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Appendix 1: EXTRA READING

Unit 1

FROM THE HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

OF UKRAINE "KYIV POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE"

On August 31 1898, the order of the Russian Emperor Nicolai II on the opening of Kyiv Polytechnic Institute was proclaimed. The following four Colleges were established: Mechanical (109 students), Engineering (101 students), Agricultural (87 students) and Chemical (63 students). The idea to establish a technical educational institution was generated 18 years earlier on February 18, 1880.

The Association of Sugar Mill Owners decided to collect the necessary funds to establish a technical institution. About 139 associations, banks, departments and citizens donated funds for the construction of the University. The total cost of the construction and equipment was 2,650,000 roubles. A huge sum for that time!

The total area of buildings of the KPI without some wooden constructions was impressive – 9,111,080 cubic feet.

On November 25, 1896 the first document in the history of the technical educational institution in Kyiv proclaimed "Most appropriate type of a new educational institution is defined as a Polytechnic Institute, consisting of several departments of different specialities, similar to the Polytechnic Institutes in Zurich, Munich, Vienna, Dresden, Riga etc."

Essential scientific management assistance was made by the following leading scientists: D. Mendeleev, M. Zhukovskiy, K. Timiryazev, V. Kirpichev (appointed the first Director of the KPI), M. Konovalov, E. Paton, I. Sikorskiy.

The KPI became the foundation for broadening and reinforcing higher education networks in Kyiv and Ukraine. From 1922 to 1933, and later, some KPI departments and colleges were transformed into many technical institutes in Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Kharkiv, Vinnytsa, Cherkasy, Chernihiv.

The enthusiasm of the KPI professors, their care and thoughtfulness about students, the collaboration and free flow of ideas that was needed in truly remarkable scientific research – all that helped these famous teachers to raise the pleiad of talented engineers and to take great pride in their students. They inspired, supported and encouraged students to do great things.

Nowadays our University’s teaching staff, which is famous for its academic excellence and innovative research, supports the great spirit created by the famous scientists. Our faculty provided the world’s highest-quality university education that makes National Technical University of Ukraine "The KPI" the right place to study and to work.

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THE BRITISH HIGHER EDUCATION

There are over a million students in the British higher education. The Government aims to have widened access to the point where one in three young people goes into higher education. All Britain’s universities enjoy complete academic freedom. They appoint their own staff and decide what and how to teach.

The tradition of excellence dates back to the Middle Ages when Oxford and Cambridge Universities were founded. The rest of Britain’s 47 universities were set up in the last 200 years. First degree courses usually last 3 or 4 years. The Open University is a little different, because it relies on distance-learning.

England and Wales’s 34 polytechnics tend to be more vocationally-oriented than universities. Many polytechnics have close links with business.

At university people study for a degree. In general, the first degree is awarded after 3−4 year study and success in examination. It is Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Arts (B.Sc. or B.A. in short). If the graduate is awarded Honours it means his or her degree is of a higher standard than ordinary pass. After another year or two of study and second degree, an M.A. (Master of Arts) or M.Sc. (Master of Sciences) is obtained.

Finally, if they undertake research work and produce a thesis, after another few years, they can receive the third, highest level degree, the Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy).

AMERICANS AND HIGHER EDUCATION

Americans have shown a great concern for education since colonial times. Among the first settlers there was an unusual high proportion of educated men. Some of these men, graduates of Cambridge, founded Harvard College in 1636.

Today about 60% of all schools graduates enter about 3,600 colleges and universities of the USA.

The United States does not have a national system of education. The result of this is a big variety in higher education.

Local high schools will offer courses which they feel best reflect their students’ needs. Students at the same school will be taking courses in different areas.

Education in America has also traditionally served the goal of bringing people together, that is, of "Americanization". There are bilingual and bicultural education programs. 80 languages are being used for instruction in American high schools.

There are two tests for high school students who wish to attend a college or university. The SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) attempts to measure aptitudes in verbal and mathematic fields. The ACT (American College Testing) – in English, mathematics, social and natural sciences. Each year more than 3 million school students take the Tests. They are used by universities as standards for comparison, but are not official.

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MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private institution that was founded in 1861. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 4,503, its setting is urban, and the campus size is 168 acres. It utilizes a 4-1-4-based academic calendar. Massachusetts Institute of Technology's ranking in the 2014 edition of Best Colleges is National Universities, 7.

MIT is located in Cambridge, Mass., across the Charles River from downtown Boston. Only freshmen students are required to live on campus, but about 70 percent of students choose to remain on campus during their four years. MIT offers housing in one of the coolest dorms in the country, commonly called "The Sponge," designed by architect Steven Holl. The MIT Engineers boast more than 30 NCAA Division III Teams, and their mascot is a beaver, which MIT chose because of its "remarkable engineering and mechanical skill and its habits of industry." Each class designs a unique ring called the "Brass Rat" that is revealed during sophomore year, a tradition that dates back to 1929.

MIT focuses on scientific and technological research and is divided into five schools and one college. Among its graduate schools are the highly ranked School of Engineering and Sloan School of Management, in addition to strong programs in economics, psychology, biology, chemistry, earth sciences, physics and mathematics. Research expenditures at MIT have typically exceeded $650 million each year, with funding coming from government agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Defense. The "Independent Activities Program," a four-week term between fall and spring semesters in January, offers special courses, lectures, competitions and projects. Distinguished alumni include Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Unit 2

LATER LINGUA FRANCA

German, or a form of it, was the lingua franca of the Holy Roman Empire, from the time of Charlemagne to the 16th century. After that, it was still considered the language of science well into the beginning of the 20th century, along with some remnants of Latin nomenclature. Some scientific literature is still published simultaneously in English and German. After WWII, German became less politically correct, and more and more work which would have been published only in German was published jointly in German and English, or only in English.

French was the preeminent language of diplomacy from the 17th century until the Treaty of Versailles, in the 20th century, when the Treaty was written both in English and French. It was used internationally for so many purposes that it is still of great importance in international organizations, and of the six languages that are the official languages of the United Nations, it is French and English

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in which most international documents are written. French was also the language of literature and letters as Latin grew less used.

Spanish grew in importance in the period of world colonization, and still is a lingua franca throughout most of Central and South America, as well as some of the other former Spanish colonies in Africa and some of Asia. As well, it continues to become of greater importance in the United States, as a growing percentage of the American population speaks Spanish as a native tongue.

Russian, was the lingua franca of the USSR, of the Soviet Union − used throughout all the different countries in the USSR. Since the breakdown of the Soviet Union, the number of official speakers has dropped drastically, although that may also be a political decision. It is no longer accepted as the sole lingua franca of the former Soviet Union, and many countries have resorted to English rather than use Russian to communicate between different nations. Some scientific material is also published simultaneously in both Russian and English, and Russian continues to be a presence on the Internet.

Chinese, or its various dialects, was the lingua franca of Asia, and again is as important as it was in the time of the Mandarin Empire. It also is spoken natively by more people than any other language. Through the sheer numbers of people speaking Mandarin and other Chinese dialects, it is growing in significance as a language on the Internet.

Hebrew, which is not a language spoken by a huge portion of the world's inhabitants, remains a lingua franca, as it has since the time of the Romans, and the diaspora of the Jews. It spread throughout Europe and the Middle East as a way for Jews in different countries to communicate with one another despite the languages of the many countries where they were born. It has also stayed important in its role as a lingua franca because of its religious significance.

LANGUAGE AND SCIENCE

The object of this project, which represents the result of many years of discussion between us, as well as discussions with David Bohm, is to study the role of language in the description and practice of science, in its various disciplinary manifestations. A traditional view of language in science is that it plays a passive role, that it is simply the vehicle whereby meaning and information are conveyed from one speaker to another. Attempting to express a new scientific idea becomes merely a matter of "trying to find the right words". Such an attitude is an extension of the common presupposition that the essential role of language is to transport a cargo which is variously described as meaning or content. In such a light, scientific writing has, as its objective, the conveying of scientific knowledge to the reader in a clear and economical way.

The physicist will recognize this view of language as having something in common with Information Theory, in which "bits" of information are transported via a channel from transmitter to receiver. A related notion has also entered physics in the concept of a "signal", which occupies a key position in the Special

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Theory of Relativity. Bohm, however, has pointed out that Einstein's conception of a signal does not cohere with the corresponding "quantum" context of physics, for it implies "a certain kind of analysis which is not compatible with the sort of undivided wholeness that is implied by the quantum theory".

We call this "transport view of language" into question. The writings of Bohr and Bohm have made it clear that, in the evolution of scientific thought, language is playing a more active role than is implied by a passive vehicle which merely conveys information. In the context of communication theory, linguists themselves have also pointed to the inadequacies of this traditional viewpoint, for it is clear that the listener is as active as the speaker in elaborating the content of the message. Indeed Fauconnier has gone as far as to say that it is never possible to communicate anything that the listener doesn't in fact already know!

The idea of a mental space is most clearly understood in the case of vision in which much of what we see is built out of what we already know. Visual scanning of an exterior scene is not so much involved in conveying "bits" of information to the brain as it is a part of an active and ongoing process in which certain clues are sought for and visual hypotheses are put forward and confirmed or modified.

Some intimation of what is going on can be appreciated by looking at the drawings of an artist like Matisse, or the sketches of Rembrant. In these cases there is a considerable economy of marks upon the page, when compared with the works of many other artists, yet the final drawings are particularly satisfying. On the basis of the "information content" conveyed to the brain by these marks it would appear that such drawings are particularly impoverished. Nevertheless they arouse considerable activity within the mind, for each mark on the paper can be completed, or complemented, in a very rich way by the visual imagination of the viewer. Indeed such drawings could be said to involve a play upon the many complex visual strategies we use to fill in and complete what we see. These strategies advance hypotheses, take us in new visual directions and generate a whole dynamical feeling of space, form and movement.

We would argue that there are strong parallels to be drawn between the way in which the visual world is created and the way in which language is used to create our mental spaces. We therefore see that language can play a particularly subtle and active role in the way scientists communicate with each other and the ways in which new ideas are developed, or can be blocked. It will also be of interest to pursue the relationships between vision and language in greater depth and to investigate, for example, the role of meaning as it applies both to words in a language and to visual elements in a scene.

In the light of our proposal, that language plays an active role in the development of science, we feel that an empirical investigation of the role of language in science is called for and, at the same time, an examination of different situations in which the supposed inadequacies of language have led to "improvements" or substitutions for existing language with a view to rendering it more serviceable for the purpose of expressing scientific concepts and theories.

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In proposing such an investigation we welcome comments and reactions from physicists who have given thought to these issues.

Alan Ford & F.David Peat

MOST FREQUENTLY VIEWED QUESTIONS ABOUT ENGLISH

WHAT IS THE OXFORD COMMA?

The Oxford Comma is an optional comma before the word and at the end of

a list.

Example: We sell books, videos, and magazines.

It is so called because it was traditionally used by printers, readers, and editors at Oxford University Press. Sometimes it can be necessary for clarity when the items in the list are not single words:

Example: These items are available in black and white, red and yellow, and blue and green.

Some people do not realize that the Oxford Comma is acceptable, possibly because they were brought up with the supposed rule (which Fowler would call a superstition) about putting punctuation marks before and.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STREET AND ROAD?

The terms may frequently apply to exactly the same thing. However, road is a general term, whereas street is narrower in sense and chiefly urban in application: a street typically has buildings on either side and is paved or metalled.

IS THERE AN OFFICIAL COMMITTEE WHICH REGULATES THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, LIKE THE ACADÉMIE FRANÇAISE DOES FOR

FRENCH?

No. There never has been any group or body with this authority and it is not the purpose of the Oxford English Dictionary Department to act in this way. There was considerable interest in the standardization of English in the 17th and 18th centuries which among other things resulted in the publication of Samuel Johnson's famous dictionary in 1755. However, despite the support of writers such as Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift, efforts to improve the language or to establish an English Academy were unsuccessful.

English is now used in so many countries and in so many contexts. That it is doubtful whether anyone would take much notice of an Academy even if one existed, though there are organizations dedicated to maintaining or improving standards of English usage such as the Plain English Campaign which tries to encourage the use of clear English rather than jargon especially in commercial, legal and official publications and the Queen's English Society which aims to counteract the perceived misuse and debasement of English.

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WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF THE DOLLAR SIGN ($)?

Many suggestions have been made about the origin of the dollar symbol $. One of the commonest is that it derives from the figure 8 representing the Spanish Piece Of Eight. However, it actually derives from handwritten ps: an abbreviation for Peso in old Spanish-American books. The $ symbol first occurs in the 1770s inmanuscript documents of English-Americans who had business dealing with Spanish-Americans and it starts to appear in print after 1800.

a coin from the silver mines of Joachimstal in Bohemia (now Jáchymov in the

Czech Republic) which opened in 1516.

Unit 3

HOW TO BOOST YOUR MEMORY

Perhaps you do badly in exams because you can't recall facts and figures or words and structures in a foreign language. Are you always losing things or forgetting the books you need for school that day? Or do you forget what Mum wanted you to get at the corner shop? Relax! Help is close at hand. There's a tremendous range of methods to boost your memory.

Your memory is like a brilliant, but unreliable computer storing a vast amount of information. In fact the memory's capacity is theoretically unlimited. The brain can record more than 86 billion bits of information every day and our memories can probably hold 100 trillion bits in a lifetime.

Nevertheless only about 20 per cent of our daily experience is registered, and of that only a tiny proportion is loaded into long term memory. Most of the images and ideas that pass through our minds during a day are held for only 25 to 30 seconds. This is just long enough for us to be able to keep the words of a sentence in our head as we read it so we understand its meaning.

We also remember different things in two different ways: declarative and non-declarative. Declarative memory deals with concrete things, specific events and facts such as what we have been doing and our recall of things that have happened. Non-declarative memory includes knowledge of general things, how to ride a bicycle, how to behave and so on. Someone with amnesia will almost always remember how to ride a bike, but may well forget her own name. One sad victim of this type of amnesia announces every ten minutes that he has "just woken up". Every time his wife walks into the room he throws his arms around her as if he has not seen her for years, even though she has only been gone for a few minutes. Yet this man, formerly a highly-talented musician, is still able to play the piano and conduct a choir through a long and complicated concert piece.

Normal, healthy people can improve their memories very easily. First of all learn to relax if you're trying to memorise something. You may miss important

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items if your mind is on something else or if you weren't paying attention because of anxiety − you retain information best when you are alert and concentrating, If you're having trouble concentrating, increase the flow of oxygenated blood to the brain. Despite its small size the brain uses 20 per cent of the body's oxygen requirement. So try to combine study with exercise, particularly the kind of exercise that gets you breathing faster. Keep your mind fit as well as your body by doing mental workouts. Crosswords, scrabble and quizzes all help to keep the mind in shape.

You can also train your memory in certain ways. The ancient Greeks invented memory systems called mnemonics, and they still work today. Most systems involve associating the things you want to remember with something you already have safely stored in your head, and the most effective systems make use of visual imagery, smell, touch and sound. If you want to remember someone's name, try to find something distinctive about their hair, nose or eyes to associate with the name, e.g. Jane's wearing jewellery, Jim's tall or Bill's got a beard. If you want to remember numbers try to make associations between numbers in sequence − think of people's ages, special dates, whether they're odd or even.

Unit 4

PARTS OF AN IQ TEST

An IQ test tests your intelligence on different levels of thinking. It examines your following faculties:

1.Verbal Intelligence;

2.Mathematical Ability;

3.Spatial Reasoning Skills;

4.Visual / Perceptual Skills;

5.Classification Skills;

6.Logical Reasoning Skills;

7.Pattern Recognition Skills.

VERBAL INTELLIGENCE

The power of comprehension and expression is a true measure of intelligence. Verbal abilities include reading, writing and communicating with words. The verbal component of IQ tests examines your vocabulary, your capacity to learn verbal material and your ability to employ verbal skills in logical reasoning and problem solving.

This section of the IQ tests includes:

1.Proverb tests;

2.Analogies (to find the most likely match);

3.Verbal classification (match the column);

4.Antonyms, synonyms;

5.Verbal puzzles including Jumbled words.

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MATHEMATICAL ABILITY

In order to calculate your daily grocery bill, or sum your expenditures or savings, or to figure out the discounts offered, to estimate your income tax for all of the above you require reasonable numerical ability. Numerical ability endeavors to find your familiarity with numbers and their behaviours. Mathematical intelligence generally represents your ability to reason and perform elementary arithmetic computations. It also helps you to understand geometric shapes and manipulate equations. It is a strong indicator of general intelligence because several require arithmetical operations even though numbers may not be involved.

This section of the IQ tests includes:

1.Series problems;

2.Fill in the missing numbers;

3.Mathematical puzzles.

SPATIAL REASONING SKILLS

Spatial abilities are the perceptual and cognitive aptitudes that process spatial relations, in simpler words the visualization and orientation of objects in space. These assess your ability to manipulate 3D objects by tossing and rotating them. Spatial intelligence questions test your raw intelligence without the influence of prior study. On the prima facie, such questions may appear baffling but the trick is not to give up too quickly. Often a second look at the problem will reveal a different approach, and a solution will strike you, since the brain has been given the opportunity to process information further.

This section of the IQ tests includes:

1.Object Assembly;

2.Block Design;

3.Digit Symbol / Coding / Animal House;

4.Picture Arrangement;

5.Picture Concepts;

6.Picture Completion;

7.Matrix Reasoning.

VISUAL / PERCEPTUAL SKILLS

Visual intelligence measures the ability to process visual material and derive information out of them. As a result people with a high visualization IQ find it easier to comprehend information and communicate it to others.

This section of the IQ tests includes:

1.Stringing separate yet related pieces of information;

2.Picking out identical things from a collection;

3.Identifying the odd one out.

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CLASSIFICATION SKILLS

This measures your ability to group items based on some criteria. It examines whether you have a conceptual understanding of the relationships between them. Classification skills enable you to piece together relevant data and make sense out of the whole.

LOGICAL REASONING SKILLS

Logical thinking is the ability to extract deductions from supplied information. Strong logical reasoning helps you in lateral thinking puzzles. You need a good understanding of cause and effect relationships. Generally speaking logic skills make divergent thinkers and have proven to be highly useful in our daily lives.

PATTERN RECOGNITION SKILLS

Amongst all mental abilities this type of intelligence is said to have the highest correlation with the general intelligence factor. This is primarily because pattern recognition is the ability to see order in a chaotic environment. Patterns can be found in ideas, words, symbols and images and pattern recognition is a key ally of your potential in logical, verbal, numerical and spatial abilities.

Unit 5

SIR ISAAC NEWTON

SCIENTIST AND MATHEMATICIAN, 1642−1727

Isaac Newton was born on December 25, 1642 (by the Julian calendar then in use; or January 4, 1643 by the current Gregorian calendar) in Woolsthorpe, near Grantham in Lincolnshire, England. He was born the same year Galileo died. Newton is clearly the most influential scientist who ever lived. His accomplishments in mathematics, optics, and physics laid the foundations for modern science and revolutionized the world.

Newton was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge where he lived from 1661 to 1696. During this period he produced the bulk of his work on mathematics. In 1696 he was appointed Master of the Royal Mint, and moved to London, where he resided until his death.

As a mathematician, Newton invented integral calculus, and jointly with Leibnitz, differential calculus. He also calculated a formula for finding the velocity of sound in a gas which was later corrected by Laplace.

Newton made a huge impact on theoretical astronomy. He defined the laws of motion and universal gravitation which he used to predict precisely the motions of stars, and the planets around the sun. Using his discoveries in optics Newton constructed the first reflecting telescope.

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