Аннотирование и реферирование английской научно-технической литературы

 

Кондратюкова Л.К., Ткачева Л.Б., Акулинина Т.В.

АННОТИРОВАНИЕ И РЕФЕРИРОВАНИЕ АНГЛИЙСКОЙ НАУЧНО-ТЕХНИЧЕСКОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЫ

Учебное пособие для студентов технических вузов

Омск - 2000

ББК

Д

УДК

 

 

Рецензенты:

Морозова Раиса Ивановна, канд. филологических наук

Гичева Наталья Гермогеновна, канд. филологических наук

 

Редактор: Марчук Юрий Николаевич, доктор филологических наук

 

 

Кондратюкова Л.К., Ткачева Л.Б., Акулинина Т.В.

 

АННОТИРОВАНИЕ И РЕФЕРИРОВАНИЕ АНГЛИЙСКОЙ НАУЧНО-ТЕХНИЧЕСКОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЫ

 

Учебное пособие. - Омск: Изд-во ОмГТУ, 2000.

с.

 

Учебное пособие включает как общеобразовательные, так и специальные тексты по различным отраслям знаний науки и техники.

Предназначено для студентов, аспирантов и преподавателей с целью обучения аннотированию и реферированию английской научно-технической литературы.

ПРЕДИСЛОВИЕ

Данное учебное пособие составлено в целях обучения студентов неязыковых вузов реферированию и аннотированию научно-технической литературы и документации.

Пособие состоит из трех разделов:

I. Научно-популярные тексты.

II. Наука и научные исследования.

III. Специальные тексты по различным отраслям знаний.

В первых двух разделах все тексты сопровождаются системой упражнений.

В первый раздел включены тексты, содержащие общедоступные знания, например, об автоматизации информационных процессов, открытии рентгеновских лучей, о патентной системе в США, биографии выдающихся ученых, всемирно известные институты и т.д.

На примере данных текстов студенты и аспиратны обучаются специфике восприятия и изложения содержания текстов в виде рефератов и аннотаций.

Во втором разделе обучаемые знакомятся с понятием "наука", методами научных исследований, понятиями "фундаментальные и прикладные науки", как написать научную статью, что позволяет студентам и аспирантам выработать навыки научного творчества.

В третьем разделе представлены специальные тексты по различным областям современной науки и трехники, включая тексты об истории и развитии вычичслительной техники, информатики, интернета, авиации, комонавтики, экономики и т.д.

Весь помещенный в учебном пособии материал представляет собой оригинальные тексты, служащие источником не только лингвистических и терминологических, но и профессиональных знаний.

Последний раздел предназначен для перевода текстов на русский язык с последующей передачей его содержания в виде аннотаций и рефератов.

 

ВВЕДЕНИЕ

INTRODUCTION

Первый раздел содержит небольшие по объему научно-популярные тексты, предназначенные для устной работы под руководством преподавателя. Упражнения… Во втором разделе помещены тексты для устного аннотирования и реферирования в… Необходимо знать различие между рефератом и аннотацией.

Exercises

2. Read the text and state the main idea. 3. Write a logical plan of the text. 4. Suggest a suitable title of the text.

Exercises

2. Read the text and state the main ideas. 3. Write a logical plan of the text. 4.  Suggest a suitable title of the text.

Exercises

2. Read the text and state the main ideas. 3. Write the logical plan of the text. 4.  Suggest a suitable title of the text.

Exercises

2. Read the text and state the main idea. 3. Write the logical plan of the text. 4.  Express the main idea of the text in Russian (in English).

Exercises

1. Give Russian equivalents of the words distinghisted in the text.

2. Read the text and stay the main idea.

3. Write a logical plan of the text.

4. Suggest suitable titles for each passage.

5. Express the main idea of each passage in English.

 

Summary of Text 5

Firstly the author defines what is automation. He says that automation is a concept through which a machine system is operating with maximum… Without automation, the manager would have to spend much time making a series… The author concludes that automation extends man's abilities and makes him better, more competent.

Abstract of Text 5

Text 6 How the First Computer Was Developed The first suggestion that a machine for mathematical computation could be built was made more than a hundred years ago…

Exercises

I. Give Russian equivalents of the following phrases used in the text: the fundamental principles of a computer; to receive education; to be under… II. Read the text and stay the main idea.

Exercises

  to perform an experiment, to be precise, to make sure, to be accustomed to, to…  

Exercises

II. Write a logical plan of the text. III. Find key sentences in every paragraph. IV. Make up a summary and an abstract of the text.

SUPPLEMENT

Exercises 1.Read the sentences and translate them into Russian paying special attention to new words.   1. Hopkins was educated at a private school.

Galileo and on

Of the heroes of the scientific revolution, the one most closely associated with experiment is Galileo Galilei. In "The Two New Sciences",… I seriously doubt that Aristotle ever tested whether it is true that (as he… So much for Aristotle; but to see Galileo's work as a simple triumph for empiricism is to miss some of the point.…

In real laboratories

On a more everyday level, disagreements about experiment may have less to do with grand theory than with prejudice and hearsay. Harry Collins, a… Scientists 1: … he is at a very small place… (but) … I have looked at his… Scientists 2: I am not really impressed with his experimental capabilities, so I would question anything he more that…

Newton

 

Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Day, 1642, in the first year of the Great Rebellion. Many people regard him as the greatest man whom England has produced. But we mostly know very little about him. This is largely due to ridiculous propaganda about his life.

We think of Wordsworth's lines: "…a mind for ever voyaging throufh strange seas of thought alone", or the story that a falling apple set him thinking about gravitation. He is made out to be a thinker divorced from ordinary life. As a matter of fact he was a very skilled craftsman.

As a boy we know that he interested himself in conjuring tricks. As a man he made the first reflecting telescope, whose most important part is a concave mirror, not a lens. For this purpose he had to experiment with various alloys, and to grind his own mirrors. Today all large astronomical telescopes rely on mirrors rather than lenses to concentrate the light from distant stare.

As an experimenter he showed that white light could he split up into colours in two different ways. A glass prism refracts blue lig light, that is to say bends it out of its original path, more strongly than red light. And a thim film of air between two layers of glass reflects light of a colour whose wavelenght is just equal to twice the thickness of the gap, or some multiple of this lenght. He also worked on static electrification.

If Newton had never done a sum in his life he would be remembered as a great technician and a very great experimental physicist. In addition he was one of the greatest mathematicians, perhaps the greatest, who ever lived. At the age of twenty two he invented what if now called the differential calculus, and at the age of twenty three the integral calculus. These were independently invented by Leibniz in Germany within a few years. Both these branches of mathematics were essentially tools for his great project of producing a mechanical account of natural events which would allow of their exact prediction.

The principles governing the light of cannon balls were being worked out at this time. Newton showed that the moon in its course round the earth, and the earth and other planets in their courses round the sun, obeyed the same laws. This was a very great mathematical achievement. He also discovered the laws governing the flow of heat and of some fluids.

He believed that he was describing the properties of real matter in real space and real time. Some modern physicists say that this is impossible, and that we cannot know the real nature of things, but only devise theories, which fit our experience more or less exactly. They point out that the work of the last forty years proves that matter, space, and time are not what Newton thought them, and that newer theories enable us to predict what will happen more accurately than so Newton's theories. This is true. They go on to say that this shows that one can never know what matter, space, and time really are.

How deeply Newton penetrated into the nature of matter is shown by a simple fact. The moving stars do not obay Newton's laws exactly. But their largest deviations from these laws are about one three hundredth part of the errors of measurement made by astronomers in Newton's day. If he had merely been making theories to fit the available observations, the theories would have been disproved as soon as more accurate measurements were made. He went far beyond the observations, a long way to the truth about matter.

Newton's wold picture fitted in extraordinarily well with the ideology of the rising bourgeoisie. The need for it arose out of practical problems of his day, especially those of navigation and artillery. He pictured a world consisting of particles, each moving in a way which could be predicted accurately once the forces on it were calculated. In the same way society has been supposed to tonsist of isolated individuals, each behaving according to economic and psychological laws which governed their conduct.

As a result of the operation of these laws the universe was thought to behave in an orderly way. And if economic laws were allowed free play, with everyone acting according to his or her self-interest, bourgeois economists thought that society would function as the stars in their courses.

History has disproved this latter theory, and about the beginning of this century it was shown that in some important respects matter did not behave in a Newtonian manner. If it did so, to take only one example, solid bodies would collapse. But modern physicists build on Newton's foundations, as Marx built on those laid down by such economists as Petty, Smith, and Ricardo.

Newton was not only a scientist. Like most other Englichmen of his time he believed that the Bible was inspired. He tried to interpred the prophecies in the book of Daniel. His attempt is interesting because, unlike most writers on such topics, he was very cautious in his deductions.

He was also a politician. In 1687 King James II threatened the liberties of Cambridge University, as those of Imperial College, London, are now being threatened. Newton argued the case for the University, and was elected by to Parliament in 1689, as a supporter of the Revolution by which Dutch William replaced James II. He later became Warden and then Master of the Mint. These were key posts, as there was no paper money in those days, so the Mint was as important as the great banks today. His knowledge of metallurgy was put in the service of the state.

In fact Newton took part in the progressive political movements of his day. Like most great men, he was an all-round man. The idea that scientists should shut themselves away from everyday life did not appeal to him. He saw that science arises from, and ministers to, social needs, and he acted accordingly.

 

Exercises:

1. Write a logical plan to the text devoted to the great men of science:

a) Archimedes;

b) Newton.

2. Find a key sentence in every paragraph.

3. Make up a summary to each text.

4. Write an abstract of the text.

5. Compare the life of these two scienticts.

 

Text 10

Four Industrial Revolutions

The history of mechanical engineering goes back to the time when the man first tried to make machines. We can call the earlier rollers, levers and pulleys, for example, the work of mechanical engineering.

Mechanical engineering, as we understand it today, starts from the first Industrial Revolution.

People have labelled as "revolutions" three episodes in the industrial history of the world and now we are entering the fourth.

The first industrial revolution took place in England between 1760 and 1840. Metal became the main material of the engineer instead of wood, and steam gave man great reserves of power. This power could drive not only railway engines and ships but also the machines which built them.

In the second revolution, from 1880 to 1920, electricity was the technical driving force. It provided power for factories that was easier and cheaper to control than steam. It was marked also by the growing importance of science-based industries such as chemicals and electrical goods, and the use of scientifically-designed production methods such as semi-automatic assembly lines.

The third industrial revolution coincided with the advent of automation - in its inflexible form. In this revolution, the main features were advances in the control of manufacturing processes so that things could be made more cheaply, with greater precision and (often) with fewer people. And this change, which occurred around the middle of this century, also featured a new machine that was to greatly influence the world, the electronic computer.

What is the fourth industrial revolution?

The fourth industrial revolution will be characterized by automated machines that are versatile and programmable and can make different things according to different sets of computer instructions. It will be characterized by flexible, automated machinery, the most interesting example of which are robots.

 

 

1) Words to be remembered:

 

to coincide - совпадать	to influence - оказывать влияние на
advent - приход, появление	vertsatile   - гибкий
inflexible - негибкий	sets of computer instructions программы компьютера
advance - успех, прогресс
to occur - происходить

 

2) Summarize text's information, filling up the given table.

 

N       Reriod                                                         Mein features

1.       1760-1840  1. metal - the main material for the engineer.

2. steam - the driving technical force.

2.                          1.

                             2.

                             3.

3.                          1.

                             2.

4.                          1.

 

3) Make up summary of the text.

4) Write an abstract to the text.

5) Give the characteristics of each period of four industrial revolutions.

 

Text 11

Efficiency in Engineering Operation

Unlike the scientist, the engineer is not free to solve problems, which interest him. He must solve problems as they arise, his solution must satisfy conflicting requirements. Efficiency costs money, safety adds complexity, performance increases weight. The engineering solution is the optimum solution, taking into account many factors. It may be the cheapest for a given performance, the most reliable for a given weight, the simplest for a given safety, of the most efficient for a given cost. Engineering is optimizing.

To the engineer, efficiency means output divided by input. His job is to secure a maximum output for a given input or to secure a given output with a minimum input. The ratio may be expressed in terms of energy, materials, money, time or men. Efficiency is achieved by using efficient methods, devices, and personnel organisations.

The need for efficiency leads to the large, complex operations which are characteristic of engineering. The processing of the new antibiotics in the test-tube stage belongs in the field of biochemistry. But when great quantities must be produced at low cost, it becomes an engineering problems. It is the need for efficiency and economy that differentiates ceramic engineering from the work of the potter, textile engineering from weaving, and agricultural engineering from farming.

Science output is input minus losses, the engineer must keep losses and waste to a minimum. One way is to develop uses for products which otherwise would be waste. Losses due to fruction occur in every organisation. Efficient functioning depends in good design, careful attention to operating difficulties, and lubrication.

The raw materials with which engineers work seldom are found in useful forns. Engineering of the highest type is required to conceive, design and achieve the powerful torque of an electric motor. Similarly, many engineering operations are required to change the sands of the seashore into the precise lenses which enable us to observe the microscopic amoeba in a drop of water. In a certain sense, the successful engineer is a person always trying to change things for the better.

 

Exercises:

1) Words to be remembered:

 

to arise - возникать, появляться	quantity - количество
complexity - сложность	potter - гончар
performance - рабочие характеристики	to weave - ткань
output - выходная величина	waste - отходы
input - входная величина	loses due to friction - потери, вызванные трением
ratio - соотношение	torque - крутящий момент
to belong in относиться к

 

2) Translate the title of the text. First rewrite all the meanings of the word "efficiency" from the dictionary.

3) Read the text and define the correct meaning of the found word.

4) You may give corrections in the translation of the title of the article.

5) The words "input" and "output" are often used in this text. Read the text once again and give the correct translation of these word.

6) Give summary of the text.

 

 

Text 12

Murphy's Law

In 1949 Captain Ed Murphy, an engineer, was working on a project on crash research testing at Edwards Airforce Base. Things were not going well: the strap transducer was malfunctioning due to' an error in the wiring of the strain gauge bridges. Murphy blamed the lab technician: he expressed his contempt for him in these immortal words: "If there is any way to do it wrong, he will!"

And so was born Murphy's Law, which now enjoys proverbial status: "If a thing can go wrong, it will." One day in a hundred your car will break down on the way to work. One day in a hundred you will need to arrive at work on time for a big meeting. The fact that these two misfortunes will coincide on the same day is the essence of Murphy's Law. Over the years a number of derivative laws have come into existence. Some are technical, like Klipstein's Observation for Engineering: "In a calculation. Any error that can creep in, will. It will be in that direction which dies most damage to the calculation." Some are social, like Parkinson's Law: "Work expands to fill the time available for its completion". Some embody human truth of great profundity, like Agnes Allen's Law: "Almost anything is easier to get into than to get out of". And some are merely trivial", such as Ettore's Observation: "The other queue moves faster, even if you change queues".

These maxims are either attributed to the inanity if human behaviour or to the actions of malevolent spirit. But Murphy's Law also has a scientifically explicably bassis. Chatellier's principle states that if you try to change the temperature or pressure of a chemical system, chemical reaction will occur to oppose that change. Indeed the scientific world has many laws to express these frustrating facts of life. They are related to such fundamental concepts as stability, conservation and equilibrium.

One explanation for Murphy's Law is provided by the statistics of success: the more complex your project the more things have to go right simultaneously for in to succeed. Just one small failure could bring the whole thing crashing down. The delay in launching the first U.S. space shuttle, Columbia, in 1980 offers an excellent example of this. The shuttle was given four separate guidance computers, each of which could fly the craft by itself. Just to make sure, it also had a fifth back-up computer, to keep an eye on the four main computers. Unfortunately the launch was postponed because each time the countdown was made, the back-up computer failed to communicate property with the other four. It eventually transpired that the back-up computer was keeping time 40 milliseconds ahead of the four main computers and refused to ratify their decisions across this time gap. The designers should have remembered Segal's Law: " A man with one watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure".

Another possible rationalisation of Murphy's Law is based on the theory if dynamics. Nearly everything has some hidden flaw or weakness, but it takes time for changing circumstances to place exactly the right combination of loads on it. A dramatic example was the Tacoma narrow suspension bridge erected in Washington in 1940. Designed in the usual way, the bridge showed a disquieting tendency to sway in the breeze. A few months after its opening, the exact windspeed occured which made it oscillate at resonance. A 30 mile per hour wind set up a rhythmic swinging, which increased with each swing - finally causing total collapse. (The only casualties were a stalled car and a dog).

Murphy's Law is ever-present in our lives. Often our attempts to insure against it merely create further possibilities of disaster. Or, in trying to assess where we went wrong last time we make modifications which are counter-productive. If one considers some of the more serious disasters of history - such as the military's failure to come to guns in the First World War - then one can see that Murphy's Law in an essential part of the human predicament.

 

Exercises:

 

1) Read the text and say why is this text called Murphy's Law.

2) Divide the text into main parts.

3) Find a key sentence in every part.

4) Write a logical plan to the text.

5) Write an abstract of the text.

 

Text 13

Educating Our Mind

We can build a strong, healthy, and well-formed body through body-building exercises. This raises the following question: If we can "educate" our body through relatively simple body-building exercises, can we "educate" our mind through some mental exercises?

Alexander Graham Bell, the famous inventor and scientist, mentioned three rules designed to keep people mentally young, alert, and strong. These are: observe, remember, and compare. Following these easy rules shows us how to build our perceptions, sharpen our intellect, and discover new ways of thinking. The first step is to observe concrete facts that can be found all around us, the second step is to remember the observed facts, and the third step is to compare them and formulate conclusions. As Bell said: "These conclusions are real knowledge, and they are your own".

These three simple rules always keep our brains busy and alert, lead us to think and become aware of the facts around us, and help us make connections between these facts that will take us to real knowledge. Human beings are the only creatures who can think and who are always trying to acquire more knowledge. Dr. Kopil states that only man makes his own history by using his free will in conjunction with his knowledge. In humanity's attempt to deal with the difficulties of the surrounding world, many men and women have used their minds and their search for more knowledge to make many inventions and discoveries. Today, men and women still struggle to give shape to the world by pursuing knowledge. In the words of Dr. Bell, who changed the faith of the world with his works and inventions: " The great advantage in pursuing knowledge is that we may capture something that will contribute to the welfare of the world." The essential point is to use the power of the mind to bring safety and happiness to this world. Dr. Mahmud states that this is possible only by mental and spiritual purification. When the power of knowledge is used for other purposes, it often leads to dangerous and embarrassing results.

Dr. Bell gives us detective stories as an example, and asks us: "What is a detective story, if it is not a record of observing, remembering, and comparing facts and of then drawing conclusions?" Lot's put ourselves in place of detectives. Our first and most important goal is to be aware of the facts around us, to pursue that knowledge which will lead us to the best solution. We need to remember each clue we collect, and to make sure that we do not miss a single detail. At the end, we will find ourselves trying to draw the correct conclusion by comparing all of the knowledge that we have gathered. It is easy to reach conclusions from established facts. But what is important for us is to reach our own conclusions by thinking, asking, evaluating, and keeping our minds busy and alert-just like detectives. I think this gives us more satisfaction and pleasure than having answers just given to us free-of-charge.

It is also necessary to emphasize the mental education of very young children. Dr. Caprio states that knowledge is not objective and does not have an absolute structure. What we know and understand is only our perceptions of reality. The essential thing is not to tell children things directly, for this might kill the child's imagination, creativeness, and, most important of all, the mind's power to think. Instead, encourage them to discover things for themselves. Asking them questions is alright, but also encourage them to find the answers themselves. Dr. Wood claimed that knowledge is the product of active construction, which we make and share with others. According to Dr. Bell, if children arrive at the wrong answer, do not give them the right answer and do not tell them that they are mistaken or wrong; rather, ask other questions to help them realize their own mistake and push their inquiry further.

Dr. Bell gives us several examples: "Suppose you wanted to teach a child about moisture and condensation. You should state to him that there are minute particles of water vapor in the air exhaled from the lungs, and that this water vapor will be condensed under certain conditions".

In the first example, you did not allow your child to discover the fact and to reach his or her own conclusion, whether it is right or wrong. However, you gave conclusion or an established fact and asked the child to memorize it. You did not encourage your child to think, understand the facts, and reach his or her own conclusions. You give the child the answer without requiring any effort on his or her part.

"Now suppose you tell him nothing, but simply ask him to breathe into a glass tumbler. He sees the moisture on the glass. Ask him where it came from. Have him breathe against the outside of the tumbler. Have him try the experiment with a glass that is not and with one that is ice-cold. Have him try it with other surfaces. Do not do his thinking for him. Make him observe what takes place, stimulating him to remember the different results he observes and, by comparing them, to arrive at conclusions".

The second example shows us that parents should be guides for their children. Be patient and let them make the observation, Let them so their own thinking, which will enable them to reach their own conclusion.

It is a well-known fact that we use only a fraction of our brain's potential power. Moreover, we are not sure how far our minds can go. However, what we know for sure is that we can stretch our mind's capacity and increase our brain's potential power. I will end my article with Dr. Bell's words: "Self education is a lifelong affair. It comes, naturally and inevitably, through using the mind and following this Rule of Three: Observe, Remember, Compare".

 

Exercises:

 

1) Read the text and explain the title.

2) Find the main idea of this text.

3) What is the most important goal for us?

4) What conclusion can you write down at the end of your summary?

 

SECTION 3

 

SPECIAL TEXTS

Unit 1. Computers and Communication

Perform the following algorithm to all the texts given below.   1. Read the text and translate it with a dictionary.

Early Computing Machines and Inventors

In 1694, a German mathematician and philosopher, Gottfried Withem von Leibniz (1646-1716), improved the Pascaline by creating a machine that could… The real beginnings of computers as we know them today, however, lay with an… Babbage's steam-powered Engine, although ultimately never constructed, may seem primitive by today's standards.…

UNIT II

COSMONAUTICS

Text 10 Collaboration the key  

UNIT III

ECONOMICS

Text 21 THE NATIONAL ECONOMY  

Two Economic Issues

Trying to understand what economics is about by studying definitions is like trying to learn to swim by reading an instruction manual. Formal…   Microeconomics and Macroeconomics

Business Organization

In the UK businesses are self-employed sole traders, partnerships, or companies. Self-employment increased throughout the 1980s and sole traders are… A sole trader is a business owned by a single individual who is fully entitled…  

The Bank of England

The Bank of England, usually known simply as the Bank, is the central bank of the UK. For historical reasons, it is divided into an Issue Department… The Issue Department is responsible for issuing banknotes, and these are shown… The Banking Department acts as banker to the commercial banks and to the government. Public deposits and bankers'…

Money and its Functions

Although the crucial feature of money is its acceptance as the means of payment or medium of exchange, money has three other functions. It serves as…   The Medium of Exchange

Money and Inflation

In this section we develop the basic link between the nominal money supply and the price level. In turn, this provides a link between the rate of… The analysis focuses on the market for money which we discussed in Chapters 24… The real money supply M/P is the nominal money supply M divided by the price level P.

Nationalized Industries

In Chapter 16 we distinguished between government production of public goods such as defence and government production of private goods such as… Nationalized industries tend to be much more capital-intensive than the rest… Nationalized industries or other forms of public ownership are not confined to the UK. Other Western countries face…

The Pattern of World Trade

Since every international transaction has both a buyer and a seller, one country's imports must be another country's exports. To get an idea of how… They must be exactly the same. And to count both imports and exports would be… Table shows the value of world exports for selected years and, as a benchmark, the level of world trade relative to…

UNIT IV

SOCIAL WELFARE

The Nature and Role of Information

Text 32 Social welfare State and voluntary services

LITERATURE

1. David Begg. Economics, – London, 1991. – c 32, 96, 402, 497, 530. 2. John B.C. Haldane. Popular Scientific Essays. – М.: Наука, 1987. 3. Бурдонская Р.Д., Ляпунов В.Г., Мешков О.Д. Тексты по организации науки и системе образования в Великобритании. –…