Учебное пособие Издание второе, переработанное и дополненное Москва Астрель • act 2005 удк 811. 111 (075. 8) Ббк 81. 2 Англ-923 К48 Компьютерный дизайн обложки студии «Дикобраз»

The 21st century will surely provide those means. Already, the laser, the computer, and atomic energy have found their ways into our lives and are already being used for the tasks of today. These same tools will be applied to new tasks of the 21 st century, tasks we cannot even conceive of today.

In every area of human endeavour the future offers dazzling capabilities for exploring and understanding ourselves and the world about us. The question is in fact not so much what we will learn, but rather what shall we do with the incredible mountains of knowledge we are at this very moment heaping together. Shall we explore the other planets of the solar system or the depths of our oceans? Shall we control the weather or the human mind?

In all probability, we shall accept every challenge the human mind can find, in deepest space or inside its own cortex (кора головною мозга). These are simply broad areas of probability, yet it is to these only that wc can look in the hope of seeing where we are headed. For the technological avalanche threatens to inundate (затоплять) us by generating an ever more elaborate technology and in the process creating problems that could not have been foreseen. Moreover, the solution to these problems lies in creating a still more sophisticated technology, which creates still more problems not by failing in its designed goals but by succeeding brilliantly. With every new technological development there comes a new set of unforeseen problems, and we have reached a point where we cannot afford unforeseen problems, lest they outstrip (обго­нять, опережать, iipeвосходить) our intellectual capacity to deal with them. Wc will soon learn to plumb the depths of the human gene and so present to nature on a molecular level our demands for the future of man. Shall we eliminate diabetes from the human race by substituting one gene for another? But what effect might that have on the other genes within the constellation of chromosomes that make up the blueprint of man? Can we determine the effect of changes we will make in the heart of a molecule or in the atomic nucleus of a star?

The 21st century will demand extreme caution and scientific discipline. For the targets of exploration are almost within our grasp, and the tools that will extend our reach are also close at hand. Wc shall pursue (run after) knowledge; it will be the preoccupation of the 21st-century man. The only questions remaining concern the uses to which such knowledge will be put and (he price we must pay for it.

• 
  Read carefully the second paragraph of the text and say a few words about the possible fields of investigation in the 21st century.
  
• 
  Read the passage carefully and find answers to the following questions.
  

1. 
   What factor is augmenting the slow pace of nature and making us rush at tomorrow?
   
2. 
   What makes the author prognosticate a continuous assault on space in future?
   

1. 
   Why does the author predict great researches of the seas and oceans?
   
2. 
   What tools of investigation of the universe has the author mentioned?
   
3. 
   Why is the author cautious while speaking of new technologies?
   

• Look through the passage and find English equivalents for the following Russian phrases.

время было вершителем и мерилом судьбы человека; медленная по­ступь; ожидающие нас возможные альтернативы завтрашнего дня; на­ступление на космос; выведать ответы у неподдающейся природы; мы примем любой вызов; поток технологической информации угрожает затопить нас; заглянуть в космическое пространство; задачи, которые мы даже не можем и представить сегодня

• Topics for discussion.

1. 
   Our future has already arrived.
   
2. 
   The shape of tomorrow can well be foreseen.
   
3. 
   The main fields of investigation will be the space and the seas and oceans.
   

1. 
   Among the theoretical problems the main will be the origin of the Universe.
   

4. 
   Man should be cautious about new technologies.
   

CLASSWORK

READING (IB)

• Read the passage as fast as possible. FVom the four titles presented below choose the one which better expresses the main idea. Explain your choice.

/. The development of scientific research.

2. 
   This magic rate of growth.
   
3. 
   Never mind quality.
   
4. 
   Publish or perish.
   

Scientific research became so important in the 20th century that it is no longer possible to describe any human society without according it its rightful place.

Scientific activity, with all its technical and economic consequences, is at present passing through a period of particularly rapid development as compared with other human activities and may, broadly speaking, be said to be doubling in the course of each decade. This law of growth can be deduced from a fairly wide variety of statistical facts such as: the number of original publications appearing in the scientific journals and the number of abstracts published in a branch of science such as physics. It is also found to be true if the criterion adopted is the number of scientific personnel working in laboratories. Lastly, the number of significant scientific discoveries made each year can be estimated, and though such an estimate must, of course, be somewhat arbitrary, the result will again show the same rate of growth. A few figures will support the information given above. The number of scientific journals and periodicals which was about 100 at the beginning of the 19th century, reached 1,000 in 1850, more than 10,000 in 1900, approached 100,000 in 1960 and - if the rate of growth remains constant — should be in the neighbourhood of a million at the end of the century.

If we turn to the length of scientific papers, it is getting out of hand. In the past 35 years, the length of paper in fourdisciplines has increased by an average of 64 per cent. The average letter is 30 per cent longer today than it was 10 years ago, despite frequent editorial decrees that they should be short. To examine the problem the most prestigious publications in physics, chemistry, astronomy, and mathematics from three countries - the US, Britain and Japan - were studied. Between 1950 and 1980/83, the length of papers increased appreciably i n each country and for all publications. Values ranged from 13 per cent for the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society to 115 percent forlhc Journal of the Mathematical Society of Japan. Chemistry papers grew the most (93 per cent), with astronomy second (82 percent), then mathematics (77 percent), and physics (27 per cent). National averages were: Japan, up 85 per cent; the US, up 65 percent; and Great Britain, up 45 percent. The jump in the length of letters is even more dramatic. The average increase over the last 20 years is 74 per cent.

But how should we interpret those findings? Mainly, three reasons are detected for long papers. First, it is easier to write them. As Churchill put it, he needed a week to prepare a five minute speech on an important subject, but he could talk for an hour immediately. Secondly, scientists arc rewarded for overwriting. Thirdly, writing today is sloppier (неряшливый). Some people suspect that modern authors have to use more words to express a quantum of thought than earlier writers, because they have not learnt English grammar as thoroughly. Though, not everyone agrees with this interpretation. For example, Helmut Abt, longtime editor of the Astrophysical Journal believes that the length of papers has little to do with the three main points. He says that the answer lies in the scientific content (содержание). Science is more complex now. Instruments yield far more information and more space is needed for explanation. Many papers that would have been acceptable for publication 20 years ago arc not acceptable now because they do not have enough content.

• 
  Try to guess the meaning of the words given in italics in the text.
  
• 
  Think and say a few words about:
  

a) the rate of growth of scientific journals and periodicals:

1800 -> 1850 1900 I960 ^ 2000 100 -> 1,000 -» 10,000 -» 100,000 —> ?

b) the length of scientific papers and letters.

2. Cannot/Could not + Perfect Infinitive выражают почти полную уве­ренность, что действие в прошлом на самом деле не произошло.
Cannot Could not

Не может быть, чтобы + Perf. Inf.

Не cannot/could not have made He может быть, чтобы он допустил

such a mistake. Не is a skilled такую ошибку. Он опытный
engineer. инженер.
15