Английский язык (Магистратура). Учебное пособие

dinosaurs and other species. Human technology is reaching the point where it might be able to detect the possibility of this happening, and enable us to minimise the damage, or prevent it completely, allowing us as a species to avoid extinction. The danger exists, but knowledge can help human beings to survive. Without the ability to reach out

eventually force us to find other places to live. While Earth is the only planet known to sustain life, surely the adaptive ability of humans would allow us to inhabit other planets and moons. It is true that the lifestyle would be different, but human life and cultures have adapted in the past and surely could in the future.

The morea culture expands, the less chance there is that it will become extinct. Space allows us to expand and succeed: for the sake of everyone on the Earth, now and in the future, space exploration is essential.

18. Закончите предложения, перефразируя информацию в тексте.

Prehistoric exploration often resulted from

……………………………………. .

Exploration in the Middle East appears to have been caused by ………………. .

Polynesian exploration was encouraged by

…………………………………….. .

Sea exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries was helped by ………………….. .

Viking travellers illustrate a change from

………………………………………. . The Vikings of North America showed a misunderstanding of .………………… . Marco Polo's travels encouraged

……………………………………………… .

For perhaps the first time, many explorers of the 15th and 16th centuries were interested in

……………………………….. .

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The 18th century saw an interest in

……………………………… .

Many 18th century voyages were intended

…………………………….. .

A newly significant factor in 20th century exploration was

……………………. .

19. Определите шесть факторов исследований в Европе

15-16 вв. Начните с:

desire to find ………………………………….

need for states to ……………………………………..

necessity to provide food for

………………………………….

increasing specialisation of ………………………………

necessity for raw materials ……………………………

need for various spices ………………………………

20. Назовите три причины для исследования космоса, упомянутых автором.

It is natural for us to do so.

We may find new sources of food. It will help us to prevent earthquakes.

It has side-effects that improve the quality of our lives. It may enable us to find alternative homes.

We will discover whether other planets are inhabited.

21. Напишите резюме “Reasons for exploring space”, следуя предложенной структуре (около 100 слов).

One reason for exploring space is…………………………….. . Exploration will allow us to ……………………………. . It is possible that ……………………………... Further, exploration might

…………………………………... It will make it possible for us to

………………………………….. .

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22. Подготовьте презентацию на одну из следующих тем и представьте её.

A scientific breakthrough, an invention or a discovery that has revolutionised the way we live (both positive and negative consequences of it).

Current scientific research that is likely to affect our life in the near future.

Scientific research and governmental control over it: is science subject to tighter public control?

The first cloned sheep - Dolly (1997)→ cloning a human: Should we do this, and Can we? Ethical and moral sides of this issue.

Nanotechnology: a fakeor panacea?

The way science fiction films portray human cloning: issues raised and discussed.

Curious inventions in Guiness Book of World Records. Their practical value.

23. Прочитайте и переведите текст.

The other population crisis

A. It is an unquestioned principle that has dominated international thinking for decades: we live in an overcrowded world teeming with billions of humans who are destined to suffocate our cities and squeeze our planet of its precious resources. Our species is inexorably wrecking Earth: flooding valleys, cutting down forests and destroying the habitats of animals and plants faster than scientists can classify them. Our future is destined to be nasty, brutish, and cramped.

В. Or is it? Now, it seems, population analysts have suddenly started to question the 'self-evident' truth that we are destined eventually to drown under our own weight. While accepting that populations will continue to rise, they point out that this rise will not

be nearly as steep or as long-lasting as was once feared. They even claim they can envisage the day when world population numbers will

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fertility rates stood at about six children per woman. Today the average is 2.9 and falling. Such a rate will still see the world's population increase to nine billion by 2050, a rise of fifty per cent on today's figure. That is not good news for the planet, but it is far less alarming than the projections of fifteen billion that were once being made. More to the point, statisticians predict that after 2050 the number of humans will go down. Such trends raise two key questions.

Why has the rise in world populations started to die out so dramatically? And what will be the consequences of this decline?

D. Answers to the first question depend largely on locality. In Europe, for example, couples will have only one or two children when

they might have had three or four in the past. There are various reasons for this. Social analysts pin it on some jumble of female education and fiscal autonomy, secularization, birth control, Sex and

the City, a heightened desire for personal freedom, and increasing uncertainty about bringing a child into a world plagued by terrorism, and global warming. In a hyper-individualistic, ultra-commodified culture like ours, parenthood, for better and worse, is less a fact of life than just another lifestyle choice.Women now have their own career options, and are no longer considered failures if they do not marry and

produce children in their twenties or thirties. This has taken a substantial number out of the pool of potential mothers. In addition, parents have aspirations for their offspring, choices not available to past generations but which cost money, for example, higher education

and travel.

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numbers, and it is expected that its population will peak at 1.5 billion by 2019 then go into steep decline. Some analysts suggest the country could lose twenty to thirty per cent of its population every generation. There is also the exodus from the countryside, a trek happening across the globe. Soon half the world's population will have urban homes. But in cities, children become a cost rather than an asset for helping to work the land, and again pressures mount for people to cut the size of their families.

F. Some more nebulous and disputable factors are worth mentioning. Infertility is killing off the secular world. In some countries, where atheism reigned as state policy for generations, the United Nations forecasts extreme declines in population by 2050, ranging, for example, from 22 % for Russia to nearly 50 % for the Ukraine. Secular Western Europe will lose 4 % to 12 % of its population, while the population of the churchgoing United States continues to grow. Is secularism at fault? The numbers do not suggest otherwise. Secularism promotes a more short term and hedonistic attitude towards life. Since secular people have little faith in God or an afterlife, the tendency is for them to adopt the attitude of “Eat, drink

and be merry, for tomorrow we die”. Of course, not all secular people are like that. But in general, secularism promotes such attitudes.

G.The impact of all this is harder to gauge. In Europe,

demographers forecast a major drop in the numbers who will work and earn money, while the population of older people - who need support and help - will soar. So, the urging by a British politician that

it is the patriotic duty of women to have children makes sense. There will be no workforce if people do not have children. At present the median age of people is twenty-six; within a hundred years, if current

mainstream economists are pessimistic. On the other hand, it is clear that reduced human numbers can only be good for the planet in the long term. Until we halt the spread of our own species, the destruction

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of the last great wildernesses, such as the Amazon, will continue. Just after the last Ice Age, there were only a few hundred thousand humans on Earth. Since then the population has grown ten thousandfold. Such a growth rate, and our imperfect attempts to control it, are bound to lead us into an uncertain future.

24. Кратко запишите заголовок для каждого абзаца и обобщающее предложение к нему.

Example:

Paragraph A - The accepted view of the future. The writer outlines gloomy consequences of the overpopulation.

Paragraph В, C etc.

25.Круглый стол.

Research Work. Look for the information on the following TOPIC in various sources of information.

Economic and social causes of low birth rates in Russia.

The relevant issues may be useful to consider while discussing the TOPIC:

Financial and social incentives that the Russian

issue. Younger generation opinions on the issue.

Large families is the way out of the population crisis?

Modern families: a profile of a typical family, its living habits, challenges, prospects.

Arrange the information in the written form.

Choose a CHAIRPERSON to lead the discussion.

CONTRIBUTE to the discussion.

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Strategy Point for panel discussion

Voice opinions you are a party to.

Take turns to practise reporting your ideas on the issue. When you report ideas in discussion, you must not read your

source material. It is more usual to summarise or paraphrase the ideas in your own words.

Listen carefully to the other students’ reports on their reading and make notes on the key points.

Respond to the arguments of the participants with your own ideas. You have to take care to make it very clear to your listeners when you are expressing your own opinions, and when you are reporting ideas you have read or heard about.

Use a repertoire of expressions for voicing strong agreement, disagreement, and all the shades of opinion in between.

26. Прочитайте и переведите текст.

A

A high proportion of employers appear to favour genetic testing of employees. The aim is to identify workers at risk of developing jobrelated illnesses and those likely to suffer from heart disease, who may retire early.

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B

Artificial intelligence is on its way. Currently, a small personal computer has about the same power as an insect's brain. On present trends, however, within fifteen years a small PC will have as much computing power as a human brain.

C

Studies on mice indicated that increasing the metabolic rate and eliminating free radicals from the body made them live significantly longer. Applied to humans, the increased life spanwould mean an extra thirty years of life.

D

Scientists may one day be able to reduce the power of hurricanes, or move them onto a different course. This could be done

by changing the temperatures in and around the hurricane, possibly using solar power beamed in from orbiting satellites.

E

Stem cells could be taken from a human ovary and re-implanted many years later. This would enable a woman to freeze the cells when she is young, with the option of giving birth when she is much older - possibly in her sixties.

27. Определите проблемные вопросы по каждому пункту. Следуйте приведенному примеру (пункт А).

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Arguing for: I think it's a good idea because ..., There's a lot to be said

for it, for instance ...

Arguing against: I'm completely against it because ..., There are too

many drawbacks/dangers such as ...

Hedging: I'm not sure. You could say..., but..., it's hard to say. One

way of looking at it is..., but...

28. Прочитайте и переведите текст.

What is a report?

All reports have the same purpose: to convey information. Reports differ from essays in two main ways. The purpose of a report is to

convey information, while the purpose of an essay is to demonstrate your knowledge of the subject and writing skills. The information in a report will usually be new to the reader, while the information in an essay may already be known.

There are two basic kinds of report.

Informational reports tell the reader about a topic. They present information without analysis or recommendations. The report writer’s task is to select and emphasize the relevant facts clearly and concisely.

Analytical reports tell the reader to do something. They analyse and interpret data and make recommendations. The report writer’s task is to select and emphasise the facts and arguments that support the recommendations.

One of the first questions to ask yourself is: What kind of report are you writing?

Preparing a report. The process of preparing a report begins long before you begin writing. The key questions to begin with are: What is the purpose of your report? Who is the report written for?

What are the key points of information that you want your reader to take away?

Sections of a report. Formal reports also take many forms depending on the field and topic. Many companies and organizations have their own house styles for reports. Formal reports are usually divided into sections with numbered headings. Although report formats vary, most reports contain the following sections.

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Title page. Apart from the title of the report, which should give a clear idea of the topic of the report, a title page usually includes: your name and position, the name of the person or group that the report is addressed to, the date.

Contents. The contents page should list the main section headings of the report with page numbers. It may also list the tables and figures in the report.

Introduction. The introduction explains the background to the report, its purpose and the points covered. A good introduction will be short and will help to guide the reader.

Main body. The main body of the report should contain a clear

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