Английский язык для студентов магистратуры = English for master's degree students. В 2 частях. Ч. 1. Учебное пособие

On the voyage, Darwin made copious notes about specimens1 he found on his voyages. In particular, at the Galapagos Islands 500 miles west of South America, Darwin was struck by how the Finch2 was different on each individual island. He noticed that the Finch had somehow adapted to the different aspects of the particular island.

Over the next 20 years, Darwin worked on the dilemma of how species3 evolve and can end up being quite different on different islands. Influenced by the work of Malthus4, Darwin came up with a theory of natural selection and gradual evolution over time. “In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals5 because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment6”— he wrote.

Darwin continued to refine his theory, and would intensively breed7 plants to work on his theories. However, realising how controversial8 his ideas were, Darwin delayed publishing them. It was not until learning that another naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace9, had developed similar ideas, that Darwin was galvanised10 into publishing his own book.

In 1859, the ground-breaking “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection”11 was published. It immediately gained widespread interest and attention, leading to intense debate about the contention12 that man — by implication13 was descended from animals like the Ape. “Owing to this struggle for life, any variation, however slight and from

1specimen [ˈspesɪmən] — образец, экземпляр.

2finch [fɪnʧ] — зяблик, вьюрок.

3species [ˈspiːʃiːz] — вид, род, разновидность.

4Malthus [mælˈθjuːz] — Thomas Robert Malthus — То́мас Ро́берт Ма́льтус (1766–1834) —

английский священник и учёный, демограф и экономист.

5rival [ˈraɪvəl] — соперник, конкурент.

6environment [ɪnˈvaɪərənmənt] — окружающая среда.

7to breed [briːd] — разводить, выращивать.

8controversial [kɒntrəˈvɜːʃəl] — спорный, противоречивый, дискуссионный.

9Alfred Russel Wallace [ˈælfrɪd] [rʌsl] [ˈwɒlɪs] — Альфред Рассел Уоллес (1823–1913) —

британский натуралист, путешественник, географ, биолог и антрополог.

10to be galvanised [ˈgælvənaɪzd] — (зд.) воодушевиться, оживиться.

11“On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection” — “О происхождении видов путем естественного отбора”.

12contention [kənˈtenʃn] — спор, разногласие, конфликт.

13by implication [baɪ ɪmplɪˈkeɪʃn] — косвенно, по смыслу.

51

whatever cause proceeding1, if it be in any degree profitable to an individual of any species, in its infinitely complex relationship to other organic beings and to external nature, will tend to the preservation of that individual, and will generally be inherited2 by its offspring3” (Charles Darwin, Origin of Species (1859).

However, by the time he died on 19 April 1882, his ideas had increasingly become accepted — at least by the scientific and nonreligious society. He was given a state burial at Westminster Abbey4.

Darwin's Religious Beliefs

Darwin was brought up in the Church of England5, and at one point was being trained to be an Anglican priest. Like many of his generation, he took the Bible as the literal word of God, and often quoted it as a source of moral authority. However, after his epic voyage to South America, he become doubtful of the Bible as a source of history; he also felt no reason why all religions couldn't be true.

From 1849, he stopped going to church, though he never considered himself to be an atheist. He felt that “agnostic” suited his beliefs more closely. He wrote in his autobiography that he eventually gave up Christianity as he disagreed with the conclusion that all non-believers spend eternity in hell.

“I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished”.

He was politically liberal, being an opponent of slavery. He experienced the brutality of how people treated their slaves in a Spanish colony.

1proceeding [prəˈsiːdɪŋ] — продолжающийся.

2to be inherited — передаваться по наследству.

3offspring [ˈɒfsprɪŋ] — отпрыск, потомок.

4He was given a state burial at Westminster Abbey. — Он был торжественно похоронен

вВестминстерском аббатстве.

5the Church of England — Англиканская церковь.

52

“I have watched how steadily the general feeling, as shown at elections, has been rising against Slavery. What a proud thing for England if she is the first European nation which utterly abolishes it!”. (Letter to

J.S. Henslow (March 1834).

VOCABULARY WORK

Task 3.2. Find in the text the English equivalents for the following Russian words and phrases:

1.Естествоиспытатель

2.Теория эволюции и естественного отбора

3.Низшие формы жизни

4.Исследование

5.Публикация

6.Научное сообщество

7.Интеллектуал

8.Изучать медицину

9.Проявить большой интерес

10.Могущественная сила в обществе

11.Свидетельство, доказательство

12.Делать заметки (записи)

13.Образец

14.Приспосабливаться к чему-либо

15.Вид

16.Борьба за выживание

17.Окружающая среда

18.Совершенствовать теорию

19.Разводить растения

20.Работать над теорией

21.Разрабатывать (развивать) идею

22.Органические существа

23.Наследовать

24.Убеждение (вера)

53

Task 3.3. Find a match between a word and its translation, make up your own sentences with these words

READING AND SPEAKING

Task 3.4. Read the text again for detail and answer the questions:

1.What was Charles Darwin?

2.When and where was Charles Darwin born?

3.In what family was Charles Darwin born?

4.Where did he study?

5.Was Charles Darwin a great student? What did he prefer to do while studying?

6.What place was he offered after graduation?

7.What did Charles Darwin do on the voyage to the coast of South America?

8.What dilemma did Darwin work over the next 20 years after his voyage?

9.What scientist influenced Darwin to come up with his theory? How was the theory called? What is the main idea of this theory?

54

10.What did Darwin do to refine his theory? Why did not he publish his work at once? When did he do it?

11.What Darwin book was published in 1859? Why did it gain widespread interest and attention?

12.What tends to the preservation of the individual according to

Darin?

13.When did Charles Darwin die? Where was he buried?

14.Why do you think his ideas had increasingly become accepted by the scientific and non-religious society? Are they popular now? Do you accept his ideas?

Task 3.5. Decide whether the statements below agree with the information in the text. In boxes choose

1. Charles Dickens was the grandson of Josiah Wedgwood the famous furniture manufacturer.

Your answer

2. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh but found lectures dull.

Your answer

3. Darwin was a great student, preferring to spend time in the library of the University.

Your answer

55

4. Darwin became an enthusiastic Beetle collector — which was a craze at the time.

Your answer

5. His father sent him to Christ’s College, Cambridge with the intention of training him as an Anglican parson. He later gave up Christianity.

Your answer

6. His five-year voyage on HMS Beagle established him as an eminent geologist and popular writer. His observations would be used to develop his theory of evolution.

Your answer

7. Darwin and Wallace’s theories on evolution were both presented on the same day in 1858 to the Linnean Society of London.

Your answer

8. Seven months after the publication of “Origin of Species” the famous 1860 Oxford evolution debate occurred between Thomas Henry Huxley and Bishop Samuel Wilberforce. The debate is considered to be a great moment in natural history — and a key moment in the acceptance of evolution.

Your answer

56

READING AND WTITING

Task 3.6. “An Essay Evaluating a Notable Person”. Write a full onepage essay describing the life of a notable or prominent person. Your essay should include information from at least three sources: internet, non-fiction books, or encyclopedia (https://www.biographyonline.net/scientists/ inventors.html; https://www.britannica.com/). In addition, you may have a photo illustration or collage of pictures of your notable person. As you write your essay, follow the suggested format below and include the following information:

Paragraph 1

Tell the date and place where your person was born and raised. Describe his or her early life. Tell about what kind of person he or she was. What qualities did your person possess that helped him or her to succeed? Did your person know what he or she wanted to become in the future? How did he or she prepare for his or her future?

Paragraph 2

Tell about the work your person did. Tell why his or her work was important, and what his or her contribution was. Did he or she invent something or teach others? How did he or she change the world? What lasting effects did your person have on the lives of others?

Paragraph 3

Discuss three to four personality traits that helped make this person achieve his or her goal. What problems did this person have to overcome? Were there people and / or events that helped this person realize his or her dream? Explain how these people / events influenced the person.

Paragraph 4

What should everyone know about your person? How do we as a society benefit today from his or her contributions? What do you think was the most impressive thing about your character?

Paragraph 5

Tell how your character has inspired others. In what ways would someone want to be like him or her? How are you and this person alike? Different? Give specific examples. What is your overall impression of this notable person? Is he or she still alive today? If not, when did he or she die?

57

Task 3.7. Read and summarize the following texts.

Note: use the Structure of the Summary presented in task 3.6 unit 1.

Text A. John Dewey1

• Early Life

John Dewey was born on October 20, 1859, to Archibald Dewey and Lucina Artemisia Rich in Burlington, Vermont. He was the third of the couple’s four sons, one of whom died as an infant. Dewey’s mother, the daughter of a wealthy farmer, was a devout Calvinist. His father, a merchant, left his grocery business to become a Union Army soldier in the

Civil War. John Dewey’s father was known to share his passion for British literature with his offspring. After the war, Archibald became the proprietor of a successful tobacco shop, affording the family a comfortable life and financial stability.

Growing up, John Dewey attended Burlington public schools, excelling as a student. When he was just 15 years old, he enrolled at the University of Vermont, where he particularly enjoyed studying philosophy under the tutelage of H.A.P. Torrey. Four years later, Dewey graduated from the University of Vermont second in his class.

• Teaching Career

The autumn after Dewey graduated, his cousin landed him a teaching job at a seminary in Oil City, Pennsylvania. Two years later, Dewey lost the position when his cousin resigned as principal of the seminary.

After being laid off, Dewey went back to Vermont and started teaching at a private school in Vermont. During his free time, he read philosophical treatises and discussed them with his former teacher, Torrey. As his fascination with the topic grew, Dewey decided to take a break from teaching in order to study philosophy and psychology at Johns Hopkins. George Sylvester Morris and G. Stanley Hall were among the teachers there who influenced Dewey most.

1 From “Biography. John Dewey”. — URL: http://www.biography.com/people/john-dewey- 9273497.

58

Upon receiving his doctorate from Johns Hopkins in 1884, Dewey was hired as an assistant professor at the University of Michigan. At Michigan he met Harriet Alice Chipman, and the two married in 1886. Over the course of their marriage, they would give birth to six children and adopt one child.

In 1888 Dewey and his family left Michigan for the University of Minnesota, where he was a professor of philosophy. However, within a year, they chose to return to the University of Michigan, where Dewey taught for the next five years.

By 1894 Dewey was made head of the philosophy department at the University of Chicago. He remained at the University of Chicago until 1904, also serving as director of its School of Education for two years.

Dewey left Chicago in 1904 to join the Ivy League, becoming a professor of philosophy at Columbia University while working at Teachers College on the side.

In 1930, Dewey left Columbia and retired from his teaching career with the title of professor emeritus.

• Dewey’s philosophy

Dewey’s philosophical treatises were at first inspired by his reading of philosopher and psychologist William James’ writing. Dewey’s philosophy, known as experimentalism, or instrumentalism, largely centered on human experience. Rejecting the more rigid ideas of Transcendentalism to which Dewey had been exposed in academia, it viewed ideas as tools for experimenting, with the goal of improving the human experience.

Dewey’s philosophy also claimed than man behaved out of habit and that change often led to unexpected outcomes. As man struggled to understand the results of change, he was forced to think creatively in order to resume control of his shifting environment. For Dewey, thought was the means through which man came to understand and connect with the world around him. A universal education was the key to teaching people how to abandon their habits and think creatively.

59

• Education Reform

John Dewey was a strong proponent for progressive educational reform. He believed that education should be based on the principle of learning through doing.

In 1894 Dewey and his wife Harriet started their own experimental primary school, the University Elementary School, at the University of Chicago. His goal was to test his educational theories, but Dewey resigned when the university president fired Harriet.

In 1919, John Dewey, along with his colleagues Charles Beard, Thorstein Veblen, James Harvey Robinson and Wesley Clair Mitchell, founded The New School for Social Research. The New School is a progressive, experimental school that emphasizes the free exchange of intellectual ideas in the arts and social sciences.

During the 1920s, Dewey lectured on educational reform at schools all over the world. He was particularly impressed by experiments in the Russian educational system and shared what he learned with his colleagues when he returned to the States: that education should focus mainly on students’ interactions with the present. Dewey did not, however, dismiss the value of also learning about the past.

In the 1930s, after he retired from teaching, Dewey became an active member of numerous educational organizations, including the New York Teachers Guild and the International League for Academic Freedom.

• Writing

Dewey wrote his first two books, Psychology (1887) and Leibniz’s

New Essays Concerning the Human Understanding (1888), when he was working at the University of Michigan. Over the course of his lifetime, Dewey published more than 1,000 works, including essays, articles and books. His writing covered a broad range of topics: psychology, philosophy, educational theory, culture, religion and politics. Through his articles in The New Republic, he established himself as one of the most highly regarded social commentators of his day. Dewey continued to write prolifically up until his death.

60