Nouns. Indefinite Article (a / an), Definite Article (the), and Zero Article

1. Hydrogen is produced at ________ high temperature. 2. This gives ________ really useful information. 3. We have made ________ progress. 4. We used ________ particular software in our calculations. 5. We are doing ________ research into rats. 6. ________ analysis of the results shows that … 7. This is ________ evidence of how effective the system is. 8. There is ________ complex hierarchy in the company. 9. I went to   ________ university in Russia. 10. It has ________ unique value. 11. It increased by ________ order of magnitude. 12. We’ll do it ________ day next week. 13. We used ________ after the other. 14. This is just ________ way to achieve such performance. 15. All these lamps need just ________ bulb. For this lamp, we need ________ 80-watt bulb and for this lamp ________ 60-watt bulb. 16. There were ________ hundred people not two hundred. 17. This is ________ European Union directive. 18. ________ researchers have a very privileged position as they are paid to do what they like doing. 19. ________ researchers at Manchester University are studying ways to improve English as a language of international business communication. 20. ________ researchers who are studying the way non-native speakers use English have provided the most interesting results so far.

READING AND SPEAKING

1. WHAT IS CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE?

5. Think and talk about the experiences of contemporary science that have interested, excited or concerned you, either professionally or in your personal life. The following famous scientists’ quotations may help you. Discuss them in the group. Express your own opinion.

1. “Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge. ” (Carl Sagan) 2. “The most beautiful experience we can have is mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. ” (Albert Einstein) 3. “Millions saw the apple fall, Newton was the only one who asked why? ” (Bernard M. Baruch) 4. “Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in. ” (Isaac Asimov) 5. “If you thought that science was certain — well, that is just an error on your part. ” (Richard P. Feynman) 6. “I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned. ” (Richard Feynman) 7. “A straight line is not the shortest distance between two points. ” (Madeleine L’Engle) 8. “When my information changes, I alter my conclusions. What do you do, sir? ” (John Maynard Keynes) 9. “Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition. ” (Adam Smith)10. Your favorite quotation / expression about science.

6. Read the text and find answers to the questions below it.

A Review of Contemporary Science

Contemporary science is typically subdivided into the natural sciences, which study the material universe; the social sciences, which study people and societies; and the formal sciences, which study logic and mathematics. The formal sciences are often excluded as they do not depend on empirical observations. Disciplines which use science, like engineering and medicine, may also be considered to be applied sciences.

From classical antiquity through the 19th century, science as a type of knowledge was more closely linked to philosophy than it is now, and in the Western world the term natural philosophy once encompassed fields of study that are today associated with science, such as astronomy, medicine, and physics. However, during the Islamic Golden Age foundations for the scientific method were laid by Ibn al-Haytham in his Book of Optics. While the classification of the material world by the ancient Indians and Greeks into air, earth, fire and water was more philosophical, medieval Middle Easterns used practical and experimental observation to classify materials.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, scientists increasingly sought to formulate knowledge in terms of physical laws. Over the course of the 19th century, the word science became increasingly associated with the scientific method itself as a disciplined way to study the natural world. It was during this time that scientific disciplines such as biology, chemistry, and physics reached their modern shapes. That same time period also included the origin of the terms scientist and scientific community, the founding of scientific institutions, and the increasing significance of their interactions with society and other aspects of culture.

The societal impacts of scientific and technological advances – whether desirable or undesirable – have been one of the primary foci of contemporary policy research. Economic and sociopolitical implications of science and technology development associated with global climate change and sustainable energy generation, big data and information and communication infrastructure and network, food security and bioengineering, and nano-scale research and applications, to name a few, have been frequently discussed by scholars, practitioners, the media, and ordinary citizens, and the related government policies have naturally been reflective of such discussion.

Advances in scientific understanding and the development of new technologies are considered fundamental to maintain competitive market advantages and continued economic growth and, in this context, are considered beneficial to society. Broadly speaking, government policies in this realm are concerned about promoting the development, production, and diffusion of innovative science and technology to achieve such ends. The majority of innovation research seeks to model innovation processes, explore the mechanisms of innovation, and identify the conditions that facilitate it. Within the last three years, researchers have increasingly applied a multiscalar lens to understand the diffusion of policies and knowledge assumed necessary to foster innovation. Subtopics within this area of research also focus on society’s evaluation and adoption of new technologies and their overall impacts.