Comprehension check

1. Answer the following questions:

1. What was Alfred Nobel’s father famous for?

2. How many inventions did Nobel register?

3. Who inspired Nobel to invent dynamite?

4. How did the world benefit from Nobel’s invention of dynamite?

5. What problems did this invention bring about?

6. Where are the most of the Nobel Prizes awarded?

7. What time of year does the ceremony take place?

Discuss

• Why is the text entitled “Double-edged sword”? What idea did the author try to emphasize with such a title.

• Name three other discoveries and inventions that can be referred to as the

‘double-sword’ ones? What are their ‘pluses’ and ‘minuses’?

• How many 20^th century outstanding scientists in your field can you name? What was their contribution to the advance of your field?

• What Russain Nobel Prize winners do you know? In what fields of science did they get their awards?

Study help: Summary writing A summary is restating someone else's words - the main information or argument of another writer in your words. - Read the original passage or text very carefully. - Use a pencil to highlight or underline what you take to be the main point of the original text, or make notes in the margins or on another sheet of paper. - Form sentences with the help of your keywords. These sentences should reflect the main content of the text. - Connect the sentences using suitable conjunctions. The first sentence should describe the main content of the text.

Writing

Write a summary of the text “Double-edged sward”.

1. Work in pairs. Give a title to each paragraph or a set of paragraphs of the text and write an outline.

2. Compare your outlines with your fellow students’.

3. Summarize the content of the text. Follow the advice in the Study help box.

Get Real

Search the Internet or popular science magazines. And find information about national and international awards in your field of science. Report back your findings to the class.

Listening

1. Look at the words below and say which field(s) they refer to:

polythene	molecule	pressure
plastic	explosive	atom
compound	benzaldehyde	waxy solid
ethylene

2. What do you know about polythene and its uses in our everyday life?

3. You are going to listen to Anthony Willbourn talking about the discovery of polythene. As you listen mark the statements below T for ‘true’ or F for ‘false’.

Correct the false ones.

1. Anthony Willbourn is a journalist. ( )

2. He was lucky to meet and talk to people that discovered polythene. ( )

3. A team of researchers discovered polythene in 1939. ( )

4. The researchers were investigating the phenomena at high pressures. ( )

5. Their discovery was made by accident. ( )

6. The experiments were carried out well-equipped laboratory. ( )

7. Scientists failed to find practical applications of polythene at that time. ( )

8. The substance was launched into mass production the month after the war broke out. ( )

9. Radars helped the British aircraft, RAF, to contain Luftwaffe attacks. ( )

Writing

Think of any discovery or invention made in your field of science in the 20^th century. Which do you think has been of great importance for the advance of science and technological development?

Write a paragraph of about 100-150 words and give reasons for your choice of the discovery / invention.

In the Realm of Science

1. Learn how to say the singular and plural nouns below:

phenomenon [fi'nɔminən]	phenomena [fi'nɔminə]
medium ['mi:diəm]	media ['mi:diə]
radius ['reidjəs]	radii ['reidiai]
analysis [ə'næləsis]	analyses [ə'næləsi:z]
crisis ['kraisis]	crises ['kraisi:z]
formula ['fɔ:mjulə]	formulae ['fɔ:mjuli:]
nucleus ['nju:kliəs]	nuclei ['nju:kliai]
axis ['æksis]	axes ['æksi:z]
index ['indeks]	indices ['indisi:z]

2. Prefix, stem and suffix are three parts of the word. It is possible to guess the meaning of the word if you know the meaning of the prefix or suffix. Refer the following prefixes to the categories:

Size

Location

Time and order

Number

Other

trans-	multy-	peri-	mega-	semi-
bi-	dec-	micro-	auto	pre-
mini-	mono-	super-	post	inter-
tri-	oct-	tele-	sub-	extra-.
hydro-	photo-	aero-	co-	fore-

3. Match each word that has a prefix in column A with the right meaning of the prefix in column B. Translate the words into Russian. Use a dictionary if necessary.

A	B
1. semiconductor	a) under
2. extraordinary	c) two
3. monologue	d) first
4. transmission	e) very small
5. submarine	f) half, partly
6. bilingual	g) beyond
7 microchip	h) across
9. primitive	j) one

4. Read the prefixes that show various sizes.

Number Prefix Symbol 10 1 deka- da 10 2 hecto- h 10 3 kilo- k 10 6 mega- M 10 9 giga- G 10 12 tera- T 10 15 peta- P 10 18 exa- E 10 21 zeta- Z 10 24 yotta- Y

Number Prefix Symbol 10 -1 deci- d 10 -2 centi- c 10 -3 milli- m 10 -6 micro- u (greek mu) 10 -9 nano- n 10 -12 pico- p 10 -15 femto- f 10 -18 atto- a 10 -21 zepto- z 10 -24 yocto- y

Unit 2 Progress Monitoring In this unit you have worked on the vocabulary related to the topic “Evolution of the natural sciences” to make a breakthrough to play a key role in the advancement of modern electronic devices dramatically/essentially/profoundly scientist/philosopher/explorer/inventor/ discoverer to redefine sth double-edged sword discovery/invention to have an impact on sth to be of the greatest benefit to mankind to provide a way to do sth/deep insights into the nature of smth to experiment with different techniques to open a new frontier to be awarded the Nobel prize to create principles/tremendous energy to have tremendous/great/practical effect on sth to show positive or negative potential Tick (V) the points you are confident about and cross (X) the ones you need to revise.