Lesson 9

Conditionals

Part I

Grammar revision

I

Sentences with real condition

(first conditional)

1. Answer the questions.

1. Can we use the verb will to refer to future in conditional sentences?

2. What verb form is used in the conditional sentence?

2. Translate into English.

1. But when we become able to repair cells, we will be also able to build replicating assemblers and excellent spacecraft.

2. If the reading wave has the same wavelength as a particular reference wave, and is beamed into the block at the same angle, it will pick out the data page stored using that reference wave.

3. If you're having trouble keeping track of all the forces and the particles of matter, you'll welcome the modern reformulation of Einstein's goal of a unified theory:

4. And as computers with a single processor are replaced by machines with multiple processors

and “multicore” processors software designers will need a new way to program desktop applications and operating systems.

3. Translate into Russian.

1. Если мы найдем ответы на эти вопросы, мы сможем разработать новую теорию.

2. Мы получим требуемый результат, если используем другую методику.

3. Если эксперимент пойдет успешно, мы сможем опубликовать результаты.

4. Я помогу тебе решить это уравнение, если ты дашь мне все необходимые данные.

II Sentences with unreal condition

(second conditional)

Present

1. Read the passage.

Imagine an asteroid is racing towards Earth at a typical speed of 67,000 miles per hour. If a tungsten bullet hit the asteroid at that speed, it would dig a deep hole into the asteroid’s surface, vaporizing itself in the process. If another tungsten bullet was following directly behind the first one, it would travel into the hole and dig a little deeper. And if a whole string of tungsten bullets were properly aligned, they would drill a hole right through the asteroid.

Now imagine hundreds of thousands of tungsten bullets strung together by lightweight fiber to form a 3-dimentional lattice. If such a structure were deployed in front of a speeding asteroid, it would slice and dice the asteroid into small, harmless rocks.

2. Study the predicates in the conditional and the main clauses.

3. Answer the questions.

1. Does the verb in the conditional clause have a present form if an unreal condition refers to the present (or future, which is sometimes difficult to distinguish)?

2. What tense is used in the conditional clause to describe the present situation?

3. What form of the Infinitive, Simple or Perfect is used in the main clause to describe the present situation?

4. Choose the correct variant of the italicized part to work out the rule for the present unreal condition.

а) In the conditional clause the verb in the Present Simple / Past Simple tense is used.

b) In the main clause the Simple / Perfect form of the Infinitive is used.

Past

1. Read the sentences paying attention to the parts in bold.

1. This marks a profound gap in our understanding, for if the value of some of these parameters had been even slightly different, the nuclear processes that power stars would likely have been disrupted, and without stars the universe would be a very different place.

2. And in fact it would not have greatly exceeded the speed of a skilled human calculator – but it would have been more reliable.

3. All our discoveries today are based on the ideas of men who lived before us; and without their groundwork, modern inventions would have been Impossible.

4. The resulting enhancement of capabilities, combined with expanded processing power and storage, allows today’s robots to do things such as vacuum a room or help to defuse a roadside bomb – tasks that would have been impossible for commercially produced machines just a few years ago.

5. The so-called “expert systems” succeed only within strictly limited areas of competence, but they would have amazed the computer programmers of the early 1950.

2. Answer the questions.

1. What tense is used in the conditional clause to describe an unreal situation in the past?

2. What form of the Infinitive is used after the modal verb in the main clause?

3. Work out the rule for sentences, describing unreal conditions in the past.

4. Note the fillowing.

In sentences with unreal condition other modal verbs than would, such as should, could, might, can be used in the main clause (See Lesson 7, Modal Verbs).

Combination of real and unreal situations

1. Translate the sentences paying attention to the predicates.

1. When it comes to lying, if you have to create something, you would want to pause longer because you would want to be careful about what you are going to say.

2. We did a study showing that if we want to stabilize temperatures through emission reductions, they would need to be cut to zero.

3. The problem is you would have to grow corn on some pretty rocky soils. It's not clear that you would get more production even if climate favors them. 4. If these kinds of terrible conditions start becoming commonplace we would be facing a situation where many people are starving from power plants, which exert a cooling influence today.

5. Any attempt to proscribe such technologies will not only deprive human society of profound benefits, but will drive these technologies underground, which would make the dangers worse.

6. If cheaper means of synthesis cannot be discovered, it would make it financially impossible to apply this technology to commercial-scale applications.

19. If more general systems are likely to emerge, we would be foolish to omit them from our calculations.

20. If dark matter particles are their own antiparticles, the energy released when they annihilate themselves would heat up the planets far more than mere collisions with atoms.

Different time in the two parts

1. Translate the sentences.

1. Who would have guessed that a lowly trash bag might hold the key to sending humans to Mars?

2. Whatever the dark matter is, it must interact weakly with ordinary matter; otherwise it would have shown itself in other ways.

3. The technology of the IGBT was introduced into the European industrial laboratory two or three years before it would normally have been

4. If the value of some of these parameters had been even slightly different, the nuclear processes that power stars would likely have been disrupted, and without stars the universe would be a very different place