Vocabulary Notes
1.consistency – coherence – wholeness
2.to be concerned– if you are concerned, you are interested in something, because you think that it is important
3.to fit together – to correspond to one another
4.a search – an attempt to find
5.to reject a theory – to disprove a theory – to give up a theory – to abandon a theory
6.to put forward a theory – to advance a theory – to suggest a theory
7.to be incompatible – if the theories are incompatible, they do not fit together.
POST-READING TASK
(To be done at home in writing)
I. Write down two definitions of experiment formulated by Feynman.
II. Find the information in the quotations and the passage.
1.What are the essential parts of a scientific research?
2.In what case is a theory wrong?
3.What does developing a theory begin with?
4.Explain what the ‘search for logical consistency’ means in theoretical physics.
5.Copy the definition of a good theory given by Stephen Hawking.
6.Explain why the theory always comes first.
7.Explain what theory fails.
III. Read grammar point II and do the exercise.
Open the brackets and write the passive form of the verbs.
1.Human behavior cannot (deduce) by physical laws.
2.The goal of theoretical physics might (achieve) in the not-too- distant future.
3.The values of these quantities cannot (predict) by our theories.
4.The values of these quantities have (choose) to agree with observations.
5.The predictions can (test) by observation.
6.The theory must (abandon).
7.The Newtonian theory of gravity had to (modify).
8.Some of the observations can’t (explain).
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9. A wide class of observations can (describe) by this theory.
V. Give words close in meaning.
1.in my opinion
2.wholeness
3.I am sure
4.to correspond to one another
5.to give up a theory
6.to suggest a theory
CLASS EXERCISES
Exercise 1 (in groups)
Checking up understanding
1.What is a theory of physics?
2.What theory is a good theory?
3.What pushed Einstein, Heisenberg and Dirac to develop new theo-
ries?
4.Why are elegant and beautiful theories rejected?
5.Why does the theory always come first?
6.In what case does one abandon a theory?
Exercise 2 (in pairs)
You have different points of view. Contradict your partner.
1.The theory agrees with the experiment.
2.The existing theories fit together.
3.The theory agrees with observation.
4.I know a major theory that has been advanced on the basis of experiment.
5.These predictions can be tested by observation.
6.The observations agree with the predictions.
7.These observations can be explained by this theory.
Exercise 3 (do it yourself)
Translate the sentences using the below expressions.
1.to fit together
2.to reject a theory
3.to agree with the experiment
4.to advance a theory
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5.on the basis of
6.to come first
7.to put forward a theory
8.to make predictions
9.to test something against something
10.to fail
11.to modify a theory
12.I take the view
13.to describe the results
1. Эти теории не согласуются друг с другом.
2.Эта теория была отвергнута, потому что она не согласовывалась с экспериментом.
3.На основе эксперимента была выдвинута другая теория.
4.Теория всегда предшествует эксперименту.
5.Кем была выдвинута эта теория?
6.Какие предсказания сделала эта теория?
7.Предсказания этой теории были проверены экспериментально.
8.Почему эта теория была опровергнута?
9.Я придерживаюсь точки зрения, что физическая теория – это математическая модель, с помощью которой можно описать результаты наблюдений.
UNIT 4
CREATING MINDS
THE DEFEAT OF HABIT BY ORIGINALITY
When Alexandra the Great visited Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for the famed teacher, Diogenes replied: “Only stand out of my light.” Perhaps some day we shall know how to heighten creativity. Until then, one of the best things we can do for creating minds is to stand out of their light.
FYI
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creativity is the ability to develop new original ideas and to use the things available in a new way.
creative – (ant.) conventional
Opinions that are conventional are accepted as normal and right by most people.
PRE-READING TASK Study some grammar points.
I. We use an infinitive To V as the subject of the sentence.
Study the sentences. Find the predicate.
1.“To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old questions from a new angle require a creative imagination and mark real advances in science.” Einstein
2.“To repeat what others have said requires education, to challenge it requires brains.” Mary Poole
3.One can make reasonably accurate weather forecasts for periods up to five days, but to predict the weather much further would require both a very accurate knowledge of the present state of the atmosphere and impossibly complicated calculations.
II. Ving – a verbal noun
If a verb comes after a preposition (in\at\without\on\of\about\ before\after, etc) the verb ends in ing: V + ing
Study the sentences.
1.What are the prospects of obtaining a quantum theory of gravity and of unifying it with the other three interactions?
2.Science is an endless process of questioning.
We use by + Ving to say how something happens.
Study the sentences.
1.Tesla also explained the principles of a magnetic rotating field and induction motor by demonstrating how to make an egg stand on end.
2.Tesla investigated X-rays by using his own single node vacuum tubes. His device had no target electrode. The modern term for the phenomenon produced by this device is bremsstrahlung (or braking radiation). We now know that this device operated by emitting electrons from the single electrode by a combination of field emission and thermionic emission.
3.You can actually observe a background of microwave radiation coming from outer space by tuning your television to an empty channel.
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III. The participle
V1 V2 V3 V4
to process – processed – processed (обработанный) – processing (обрабатывающий)
V3 is a passive participle; V4 is an active participle Ving … (Ved …) characterizes the noun it follows. Study the sentences.
1.Not all the scientists working in this field share this idea.
2.The speed of a pulse of light is the distance it travels between two events, divided by the time interval between the events.
3.Scientists believe that the universe is governed by well-defined laws. But the motion given by the laws is often chaotic.
4.A shock wave, called Cerenkov radiation, can be detected from the ground as a flash of visible light.
Note:
You translate a past participle V3 before you translate a N.
We sometimes put V3 before N, but we usually put V3 after N.
Study the sentences.
1.The stored information is then processed.
2.Each particle emitted corresponded to one quantum of light hitting the metal.
3.The data recorded were played back as visual patterns on a view screen
IV. Terminology
Any branch of exact sciences involves terminology.
1.Terms are expressed as a chain of nouns. The last N in the chain is the basic one.
1picture thinking
2a fuel source
3a thought photography machine
4a single node vacuum tube
5magnetic flux density
2.Terms are expressed as N + V3 + N
an ion-propelled aircraft a ground based station
Give Russian correspondence:
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