A Scientific paper.

Active vocabulary.

1. to present a paper

2. to discuss in detail

3. to note the difference

4. to remind of

5. to begin/ to finish with

6. to emphasize

7. to point out

8. to give an explanation of

9. to draw a conclusion

10. in contrast with

11. the central idea

12. the main point

Ex. 1. Translate the following sentences.

1. At present scientists are giving much attention to the development of international scientific contacts.

2. The participants of the meeting are widely discussing the idea of conducting researches on an international scale.

3. In numerous articles the President of the Academy of Sciences is discussing the problem of training college and university students for laboratory research.

4. The head of the laboratory is doing much to improve the conditions for research work.

5. Currently physicists are building new superconducting magnets which will find application in research and industry.

6. Presently specialists are revising some of older conceptions, since they come into conflict with new experimental findings.

7. Now scientists are investigating methods for the synthesis of nanomaterials.

8. This post – graduate is making the experiment on the problem of controlled thermonuclear reactions.

9. The authorities are discussing a new research program for space technologies.

10. The laboratory assistant is still replacing some out – of – date instruments.

Ex. 2. Complete the sentences using statements in the present continuous.

Teacher: I haven’t made the analysis.

Student: I haven’t made the analysis, so I am making it now.

1. He has not described the method.

2. I nave not measured the parameters.

3. She has not typed her paper.

4. I have not sent him a preprint of my paper.

5. He has not checked the apparatus.

6. They have not tested the machine.

7. We have not written an abstract of our paper.

Ex. 3. Respond to the following statements using the present continuous and “still”.

Teacher: I know he was working on this book all last year.

Student: He is still working on it.

1. I know you were working hard during last month.

2. I know she was working in your laboratory from September to June a year ago.

3. I know he was collecting material for an article during some last months.

4. I know they were working on this project for the whole two years.

5. I know they were looking for another approach to this problem for three hours yesterday.

6. I know Professor Thomson was preparing for his report at a scientific conference during two last months.

7. I know your collogues were preparing for a difficult experiment during some hours yesterday.

Ex. 4. Say what you think your colleagues are doing in the laboratory now.

Student 1st: I think Ivanov is repairing his photometer now.

2nd: I suppose everyone is having a seminar now.

Ex. 5. Say in a few sentences what research your colleagues and you are doing at present.

Student: There are five people in our research group. We are studying the fabrication of the nanotechnology. We are trying to find some techniques which can be employed for nanomaterials characterization.

Ex. 6. Translate the following sentences into Russian, paying attention to the use of “to be going to …” for expressing future action.

1. A group of foreign scientists is going to take part in our conference.

2. She is going to publish her next article.

3. They are going to improve the working characteristics of this device.

4. He is going to analyze the results of the last experiment.

5. I am going to make the report on the problem of environmental protection.

6. We are going to exchange our points of view on the results of investigation.

7. All members of the research group are going to continue experimenting.

8. He is going to find the error.

9. My scientific supervisor is going to read my paper.

Ex. 7. Put the following sentences into the present continuous.

Teacher: We have done the work in accordance with the program.

Student: We are doing the work in accordance with the program.

1. We have designed this instrument according to the new requirement.

2. They have expanded the studies in accordance with the new project.

3. We have changed the experiment according to the new plan.

4. They have treated the material according to up-to-date technologies.

5. We have revised the program in accordance with our needs.

6. The scientists have made the observations according to the experimental design.

7. The head of the laboratory enlarged it in accordance with the project.

Ex. 8. Use the following sentences to describe the present state of science.

Teacher: Scientific information did not grow so rapidly in the last century.

Student: Scientific information is growing very rapidly now.

1. Scientific methods did not undergo such profound changes in the last century.

2. Not so many people took part in research in the last century.

3. Knowledge did not expand so rapidly some years ago.

4. Not so many new branches of science emerged in the last century.

5. The number of publications did not increase so rapidly last year.

6. Science did not make such rapid progress earlies.

7. Research centers did not grow so rapidly in the past decades.

Ex. 9. Use the examples of Ex.8 to describe the progress of science during the past decades and its present state.

Student 1st: Scientific knowledge has expanded very much during the past decades and this process is going on at a very high rate now.

2nd: We have recently received some new measuring instruments and we are replacing old equipment now.

Ex. 10. Contribute to the description of the present state of a particular branch of science. Use only verbs which can describe continuous actions.

Student 1st: All branches of physics are expanding very rapidly now.

2nd: New boundary fields are emerging.

3rd: Information about physical phenomena is growing like a snowball.

Ex. 11. Complete the following sentences with a main clause in the present continuous negative.

Teacher: Since I did this work yesterday … .

Student: Since I did this work yesterday, I am not doing this work now.

1. Since he described the result in another paper … .

2. Since I showed the graphs earlier … .

3. Since he showed this dependence elsewhere ... .

4. Since we gave an analysis of this data in another paper … .

5. Since they improved the characteristics of the device … .

6. Since the investigator reported the results of the analysis … .

7. Since I gave these references earlier … .

Ex. 12. Criticize the following statements with not … enough.

Teacher: The situation is improving.

Student: Quite true, but it is not improving rapidly enough.

1. Our knowledge is growing.

2. They are studying the problem intensively.

3. Scientists are exchanging new information.

4. New information is accumulating rapidly.

5. Technology is developing.

6. Research methods are improving.

7. She is doing her work efficiently.

8. This process is going rapidly.

9. Scientific contacts are expending.

Ex. 13. Add a tail question to the statement and give a short reply.

Teacher: You are studying an interesting problem.

Student 1st: You are studying an interesting problem, aren’t you?

2nd: Yes, I am.

Student 1st: You are not studying an interesting problem, are you?

Student 2nd: No, I am not.

1. The conditions for research at your Institute are improving.

2. Your work is going well.

3. You are taking part in group research.

4. They are wasting time.

5. He is facing a difficult problem now.

6. She is planning to complete her experiment soon.

7. You are not working alone.

8. They are not having much difficulty with English now.

9. He is not working on an interesting subject now.

Ex. 14. Repeat the sentence in the interrogative form to make sure that you got it right.

Teacher: I am collecting popular scientific books.

Student: Are you really collecting popular scientific books?

1. My work is going well.

2. We are looking for a better technique.

3. He is planning to change the theme of his thesis.

4. She is working on a promising subject.

5. She is lagging behind the group in English.

6. They are working hard.

7. We are facing some difficulties.

Ex. 15. Ask and answer the following questions.

Teacher: Ask another student if he is making any progress in English?

Student 1st: Are you making any progress in English?

2nd: I think I am.

1. … if his research is progressing satisfactorily.

2. … if he is making an interesting experiment now.

3. … she is dealing with a difficult problem.

4. … if he is preparing a scientific article for publication.

5. … if she is writing a dissertation now.

6. … if he is reading much literature on the problem of research.

7. … if he is getting on well with his colleagues.

8. … if she is planning to make a report at a scientific conference.

9. … if he is improving his knowledge of English.

Ex. 16. Make different questions using the appropriate question words.

Teacher: He is doing an interesting research.

Student 1st: What is he working on?

2nd: What problem is he studying?

3rd: How is he studying this problem?

4th: Why is he working on this particular question?

1. They are devising a method.

2. She is trying a new technique.

3. He is designing a complex instrument.

4. We are discussing a very actual problem.

5. They are preparing for a very interesting experiment.

Ex. 17. Ask and answer the following questions.

Teacher: Ask another student what research he is doing now.

Student 1st: What research are you doing now?

2nd: I am studying plasma instabilities.

1. … why he is doing this particular research.

2. … what difficulties he is facing now.

3. … what results he is expecting from his work.

4. … what foreign language he is planning to study next.

5. … what installation she is working on.

Ex. 18. Describe in two or three sentences your role in principle scientific achievements that are taking place at your department, laboratory, university or in your field of research.

Student: I am paying much attention to the development of better research techniques. I am making experiments on superconducting magnets. I am analyzing the results of my experiments and I am comparing them with the previous ones.

Ex. 19. Answer the questions:

1. What is the topic of the paper you are going to speak about?

2. Why are you interested in this particular topic?

3. What problems are you going to highlight?

4. Does writing a research paper demand a thorough knowledge not only of the subject you are writing about?

5. What subject of your research do you identify in introduction?

6. What ways of suppoting the key idea do you use (describing, classifying, providing statistical data, and scientific evidence, analyzing causes and contrasting)?

7. Do you express your judgement on the research performed and the results obtained in the conclusion?

Ex. 20. Complete the following sentences to speak about your scientific paper.

1. In this paper I would like to talk about the concept of … .

2. The object of this paper is to show … .

3. In the introduction to my paper I present the information … .

4. It is emphasized that … .

5. Paper gives the explanation of … .

6. I come to … .

7. On the contrary … .

8. On the one hand … , on the other hand … .

9. Primarily … .

10. I end the paper with the description of … .

11. I want to mention very briefly … .

12. The paper raises an important question … .

13. This method is particularly important because … .

14. The paper demonstrates how important it is to … .

15. These results/ data are of principle interest … .

Text 1.

Ex. 1. Read the text.

Knowledge Representation.

Knowledge is understanding of a subject area. It includes concepts and facts about that subject area, as well as relations among them and mechanisms for how to combine them to solve problems in that area.

The branch of computer science that studies, among other things, the nature of human knowledge, understanding, and mental skills is artificial intelligence (AI). The goal of AI is to develop computer programs to do the things that humans usually call “intelligent”.

These are dozens of definitions of AI in the literature, none of them being complete and all-encompassing. The reason for such incompleteness is the complexity of the phenomenon of intelligence. Still, the study of human knowledge and its representation in computers is so very central in AI that even some definitions of the discipline recognize that fact. For example: AI is the branch of computer science that attempts to approximate the results of human reasoning by organizing and manipulating factual and heuristic knowledge.

Artificial intelligence. The range of technologies that allow computer systems to perform complex functions mirroring the workings of the human mind. Gathering the structuring knowledge, problem solving and processing a natural language have been activities possible by an artificially intelligent system.

It is said that AI aims at making programs that represent, encode, and process knowledge about problems – facts, rules, and structures – rather than the data of problems.

Ex. 2. Find the definition of knowledge.

Ex. 3. Look through the text and write down the first sentence of every paragraph. Indicate if they are interconnected and how.

Ex. 4. Answer the following questions:

1. What is knowledge and what does it include?

2. What is artificial intelligence and its goal?

3. Why are there dozens of definitions of AI?

4. What does AI aim at?

Ex. 5. Translate the text into Russian.

Text 2.

Ex. 1. Read the text.

Pollution

Pollution is emerging as a widespread social problem, with detrimental effects on personal health and safety and damage to crops, land, and other property. The problem not only is serious today, but is growing at a rate of 4 to 10 percent annually, at these rates of growth, the margin of time that separates a nuisance and a disaster is only 7-11 years.

A certain amount of pollution is due to accident, but the overwhelming bulk is created by the same forces of competition that bring us better products at lower costs for the incentive to minimize cost also forces competitive firms to shift costs onto somebody else if they can. The most important step in pollution control is to replace the competitive incentives to pollute by positive incentives to clean up pollution, to install control devices and to invest in the development of improved control techniques.

The cost of pollution – control devices is often large compared to the investment in other facilities, but shifting the cost onto the public does not make it smaller. Nor is there any validity to the argument, for this is merely a confession that the industry’s products are not worth what they really cost and should not be produced in the first place. Regulation is only feasible, however, it is uniformly applied over the entire market. Locally regulated firms that complete in a national or international market are merely driven out of business or forced to move.

A significant volume of pollution is nonindustrial and results from the behavior of governments and people in their handling of such things as refuse disposal, sewage, and insecticides. To control this kind of pollution we must be prepared to invest resources on the same massive scale as we do in military procurement and space research. The problem of pollution is only one facet of the broader problem of maintaining the integrity of the environment. We must learn to account for the effects on environment as an important part of all cost calculations.

Ex. 2. Divide the text into some logical parts and headline each part.

Ex. 3. Formulate the main idea of the text. What is your attitude to the problem of pollution?

Ex. 4. Translate the text into Russian.