Reading Practice Text 1

1. Read the text to yourself and try to understand what it is about.

2. Scan through the text. Note all the words and phrases you don’t know. Look them in the English-Russian dictionary.

What Science is

It can be said that science is a cumulative body of knowledge about the natural world, obtained by the application of a peculiar method practiced by the scientist. It is known that the word “science” itself is derived from the Latin “scire”, to know, to have knowledge of, to experience. Fundamental and applied sciences are commonly distinguished, the former being concerned with fundamental laws of nature, the latter engaged in application of the knowledge obtained. Technology is the fruit of applied science, being the concrete practical expression of research done in the laboratory and applied to manufacturing commodities to meet human needs.

The word “scientist” was introduced only in 1840 by a Cambridge professor of philosophy who wrote: “We need a name for describing a cultivator of science in general. I should be inclined to call him a “scientist”. “The cultivators of science before that time were known as “natural philosophers”. They were curious, often eccentric, persons who poked inquiring fingers at nature. In the process of doing so they started a technique of inquiry which is now referred to as the “scientific method”.

3. Read the text carefully once more. Find the most informative sentences or parts of the sentences. Put them in logical order and express your opinion. Text 2

1. Read the text. Identify the topic sentence and the sentences developing its idea.

Scientific Method And Methods Of Science

It is sometimes said that there is no such thing as the so-called “scientific method”; there are only the methods used in science. Nevertheless, it seems clear that there is often a special sequence of procedures which is involved in the establishment of the working principles of science. This sequence is as follows:

1) a problem is recognized, and as much information as possible is collected;

2) a solution (i.e. a hypothesis) is proposed and the consequences arising out of this solution are deduced;

3) these deductions are tested by experiment, and as a result the hypothesis is accepted, modified or discarded.

2. Make sure you understand the following words and phrases:

1) to recognize a problem;

2) to collect information;

3) to propose a solution;

4) as much as possible;

5) to deduce the consequences;

6) to accept the hypotheses;

7) to modify the hypothesis;

8) to discard the hypothesis.

3. Read the text again and try to remember the sequence of procedures given in the 3d sentence.

4. Translate the 3d sentence of the text from English into Russian.

Text 3

1. Memorize the following words and phrases:

to obtain knowledge – получать знания

to set up a hypothesis – устанавливать гипотезы

to substantiate – подтверждать

to account for – объяснять

to advance to the rank of a theory – дорасти до уровня теории

evidence – доказательство

to be governed / to be guided – руководствоваться

to be swayed – склоняться

2. Read the text without the dictionary.

The Scientific Method

As man’s knowledge of natural phenomena increased, there came a time when he recognized that his growing knowledge of nature was the result of his application of a particular method of investigation. This rather well defined procedure has come to be known as the Scientific Method. Consequently the emphasis passed from the knowledge itself to the method by which that knowledge was obtained. Let us explore the possibilities and implications of the scientific method. The steps in the procedure may be listed as follows:

First – The recognition of the problem.

Second – Collection of experimental facts or data.

Third – Analysis of data and setting up of a tentative hypothesis.

Fourth – Performance of test experiments.

Fifth – Substantiation, modification, or abandonment of the hypothesis in the light of the results of the test experiments.

If the hypothesis is discarded as the result of the test experiments, a new one will be set up and steps three, four and five will be repeated until an explanation is found which accounts satisfactorily for all the known experimental facts. As the amount of substantiating data becomes larger and larger, the hypothesis advances to the rank of a theory and eventually may be accepted as true.

It should be noted that in general one adopts first the most obvious hypothesis; that is, one that at the moment seems to offer the simplest explanation of the observed facts. This hypothesis may or may not prove to be satisfactory in the light of later evidence.

In coming to a conclusion about any hypothesis, the true scientist is swayed only by experimental evidence. He is not, for instance, governed principally by what he or anyone else wants the results to be, by the reputation of the man who advanced the hypothesis, by what the majority of people think about it, or by any similar emotional reaction to the problem. He will constantly check his conclusions and hypotheses by experiment and be guided solely by the results thus obtained.

3. Answer the questions.

1. What is the scientific method?

2. What steps does the scientific method include?

3. What is done if the hypothesis is discarded?

4. What hypothesis is adopted first?

5. What is the true scientist governed by in coming to a conclusion about any hypothesis?

4. Read the text again and retell it in English according to the following plan:

1. The definition of the scientific method.

2. The steps in the scientific method.

3. Scientific approach to the solution of a problem.

4. What hypothesis may be said to be entirely satisfactory.

5. Give the annotation of the text.