Английский язык (Магистратура). Учебное пособие

debris as a flying saucer; only the media described it that way. The rancher described the material he found as light and consisting of foil, sticks, rubber, string, and tape. The debris matched a balloon with a radar target attached to it. Indeed, a spy balloon sent up by the US government, in what was termed Project Mogul, was lost near Roswell.

When we speak of knowing science we do not mean simply knowing scientific facts (e.g., the distance from earth to sun; the distinction between mammal and reptile, etc.) We mean that one must clearly understand the nature of science itself— the criteria ofvalid

possible to drawaccurate, reliable, meaningful conclusions about the phenomena of the physical universe. Pseudoscience lays emphasis on unverifiable eyewitness testimony, stories,faked footprints, blurry photos, andtall tales, hearsay, rumor, and dubious anecdotes.

Pseudoscience writers tend simply to make upbogus “facts” where needed, instead of going to the trouble of consultingreliable reference works, much less investigating directly. Yet thesefictitious facts are often central to the pseudoscientist’s argument and conclusions! The first edition of any pseudoscience book is almost always the last, even though the book may go through innumerable

new printings, over decades or centuries. Compare to science textbooks, which usually see a new edition every few years because of

the rapid accumulation of new facts, ideas, discoveries, experiments and insights in science.

One of the mostbizarre recent tactics of pseudoscientists is to publish a novel, a work of fiction in which essentially everything is made up by the author - as usual in works of fiction! - but then to turn

directly around and treat the completely made-up material as if it were actual, factual and researched. Recent examples of this tactic are The

Celestine Prophecy, by James Redfield (1994), and The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown (2003).

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Pseudoscience, on the other hand, preserves the ancient,irrational, unobjective modes of thought which have given risemosto superstition and to most of thefanciful and mistaken ideas about man and nature... from voodoo to racism; from the flat earth to the house-

shaped universe with God in the attic, from doing rain dances to torturing and brutalizing the mentally ill to drive out the demons that possess them. Pseudoscience encourages you to believe anything you want, and supplies many examples ofspecious "arguments" by which

you can fool yourself into thinking your belief has some validity, despite all the facts being to the contrary.

One of the features of pseudoscience is that any particular pseudoscience somehow involves almost all the other pseudosciences. Thus, someone who believes that flying saucers exist and are piloted by space aliens might also claim to communicate with the aliens via a Ouija board*; a spirit medium who is supposedly communicating with spirits of the dead might also claim to be a "psychic" who can read

living minds and foretell the future. The explanation for this continuum is that pseudoscience is a manifestation of an entire

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overwhelming job. A typical reporter asked to write an article on astrology thinks he has done a thorough job if he interviews six astrologers and one astronomer. The astronomer says it's all total bunk; the six astrologers say it's great stuff and really works and for

$50 they'll be glad to cast anyone's horoscope. Everything in pseudoscience seems to generate something for sale; look for courses

in how to remember past lives, how to do remote viewing, how to hunt for ghosts, how to become a prophet, how to heal yourself of any disease mentally, how to get the angels on your side, how to... you name it, you got it... but pay up first.

It is, unfortunately, vital for each citizen to learn to distinguish carefully between science and pseudoscience. In a democracy, every

voter must be capable of seeking and recognizing authentic sources of information. Pseudoscience often strikes educated,rational people as

sensibility; penetrating the health professions it dooms thousands to unnecessary death or suffering; penetrating religion, it generates fanaticism, intolerance, and holy war; penetrating the communications media, it makes it nearly impossible for voters to obtain factual information on public issues of extreme importance.

So, to overcome illusion we have to resort to a bit of critical thinking the goal of which is to arrive at the most reasonable beliefs and take the most reasonable actions.

Notes:

*A Quija board(correctly pronounced "wee-jah" /wiʤə/ although often pronounced "wee-gee" ) is any flat surface printed with letters,

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11. Найдите слова, выделенные жирным шрифтом в тексте,

заполните столбцы «Science»или «Psuedoscience»,

сопоставьте их с существительными. Объяснитезначение словосочетаний.

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13. Заполните пропуски, используя слова из правой колонки предыдущего упражнения.

1.His evidence was all just ……………………. .

2.It is the great ……………………. about the web-enabled future:

that the internet will, by its nature, set us free.

3. With the help of their sophisticated equipment, they have gathered the reliable technical data that makes ……………………… a less easy to dismiss.

4.he may not yet be a household name, but her work provides a rare and compelling ………………………. into the lives of children and young people growing up in 21st-century Britain.

5.Saddam Hussein was confronted with video evidence of his

……………. as part of CIA efforts to get him to talk. Atrocities

6.One of the great strengths of science is that it is comfortable with

being wrong. When a researcher proposes a ……………………. that fails to be confirmed by the data, there may be disappointment but

there is no dishonour – so long, that is, as he or she accepts the evidence and moves on.

14. Почему лженаука может создать проблемы для общества? Определите пять факторов.

1.………………………………………………………………..

2.………………………………………………………………..

3.………………………………………………………………..

4.……………………………………………………………….

5.……………………………………………………………….

6.Сравните: Science vs. Pseudoscience

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16. Прочитайте комментарии об освоении космического пространства и обсудите их.

1.Space exploration is ridiculously expensive, considering how little we get for the money wasted on it.

2.It's stimulating to think about what exists beyond, but what are the chances of getting something useful out of space exploration? It should be scaled down.

3.We've got our priorities wrong. It's about time science turned

its eye back to this planet and set about doing something about poverty, disease and pollution. Once we've sorted out our own problems, let the exploration continue.

4. The equivalent of exploration in the 21st century often has more to do with overcoming physical challenges than discovering the unknown.

17. Прочитайте и переведите текст.

Exploration through the ages

New discoveries in science will continue to create a thousand new frontiers for those who still would favour adventure.

Herbert Hoover, American President

One of the key reasons for early explorations was probably the need to find food or to move away from areas where climate change caused environmental changes. While modern technology allows water to be stored so that people can stay in areas for longer periods of

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time, this would not have been so in prehistoric times. When the water ran out, it would be time to move on.

Many of the earliest explorations were therefore probably

knowledge of the area grew. Later in the 15th-16th century the

they had little idea of what exactly they had achieved. They, like many others, stumbled there thinking they had in fact found just another small island.

Often the explorations of a curious traveller would open the eyes of others to new things that might then be used in their home, country. The success of Marco Polo’s expeditions to Italy, Asia and

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exotic goods, as well as by the need to find faster trade routes. Several governments negotiated treaties so that their nationals could trade in other countries.

Massive changes were now taking place in Europe, with new ideas affecting many traditional areas of life. Politics, economics,

Why should mankind explore space? Perhaps the best answer lies in our genetic makeup as human beings. Our distant ancestors moved from the trees into the plains, and on into all possible areas and

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environments to ensure the success and continuation of not just our own genes, but of the species as a whole. The wider the distribution of a species, the better its chance of survival. Perhaps the best reasons for

exploring space is this genetic predisposition to expand wherever possible.

Nearly every successful civilisation has explored, because by doing so, any dangers in surrounding areas can be identified and prepared for. These might be enemies in neighbouring cultures, physical features of the area, a change in the area which might affect

food supplies, or any number of other factors. They all pose a real danger, and all can be made less threatening if certain preparations are made. Without knowledge, we may be completely destroyed by the danger. With knowledge, we can lessen its effects.

Exploration also allows minerals and other potential resources to be located. Additional resources are always beneficial when used wisely, and can increase our chances of survival. Even if we have no immediate need of them, they will perhaps be useful later.

Resources may be more than physical assets. Knowledge or techniques acquired through exploration, or preparing to explore, filter from the developers into society at large. The techniques may have medical applications which can improve the length or quality of our lives. Techniques may be social, allowing members of society better to understand those within or outside the culture. Better understanding

saved many lives - in satellites used for weather forecasting and in communications systems. Even non-stick saucepans and mirrored sunglasses are by-products of technological developments in the space industry!

While many resources are spent on what seems a small return,

the exploration of space allows creative, brave and intelligent members of our species to focus on what may serve to save us. While

space may hold many wonders and explanations of how the universe was formed or how it works, it also holds dangers. The chances of a large comet or asteroid hitting the Earth are small, but it could happen in time. Such strikes in the past may account for the extinction of

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