view

tivities and free, entertaining yet informative shows. OK, so it might not meet expectations for the real science buffs out there but as a family day out it is great

– and you might just learn something too! I would suggest getting there by public transport as it's so easily accessible from South Kensington tube and you won't have to spend ages finding somewhere to park.. Enjoy!

Preston Traveller

We visited the Science museum this weekend again and I love it! The computer games exhibition is fantastic, not to mention the fact that I got to play on the eagerly anticipated Nintendo Wii for free! But what you MUST not miss is the amazing IMAX cinema. Worth every single penny of the fee it simply amazes me every time.

Tallula-18, Johannesburg

3a. Translate the adjectives. Say what they describe in the reviews.

Lovely, awesome, extensive, interactive, full, cheap, informative, fantastic, amazing

3b. Give at least 8 adjectives the visitors use to describe the museum. Make your own sentences about the places you visited, using these adjectives and those in 3a and compare two different museums or exhibitions.

Use comparatives, eg.: The Science Museum in London is more informative than the French Museum of Science.

4. Late in 2009 BBC Radio4 announced that they would be holding a competition “So you want to be a scientist?” It was a chance for non-scientists to turn their ideas into real life experiments. Throughout 2010, Material

World - Radio 4's weekly science show - was searching for the BBC's Amateur Scientist of the Year. They were not looking for inventions, but real exploratory science of a local, personal, amateur-experimental kind. Over 1,300people applied online before the closing date. The panel of esteemed

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judges from the world of science selected four finalists. Read about the four selected experiments and answer the questions.

1)How is Sam going to test the greatest crowd density at a music gig?

Sam O'kell: The Gig Crowd Experiment Occupation: Croupier

Idea: "I believe the greatest crowd density at a music gig is not at the front, next to the barriers, but three rows back between 6-10 feet from the front. I would test this by wearing a pressure sensing vest beneath normal clothes, and take readings at different locations in the crowd".

2)Who do you think the results of Ruth’s experiment will help?

Ruth Brooks: Homing Snails Occupation: Retired special needs tutor

Idea: "What is the homing distance of the Garden Snail that decimates my plants? How far away do I have to dump them before they find their way back to my garden?"

3)What is Nina’s hypothesis and how is she going to test it?

Nina Jones: Facebook Photo-fit Occupation: A-level student

Idea: "What makes up a typical Facebook profile picture? Adults seem to choose pictures showing an event in their lives - their wedding, or a photo with their children - whereas teenagers seem to show themselves having a good time, often with friends at a party. Through investigation (a standardized coding scheme coupled with a survey), I will test these predictions, and also look into why this occurs."

4)What is a unique phenomenon that John is going to investigate?

John Rowlands: Noctilucent Clouds

Occupation: Aerial photographer

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Idea: "To investigate the frequency and brightness of noctilucent clouds, believed to be linked to climate change. The sun is currently climbing slowly out of a century-low in activity, and so there is a chance to study noctilucent clouds and solar cycle."

5. Discuss the following questions in class.

1)Which experiment would you take part in yourself?

2)Who would you like to help with their research?

B.Hi-Tech

1.Do you know when these achievements of modern technology appeared? Match the date with the invention.

2a. Give each of the innovations a number from 0 to 5 depending on whether it doesn’t interest you at all (0) or interests you enormously (5). Mark each of the inventions 0 to 5 depending on how important they are to you in your life.

2b. Work in pairs and share your opinion with each other. Find the differences and common things between you and be ready to report them back to the group.

3. Read about the UK’s most exciting scientific advances and say what they are and what fields of science they are connected with.

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A.Researchers and engineers from three UK institutions are developing the world’s largest ground-based telescope to dramatically improve our view of the Universe. For 400 years scientists have built ever-bigger telescopes to study space. The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) will be a groundbased optical/infra-red telescope with a 42m diameter mirror larger than all the current ground-based telescopes combined. This huge mirror will be built from

984hexagonal segments. It will use Adaptive Optics to compensate for blurring of images caused by the Earth’s atmosphere, capturing images up to 10 times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope. The giant telescope will allow us to study Earth-like planets orbiting stars outside our solar system.

B.Researchers from central London are working on using nanotechnology to make advances in healthcare. Nanotechnology is the science of the very small – working on a scale one-billionth of a metre. It has been used by scientists in many disciplines to create new materials and devices by controlling matter on the atomic and molecular level. Davy Faraday researchers are exploring how nanoparticles can be used in healthcare, from disease diagnosis to cancer treatment. The research team is focusing on two specific particles – gold nanoparticles and magnetic colloids. Gold nanoparticles can be used in blood sugar monitoring and anti-cancer therapy. Magnetic colloids are used as MRI contrast agents and have great potential for anti-cancer therapy and drug delivery.

C.Researchers from London South Bank University are collaborating with other institutions to create inspection robots able to climb walls and swim. Mobile robots can have many uses, from security to domestic applications. Researchers are developing mobile robots able to climb walls and swim to perform non-destructive testing of critical infrastructure using imaging techniques.

4.Match the sentences 1), 2), 3) with the advances A, B, C in 3.

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1)“They are able to perform non-destructive inspection techniques for a wide range of applications from industrial inspection, surveillance, and security.”

(Dr Tariq Sattar, Department of Electrical, Computer & Communications Engineering, London South Bank University)

2)“It offers scientists novel applications in the field of biomedical sciences, and we are focusing on harnessing this potential to advance healthcare diagnostics and therapeutics, including localised therapy for cancer treatment”.

(Dr Nguyen Thi Kim Thanh, the Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory at the Royal Institution of Great Britain)

3)“It will revolutionize astronomy, allowing us to study the Universe in great detail, from planetary systems around nearby stars, to the most distant galaxies formed when the Universe was only a tenth of its current age.”

(Professor Colin Cunningham, the UK Astronomy Technology Centre of the Science and Technology Facilities Council)

5. Role play. Imagine that you are at the Royal Society’s Summer Science Exhibition.

Group 1: You play the expert scientists of the UK. Study the information from 3 again and be ready to answer the journalists’ questions about the UK’s most exciting scientific innovations.

Group 2: You play the journalists who ask the expert scientists questions about the UK’s most exciting scientific innovations.

Write down questions you would like to ask about these innovations.

6. Listen to the interview with a scientist from the Space Flight Center. She appears in a new National Geographic Channel series "Known Universe." While listening tick the correct sentences.

1)The universe began about 30 billion years ago.

2)The whole extent of the universe is just the amount we can see.

3)NASA scientists are becoming the first sort of interplanetary weather forecasters.

4)She prefers ‘Battlestar Galactica’ to ‘Star Trek’.

7. Listen again and fill in the gaps:

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Interviewer: Is this your first time being in a space documentary? Scientist: No, I sort of come whenever NASA calls. When someone wants to talk to a NASA … I usually show up. I've done a lot of television before. Interviewer: You talk about the immense size of the universe. So how big is it? Scientist: That's actually quite a matter of debate right now. In one sense it's very easy, there's the visible universe. The universe began about … billion years ago and the visible universe is basically anywhere that light has had a chance to travel to us from that time.

We actually don't think that's the whole extent of the universe, that's just the amount we can see. The universe if probably much bigger than that, it may be infinite it may be not. Some of our … suggests there may be other universes, parallel universes.

Interviewer: What is an exoplanet?

Scientist: An exoplanet is a planet outside our … system. NASA actually now has honest to goodness real data on what the … is like on some of these planets. In a real way we're becoming the first sort of interplanetary weather forecasters. Interviewer: And finally, "BattleStar Galactica" or "Star Trek"? Scientist: Or lord, how can you decide between those two? I did get addicted to "BattleStar Galactica," but I have to say I'm a Trekkie by heart as I've been a "Star Trek" fan all my life.

8. Discuss the questions in class.

1)Have you seen the science fiction TV series ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Battlestar Galactica’? Did you like them?

2)What sci-fi films have you seen? What’s your favourite?

C. Love

1. Do you know these famous inventors? What countries are they from? a. Match the people with their inventions.

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b. Explain the words (a – i) to your partner. Your partner listens and says what word you are describing.

2. Look at this information. What else do you know about Steve Jobs?

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3. Steve Jobs gave the commencement address in Stanford University's graduation ceremony on June 12, 2005. Read the second part of his speech and give its main idea.

'You've got to find what you love'

“My second story is about the love and loss. I was lucky. I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started the Apple in my parent’s garage when I was twenty. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just two of us in a garage into a 2 billion dollar company with over 4 thousand employees. We just released our finest creation – The Macintosh – a year earlier, and I just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from the company you’ve started? Well, as Apple grew, we hired someone who I thought was very talented, to run a company with me. And for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge, and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. And so, at 30 I was out, and very publicly out. What had been a focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I’d let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down, that I’ve dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure and I even thought about running away from the Valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me. I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I’d been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by a lightness of being a beginner again. Less sure about everything. It’d freed me to one of the most creative periods of my life.

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During the next 5 years I’ve started a company named Next, another company named Pixar and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world’s first computer-animated feature film, “Toy story”, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought Next, and I returned to Apple and the technology we developed at Next is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awfully-tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick - don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going is that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love, and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking and don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don’t settle”.

4. Discuss the following questions.

1)Look at these words: “My father always told me, ‘Find a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life’.

Do you agree with Jim Fox? What words in Jobs speech have a similar idea?

2)What will be the most important things to you about your career?

3)What is more important in your opinion: to have a career which gives job satisfaction or the chance to earn a good salary?

4)Is it possible to have both a family life and a successful career?

5)Do you think you would enjoy running your own business? What do you think are the advantage and disadvantages of doing that?

5. Discuss and defend your aims in life.

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Choose: 4 areas of your aims for the next year; 3 areas – for the next 5 years;

3 areas – for the next 10 years.

Areas: travel, job, friends, learning, family, hobby, partner, possessions, appearance, life style

Say what you want to achieve within these areas in the time specified. Discuss your points of view in pairs or small groups. Use the following phrases: To express intentions:

(See List of Speech Acts p. 104)

Section II. Reading Comprehension

Text A. “Nanotechnology”

1. Read and translate the text.

Nanotechnology

A basic definition: Nanotechnology is the engineering of functional sys-

tems at the molecular scale.

Generally nanotechnology deals with structures sized between 1 to 100 nanometers in at least one dimension, and involves developing materials or devices within that size.

In its original sense, 'nanotechnology' refers to the projected ability to construct items from the bottom up, using techniques and tools being developed today to make complete, high performance products. This theoretical capability was envisioned as early as 1959 by the renowned physicist Richard Feynman.

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