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Part 2 Practice your reading comprehension skills
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PART 2 PRACTICE YOUR READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS
Text 1
Exercise 1. Read quick facts from the biographies of famous scientists.
A. This English mathematician and physicist was born on December 25, 1642 in Woolsthorpe, England. He is known for inventing, in part, the branch of mathematics now known as calculus, formulating the three laws of motion, which describe classical mechanics and proposing the theory of universal gravitation, which explains that all bodies are affected by the force called gravity. He was reluctant to share his research with other scientists for fear they would take credit for his discoveries. In addition to science, he showed an interest in alchemy, mysticism, and theology. French writer Voltaire first recorded the story that a falling apple gave him the inspiration for his theory of gravitation. Voltaire cited his niece as the source for the story.
B. This American inventor was born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio. He is known for inventing numerous useful devices, including a practical electric light bulb and the phonograph. As a young man he saved a stationmaster’s son from being hit by a train, and out of gratitude the stationmaster taught him how to use the telegraph. He patented over 1, 000 inventions. He worked for the Navy during World War I, improving submarines and flamethrowers.
C. This Scottish-born American inventor and speech teacher for deaf students was born on March 3, 1847, in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is known for contributing to the invention and spread of the telephone and teaching deaf students how to speak. He carried out the first wireless transmission of speech using an invention he called the photophone, which used beams of light to transmit speech. He had a strong interest in aviation, and invented a four-sided kite capable of lifting a person.
D. This German-born American physicist was born on March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Germany. He is known for proposing the theory of relativity, a physical theory of gravity, space, and time and explaining the photoelectric effect and Brownian motion. He could not find a job in physics upon graduating from college, and became a technical assistant in the Swiss Patent Office. He worked on theoretical physics in his spare time. He did not receive a Nobel Prize for his theory of relativity.
E. This American astronomer was born on November 20, 1889, in Marshfield, Missouri. He is known for recognizing that galaxies other than our own exist, and finding evidence that the universe is expanding. Prior to his discovery, distant galaxies were thought to be gas nebulas within the Milky Way. He earned an advanced degree in law and worked as a lawyer before beginning a career in astronomy. The space telescope is named in his honour.
F. This British theoretical physicist and mathematician was born on January 8, 1942, in Oxford, England. He is known for making advances in the field of cosmology, discovering several new properties of black holes and explaining theoretical physics to the public through books, films, and lectures. His research indicates that black holes can lose mass over time, eventually evaporating away completely. He has suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis since the early 1960's. Although he can no longer speak and can barely move, his mind remains unaffected. His present objective is a unified field theory that, if successful, will combine quantum mechanics with relativity.
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Exercise 2. Choose the name of the scientist described in each passage. Two names are odd.
1) Alexander Graham Bell
2) Robert Boyle
3) Thomas Edison
4) Sir Isaac Newton
5) Stephen William Hawking
6) Edwin Powell Hubble
7) Blaise Pascal
8) Albert Einstein
Exercise 3.
Text 2
Exercise 1. Read the text:
PUBLIC ATTITUDES TOWARD SCIENCE
by Stephen Hawking from Black Holes and Baby Universes and, Other Essays
Whether we like it or not, the world we live in has changed a great deal in the last hundred years, and it is likely to change even more in the next hundred. Some people would like to stop these changes and go back to what they see as a purer and simpler age. But as history shows, the past was not that wonderful. It was not so bad for a privileged minority. I though even they had to do without modern medicine, and childbirth was highly risky for women. But for the vast majority of the population, life was nasty and short. Anyway, even if one wanted to, one couldn't put the clock back to an earlier age. Knowledge and techniques can't just be forgotten. Nor can one prevent further advances in the future. Even if all government money for research were cut off, the force of competition would still bring about advances in technology. Moreover, one cannot stop inquiring minds 2 from thinking about basic science, whether or not they were paid for it. If we accept that we cannot prevent science and technology from changing our world, we can at least try to ensure that the changes they make are in the right directions. In a democratic society, this means that the public needs to have a basic understanding of science, so that it can make informed decisions and not leave them in the hands of experts. At the moment, the public has a rather ambivalent attitude toward science. 3 It has come to expect the steady increase in the standard of living that new developments in science and technology have brought to continue, but it also distrusts science because it doesn't understand it. This distrust is evident in the cartoon figure of the mad scientist working in his laboratory to produce a Frankenstein. But the public also has a great interest in science, as is shown by the large audiences for science fiction.
What can be done to harness this interest and give the public the scientific background it needs to make informed decisions on subjects like acid rain, the greenhouse e ct, nuclear weapons, and genetic engineering? Clearly, the basis must lie in what is taught in schools. But in schools science is often presented in a dry and uninteresting manner. Children must learn it by rotes to pass examinations, and they don't see its relevance to the world around them. Moreover, science is often taught in terms of equations. Although equations are a concise and accurate way of describing mathematical ideas, they frighten most people. Scientists and engineers tend to express their ideas in the form of equations because they need to know the precise value of quantities. But for the rest of us, a qualitative grasp of6 scientific concepts is sufficient, and this can be conveyed by words and diagrams, without the use of equations. The science people learn in school can provide the basic framework. But the rate of scientific progress is now so rapid that there are always new developments that have occurred since one was at school or university. I never learned about molecular biology or transistors at school, but genetic engineering and computers are two of the developments most likely to change the way we live in the future. Popular books and magazine articles about science can help to put across new developments, but even the most successful popular book is read by only a small proportion of the population. There are some very good science programs on TV, but others present scientific wonders simply as magic, without explaining them or showing how they fit into the framework of scientific ideas. Producers of television science programs should realize that they have a responsibility to educate the public, not just entertain it.
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What are the science-related issues that the public will have to make decisions on in the near future? By far the most urgent is that of nuclear weapons. Other global problems, such as food supply or the greenhouse effect, are relatively slow-acting, but a nuclear war could mean the end of all human life on earth within days. The relaxation of East-West tensions has meant that the fear of nuclear war has receded from public consciousness. But the danger is still there as long as there are enough weapons to kill the entire population of the world many times over. Nuclear weapons are still poised to strike all the major cities in the Northern Hemisphere. It would only take a computer error to trigger a global war. If we manage to avoid a nuclear war, there are still other dangers that could destroy us all. There's a sick joke that the reason we have not been contacted by an alien civilization is that civilizations tend to destroy themselves when they reach our stage. But I have sufficient faith in the good sense of the public to believe that we might prove this wrong.
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