О. М. Ільченко Англійська мова для науковців

Text B. Read the text and be ready to answer the questions about it.

Women form more than 9 percent in the U.S. engineering workforce. Still, engineering is a

the sex of a person is designated by using the appropriate pronoun or possessive adjective. Traditionally, «he» has been used to denote a sexless person, making it a neuter pronoun. A growing consensus, though, no longer accepts this view, so that the way people communicate is changing. In «The Elements of Nonsexist Usage» (1990), Val Dumond writes that pronouns present one of the greatest challenges for avoiding sexism in language. As a first choice, Dumond suggests omitting the pronoun whenever possible. A sentence such as «An engineer should never trust his computer» can be rewritten as «An engineer should never trust a computer». Alternatively, the plural form may be employed, generating in this case «Engineers should never trust a computer».

The most useful rules are to avoid the generic use of man to refer to both men and women, and not to imply gender when it is unnecessary to do so. Make your language inclusive, always give equal treatment to both men and women. If the sex of the subject is not relevant to the matter, it should be omitted.

For dealing with titles and job descriptions, a non-gender-specific form of the word can usually be found. Luckily, the most common terms, such as «scientist», «engineer», or «technician» are already grammatically neuter.

1.What is the subject of the passage?

2.What is one of the tendencies in language usage?

3.What are the strategies of avoiding sexism in language?

4.Give examples of some grammatically neuter terms denoting titles and job descriptions.

Exercise 9. A. The following sentences contain stereotypes of male and female roles. Propose your options to avoid stereotyping:

1.A secretary should be familiar with her duties.

2.Every member of congress will cast his vote.

3.When everyone contributes his ideas, the workshop will be very stimulating.

4.A professor should meet his students regularly.

5.A director will bring his draft.

B. Avoid sexist language by choosing the appropriate options:

1.This problem concerns the whole mankind.

2.My girl will inform committee members of the meeting.

3.Alexandra is a career woman.

4.The policeman arrested the criminal.

5.The common man will suffer most.

6.The professors and their wives attended the meeting.

7.Who is a chairman?

8.To laymen the jargon that hedges such words as WIMP can seem impenetrable.

Exercise 10. Draw a graph based on the following data. Make some predictions for the future if present trends continue.

Women-scientists in the USA (mid 1990s) Percentage of physics PhD's to women — 8 Percentage of mathematics PhD's to women — 19 Percentage of chemistry PhD's to women — 25 Percentage of biology PhD's to women — 38 Percentage of psychology PhD's to women — 56

Exercise 11. Choose the correct word and fill in the blanks.

(to) explain explanation explanatory

1.My assistant will ____ the diagram.

2.There is no ____ for her absense.

3.There are some _____ notes at the end of each unit.

intention intentional

4.I had no ____ of changing my mind.

5.His absence was quite ____.

accurate accuracy

6.His report is _____ in every detail.

7.To be on the safe side, pay special attention to the _____ of calculations.

8.I tried ____answering these questions .

9.We are discussing possible ways of ______ of danger.

10.First, I'll explain how it works ______ then I'll give you a practical demonstration.

11.He is our leading ______

12.It's easy _____ about it.

13.She majors in ____ physics.

14.It's a _____ possibility, but I don't suppose it will happen.

Exercise 12. Read the passage and answer the questions about it.

What is culture? Culture is knowledge, beliefs, and behavior shared by a group of people that is learned and passed on from generation to generation.

It is not possible to say that all Americans share the same culture. It is more accurate to speak about the many cultures of Americans — the U.S. is often described as a «culture of cultures». Yet, even though it is not possible to speak of a single American culture, Americans talk about a «mainstream» U.S. culture that is shared by a majority of Americans.

When Americans describe their culture they may describe an ideal and not a real culture. For example, the following are often given as values of mainstream American culture: independence, hard work, honesty, equality of all persons. While many Americans show these values, there are also times when they do not, i.e. such values often describe an ideal way of living. The history of the USA shows Americans trying to change the values from ideal to real ones, for example, today Americans are continuing their efforts in the area of equality of women's and men's rights.

Sometimes one may overgeneralize particular features of a culture. For example, in southern U.S. «Sir» and «Ma'am» are used more frequently than in other regions, but if you have been only to southern U.S. you may think that this is true for all Americans. Overgeneralizations, called stereotypes, can create a false view of another culture. Some Overgeneralizations are positive, such as «Americans are hardworking and honest», other are negative, such as «Americans appear friendly, but don't really want to have deep relationships». Any stereotype, whether positive or negative, describes a group of people, but not individuals in that group.

Sometimes culture learning, like language learning can be tiring. This tired feeling, or culture fatigue is normal when you adapt to a different culture and language. Sometimes due to fatigue and frustration, some people become too critical of the new culture. The important thing, however, is to remember that adapting to a culture does not mean accepting everything in that culture.

1.What is the best title for the passage?

a.Real and ideal values.

b.Cultural stereotypes.

c.Culture learning.

d.Mainstream culture.

2.The U.S. can be called «a culture of cultures» because

a.Americans are very interested in cultures

b.there are many different cultures in the USA

c.all Americans share the same culture

d.American culture is a single culture

3.Independence, hard work, honesty, equality are:

a.examples of ideal culture for all people

b.examples of ideal American culture

c.examples of real American culture

d.examples of real culture for all people

4.An example of stereotype is

a.most Americans live in the U.S.

b.some Americans say «Ma'am» and «Sir» frequently

c.Americans are friendly, but don't want to have deep relationships

d.many people visit U.S. every year

5.When people are adapting to a new culture they can criticize this culture because:

a.they have to accept everything in the new culture

b.they overgeneralize this culture

c.when people are tired, they may say things they don't really mean

d.they feel homesick

Exercise 13. Choose the one word or phrase that best keeps the meaning of the underlined word or phrase if it is substituted for it:

1.It's rather complicated to explain.

a.easy

b.boring

c.difficult

d.interesting

2.The evidence confirms our predictions.

a.tests

b.proves

c.challenges

d.confines

3.Can we reach a consensus on this issue?

a.solution

b.agreement

c.conclusion

d.decision

4.I have omitted all minor details.

a.brought about

b.added

c.revised

d.left out

5.We need a formal invitation.

a.valid

b.official

c.regular

d.confirmed

6.This fact is impossible to verify.

a.to corroborate

b.to overestimate

c to understand

d.to accept

7.Don't apply for the job unless you qualify.

a.if you don't

b.if only

c.in case

d.provided that

8.It is essential that he perform his work carefully.

a.required

b.importable

c.important

d.desirable

9.Should they invite you, bring all the papers.

a.unless

b.if

c.after

d.would

10.It is highly desirable that we solve this problem.

a.slightly

b.usually

c.somewhat

d.very

11.The economists predicted an increase in the rate of inflation.

a.made an assumption

b.made prognosis

c.made effort

d.made decision

12.Assuming that you are right about this, what shall we do?

a.even if

b.suppose

c.only if

d.unless

13.Please confine yourself to the subject in question.

a.conclude

b.combine

c.extend

d.restrict

14.Provided (that) there is no opposition, we'll hold the meeting tomorrow.

a.now

b.so

c.as

d.if

Noteworthy:

To women who wish to become professional scientists I am also suggesting that they remember, ... «If you are not for yourself, who will be? And if not now, when?»

Fay Aizenberg-Selove (a professor of physics, USA)

Chapter 6

Focus on:

INTERNET

Acronyms and Initialisms

Grammar: Modal Verbs and

Their Equivalents

98 Chapter 6

Text A. Read the text and be ready the answer the questions that follow.

The terms INTERNET, World Wide Web (WWW), the information highway refer to a dynamic new way that people around the world are using for communication and accessing vast amounts of computer related information. Today, we are integrated in an electronic communications world that spans the globe and offers a myriad of services — some for payment, some free.

The Internet was born from roots of military secrecy and academic researchers engaged in

remotely launch computer programs. A year later, Raymond Tomlinson, a principal scientist at BBN, the main Arpanet contractor, wrote a program employing Arpanet's file transfer protocol. The software let BBN's local mail system communicate with independent mail systems at the other Arpanet sites. An additional influence came from the U.S. Department of Defense, which in 1978 endorsed the Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) as a data communications standard, and made it a requirement on Arpanet and Milnet

Obviously, e-mail has many elements present in other forms of communication — body language, monogrammed notes etc. that give paper mail a personal touch. A few examples of «emoticons» or «smilies» that may be used in messages in a host of ways:

Improvements in electronic mail services are on their way. Portable notebook computers with built-in wireless modems will enable users to send and receive e-mail anywhere. The advantages of electronic mail are many. Besides the

obvious boon of avoiding telephone boon — something very helpful or useful укр. благо time-zone dissonance, e-mail gives flexible — that can change or be changed to be suitable for companies unprecedented flexibility. new needs укр. гнучкий This flexibility may let companies

operate with a smaller workforce — a specialist may work part-time with several project teams many hundred kilometers away. When one runs into a problem, e-mail can broadcast «does anybody know» request throughout the network. A person can say «Help» to 10000 people (which a person cannot do on the telephone), and the next morning s/he may have 15 answers to the problem, of which 13 are wrong. But s/he has answers!

1.What is the subject of the passage?

2.What are the roots of Internet?

3.What is specific about «smilies» or «emoticons»?

4.What are the obvious advantages of e-mail? Are there any limitations?

5.What is specific about FidoNet?

6.What is specific about the World Wide Web?

Exercise 1. Give English equivalents of:

світ електронних комунікацій; велика кількість послуг; безкоштовні послуги; секретний проект; програмне забезпечення; апаратне забезпечення; електронна пошта; засіб передачі інформації; ухвалити стандарт; портативні комп'ютери; запит; розповсюджувати результати; обмірковувати; багатогранна проблема; гіпертекст; вигадати простий засіб.

Exercise 2. Render the following passages into Ukrainian. Discuss the points with your colleagues.

A.

The age of the so-called information highway is beginning. This highway starts with computer operators in the 50s who begin to communicate among themselves using specialized languages and protocols. Today we think that electronic communications world (since it is digital) must be accurate, reliable, and low cost. Perhaps. In some cases. At times. Yes, e-mail is transferred across the Internet in seconds. However, if it crosses a boundary between the Internet and a relatively restricted network there can be delays of seconds, minutes or hours — just like leaving a superhighway and encountering road construction or customs checkpoint.

Perhaps, your e-mail is delivered promptly. Who will read it? Maybe that person is busy, out of town, or simply doesn't know what is needed to answer you. We need to distinguish between our expectations of the communications technology and our expectations of the people with whom we communicate.

B.

Historians of technology often tell us how long it takes for technological innovations to enter widespread use. They say that 25 years is the expected interval. The telephone, television, and fax machine, for example, all took 25 years to reach popularity. But what about the Web? It became ubiquitous all of a sudden, and this ubiquity is growing, changing our view of *all of a sudden == suddenly information, society, and business. Is another Web-like thing on its way?