Кондратева А wаы то суццессфул реадинг цомпрехенсион 2011

UNIT 2

HAVE YOU GOT ANY QUESTIONS?

People use questions to ask for information, or permission. They also use questions to make suggestions, requests, offers or invitations.

Asking for information: “How many mph does this car make?” - “Around 150”

Asking for permission: “May I use your computer, please?” - “Of course you may.”

Making suggestions: “Shall we tell him everything about it?” – “Yes, let’s”

Making requests: “Could you find this information for me, please?” – “Yes, of course.”

Making offers: “Would you like me to talk to him?” – “Yes, please.” Making invitations: “Would you like to join us?” – “Yes, I’d love

to.”

Yes/No Questions

To form this type of question you put the operator (must, do, did, had, is, were, would, etc) before the subject.

e.g. Is she studying now? – Yes, she is./ No, she, isn’t. Have you finished yet? – Yes, I have./ No, I haven’t.

NB! You use do/does to form questions in Present Simple and did to form questions in Past Simple (this rule does not hold true for “to be”).

e.g.

He went there yesterday. – Did he go there yesterday?

She knows everything about it. – Does she know anything about it? I like playing tennis. – Do you like playing tennis?

They helped us a lot. – Did they help you?

NB! To be is an operator itself and in Present Simple as well as Past Simple you do not use any other auxiliary verb to form a question.

e.g.

She is in now. – Is she in now?

They were friends back at school. – Were they friends?

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I am tired. – Are you tired?

He is an engineer. – Is he an engineer?

It was too late to go shopping. – Was it too late?

Whquestions

This type of question is normally used to ask about:

*What/Which are also used in the following patterns: What size…?, What colour…?, What kind of/ sort of...?, What…like?, What…for?, What + be…like?, What + look like?

e.g.

What size shoes do you wear? Which subject does she teach? What is she like?

What colour is your car?

Subject/ Object Questions

If who, which or what are the subject of the question, the word order is the same as in statements (subject questions).

If they are the object of the question, you put who, which or what before the operator.

Indirect Questions

This type of question is used when you ask for information politely. The word order of indirect questions is the same as in statements, i.e. subject + verb.

e.g.

Do you know where you saw him? – I don’t remember where I saw him.

Can you tell me how far they travelled? – I don’t know how far they travelled.

Do you know if/whether there are any vacancies here? – You’d better ask a manager if they are having any vacancies here.

Have you any idea when she is leaving? – Nobody knows when she is leaving.

Ex.1

Insert the right operators into the gaps

…John and Nick playing tennis?

How many meals a day … babies usually have? When … Normans invade Britain?

Whose postcards … these? Where … they yesterday?

How much … this pair of jeans cost?

When … you buy a new jacket? Your old one looks out of fashion. Who … she take care of? (Modal Verb)

How long … she lying in the sun last Sunday? What … being discussed now?

… he run his own firm ? (Present)

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… they phoned you before you had a word with Mr. X? Why … you crying? … you cut your finger?

Ex.2

Practise giving short “Yes”- and “No”-answers.

Are they swimming in the river? – Yes,…; No,… Can the work be done in a week? – Yes,…; No,… Did you have to write the letters? – Yes,…; No,… Will there be a gas-station here? – Yes,…; No,… Has he got any pets? – Yes,…; No,…

Is she a careless driver? – Yes,…; No,…

Does it often rain in winter here ? – Yes,…; No,… Is it snowing now? – Yes,…; No,…

Did he refuse to do the job? – Yes,…; No,…

Did my Dad use to work in a factory? – Yes,…; No,… Were the goods delivered on time? – Yes,…; No,…

Ex. 3

Put general questions to the sentences and special questions to the underlined words.

Columbus discovered America in 1492. (3 q.) I have dinner at 7 o’clock in the evening. (2 q.)

His father wants him to become an engineer. (3 q.) The fax will be received in an hour. (2 q.)

He had to spend a lot of money on books. (2 q.) She is looking at a nice house. (3 q.)

She does her room every day. ( 3 q.) She has got a very interesting job. (2 q.)

There is a table and five green chairs in the middle of the room. (4 q.)

He has just left. (3 q.)

She goes to work by bus. (3 q.) We can go in my car. (2 q.)

A new supermarket is being built in our street now. (3 q.) The contract must be signed as soon as possible. (2 q.)

They had completed the experiment by 5 o’clock yesterday. (3 q.)

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Ex . 4

Put special questions to the underlined words. Put indirect questions using the prompts in brackets.

The two moons, named Phobos and Deimos, are tiny. ( 1.1. Tell me/ what planets; 1.2. I asked / what size.)

Environmental disasters have always been popular with filmmakers. ( 2.1. He explained/ who…with; 2.2. I didn’t know/ which)

The mixture is stirred thoroughly. (3.1. I knew/ how; 3.2. Say/ what)

The two phase diagrams show two different phases of the mixture. (4.1. Tell me /what kind of diagrams; 4.2. Nobody could explain/

what…show)

The hardness and strength of a metal was measured by studying its deformation in response to an applied force.

(5.1. He wants to know/ by what means…; 5.2. I never know/ what properties)

6.Certain ceramic materials will change their shape upon exposure to light.

(6.1. She asked/ change; 6.2. Now you see / under what condition)

7.Engineering physics involves the transport of people and materials in space.

(7.1 We asked/ what…involve; 7.2 I wonder/ what area)

The particles exhibited an interference pattern on a distant screen behind the two slits.

(He explained / what… exhibit)

Ex. 5

Translate the sentences. Put questions to the underlined words.

Our lives are becoming more dependent on the practical devices. (2 q.)

Enormous progress has also been made in understanding the fundamental properties of condensed matter of fluids and solids such as crystals, ionically doped materials, plastics, pseudocrystals, and so on. (3 q.)

Liquid helium can crawl up the wall of its container without any additional help. (2 q.)

The notion of the dependence of mass on velocity was introduced by Lorentz in 1899. (3q.)

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The adult brain as a whole consumes some twenty-five watts of power when in full action. (3 q.)

Atomic physics began in the 1840s with the identification of the emission lines of hydrogen and of other atoms and ions in laboratory sources and the solar spectrum. (3 q.)

Every time the solar cycle peaks, it causes Earth’s atmosphere to expand and pull in low-orbiting debris, which burn up on reentry. (2 q.)

On the average there is one catalogued satellite that falls back to Earth uncontrolled every single day and has been since early 1960s. (3 q.)

According to NASA, there is only one proven case of a human who was hit by an object from outer space, which later turned out to be a piece of a U.S. rocket. (3 q.)

Ex. 6

Translate the sentences. Ask questions to get the required information.

Many experts believe that Egyptian pyramids are aligned with true north because the more stationary stars near the North Celestial Pole represented permanency and eternal life.

Ask about:

the objects which arise scientists’ interest;

the reason why the pyramids are aligned in this particular way.

Earth is gradually slowing down; the day is about 16 milliseconds longer now than it was 1,000 years ago. This slowing is due largely to frictional tidal effects of the Moon on Earth’s oceans.

Ask about:

the process the Earth undergoes;

the difference between a day’s length now and 1,000 years ago; 3. about the explanation scientists suggest.

When Einstein registered for the draft in Switzerland at the age of 22, his height was recorded as five feet seven and a half inches. His contemporaries regarded him as tall. By way of comparison, Isaac Newton is thought to have been about five feet five inches tall.

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Ask about:

the names of the two scientists; Einstein’s age at that time; Einstein’s and Newton’s heights;

the occasion on which Einstein had his height measured.

If you stood on the moon’s near side, you would see the Earth suspended against the stars more or less in the same direction with respect to your horizon – never rising or setting. But the Earth as seen from the moon would exhibit phases over the course of a month, just as the moon does as seen from Earth.

Ask about:

the conditions of this imaginary experiment; the view an observer would see;

monthly changes the Earth would exhibit in this case.

The term “photon” first appeared in the title of a paper written in 1926. The title: “The conservation of photons.” The author: the distinguished physical chemist Gilbert Newton Lewis (1875-1946) from Berkley. The subject: a speculation that light consists of “a new kind of atom … for which I … propose the name photon.” This idea was soon forgotten, but the new name almost immediately became part of the language.

Ask about/if:

the year in which the paper was written; the title of the article;

the name of the scientist who coined the term; the idea Gilbert Newton Lewis came up with; the idea and the term became popular.

Although we are quite unaware of their presence, there are, on the average, some 400 microwave photons in any cubic centimeter in the universe left over from the big bang.

Ask about:

the number of photons in a cubic centimeter; about the source of these photons.

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Roughly once a second, a subatomic particle enters the earth’s atmosphere carrying as much energy as a well-thrown rock. Somewhere in the universe, that fact implies, there are forces that can impart to a single proton 100 million times the energy achievable by the most powerful earthbound accelerators.

Ask about/if:

the regularity with which subatomic particles enter our atmosphere; the amount of energy they contain;

the way these particles can be affected;

ithe outcome can be compared with the energy outcome of some earthbound accelerators.

Contrary to the claim found in some dictionaries, the word algebra does not derive from an Arabic expression for bone setting but rather it means compulsion, as in compelling the unknown x to assume a numerical value.

Ask about/if:

the information some dictionaries provide about the word algebra; the author agrees with it;

the explanation the author suggests.

Ex. 7

Put at least 5 questions to each passage. Translate the passages.

It was not until 1807 that Thomas Young, an English physicist and physician, spoke of mv2 for the first time as energy. Then in a textbook published in 1829 Gustave Coriolis, a French physicist, was the first to give the exact modern definition to kinetic energy and work. He carried out a calculation of the work done in accelerating a body and arrived at the change in the quantity Ѕ mv2. By the end of the 19th century, most scientists were avoiding Leibniz’s old phrase vis viva (living force), and using instead “kinetic energy”, a term introduced in 1849 by Lord Kelvin to better distinguish between force and energy.

In the fall of 1915 it was widely expected that the Nobel Prize in Physics was to be jointly shared by Edison and Tesla. Then a Reuters dispatch from Stockholm dropped a bombshell. The Nobel Committee

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announced that the prize for physics would in fact be shared by William Henry Bragg and his son Henry Bragg… What had happened? The Nobel Prize Foundation declined to clarify. One biographer reported years later that the Serbo-American had declined the honor, stating that as a discoverer he could not share the prize with a mere inventor. Yet another biographer advanced the theory that it was Edison who objected to sharing the prize.

The Earth is a somewhat irregular clock. Some years the length of the day is found to vary by as much as one part in 10 million, or three seconds in a year of 31.5 million seconds. In addition, there are also seasonal fluctuations of a few milliseconds per year. In the winter the Earth slows down, and in the summer it speeds up. Think of the Earth as a spinning skater. During the winter in the northern hemisphere, water evaporates from the ocean and accumulates as ice and snow on the high mountains. This movement of water from the oceans to the mountaintops is similar to the skater’s extending her arms. So the Earth slows down in winter; by the summer the snow melts and runs back to the seas, and the Earth speeds up again. This effect is not compensated by the southern hemisphere because most of the land mass is north of the equator.

Ex.8

Work in pairs. Turn these requests into questions and ask them your partner. Answer his or her questions in turn.

Model: Ask about his age. – How old are you?

Find out about when and where your partner was born. Ask about his favourite subjects at school.

Let him tell you if he was good at physics and maths at school. Ask him if he does well at University.

Ask about what year and faculty he/she is in.

Ask questions about his/her family: where they live, how many members the family has got, if he/she has got any brothers and sisters, if they are younger or older than he/she is.

Ask him/her if he/she likes music and what kind of music he/she prefers.

Ask him/her if he/she can play any musical instruments.

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Ask questions about his/her favourite sport and hobby, if any.

Ask if it takes him/her long to get to University. Ask about a means of transport he/she uses to get here.

Ask more questions. (e.g. about his/her friends, his/her pets, his/her computer, his/her native town, what he/she likes doing when on holiday, about his/her job and car, about his/her favourite food…)

UNIT 3

SEEING THE WOOD FOR THE TREES

In any text there will be words which you do not know. Looking at the context to get an idea of their meanings might be a clever thing to do if you are reading anything but a scientific paper. This particular kind of work always requires a good dictionary.

We especially warn you against trying to guess the meanings of phrasal verbs, which might seem very tempting since the verb is familiar. It almost never works. Think of give rise to, rule out, end up with, etc.

However, some words can be guessed from looking at their forms. For instance, you may never have seen ‘unpredictable’ before, but the different parts of the word – un, pre, dict, able – should each tell you something and help you to guess the meaning.