Кондратева А wаы то суццессфул реадинг цомпрехенсион 2011

УДК 811.111(075) ББК 81.2я7 К 64

Кондратьева И.И., Некрасова Н.А. A Way To Successful Reading Comprehension:

Учебно-методическое пособие для подготовки аспирантов всех основных специальностей НИЯУ МИФИ к экзамену по английскому языку. М.: НИЯУ МИФИ, 2011. − 84 с.

Пособие соответствует программе курса английского языка для аспирантов физико-технических специальностей. Оно содержит учебный материал, направленный на развитие умения эффективно извлекать информацию, содержащуюся в текстах по специальностям основных выпускающих кафедр факультетов «Т», «Ф», «КиБ», «А», «С», а также умения вести дискуссию в условии конференции и т.д. В пособии имеются задания, цель которых − повторение правил и разбор основных грамматических и лексических трудностей, встречающихся в научнотехнических текстах. В пособие также включен материал по составлению деловых писем.

Пособие предназначено для аспирантов всех физико-технических специальностей НИЯУ МИФИ на этапе подготовки к экзамену. Его можно использовать как самостоятельное пособие, так и в качестве дополнительного материала в рамках существующего учебного курса.

Подготовлено в рамках Программы создания и развития НИЯУ МИФИ.

Оригинал-макет изготовлен С.В. Тялиной

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Национальный исследовательский ядерный университет «МИФИ». 115409, Москва, Каширское шоссе, 31.

ООО «Полиграфический комплекс «Курчатовский». 144000, Московская область, г. Электросталь, ул. Красная, д. 42.

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ПРЕДИСЛОВИЕ

Данное методическое пособие разработано в соответствии с действующей программой по английскому языку для аспирантов физико-технических специальностей НИЯУ МИФИ.

Основная цель пособия – предоставить аспирантам дополнительный материал при подготовке к экзамену. Оно направлено на обучение приемам эффективной работы с текстами, что включает в себя умение быстро извлекать необходимую информацию из текстов любого объема и сложности, а также обсуждать прочитанное. В дальнейшем это навыки позволят специалистам участвовать в дискуссиях, конференциях и т.д. на английском языке.

Впособии имеются грамматические и лексические задания, которые позволят повторить и отработать типовые языковые трудности на материале, относящемся к физико-техническим специальностям и атомной энергетической отрасли.

Впособии имеется раздел, посвященный написанию деловых писем.

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PART I

UNIT 1

LOOKING UP A WORD IN A DICTIONARY How can you help yourself?

Here are 17 language learning habits. Write out the numbers of the things which you already do:

translate from my own language before I speak or write

keep a vocabulary note book and revise new vocabulary regularly record new vocabulary in a short phrase or sentence

write new vocabulary with just a translation in my language use only a bilingual dictionary

use only a monolingual dictionary use a grammar reference book speak only English in class

read English newspapers or magazines outside class listen to spoken English outside class

translate every unknown word as I read guess unknown words as I read

only speak in class when I’m sure I won’t make a mistake ask questions in class

revise each lesson before the next

set myself learning targets (e.g. five new phrasal verbs each week) find out which areas of language I am weak in and give myself extra

practice in them

Some of the above habits may, in fact, be helpful in the long run. Which are they? (You will probably be able to find about five.) Compare your answers with your partner’s and discuss why certain habits might be helpful or unhelpful.

Tell which good language learning habits you will definitely try to adopt. Refer back to this page from time to time to see which good learning habits you have developed.

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Here are some basic grammatical terms used in dictionaries and grammar reference books.

Make sure you know what these terms mean, look them up in a dictionary, write down their translations and remember. Match each definition with the examples (a-h) given below:

Dictionary abbreviations.

Words in dictionaries are followed by abbreviations that show which part of speech they belong and give other important information about the word as well.

Match the abbreviations given below with the grammatical terms given above: adj, adv, n, v, prep, pron.

The following common abbreviations refer to:

[C]– countable; [U] – uncountable; pl. – plural; sing. – singular; phr

v– phrasal verb; (infml) – informal; (fml) – formal; sl – slang; US – American English; Brit – British English, etc.

You can find more examples in any dictionary in a “Symbols and abbreviations used” section.

Ex.1

What parts of speech are the underlined words? Translate the sentences.

The sound of the explosion rocks the spaceship.

Many video games require simultaneous play by several players. CERN hosts major policy conference.

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The researchers can thin the layers to allow more tunneling without muddying the diode’s properties.

These holograms display a unique multi-colour effect.

Asteroid and comet impacts facilitate the transfer of rocks between Mars and Earth.

In light water reactors the water moderator functions as primary coolant.

One might also question the uncertainties inherent in such projections.

There are just not enough studies to give us confidence that this is not going to hurt people.

Ex.2

Find the examples for each of the terms. Write the words out together with their dictionary abbreviations, e.g. whereas (conj.) Look up unknown words up in a dictionary. Translate the texts.

2.1. Not So Friendly Hydrogen

Burning oil and gas lead to smog, acid rain and global warming, whereas burned hydrogen generates only water. But hydrogen may not prove as environmentally friendly as thought. Current systems are leaky, with 10 percent or more of hydrogen escaping uncombusted. California Institute of Technology researchers calculate that if hydrogen fuel cells replace all oil-and gas-burning technologies, people would release four to eight times more hydrogen into the atmosphere, and the resulting cooling would encourage ozone-destroying chemical reactions. The investigators say that preventing hydrogen seepage could offset this damage, as could decreases in ozone-eating chlorofluorocarbons over time and better-than-expected hydrogen absorption by soil.

2.2. Visual Recognition

Despite having read 100 million words or more by age 25, the average literate person does not have easier time identifying common words compared with any words of the same length. Researchers asked volunteers to make out familiar English words or letters hidden in various levels of contrast. Reading efficiency was linked not to how common a word was but to how many letters it had: four-letter words were twice as

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hard to recognize as two-letter ones, for instance. Furthermore, words proved unreadable unless tiny features of each letter are recognizable, demonstrating severe limitations on the brain’s ability to process visual patterns, the researchers say. Such handicaps may have arisen to suppress reflexive attempts to recognize a deluge of inconsequential details.

Ex.3

Translate the sentences. Look up unknown words in a dictionary. Pay special attention to the underlined words. Carefully go through all the meanings in the entry to pick up the right one.

Some researchers have expressed concern that all these results have been derived from maps of the full CMB (the cosmic microwave background) sky. Using the full-sky map might seem like an advantage, but in a band around the sky centered on our own galaxy the reported CMB temperatures might be unreliable.

Within that plane, they sit unexpectedly close to the equinoxes – the two points on the sky where the projection of the earth’s equator onto the sky crosses the ecliptic.

Alex, the academic African gray parrot who learned to speak more than 100 words, count to six and identify a dozen shapes and colors, died last week of seemingly natural causes at the age of 31, shy of his breed’s average 500-year life span.

The bones of Lucy, a 32-million-year-old human ancestor unearthed in Ethiopia in 1974, went on display last week at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences, the first leg of a six-year U.S. tour. One place the bones won’t be heading is the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., which charges the tour violates a 1998 international resolution barring removal of such remains from their country of origin.

In other explosive news, Russia’s military this week announced it had tested what it claimed to be the largest nonnuclear bomb ever detonated. So called thermobaric, or fuel-air bomb ignite the oxygen in the surrounding air and were used during the Vietnam War to clear jungle for helicopter landings. The Russians dubbed their explosive the “father of all bombs”, a jab at the previous record holder, a U.S. weapon nicknamed the “mother of all bombs”.

This reaction may be harnessed to produce work.

After years of hard work and a lot of research done on these materials he ended up with a sound theory.

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The findings had a pronounced effect on the whole industry. The success was tantalizingly out of reach.

Much harder questions are dealt with in Sections 5 and 6 respective-

ly.

They raise the possibility that we might need to develop sex-specific treatments for a host of conditions, including depression, addiction, schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorders.

The differences imply that researchers exploring the structure and function of the brain must take into account the sex of their subjects when analyzing their data.

Ex.4

Fill in the gaps with suitable words from the lists given in the boxes. Before starting the task carefully study the difference between the meanings of the provided words. Use a dictionary.

mean (v, adj,n), a means of, by means of, meaning

1.The encounter rate that we should expect can be written as the … of these results.

2. With up to 30% decrease in rainfall for certain months, the total annual precipitation has decreased by 8% compared to the long term….

3.The relay controlled large values of current and power … a special cold cathode tube.

4.Another … improving the process is given below.

5.This … that something is amiss with the data. 6.What is the … of this term?

the latter, late, latest, last, least, later, last but not least

7.Of these two solutions … seems more straightforward.

8.The samples were placed in glass storage bulbs and analyzed …

on.

9.The … Professor Smith headed the chair since 2000.

10.That was the … blow to the theory.

11.These portions of the casting are … to solidify.

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12.… , man’s internal electrostatic processes rival in ingenuity any that man has been able to devise.

13. This is the … innovation.

14.Pluto is the … known member of the solar system.

rather (adv), rather than

15.“By studying how the skull bones are fused together we discovered it belonged to a fully grown adult … a developing juvenile erectus,” said Professor Spoor.

16.The new weapon would not fulfill a new strategic role in a changed world, but … replace a portion of the W76 (warheads) arsenal.

17. The burning rate is … high.

Ex.5

Use ‘commercial’ (adj) or ‘commercially’ (adv) to make the abstract meaningful. Translate the text. Read the explanation given in Unit 3 to get a better understanding of the title.

Down on animal pharm.

Since the birth of Dolly the sheep 11 years ago, cloning technologies for animals have been getting better and better.

Animals are already being cloned…. It’s on a small scale and mostly for producing copies of individual animals of very high value – whether emotional or….

Finding out exactly who is doing what and where in the world of cloning is not easy. While Scotland, once home to Dolly the sheep, may once have been the heart of cloning science, it’s now clear that the centre of activity has moved to Texas where a combination of academic and

…laboratories are providing a service for a growing number of clients. ViaGen, a … cloning company in Austin, Texas, is now charging

$15,000 to clone a bull and $3,000 for a pig.

Its customers are the owners of elite breeding stock and the company believed it has now improved the cloning technology to a point that makes it … viable for agricultural animals.

Another … use of cloning being pioneered at Texas is cloning endangered and domestic animals. They created the first cloned domestic cat, Copy Cat or CC and the first successful cloning of a white-tailed deer.

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