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Файл:English for Postgraduates. Практикум
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Summarising
At the end of your presentation, you should summarise
your talk and remind the audience of what you have told them:
“That brings me to the end of my presentation. I’ve talked
about…”
“Well, that’s about it for now. We’ve covered…”
“So, that was our marketing strategy. In brief, we…”
“To summarise, I…”
Relate the end of your presentation to your opening
statement:
“So I hope that you’re a little clearer on how we can achieve
sales growth of 20%.”
“To return to the original question, we can achieve…”
“So just to round the talk off, I want to go back to the
beginning when I asked you…”
“I hope that my presentation today will help you with what I
said at the beginning…”
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Handling questions
Thank the audience for their attention and invite
questions.
“Thank you for listening – and now if there are any questions, I
would be pleased to answer them.”
“That brings me to the end of my presentation. Thank you for
your attention. I’d be glad to answer any questions you might
have.”
It’s useful to re-word the question, as you can check that
you have understood the question and you can give yourself
some time to think of an answer. By asking the question again
you also make sure that other people in the audience understand
the question.
“Thank you. So you would like further clarification on our
strategy?”
“That’s an interesting question. How are we going to get
voluntary redundancy?”
“Thank you for asking. What is our plan for next year?”
After you have answered your question, check that the
person who asked you is happy with the answer.
“Does this answer your question?”
“Do you follow what I am saying?”
“I hope this explains the situation for you.”
“I hope this was what you wanted to hear!”
If you don’t know the answer to a question, say you don’t
know. It’s better to admit to not knowing something than to
guess and maybe get it wrong. You can say something like:
“That’s an interesting question. I don’t actually know off the
top of my head, but I’ll try to get back to you later with an
answer.”
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“I’m afraid I’m unable to answer that at the moment. Perhaps I
can get back to you later.”
“Good question. I really don’t know! What do you think?”
“That’s a very good question. However, we don’t have any
figures on that, so I can’t give you an accurate answer.”
“Unfortunately, I’m not the best person to answer that.”
What to say if things go wrong during your presentation
You think you’ve lost your audience? Rephrase what you
have said:
“Let me just say that in another way.”
“Perhaps I can rephrase that.”
“Put another way, this means…”
“What I mean to say is…”
Can’t remember the word?
If it’s a difficult word for you – one that you often forget,
or one that you have difficulty pronouncing – you should write
it on your index card. Pause briefly, look down at your index
card and say the word.
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How To Read and Translate a Text
Translation of the text
The main form of technical translation is written
translation, the work on which can be divided into a number of
successive stages:
1) visual or auditory acquaintance with technical
material - reading a text without a dictionary in order to
familiarize and try to understand the main meaning of the text,
its structure and the presence of unfamiliar words in it.
2) understanding and meaningful analysis (text markup)
- splitting the text into logically distinguished parts, while
identifying complex constructions, phrases, phrases and terms.
For this purpose, the text is read repeatedly and slowly. The
meaning of each sentence is determined by the group of subject
and predicate. The subject area is determined by terms, the
meaning of which is established by the dictionary.
3) translation into the native language - stylistic editing.
When selecting a part of the text for translation, it should be
borne in mind that the size of this part is determined by three
factors: semantic completeness, the complexity of the content
and the capabilities of the translator's memory. Such a part can
be a complex sentence or a group of sentences, a paragraph or a
little more. The more complex the text, the smaller this part.
When the content of the selected part is translated and
assimilated, it needs to be expressed in Russian. And it is very
important at the same time to completely distract from the
original text when writing the content of this part. If we look into
the text, both semantic and stylistic errors are inevitable.
Stylistic editing should be guided by the following:
If the same idea can be expressed in different ways,
preference is given to the option that is shorter.
If a word of foreign origin can be replaced with native
Russian without prejudice to the meaning, then it must be done.
All terms and names must be strictly unambiguous
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4) translation of the title.
The following types of headings can be found in modern
technical literature:
a) in the form of an interrogative sentence; in this case,
the title of the interrogative character is translated into Russian
in the form of a narrative sentence.
b) in the form of an exclamation sentence; these headings
are translated into Russian by both exclamation and narrative
sentences.
In accordance with the requirements for the style and
norms of translation accepted in Russian scientific and technical
literature, the title should be clear, concise and not contain any
advertising.
However, despite the common features of the texts of
scientific and technical style in English and Russian, a kind of
stylistic adaptation occurs during translation: specific means of
presentation in the original are replaced by language means that
meet the requirements of this style in the translation.
1) Combining sentences, as a result of which two or more
simple sentences of the English original correspond to one
complex (complex) sentence in the Russian translation.
2) In the English text, personal verb forms prevail,
whereas the Russian scientific style is more characterized by
impersonal or vaguely personal turns.
3) In English descriptive texts, the future tense is often
used to express an ordinary action. Guided by the context, such
sentences should be translated not by the future, but by the
present tense, sometimes with a modal shade.
Nanocomposites will be wear-resistant. Nanocomposites
are wear-resistant materials.
4) In English texts, passive phrases are especially
common, whereas in Russian the passive voice is used much less
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often. When translating, we must resort to replacing passive
constructions with other means of expression more
characteristic of the Russian language (active voice and vaguely
personal sentences). A sentence with a verb predicate in the
passive voice New alternative sources of energy were discussed
at the conference can be translated into Russian in different
constructions: Alternative energy sources were discussed at the
conference. Alternative energy sources were discussed at the
conference. Alternative energy sources were discussed at the
conference. The conference discussed alternative energy
sources.
5) Some words or expressions in the English text are
caused by extralinguistic factors and contain an alien foreignlanguage image and differences in the division of reality. When
translating, they (usually measures of time, space, numbers and
color values) should be replaced by analogues, that is,
expressions corresponding in meaning, but more familiar in
form for the Russian text.
Two in the morning two o'clock in the morning, six
weeks a month and a half, 18 months a year and a half, ninety
minutes an hour and a half, 24 hours a day, around the clock
around the clock, etc. Numbers: 6 a half dozen / half a dozen; a/
one dozen (24 is 2 dozen, not dozens); 20 a / one score; 144 a /
one gross; foot /feet, inch, pound, span, fathom, league, guinea.
6) Scientific speech is characterized by a complicated
syntax and uses complex syntactic constructions with
composition and subordination, complicated simple sentences,
burdened with various isolated turns (constructions with
infinitive, gerund and participles). The requirement for the logic
and reasonableness of the presentation of information
determines the detailed development of cause-and-effect
relationships, the burden of participial and adverbial turns,
parallel constructions, homogeneous terms. Elliptical
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(incomplete sentences) are frequent in English, and non–
consecutive one-part sentences are frequent in Russian.
7) The non-emotionality of the scientific and technical
text is ensured by the use of neutral words, but there is no
complete ban on emotional and figurative use, especially in the
English style, where colloquial phrases and figurative metaphors
are often used. In Russian, such expressive uses should be
replaced with neutral ones.
The launch of the Tesla roadster demonstrated that
electric cars do not have to be slouches. With the advent of Tesla
roadsters, it became clear that electric cars do not necessarily
have to be "nags".
8) The author's "I" in the English text should be replaced
when translated into Russian either by a sentence with a passive
turnover, or by a collective "we", thus ensuring the unity of a
neutral style:
I want to use building materials as an illustration of how
the three major kinds of nanotechnology that I have described in
Chapter 2 actually manifest themselves in practice. We use
building materials as an illustration of how the three main
nanotechnologies previously described in Chapter 2 manifest
themselves in practice.
9) When translating, English verbs are often replaced by
nouns.
Thus, the main dominants in the translation of scientific
and technical text are terms, general scientific vocabulary
without evaluative coloring, verb forms of the present tense,
passive verb constructions, indefinite-personal and impersonal
structures, complex words, word-formation models with
complex semantics, expression of the process through a noun,
abbreviation, numbers, formulas, schemes, an abundance of
means of cohesion. The unit of translation is a word, and for
some complex words it is a morpheme. The most common types
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of correspondences are unambiguous equivalent, variant
correspondence.
OPTIONS FOR BUILDING HIGH SPEED RAIL
INTRODUCTION
All over the world, governments of different political
orientation are investing in high-speed rail (HSR) infrastructure.
In some countries the enthusiasm is more intense than in others.
UK and the US are now closer to building HSR infrastructure
but until now they have been reluctant to give the definitive
approval, and the money allocated to HSR has not gone beyond
financing the cost of the evaluation of its economic and financial
viability. Other countries, like France and Spain, have been
keener on HSR than other European countries like Norway or
Sweden, for example, whose governments are still studying
whether this type of investment is socially worthy. Spain is a
unique case because with much less traffic density than other
countries (and much less congestion) in the conventional rail
network, it is going to very soon be one of the first countries in
the world measured in HSR kilometers.
Other countries have chosen alternative ways of
improving the intercity passenger rail services. UK and Sweden,
for example, upgraded their conventional rail using their
conventional network, increasing speeds on existing tracks up to
200 km per hour, using tilting trains where necessary because of
the curvature of the track. Now, the so-called HS2, between
London and Edinburgh, is under study to introduce a new HSR
track.
HSR performs very well in terms of market share in
corridors of 400-600 km but not as good with other key
parameters that do not reach some minimum thresholds to offset
the high investment costs associated to the construction of this
rail infrastructure. Many lines are heavily subsidized, so high
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load factors and market shares are compatible with a poor social
return. It is not surprising that HSR investment is more popular
among politicians and the general public than among
economists.
There is considerable pressure on governments to build
new high-speed lines as if the investment were a kind of `now or
never´ decision. This does not seem to be the case with this
technology. The construction of HSR infrastructure is
irreversible and there is uncertainty associated with costs and
demand. In these conditions the question of the right moment to
invest is critical as the investment can be postponed in most
cases. Hence, the optimal timing of the investment should be
addressed in the case of a positive Net Present Value (NPV).
Even the idea of `all or nothing´ is false, as it could be profitable
to build a line today and another in the future. Moreover, it is
feasible to build a HSR rail track on parts of the overall line and
use it for traditional trains at the same time as it is prepared for
high-speed services which would operate once demand
motivates building new tracks on missing links. There exist
several `do something´ alternatives.
COMPREHENSION
I Read the text and say if the statements are true or
false:
1. The enthusiasm of governments of different
political orientation to invest in HSR is equally intense.
2. Spain is going to very soon be one of the first
countries in the world measured in HSR kilometers.
3. Alternative ways of improving intercity
passenger rail services include upgrading conventional rail,
increasing speeds on existing tracks, using tilting trains.
4. HSR is popular among politicians, general public
and economists.
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5. There is uncertainty associated with costs and
demand in the construction of HSR infrastructure.
II Answer the questions:
1. What’s the attitude of governments of different
countries to HSR?
2. What are the ways to upgrade the conventional
rail?
3. Why is pressure on governments not consistent
with this technology?
4. What is uncertainty with HSR associated with?
5. Why is the idea of “all or nothing” false?
VOCABULARY
I Translate the italicized phrases into Russian
II Use words and phrases from the text to complete
the sentences:
1. UK and the US have been reluctant to give the
d… a…, and the money allocated to HSR has not gone beyond
financing the cost of the evaluation of its economic and financial
v….
2. Some governments are still studying whether this
type of investment is s… w….
3. There are alternative ways of improving the i…
p… r… such as using u… conventional rail, using their c… n…,
t… t…
4. The question of the right moment to invest is
associated with c… and d…
5. The optimal timing of the investment should be
addressed in the case of a positive N… P… V…
III Match the verbs with the nouns:
Invest in, build, give, measure in, improve, reach,
subsidize, be compatible with, upgrade, use
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