Mastering English. Часть 2. Учебное пособие

the benefits of organic agriculture in terms of environmental impact are greatly reduced if the food has to travel by road a great distance to reach the consumer. So what food-shopping patterns will yield the most benefit to the environment and society? Looking at the data, walking, biking or taking public transit to buy organic, locally grown (within 20 km) food would be the best choice. Grocery delivery services also help a great deal by reducing the overall number of vehicle trips. Even choosing a fuel-efficient vehicle and reducing the number of trips helps.

Unfortunately, suburban sprawl is rapidly eating up some of Canada’s best farmland – which also happens to be located near urban centers. For our food to be sustainable, governments at all levels must work to curb sprawl and support local food systems.

1. Thesis:

Because local production and transport of food cause higher “hidden costs” than moving food internationally, the local level is where significant changes need to be made.

2. Outline:

1)British Research shows:

a)International transportation of food adds very little to “hidden costs”.

b)Domestic transport = 50% of these costs,

c)Transportation by water costs the least; land transportation and especially air transportation cost most.

d)In a vast nation like Canada, these costs are especially high.

2)Where are some of the “hidden costs”?

a)Many car trips to buy food: consumers make more trips farther distances to get groceries at large “megamarts” than when they shopped more locally.

b)Rather than supporting highly beneficial local organic farming, Government subsidizes unsustainable farming practices, (the benefit of organic farming much less if the food is transported large distances over land).

3)What are some solutions?

a)Consumers should make fewer trips to grocery stores and use less gasoline to make grocery trips (walk, bike, public transit, smaller cars).

b)Government should stop urban sprawl because this uses up local farm land and support local farming.

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3. Summary:

In “Transporting Food Can Cost the Earth,” Suzuki argues that, because local production and transport of food cause higher “hidden costs” than moving food internationally, the local level is where significant changes need to be made. He summarizes British research which shows that the international transport of agricultural products, much of which happens by boat, does not significantly affect the “hidden costs” of moving food. In contrast, moving food products by land and especially by air adds significantly to the costs. Suzuki suggests that, in a vast nation like Canada, these costs are especially high because so much fossil fuel is needed to transport food by land and air over large distances. Returning to the research, Suzuki points out that a major cost is the way consumers use fossil fuel to drive to and from stores. Another cost is government support for “unsustainable agricultural practices.” Suzuki suggests that consumers can lessen the environmental impact of grocery shopping by choosing ways to go shopping that use no or little gasoline. Suzuki also calls on governments to support local food production by limiting “urban sprawl” because it takes over local farm land.

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WRITING SUMMARIES

Writing good summaries requires accurate reading and the ability to find the main idea and most important supporting evidence in a piece of writing. Summaries are always quite a bit shorter than the original texts, perhaps 75 percent shorter.

Sometimes, particularly for a book, the summary is much shorter than the original, perhaps 99 percent shorter. When you write a summary, you give your readers an idea of the content of an article or book and save them the time and trouble of reading the entire original.

To write a good summary, keep the following in mind:

1.Read the original carefully.

2.Mention the source and the author at the beginning of the summary.

3.State the author’s main idea without distorting those ideas or adding your own.

4.State the author’s most important supporting evidence or subpoints without distorting them. Do not include details.

5.Use your own wording. Occasionally, however, a phrase in the original may be especially striking, interesting, or controversial. In that case, you may use the author’s exact words if you put quotation marks around them.

6.Don’t include your own ideas or comments. The summary should include only the author’s ideas.

7.Periodically remind the reader that you are summarizing someone else’s idea.

The following selection discusses the problems of staying up all night to study for exams. Before you read, answer these questions:

1.What do you think of the idea of staying up all night to study for an exam?

2.What do you think of using stimulants to help stay alert?

3.Do you think students usually recover well from staying up all night?

4.Have you ever stayed up all night studying for an exam?

5.How did you feel during the exam?

6.How did you feel the rest of the day?

7.How well did you do on the exam?

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Read the text and get the main idea.

The Dangers of Cramming

by Keith Ablow

Midnight, and the spiral notebook is barely half full. The rest of its pages, scribbled with organic chemistry equations, litter the dormroom floor. Every few minutes the figure hunched over the desk tears away another page, having memorized as much as he can, and passes it on to his friend. And thus the two roommates continue all night, dropping the pages to the carpet after each has absorbed his fill.

Welcome to the all-night cramming session, which most students resort to at some desperate point in their college careers. Armed with the energy of youth, they simply ignore their bodies’ cries for sleep, trying to fend off fatigue with doses of coffee or, occasionally, drugs. Teachers and parents have long argued that cramming does more harm than good and the latest research into sleep needs and patterns suggests that they are right.

For some people, disruptions in the regular sleep cycle can cause temporary intellectual lapses and stimulants can set off severe side effects. Thus, for every student who manages to memorize the chemical synthesis of bona-S-rubber at 5 a.m. and then triumphantly finds that precise question on his test at 9, there are more than a few who lament the “obvious” answers they blew on a multiple-choice exam because they couldn’t focus.

The outcome of all-nighters is unpredictable because the impact of sleep loss vanes so widely. “Some people are markedly impaired by even a small decrease in sleep time,” says David Buchholtz, a neurologist and sleep therapist at The Johns Mopkins Hospital in Baltimore, while others can go without sleep for a few nights without any demonstrable loss of performance. People also have vastly different minimum requirements: a full night’s rest can range from 4 to 10 hours. It is critical, experts stress, for each person to know how much sleep he needs.

Heavy use of stimulants can compound the problem. Many students assume that large quantities of coffee or a few amphetamines will increase alertness: they don’t. In fact, stimulants merely disguise briefly a reduced capacity to grasp, return, and retrieve information. “Caffeine does not correct the cognitive impairment caused by lost sleep,” Buchholtz says. “A person may be awake, but he’ll have to deal with an intellectual deficit, and his concentration won’t be there. He can actually have “micro sleeps” and stare at the same word for five minutes.”

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Nor are unpredictable naps the only penalty of substance abuse. Coffee drinkers should watch out for Caffeine Intoxication Syndrome, an onset of anxiety, panic, headaches and a frustrating inability to sleep. Most people would have to drink about 10 cups to fall into this condition, but some are so sensitive that it can hit them after only 2 to 3 cups. Speed [an amphetamine] is far more hazardous.

Overdoses can lead to auditory hallucinations and paranoia.

In addition, according to Larry Alessi, assistant professor of psychiatry at The Johns Hopkins Medical School, “if someone uses speed for many weeks and then stops, he may “crash” into severe depression.” Unless a person abuses his body with stimulants, he should be able to snap back fairly quickly from an all-nighter. One full night of rest will

usually produce complete recovery from up to 48 hours of sleep deprivation; normal, healthy people have been known to stay awake for as long as a week without lasting ill effects. On the second night, there is usually an increase in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, the phase in which dreaming occurs. Normally, REM sleep is beneficial, but some people report particularly graphic and disturbing nightmares associated with a sudden increase in REM.

Then there are the problems of students who want to get a good night’s sleep before an exam but just can’t. Stress often promotes insomnia. It may cause the reticular activating system, the structure in the brain that is responsible for alertness, to stay on too long; this prevents sleep-inducing mechanisms from doing their job. What do experts advise a student who finds himself tossing and turning for a halt hour or so on the eve of a test? He should get up and try an ordinarily relaxing activity, like snacking or watching television, until he is tired. Some people find that making notes about what’s worrying them can exercise those concerns until the morning. Sleeping too much, authorities agree, should not worry most people.

Even after an extended night of “rebound” sleep, the brain arouses itself when its needs have been fulfilled. Clinically depressed people do often retreat into slumber to avoid the waking hours, but true clinical depression is accompanied by other noticeable symptoms such as loss of appetite, decreased self-esteem and even thoughts of suicide. In the end, the best formula to follow when finals arrive is one that students have been taught for years-moderation. There will surely be times when excelling, or perhaps just passing, requires pushing bedtime back, but any major changes in sleep patterns should be made cautiously. As Buchholtz suggests, “The key is keeping perspective and not ever overdoing it.”

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EXERCISE 1: SUMMARY

Task 1. Now read the selection again and summarize it in one sentence of not more than 25 words. As with most summaries, use the present tense.

Task 2. Label each paragraph with a subheading indicating the subject discussed in that paragraph. The first three paragraphs have been done for you.

1.introduction – description of a cramming session

2.cramming, more harm than good

3.temporary mental lapses

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Task 3. When you have finished, compare your subheadings with those of your groupmates. If the headings for any paragraph are quite different from one another, reread that paragraph and select the heading that best states the subject of the paragraph.

Task 4. Which paragraph seems to state the main point the author wants to make in this article? Write that main point or thesis here.

Task 5. Now look at your list of subheadings and group together headings that deal with similar subjects. Give each grouping a name. How many paragraphs seem to make up the introduction? What are the other groupings you formed?

Task 6. Now write a short summary (100 to 150 words) of this article. Remember that the summary should be in the present tense. Begin by mentioning the original source. Here are possible ways to include the source:

1.In the article entitled “The danger of Cramming” Keith Ablow informs us/ state/ claims / shows us that …

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2.In “The danger of Cramming” Keith Ablow indicates/ discusses/ explores the problems …

3.The article “The Dangers of Cramming” by Keith Ablow examines the negative effects …

4.Cramming, according to Keith Ablow in his article “The Dangers of Cramming,” can do more harm than good.

Continue the summary, using your list of subheadings and your groupings as a guide to help you remember the main points covered in the article. At least once in your summary, keep in mind that you are summarizing by using a phrase like the following:

The author goes on to say … Ablow also reports that …

The article further states that …

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VOCABULARY EXERCISES

PART 1. USEFUL PHRASES

Exercise 1. Find synonyms.

Exercise 2. Insert the words below into the spaces.

addresses, aim, aimed at, aims to, continuation, feasibility study, framework, propose, scope, targeted, this end, undertook

1.Our … is to provide a short, practical analysis of how this language is used.

2.This article … define the difference between a hazard and a danger.

3.This article is the result of a … investigating…

4.This work … the problems inherent in…

5.This work is a direct … of the work begun by Zappata [2014].

6.To … we have tried to…

7.We have … funding as being our main priority.

8.We … a new code for calculating the number of hours required.

9.We … this study to…

10.Within the … of these criteria, we propose to…

11.Defining P and Q falls outside the … of this article.

12.It is … students of engineering.

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Exercise 3. Match the phrases (1–25) with functions (A–D)

A.Establishing why your topic is important.

B.Outlining the past-present history of the study of your topic (no direct references to the literature).

C.Outlining the possible future of your topic.

D.Indicating the gap in knowledge and possible limitations.

1.A neglected area in the field of analytical chemistry is …

2.Although this approach is interesting, it fails to take into account three critical factors.

3.By 2025, computers will have become redundant.

4.Concerns have arisen which call into question the validity of …

5.Few researchers have addressed the issue of…

6.However, there has been little discussion on …

7.In the next few years Nigeria is likely to have become …

8.It is not yet known whether these problems will be solved in the near future.

9.Moreover, other approaches have failed to provide …

10.Most studies have only focused on China to the detriment of India.

11.Recent developments regarding the future of the Internet have led to …

12.Roses are among the most well-known flowers on the planet.

13.The Indonesian economy has received much attention in the past decade due to …

14.The last two years have witnessed a huge growth in the number of studies on this topic.

15.The next decade is likely to see a considerable rise in unemployment.

16.There is little or no general agreement on …

17.There is still considerable controversy surrounding …

Exercise 4. In each sentence delete the one word/ phrase that is not appropriate/ grammatical.

1.This paper outlines/ proposes/ describes/ discovers/ presents a new approach to … .

2.This paper validates/ examines/ seeks to address/ focuses on/ discusses/ investigates how to solve … .

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3.This paper is an overview of/ a review of/ a report on/ a preliminary attempt how bilinguals separate the two languages while talking.

4.The aim of our work is to further/ extend/ widen/ broaden/ amplify current knowledge of …

5.This paper takes a new look at/ re-examines/ revisits/ informs/ sheds new light on how politicians use their power.

6.Vitous [2015] has provided/ put forward/ put down/ proposed a new definition of … , in which … .

7.In the literature there lacks of a general definition of …/ a general definition of … is lacking/ there is no clear definition of … .

8.In their seminal/ groundbreaking/ cutting edge/ state-of-the-art paper of 2012, Peters and Jones … .

9.Experiments on … were conducted/ carried on/ carried out/ performed on … in 2009 by a group of researchers from … .

10.More recent evidence shows/ suggests/ investigates/ highlights/ reveals/ proposes that.

11.He claims/ argues/ criticizes/ maintains/ suggests/ points out/ underlines that… .

12.Kamos’s [23] assumptions seem to be sensitive/ realistic/ wellfounded/ well-grounded/ plausible/ reasonable/ acceptable.

13.Many experts contend, however/ instead/ on the one hand, that this evidence is not conclusive.

14.This has led authors as/ such as/ for example/ for instance Mithran [32], Yasmin [34] and Hai [35] to investigate … .

Exercise 5. Insert the words below into the spaces.

approach, attention, claimed, critical issues, developed, emphasis, failed, led, literature, pointed out, review paper, was among the first, work, would support

1.In this … only the highlights of the last 4 years, with … on novel techniques, will be discussed.

2.A recent review of the … on this topic found that … .

3.Much … on the potential of nanotechnology has been carried out, yet there are still some … which need to be resolved.

4.In the traditional … , X is used to define Y.

5.In the last few years more … has been given to the pitfalls of monolingualism.

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