I. Ответьте на следующие вопросы:

1. Что такое научный стиль? Охарактеризуйте его основные особенности.

2. Как соотносятся термины «научный», «технический» и «научно-технический»?

3. В рамках каких подстилей и жанров реализуются функции научно-технического стиля?

II. Прочитайте приведенные ниже тексты, определите для каждого из них ведущую КРФ — сообщение, описание, рас­суждение. Подтвердите свои наблюдения языковыми фактами. Если какой-либо текст содержит комбинацию разных КРФ, най­дите их элементы. Выполните ПАТ.

PAUL DIRAC AND HIS SNAPPY COMEBACK

Physicist Paul Dirac was known mainly for his cont­ributions to quantum mechanics. He was the first to theorize about the existence of antiparticles. During a question and answer period after a lecture Dirac gave at the University of Toronto, an audience member raised his hand and said, "Profes­sor Dirac, I do not understand how you derived the formula on the top left side of the blackboard." "That is not a question," snapped Dirac, "it is a statement. Next question, please."

TESLA THE PARANOID SCHIZOPHRENIC

Nikola Tesla was one of the pioneers of electrical appli­cations in the late 1800's, and is regarded by some to have been an inventor with skills superior to that of Thomas Edison. To him is attributed the invention of alternating current motors and the transformer.

However, as the years progressed he became ... a lonely, uncommunicative egotist, intensely jealous of Edison, unwilling to shake hands for fear of germ contamination, frightened by round surfaces (like billiard balls and pearl necklaces)... and dissipating his great talent by trying to invent death rays, or devices for photographing thoughts on the retina of the eye.

EQUILIBRIUM

With what can we associate the word "equilibrium"? We ought to know that the term applies equally well to a motor­car moving along a straight road at a constant speed. From a scientific point of view an object can be in equilibrium not only when it is standing motionless, but also when it is moving in a straight line at constant speed. On the other hand it would not be in equilibrium if it were increasing speed or slowing down or provided it were going around a corner.

Evidently, when there are no forces pulling or pushing a body, that body must always be in equilibrium. However, objects with forces acting on them may also be in equilibrium. But, then, the forces must balance; that is, their vector sum is to equal zero. Thus, in the case of the speeding automobile there are forces acting, but they balance each other in pairs. The pull of gravity downward is counteracted by the push of the road upward. The driving force supplied by the motor is balanced by air resistance and other frictional forces. Ho­wever, as the driving force supplied by the motor is greater than the frictional resistance, the car is accelerated.

But sometimes an object may not be in equilibrium even though the vector sum of all the forces is zero. It may have a tendency to rotate unless all the forces are applied at a single point, or unless the tendency to rotate in one direction balances the tendency to rotate in the opposite.

Thus the second condition for equilibrium is that the tendency to rotate should be zero. There are always two requirements for equilibrium: first, the vector sum of all the forces acting on a body should be zero; and, second, there must be no tendency to rotate, that is, the tendency to rotate the body in one direction must be balanced by the tendency to rotate it in the opposite direction.

We have to point out the importance of equilibrium in any engineering design and construction. For example, if a house is to stand, each of its parts must evidently be in equilibrium.