Lesson 2

Passive

Part I

Grammar

1. Read and translate the passage. Find answers to the questions.

1. When did the measurement theory originate?

2. How many units were adopted within the SI system?

Measurement theory dates back to the 4th century BC, when a theory of magnitudes developed by the Greek mathematicians Eudoxus of Cnidus and Thaeatetus was included in Euclid's Elements. The first systematic work on observational error was produced by the English mathematician Thomas Simpson in 1757, but the fundamental work on error theory was done by two 18th-century French astronomers, Joseph-Louis, Count de Lagrange, and Pierre-Simon, Marquess de Laplace.

Now the standard system in most nations, the metric system, has been modernized to take into account 20th-century technological advances. In Paris in 1960 an international convention agreed on a new metric-based system of units. This was the Systeme Internationale (SI). Six base units were adopted: the meter (length),the kilogram (mass), the second (time), the ampere (electric current), the degree Kelvin (temperature), and the candela (luminosity). Each was keyed to a standard value. ………….

The problem of error is one of the central concerns of measurement theory. At one time it was believed that errors of measurement could eventually be eliminated through the refinement of scientific principles and equipment. This belief is no longer held by most scientists, and almost all physical measurements reported today are accompanied by some indication of the limitation of accuracy or the probable degree of error. Among the various types of error that must be taken into account are errors of observation (which include instrumental errors, personal errors, systematic errors, and random errors), errors of sampling, and direct and indirect errors (in which one erroneous measurement is used in computing other measurements).

2. Answer the questions.

1. Do the subjects in bold perform the action expressed by the predicates?

2. What features make the predicates discussed different from each other?

3. In what tenses can the Passive Voice be used?

3. Ask several questions to the sentences with predicates in bold.

4. Find in the texts the examples of:

1. Present Simple Passive,

2. Past Simple Passive,

3. Present Perfect Passive,

4. Modal Verb + Passive Infinitive,

5. Negative Passive form.

Part II

Practice

I

1. Choose the correct variant.

X-rays can use/be used to build up a picture of the inside of the human body. When x-rays pass / are passed through the body, they absorb / are absorbed by some tissues more than by others. For instance, bone absorbs / is absorbed more X-rays than muscle. The information records / is recorded on film or screen so that it can be interpreted.. If photographic film exposes / is exposed to the X-rays, it becomes darker in areas where more X-rays have passed through the body.

2. Translate the descriptions of some processes.

A

The ones and zeros that make up the data set are first split into two-dimensional pages of data lines of light and dark pixels displayed on the screen. Individual pages are then illuminated from behind with a laser, producing a projection on the page known as a data wave.

B

The wafer is coated with a substance, called "photo-resist," and then exposed to a black-and-white pattern as if the pattern were being photographed and the coated wafer were the film in the camera. The white areas of the pattern correspond to the upper surfaces of the end regions of all N² transistors. Light hits the wafer in these white areas of the pattern and chemically alters the photo-resist there. The wafer is dipped in a solvent that dissolves away the chemically altered photo-resist, where the pattern had been white, but not the unaltered parts, where the pattern had been black….

3. Some specific features of using the passive forms in English

Compare the two beginnings (Russian and English) of the sentences.

1. В статье описывается… (passive)

The paper describes… (active)

2. На рисунке показано…

The figure shows…

3. В данном разделе рассматриваются…

This section discusses…

4. Translate the sentences.

1. The 17th century saw an unprecedented explosion of mathematical and scientific ideas across Europe.

2. .Figure 1 shows the type sig­nature of the instruction and instruction template formats.

3 .One practical method of separation uses a sequence of freezing, thawing and compression.

4. That century saw the development of two forms of non-Euclidian geometry.

5. Read the sentence in English and compare it with the Russian equivalent.

1. I was invited to the meeting.

( I is the subject )

2. Меня пригласили на собрание.

( no subject )

6. Translate the sentences.

1 He was invited to lead the project.

2. I was shown at least one project that involved robotics.

7. Translate into English.

1. В прошлом месяце меня пригласили на научную конференцию. Меня попросили рассказать о результатах эксперимента.

2. На выставке мне показали новый прибор. Мне объяснили, как он работает.

3. Вчера мне сказали, что я должен написать отчет об исследованиях. Мне дали всю необходимую информацию и попросили закончить работу к концу недели.

4. Мне предложили работу в научно-исследовательском институте. Меня пригласили возглавить группу ученых.

5. Недавно мне дали прочитать статью по оптике. Меня впечатлили достижения коллег.

II

Participles with active and passive meaning

(Participle 1 vs. Participle 2)

1. Compare the use of the participles.

Scientists, conducting the research…

The research, conducted by scientists…

Ving – active meaning (a reduced continuous form – are conducting )

Ved – passive meaning (a reduced passive form – is conducted )

2. Translate the sentences.

A

1. Devices, using this technology, will soon become common on our laboratories.

2. Nuclear weapons are explosive devices, designed to release nuclear energy on a large scale, used primarily in military applications.

B

1. Holography is a technique that allows the light scattering from an object to be recorded and later reconstructed so that it appears as if the object is in the same position relative to the recording medium as it was when recorded.

2. The image changes as the position and orientation of the viewing system changes in exactly the same way as if the object was still present, thus making the recorded image (hologram) appear three dimensional.

4. Answer the questions

Can you guess the meaning of the word microbots?

Where can they be used?.

Read the passages.

a)

Other microbots being created are not solely machines. Several institutes have been involved in incorporating organic living tissue with inorganic components to create hybrid devices that are part machine, part organism. The first such devices were self-assembling microbots powered by living heart muscle, created by engineers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Each tiny robot is composed of an arch of gold connected to a sheath of cardiac muscle grown from rat cells, and if released in the body, it feeds off glucose in the blood to get energy to move.

b)

The use of solar energy as a power source is not a new one. But the panels developed in the 1970s were so bulky and large; that is why very few people could afford them, much less use them. Using technology developed for the computer industry, cells used in Photovoltaic solar collection systems are now thinner and more diversified.

Passive systems are considered to be the most reliable and most cost effective of the solar thermal systems because there are no moving parts that can break down or will eventually need replacing

Many small things are solar powered. Some things have been used for awhile now - such as solar powered calculators.

Today it is commonplace to find solar panels attached to emergency telephones along many major highways and to find traffic lights and school zone lights also attached to there systems.

4. Translate the sentences.

1. Wrapped by hundreds of rings, Saturn is the most beautiful planet in our solar system.

2. The rings, wrapping the planet are majestic.

3. The spacecrafts were only able to spend a few weeks collecting detailed data on Saturn and its 34 known moons.

4. The data, collected by the spacecraft, were carefully analyzed.

5. Some answers and, no doubt, new questions will arise when the first spacecraft specifically designed to explore Saturn and its vicinity will reach its destination after a seven-year journey.

6. The team, designing the new system, has made a real break- through in this field.

7. Led by NASA and the European Space Agency, the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn is an international enterprise that will conduct a four-year study of this fascinating planet.

8. Leading specialists of the country took part in the project.

III

Writing a paper

1. Write a short paragraph (4–5 sentences) describing some process.

2. Consider the following.

If you are writing an article about Columbus you begin your sentence like this:

Columbus discovered America.

If you are writing an article about America you usually

begin you sentence like this:

America was discovered by Columbus.

3. Write two sentences.

1. Shakespeare – Hamlet:

1. You write an article about Shakespeare;

2. You write an article about Hamlet.

2. Newton – the law of gravitation.

3. Einstein – the theory of relativity.

4. Develop one of your sentences in the Passive Voice in exercise 3 into a short paragraph (4–5 sentences).

Part III