator’s work to be completed if it takes the form of a dissertation. 10. The conference is sure to give a new stimulus to further investigation of the problem.

Task 3. Read and translate the text.

SCIENCE (II)

Science (from Latin scientia, meaning " knowledge") is an enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the world. An older and closely related meaning still in use today is that of Aristotle for whom scientific knowledge was a body of reliable knowledge that can be logically and rationally explained. Since classical antiquity science as a type of knowledge was closely linked to philosophy. In the early modern era the words " science" and " philosophy" were sometimes used interchangeably in the English language. By the 17th century, natural philosophy (which is today called " natural science") had begun to be considered separately from «philosophy» in general, while, " science" continued to be used in a broad sense denoting reliable knowledge about a topic, in the same way it is still used in modern terms such as library science.

However, in modern use, " science" is still mainly treated as synonymous with 'natural and physical science', and thus restricted to those branches of study that relate to the phenomena of the material universe and their laws, sometimes with implied exclusion of pure mathematics. This is now the dominant sense in ordinary use. The word " science" became increasingly associated with the disciplined study of physics, chemistry, geology and biology. This sometimes left the study of human thought and society in a linguistic limbo, which was resolved by classifying these areas of academic study as social science. In its turn the term «humanities» or «arts» refers to the subjects of study that are concerned with the way people think and behave, for example literature, language, history and philosophy (as it understood nowadays).

Science is often distinguished from other domains of human culture by its progressive nature: in contrast to art, religion, philosophy, morality, and politics, there exist clear standards or normative criteria for identifying improvements and advances in science. For example, the historian of science George Sarton argued that “the acquisition and systematization of positive knowledge are the only human activities which are truly cumulative and progressive, ” and “progress has no definite and unquestionable meaning in other fields than the field of science”. However, the traditional cumulative view of scientific knowledge was effectively challenged by many philosophers of science in the 1960s and the 1970s, and thereby the notion of progress was also questioned in the field of science.

Debates on the normative concept of progress are at the same time concerned with axiological questions about the aims and goals of science. The task of philosophical analysis is to consider alternative answers to the question: What is meant by progress in science? This conceptual question can then be complemented by the methodological question: How can we recognize progressive developments in science? Relative to a definition of progress and an account of its best indicators, one may then study the factual question: to what extent, and in which respects, is science progressive?

Task 3.1. Say if the following statements are true of false. Correct the false statements.

1. The term «science» is applied only to natural science. 2. The word «knowledge» is derived from the negation «no», meaning the path leading from ignorance to understanding the world. 3. Natural and physical sciences deal with testable explanations and predictions. 4. Aristotle studied the body of a human being and gained a reliable knowledge in this sphere. 5. There was a time when «science» and «philosophy» meant the same. 6. The word «science» and the word combination «natural and physical science» are looked upon as synonymous. 7. Pure mathematics is included into the notion «natural and physical science». 8. Library science naturally belongs to humanities.

Task 3.2. Read the whole text again and see if any corrections should be made in your original outline. Write an abstract of the text in three sentences.

Task 4. Read the text to yourself and be ready for a comprehension check-up.