Клочкова Практическое пособие для аспирантов 2011

•There has always existed an idea…

•It has currently become evident…

•We have lately begun to appreciate…

•Scientists have recently proved…

Part III

Vocabulary

1. Read the paragraph and answer the question.

1. What problem do scientists come across when they try to determine the gravitational force between two objects?

Physicists have struggled to marry quantum mechanics with gravity for decades. In contrast, the other forces of nature have obediently fallen into line. For instance, the electromagnetic force can be described quan- tum-mechanically by the motion of photons. *Try and work out the gravitational force between two objects in terms of a quantum graviton, however, and you quickly run into trouble—the answer to every calculation is infinity. But now Petr Hofava, a physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, thinks he understands the problem. It's all, he says, a matter of time.

2.Find Russian equivalents of the underlined words.

3.Translate the sentence, marked with the asterisk.

4.Make and write down some phrases:

5.Write 3 sentences with phrases in task 4.

6.Translate the sentences.

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In terms of – с точки зрения, исходя из, с учетом..

1.In terms of the number of atomic nuclei, hydrogen constitutes 90%, helium about 10%, and everything else – from lithium to uranium – just a trace, about 0.1 percent.

2.You can only describe the “quantum state” of a photon in terms of its probabilities.

3.Potassium nitrate is the most important ingredient in terms of both bulk and function because the combustion process releases oxygen from the potassium nitride, promoting the rapid burning of the other ingredients.

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4. Read the example translation of a sentence.

It seems to match with computer simulations of quantum gravity.

Оказывается, (что) это согласуется с компьютерными моделям квантовой гравитации.

We begin our translation with the predicate:

Seems (оказывается ) - at the beginning of a sentence + (что) + subject + the Infinitive.

Active vs. passive

1. Study the structure of the sentences paying special attention to the predicates.

A

1.Quite often, such unexpected inventions seemed to work.

2.In 1865, James Clerk Maxwell's prediction that light was an electromagnetic wave seemed to be the final blow to particle models of light.

3.This effect could make galaxies appear to contain more matter than can be seen.

4.There does not appear to be a fundamental obstacle in these worlds to some form of organic life evolving.

5.The calculations that predicted the existence of a planet beyond the orbit of Neptune later proved to be in error.

6.Females tend to be better speakers.

7.Variants of that molecule turn out to be excellent at shielding the most dangerous forms of space radiation.

B

1.One of the genes involved in smoking addictiveness is known to play a role in controlling how people respond to stress.

2.These cathode rays were later shown to be a stream of the tiny particles called electrons.

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3.These particles would be present today as remnants of the quark soup phase and are predicted to interact very weakly with atoms

4.An important strong X-ray source called Cygnus X-1 is believed to consist of a visible star which is orbiting a common centre of gravity with an invisible companion.

5.Leonardo da Vinci’s 1495 sketch of a mechanical knight, which could sit up and move its arms and legs, is considered to be the first plan for a humanoid robot.

6.One projected commercial payoff of the space program is supposed to be the development of orbiting manufacturing facilities.

7.This method was declared to be superior to the ion-trap model.

8.The eyes are said to be the key to the sole and therefore the first and the most effective weapon in convincing the audience of your honesty, openness and confidence.

2. Analyze the predicates in A and B and answer the questions.

1.What grammar features make them different?

2.What verbs can be used in the predicate within this construction: а) in the Active Voice?

b)in the Passive Voice?

3.Try to remember some other predicates that can be

used in the discussed grammar construction:

а) in the Active Voice; b) in the Passive Voice.

Another form of the predicate (to be + Adj)

1. Translate the sentences.

1. Agriculture is the sector most likely to be affected by changes in climate of all sectors of society.

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2.The program is certain to be very expensive, with a total cost running into hundreds of billions of pounds.

3.Survival of the fittest can describe how many offsprings certain spices are likely to leave under given circumstances.

4, In 1610 Galileo discovered what turned out to be Saturn’s most amazing feature, the rings.

Simple vs. Perfect Infinitive

1. Study the structure of the sentences.

1.We might occupy the rare universe where the right conditions happen to have come together to make life possible.

2.Plank seems to have imagined that some deeper explanations of quanta would emerge.

3.The Egyptian cubit is generally recognized to have been the most widespread unit of linear measurement in the ancient world.

4.Despite being a major member of the EU, Great Britain is not part of euro zone, and the question of whether it will join any time appears to have receded for the moment.

5.The quark soup itself is thought to have arisen at an extremely early time — perhaps 10.4 second after the big bang in a burst of cosmic expansion known as inflation.

2. Answer the questions.

1. Do the predicates in the sentences above refer to past or to present time?

2. Does the infinitive part refer to the same time? 3. Which of them took place earlier?

3. Work out the rule for use of the Perfect Infinitive in the Complex Object?

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Simple vs. Continuous Infinitive

1. Study the predicates in the following sentences.

1. So far this theory seems to be working.

2. The universe appears to be expanding at an accelerating rate, implying the existence of a strange new form of energy – dark energy.

3. As this material disappears into the black hole it is reckoned to be emitting a stream of X-rays, and these are what astronomers are observing.

4. Now we’ve got nearly instantaneous climatic change within a century, and that instantaneous change seems to be accelerating.

2. Answer the questions.

1.Do the events of the subject and the Infinitive take place at the same time?

2.How does the Continuous Infinitive influence the meaning of a sentence?

Another variant of the construction (the verb to be omitted)

1.It has proved (to be) extremely difficult to give robots the capabilities that humans take for granted.

2.Heron of Alexandria is considered the greatest experimenter of antiquity and his work is representative of the Hellenistic scientific tradition.

3.Ten years ago, with magnetic-disk technology seemingly reaching its maximum potential, holographic data storage seemed destined for the centre stage.

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Part II

Practice

1. Translate the following.

1.A stream of rays, thought to be formed from tiny particles, flowed from the cathode.

2.The planet is thought to hold deposits of oxygen and hydrogen, which could be extracted to provide the station with resources.

3.Nanotechnology seems likely to make possible some form of this by linking neural structures via transducers and electromagnetic signals.

4.The quark soup itself is thought to have arisen at an extremely early time—perhaps 10 ,4 second after the big bang in a burst of cosmic expansion known as inflation.

5.High-velocity clouds of relatively unpopulated hydrogen appear to be running down from intergalactic space.

6.In the first century A.D., Heron of Alexandria designed intriguing automatons, including the one said to have the ability to talk.

7.The program is certain to be very expensive, with a total cost running into hundreds of billions of pounds.

8.Our action will then be seen to have been inevitable.

9.Bell’s proof and Aspect’s experiment meant the world itself had been discovered to be nonlocal.

10.Science could no longer be expected to predict with certainty the outcome of experiments.

11.The laws of physics might seem to be finely tuned. .

12.If more general systems are likely to emerge, we would be foolish to omit them from our calculations.

2. Write English equivalents (use the construction discussed).

•Известно, что атомы…

•Оказывается, электроны…

•Считается, что материя…

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• По-видимому, вселенная…

3.Develop the phrases in 2 into complete sentences.

4.Write several similar sentences that refer to your specialization.

5.Read the sentence.

America was discovered by Columbus.

Can we say that this statement is absolutely true? To make this statement less certain we say:

• America is believed to be discovered by Columbus, or

• America is doubted /questioned to be discovered by Columbus.

Writing a paper

1.Write about some facts that don’t seem as certain as they used to be.

2.Write about some facts which you haven’t checked, but they are generally accepted.

Ex: Matter is believed to consist of atoms.

3. Remember some facts from your field of specialization that should be better addressed using the discussed construction. Write a short paragraph (5–7 sentences).

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Part III

Vocabulary

1. Read the following.

Give the definition of cosmology.

The brightest member galaxies of rich clusters have been detected at distances exceeding several thousand million light-years from the Earth. The branch of learning that deals with phenomena at the scale of many millions of light-years is called cosmology. Cosmology is, in effect, the study of the universe at large. A dramatic new feature, not present on small scales, emerges when the universe is viewed in the large - namely, the cosmological expansion.

On cosmological scales, galaxies appear to be racing away from one another with the apparent velocity of recession being linearly proportional to the distance of the object.

The Hubble law implies that roughly 10 years ago all of the matter in the Universe was closely packed together in an incredibly dense state and that everything then exploded in a “big bang”, the signature of the explosion being written eventually in the galaxies of stars that formed out of the expanding debris of matter.

2.Find Russian equivalents of the underlined words.

3.Compare.

а) Million vs. Millions:

4 million − a numeral (does not have the plural form), millions of − a noun (has the plural form).

b) On small scales vs. at the scale of:

On small scales – в масштабе,

At the scale of – исчисляемые, в исчислении.

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