We use Ving when we express our feelings about the action. We often use Ving as the subject of a sentence.
Study the sentences.
1.Killing a living being is horrible.
2.Predicting the future is very difficult.
3.Going through a black hole is unlikely to be a popular and reliable method of space travel.
4.Falling into a black hole has become one of the horrors of science fiction.
IV. We use must, have to, should, be to (is to, was to) to say that it is necessary to do something. There is a difference between must and have to. With must the speaker is giving his own feelings, saying what he thinks is necessary. With have to he is giving facts.
We use is to V to say that we are planning to do something.
Study the sentences.
1.We have to use statistical methods.
2.We have to resort to approximations.
3.We must find out what happens at these energies if we are to understand how we and the universe began.
4.We are not to change life, we are to change ourselves.
V. Emphatic sentences
To make the sentence emphatic we usually change the word order. To understand the emphatic sentence, restore the usual word order: S + V + what + where + when
Study the sentence.
1. Ramsey discovered that mixed in with nitrogen made from the air were the now famous gases: neon, xenon and krypton.
VI. The participle |
|
|
|
The verb changes in four forms. |
|
||
V1 |
V2 |
V3 |
V4 |
to make --- made ---- made (сделанный) ---- making (делаю-
щий)
V3 is a passive participle; V4 is an active participle
N + Ving … and N + Ved … the participle put together with other words characterizes the noun it follows (Russian – который ……)
Study the sentences.
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1.One can draw a graph showing the amount of light elements vertically and the amount of normal matter in the universe along the horizontal axis.
2.The Dirac equation was the basis of ‘most of physics and all chemistry.’ However, we have been able to solve the equation only for the very simplest system, the hydrogen atom, consisting of one proton and one electron.
3.The present age of the universe is one followed by ten zeroes.
VII. Question tags = mini-questions, which we put on the end of the sentence.
In question tags we use the helping verbs: are you? doesn’t he? did he? have you? wasn’t it? etc.
We use a positive question tag with a negative sentence. We use a negative question tag with a positive sentence.
The meaning of a question tag depends on how you say it. If the voice goes down, you aren’t really asking a question; you are only asking the other person to agree with you.
But if the voice goes up, it is a real question.
Study the sentences.
1.Creativity can solve almost any problem, can’t it?
2.Curiosity is a drug from boredom, isn’t it?
3.We obtained an unexpected result, didn’t we?
4.Einstein never came to his discoveries through the process of rational thinking, did he?
5.Life didn’t originate with a DNA molecule, did it?
Give Russian correspondence:
hence (therefore), nearly (almost), either (any of the two), neither of the two (neither this nor that), although (though), it turns out (оказывается), a way (a method), to give rise to (to lead to, to result in), a way (a method)
THINGS ARE MUCH MORE COMPLICATED THAN THEY
SEEM TO BE
FYI
1. If two or more things are complementary, they are different but together they form a complete or better whole.
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Study the quotation and the comment. Mind the underlined grammar points.
This is what Niels Bohr says:
“But what is light really? Is it a wave or a shower of photons? There seems to be no probability for forming a consistent description of the phenomenon of light by choosing only one of the languages. There seems to be a situation when we must use sometimes the one theory and sometimes the other, but at times we may use either. There seem to be two contradictory pictures of reality, separately neither of them fully explains the phenomenon of light, but together they do.”
Comment
This is how Victor Weisskopf, a theoretical physicist at MIT, who considers Bohr his spiritual father, comments upon Bohr’s theory:
Bohr’s principle of complementarity states that looking at any phenomenon at one angle is not enough. The principle of complementarity is based on the so-called wave – particle duality of light. An electron is a wave and a particle, which is seemingly contradictory, but it turns out they are just two different sides, different aspects of the same reality. Energy is matter. Matter is energy. Bohr generalized this. Although they seem to be contradictory, they are not contradictory, they are complementary, and they add up and allow getting a more wholesome picture of the world. All the phenomena a scientist deals with are many-sided and their research should involve science (experiment), philosophy (theory), arts (imagination, creativity), religion (intuition) and social responsibility. This is what Niels Bohr called complementarity of thinking.
Take a sunset as an example. One can look at it from the point of view of scattering of light; one can look at the wonderful color combinations. They are equally valid ways of human perception of the world. For me the sunset is more intriguing if I not only admire the color, but also think, “How did this color come about?”
POST-READING TASK
(To be done at home in writing)
I. Study the quotation and formulate its main idea.
II.Formulate Bohr’s principle of complementarity of thinking.
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III. Give your own example of a phenomenon to be investigated from different angles and describe it.
ASK THE RIGHT QUESTION
“It’s not every question that deserves an answer.”
Syrups 42 BC, Roman poet and writer
Study the passage. Mind the underlined grammar points.
Science is an endless process of questioning. All you have to do is ask the right question. The answer you get is to the question you really asked, not to the question you thought you were asking. Every new answer gives rise to new questions. Do you remember Ramsey experiments? He thought he could get nitrogen by taking away oxygen, vapor and carbon dioxide from the air. What is left would have to be nitrogen. Nitrogen made like this, however, was slightly different in weight from nitrogen made from chemicals. Ramsey discovered that mixed in with nitrogen made from the air were the now famous gases: neon, xenon and krypton.
He thought he was asking the question about nitrogen. He should have asked a question about the mixture of gases left behind when certain things are taken away from the air.
POST-READING TASK
(To be done at home in writing)
1.Formulate the question which Ramsey should have asked before he started the experiment.
2.Formulate your own conclusion.
CLASS EXERCISES
Exercise 1 (in groups)
One of you makes up a tag question, another one answers it.
1.Looking at any phenomenon at one angle is not enough.
2.The principle of complementarity is based on the so-called waveparticle duality of light.
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3.A wave and a shower of photons are two contradictory pictures of reality.
4.A wave and a shower of photons are two different sides of the same reality.
5.A whole is different from its parts.
6.Science is a process of questioning.
7.Every new answer gives rise to new questions.
8.Ramsey thought he could get nitrogen by taking away oxygen, vapor and carbon dioxide from the air.
9.Ramsey was really asking a question about the mixture of gases left behind when certain things are taken from the air.
Exercise 2 (do it yourself)
Translate the sentences. Follow the passage.
1.Чтобы получить правильный ответ нужно задать правильный вопрос.
2.Наука есть бесконечный поток вопросов, так как каждый новый ответ порождает новые вопросы.
3.Что хотел получить Рамсей в результате своего эксперимен-
та?
4.Как Рамсей хотел получить азот?
5.Что обнаружил Рамсей?
UNIT 6
THE ADVANCE OF SCIENCE
“Scientific truth never triumphs by convincing its opponents.”
Max Planck
PRE-READING TASK Study some grammar points. I. The Passive Voice
On the basis of the passive infinitive to be (is/are, was/were, will be, have been) + V3 we form passive sentences and prefer passive when it is not important who or what does the action.
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