Английский язык для магистрантов и аспирантов = English for Graduate and Postgraduate Students

А.В. Вдовичев
Н.Г. Оловникова

АНГЛИЙСКИЙ ЯЗЫК
ДЛЯ МАГИСТРАНТОВ И АСПИРАНТОВ

ENGLISH FOR GRADUATE
AND POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS

Учебно-методическое пособие

6-е издание, стереотипное

Москва
Издательство «ФЛИНТА»
2024

УДК 811.111(075.8)
ББК 81.432.1я73

В25

Ре це нзе нты:

канд. филол. наук, доцент, зав. кафедрой иностранных языков
факультета энергетического строительства БНТУ Н.П. Мартысюк;

канд. филол. наук, доцент Е.А. Мисуно

В25 

Вдовичев А.В.
Английский язык для магистрантов и аспирантов. English for 
Graduate and Postgraduate Students : учеб.-метод. пособие / А.В. Вдо-
вичев, Н.Г. Оловникова. — 6-е изд., стер. — Москва : ФЛИНТА, 
2024. — 248 с. — ISBN 978-5-9765-2247-3. — Текст : 
электронный.

Пособие содержит научные, научно-популярные и общественно-
политические тексты, а также комплексы упражнений и заданий для 
развития навыков устной и письменной речи на английском языке. 
Тематическое содержание соответствует программе-минимуму по 
иностранному языку для слушателей магистратуры и аспирантуры 
языковых и неязыковых специальностей вуза. Каждый раздел данного 
учебного пособия включает в себя упражнения по переводу, устной 
практике, усвоению активной лексики, тексты для изучающего и 
просмотрового чтения и последующего анализа.
Для слушателей магистратуры и аспирантуры и преподавателей 
языковых и неязыковых специальностей вузов.

УДК 811.111(075.8)
ББК 81.432.1я73

ISBN 978-5-9765-2247-3
© Вдовичев А.В., Оловникова Н.Г., 2018 
© Издательство «ФЛИНТА», 2018

Contents

Introduction  .....................................................................................................4

 
UNIT  1.  What is Science?  .......................................................................6

 
UNIT  2.  Evolution of Science  ...............................................................33

 
UNIT  3.  Knowledge Society  .................................................................72

 
UNIT  4.  Perspectives of Science Development  ..................................112

 
UNIT  5.  Science in Our Everyday Life  ...............................................152

Supplementary Reading  .............................................................................190

APPENDIX  I.  List of Sciences  ..................................................................213

APPENDIX  II.  List of Abbreviations for College Degrees  .......................241

APPENDIX  III.  List of Abbreviations for Titles  .......................................243

Introduction

Nowadays it is impossible to imagine our life without science 
and technology. Much attention is paid to scientifi c development at 
the level of higher education. The English language proved to be the 
main means of communication in the fi eld of research, development 
and science. That is why graduate and postgraduate students have to 
understand the bulk of information that is provided in English.
This textbook can be regarded a guide to reading scientifi c and 
popular scientifi c texts in various fi elds, about the greatest inventions 
and researchers of the past and present as well as about perspectives 
of scientifi c development.
The textbook consists of 5 units:

1. What Is Science?
2. Evolution of Science
3. Knowledge Society
4. Perspectives of Science Development
5. Science in Our Everyday Life

Each unit contains 26 tasks (from A to Z) providing 
brainstorming activities, reading comprehension, vocabulary work, 
creative and interactive tasks, tips for graduates and postgraduates 
about presentations, thesis writing, communication skills needed in 
the fi eld of their research as well as tasks for development of skills 
of speaking and writing in English. The texts are selected in the way 
as to make all graduates and postgraduates be interested in the topics 
discussed, irrespective of their specialty and qualifi cation.
All texts are accompanied by references of and links to the 
resources they are taken from. Both varieties of English are used: 
British and American. After the units there is a section with some 
additional texts that can be used during the classes of English.
In Appendices one can fi nd some useful information about 
sciences that exist at present with the detailed defi nition, 
abbreviations of college degrees and academic and scientifi c titles 
(the US and European use).

The book will be quite useful in preparatory course for passing 
postgraduate exam in English.
The authors of the textbook would like to express their sincere 
gratitude to all those who helped them fi nd interesting and useful 
information as well as to those who will use this book for their 
studies of English. We hope it will be very useful and we wish 
graduates and postgraduates all possible success in their researches, 
theses and scientifi c careers.

U N I T  1

What is Science?

A. Read the following quotations about science and express your 
own opinion about science in general and about your fi eld of 
science.
1. The origin of all science is in the desire to know causes; and the 
origin of all false science and imposture is in the desire to accept 
false causes rather than none; or, which is the same thing, in 
the unwillingness to acknowledge our own ignorance. (William 
Hazlitt from The Atlas)
2. Science sometimes builds new bridges between universes of 
discourse and experience hitherto regarded as separate and 
heterogeneous. But science also breaks down old bridges and 
opens gulfs between universes that, traditionally, had been 
connected. (Aldous Huxley from Literature and Science)
3. Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of 
its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, 
eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths and encourage the arts 
and commerce. (John F. Kennedy from Inaugural Address)
3. When we say “science” we can either mean any manipulation 
of the inventive and organizing power of the human intellect: or 
we can mean such an extremely different thing as the religion 
of science, the vulgarized derivative from this pure activity 
manipulated by a sort of priestcraft into a great religious and 
political weapon. (Wyndham Lewis from The Art of Being Ruled)
4. Science does not aim, primarily, at high probabilities. It aims 
at a high informative content, well backed by experience. But 
a hypothesis may be very probable simply because it tells us 
nothing, or very little.
(Karl R. Popper from The Logic of Scientifi c Discovery)

B. Write down 5—10 sentences expressing your ideas about
science.

C. Read the defi nitions of “science” and choose the one, which
suits best to your ideas about science from exercise B.

№
Defi nition
Source

1.
1) the systematic study of the nature and
behaviour of the material and physical
universe, 
based 
on 
observation, 
experiment, and measurement, and the
formulation of laws to describe these
facts in general terms;
2) the knowledge so obtained or the
practice of obtaining it;
3) any particular branch of this knowledge
the pure and applied sciences;
4) any body of knowledge organized in a
systematic manner;
5) skill or technique;
6) (archaic) knowledge

Collins English 
Dictionary, 8th 
Edition

2.
Any system of knowledge that is concerned 
with the physical world and its phenomena 
and that entails unbiased observations and 
systematic experimentation.
In general, a science involves a pursuit of 
knowledge covering general truths or the 
operations of fundamental laws.

Britannica

3.
Science is the study of the nature and 
behaviour of natural things and the 
knowledge that we obtain about them.

Collins COBUILD 
Advanced 
Learner’s English 
Dictionary, 4th 
edition

Таблица (окончание)

№
Defi nition
Source

4.
A branch of study in which facts are 
observed and classifi ed, and, usually, 
quantitative laws are formulated and 
verifi ed; involves the application of 
mathematical reasoning and data analysis 
to natural phenomena.

McGraw-Hill 
Dictionary of 
Scientifi c and 
Technical Terms

5.
1) a branch of knowledge conducted 
on 
objective 
principles 
involving 
the systematized observation of and 
experiment 
with 
phenomena, 
esp. 
concerned 
with 
the 
material 
and 
functions of the physical universe;
2) (a) 
systematic 
and 
formulated 
knowledge, esp. of a specifi ed type 
or on a specifi ed subject (political 
science);
 
(b) the pursuit or principles of this;
3) an organized body of knowledge on a 
subject (the science of philology);
4) skilful technique rather than strength or 
natural ability;
5) (archaic) knowledge of any kind.

Oxford English 
Reference

6.
Knowledge about the world, especially 
based on examination and testing, and on 
facts that can be proved

Longman 
Dictionary of 
Contemporary 
English, 3rd 
edition

D. Read the following text.

What is Science?

To understand what science is, just look around you. What 
do you see? Perhaps, your hand on the mouse, a computer screen, 

papers, ballpoint pens, the family cat, the sun shining through the 
window ... Science is, in one sense, our knowledge of all that — all 
the stuff that is in the universe: from the tiniest subatomic particles 
in a single atom of the metal in your computer’s circuits, to the 
nuclear reactions that formed the immense ball of gas that is our 
sun, to the complex chemical interactions and electrical fl uctuations 
within your own body that allow you to read and understand these 
words. But just as importantly, science is also a reliable process by 
which we learn about all that stuff in the universe. However, science 
is different from many other ways of learning because of the way 
it is done. Science relies on testing ideas with evidence gathered 
from the natural world. This website will help you learn more about 
science as a process of learning about the natural world and access 
the parts of science that affect your life.
Science helps satisfy the natural curiosity with which we are all 
born: why is the sky blue, how did the leopard get its spots, what 
is a solar eclipse? With science, we can answer such questions 
without resorting to magical explanations. And science can lead to 
technological advances, as well as helping us learn about enormously 
important and useful topics, such as our health, the environment, and 
natural hazards. Without science, the modern world would not be 
modern at all, and we still have much to learn. Millions of scientists 
all over the world are working to solve different parts of the puzzle 
of how the universe works, peering into its nooks and crannies, 
deploying their microscopes, telescopes, and other tools to unravel 
its secrets.
Science is complex and multi-faceted, but the most important 
characteristics of science are straightforward:

● 
Science focuses exclusively on the natural world, and does 
not deal with supernatural explanations.

● 
Science is a way of learning about what is in the natural 
world, how the natural world works, and how the natural world got 
to be the way it is. It is not simply a collection of facts; rather it is a 
path to understanding.

● 
Scientists work in many different ways, but all science relies 
on testing ideas by fi guring out what expectations are generated 
by an idea and making observations to fi nd out whether those 
expectations hold true.

● 
Accepted scientifi c ideas are reliable because they have been 
subjected to rigorous testing, but as new evidence is acquired and 
new perspectives emerge these ideas can be revised.

● 
Science is a community endeavor. It relies on a system of 
checks and balances, which helps ensure that science moves in the 
direction of greater accuracy and understanding. This system is 
facilitated by diversity within the scientifi c community, which offers 
a broad range of perspectives on scientifi c ideas.
To many, science may seem like an arcane, ivory-towered 
institution — but that impression is based on a misunderstanding of 
science. In fact:

● 
Science affects your life everyday in all sorts of different 
ways.

● 
Science can be fun and is accessible to everyone.

● 
You can apply an understanding of how science works to 
your everyday life.

● 
Anyone can become a scientist — of the amateur or 
professional variety.
The word “science” probably brings to mind many different 
pictures: a fat textbook, white lab coats and microscopes, an 
astronomer peering through a telescope, a naturalist in the rainforest, 
Einstein’s equations scribbled on a chalkboard, the launch of the 
space shuttle, bubbling beakers ... All of those images refl ect some 
aspect of science, but none of them provides a full picture because 
science has so many facets:

● 
Science is both a body of knowledge and a process. In 
school, science may sometimes seem like a collection of isolated 
and static facts listed in a textbook, but that’s only a small part of 
the story. Just as importantly, science is also a process of discovery 
that allows us to link isolated facts into coherent and comprehensive 
understandings of the natural world.

● 
Science is exciting. Science is a way of discovering what’s 
in the universe and how those things work today, how they worked 
in the past, and how they are likely to work in the future. Scientists 
are motivated by the thrill of seeing or fi guring out something that 
no one has before.

● 
Science is useful. The knowledge generated by science is 
powerful and reliable. It can be used to develop new technologies, 
treat diseases, and deal with many other sorts of problems.

● 
Science is ongoing. Science is continually refi ning and 
 expanding our knowledge of the universe, and as it does, it leads to new 
questions for future investigation. Science will never be “fi nished”.

● 
Science is a global human endeavor. People all over the 
world participate in the process of science.
(from Understanding Science: An Overview)

E. Check your reading comprehension. Choose the best answer 
(only one variant is possible). What do the underlined words from 
exercise D mean?
1) stuff
 
(a) rubbish
 
(b) substance
 
(c) medicine
 
(d) cloth

2) hazard
 
(a) chance
 
(b) accident
 
(c) venture
 
(d) danger

3) rigorous
 
(a) strictly exact
 
(b) severe
 
(c) infl exible
 
(d) harsh

4) accuracy
 
(a) neatness
 
(b) ability
 
(c) precision
 
(d) stability

5) rainforest
 
(a) tropical wood
 
(b) rainy zone
 
(c) tropical climate
 
(d) wet woodland

6) endeavor
 
(a) struggle
 
(b) essay
 
(c) aim
 
(d) attempt