Presentation 1

Plantes

Task 15.

Choose one object of the Solar System and give a short presentation about it touching upon the following characteristics (see the table below). Your time limit is 4 minutes + 1 min for questions.

Task 16.

Copy the table into your copy book. Listen to every presentation and fill in the blocks where possible. Afterwards you will be given a short test on this material.

Mercury

Neptune

Mars

Uranus

Saturn

Jupiter

Earth

Venus

Pluto *

Moon *

Sun *

	Distance/ Order from the Sun	When was disco-vered, by who	Size	Weight	Compo-sition, color	Atmo-sphere	Satellites	Orbit, rotation, revolution	Interesting fact
Mercury
Neptune
Mars
Uranus
Saturn
Jupiter
Earth
Venus
Pluto
Moon
Sun

Grammar 1

Quantifying expressions

Quantifying expressions are important in academic English as it is often necessary to comment on figures or quantities.

A. Number and Amount

Learners of English often choose the wrong noun relating to quantity. For example, you say

Phrase	Note	Example
a great deal of (informal) a large/great amount of (formal)	+ uncountable noun	money energy data
a large number of	+ plural noun	articles books experiments

Adjectives that can be use with both words:

small considerable substantial significant enormous

total surprising excessive [too much/many] fair [quite a lot] reasonable [acceptable]

+

a number an amount

B. Other nouns relating to quantity

Task 17. Read a paragraph and match the words in bold with their explanations below.

The size of our survey was relatively small-scale. We sent out 200 questionnaires in total (1). Although a couple (2) of people did not respond, the bulk (3) of those sent questionnaires have completed them. The survey shows that, as a whole (4), the population is becoming more aware of the importance of space exploration. Only one of (5) our respondents said that he is totally against the idea.

1. considered as a group rather than individually

2. one out of many respondents

3. in all

4. the majority

5. two or three, a few

C. Comparing numbers and quantities

Expression	Meaning /Synonym
exceeding (formal)	higher/bigger than
fewer and fewer / less and less	a steadily declining/decreasing number of, decreasingly (formal)
more and more	a steadily increasing amount of, increasingly (formal)
more or less (slightly informal)	mostly
approximately	mostly
no fewer than	used to suggest the number was unexpectedly large

Task 18. Read the following sentences and translate them in class.

1. Results exceeding 5 cm were eliminated from the survey.

2. The experiment was more or less a success.

3. No fewer than 200 people responded.

4. Fewer and fewer people are staying in the same job throughout their lives.

5. Young people are becoming less and less interested in politics.

Task 19. Read the text and underline all quantifying expressions you can find.

For some years now, scientists have been using a powerful new machine to recreate the conditions that existed at the birth of the universe. The machine generates a massive number of hot, dense, bursts of matter and energy, simulating what happened in the first few microseconds of the beginning of the universe. After no more than ten microseconds, the particles of matter joined together, like water freezing into ice, forming the origin of more or less everything we see in the universe today.

Task 20. Complete the sentences using the correct forms of the words in italics. The words are taken from all “Grammar 1” part.

1. In a ___________ number of cases, there was no reaction at all to the drug. surprise

2. The analysis demanded an ___________ amount of computer time. exceed

3. ___________ numbers of birds inhabit the lake during the winter. consider

4. The course requires a ___________ amount of prior knowledge of computers. reason

5. The survey took a ___________ amount of research time and costs were high. substance

6. In ___________, 12 areas of the Southern Indian Ocean are now closed to deep-sea fishing. totality

7. Groups ___________ four people were considered too large for the experiment. exceed

8. No ___________ than 2,000 new computer viruses are created every year. few

9. In a ___________ number of cases, surface damage was noticed. signify

Task 21. The sentences below are typical of spoken English. Replace the underlined words to make them sound more formal, appropriate for a written assignment.

1. The bulk of our work is concerned with carbon emissions.

2. We have noticed that fewer and fewer students are joining the course.

3. Our team spent a fair amount of time getting funding for the research.

4. In a couple of cases, we could not find any reason for the outbreak.

5. We spent a great deal of time on the project.

6. As you repeat the experiment, use less and less water each time.

Task 22. Use expressions from Grammar 1 part to describe our knowledge about the Solar system.

For example:

Each year astronomers find more and more dwarf planets.

Task 23. Conduct your own survey about some question or scientific problem. Report your result (use Task 17 as an example + A. Number and Amount) and describe the tendency (use part C. Comparing numbers and quantities). Use formal language.