Writing Scientific and Technical English. Письменный научный и технический английский язык
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Тематика:
Английский язык
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НИЦ ИНФРА-М
Год издания: 2024
Кол-во страниц: 232
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Вид издания:
Учебник
Уровень образования:
ВО - Магистратура
ISBN: 978-5-16-019342-7
ISBN-онлайн: 978-5-16-112011-8
Артикул: 801491.01.01
This book has been specially designed for students taking courses in Physics, Chemistry, Engineering or technical subjects. It offers comprehensive coverage of the structure of Scientific English at textbook level and a wide variety of written exercises.
The approach adopted is flexible. Certain units, such as those dealing with dimensions and properties, definitions, descriptions, tables and graphs, develop along functional lines, while in other areas, such as relative clauses and compounds nominals, the grammatical elements are stressed. The supplementary unit A Glimpse at English Phonetics gives students practice in pronunciation and transcription of English sounds, improves their speaking and listening skills.
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- 00.03.02: Иностранный язык
- ВО - Специалитет
- 00.05.02: Иностранный язык
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Л.А. БАРАНОВСКАЯ ПИСЬМЕННЫЙ НАУЧНЫЙ И ТЕХНИЧЕСКИЙ АНГЛИЙСКИЙ ЯЗЫК WRITING SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL ENGLISH УЧЕБНИК Москва ИНФРА-М 2025
УДК 811.111(075.8) ББК 81.432.1я73 Б24 Р е ц е н з е н т ы: Янова М.Г., доктор педагогических наук, доцент, доцент Красноярского государственного педагогического университета имени В.П. Астафьева; Стрекалева Т.В., кандидат филологических наук, доцент, доцент Сибирского государственного университета науки и технологий - имени академика М.Ф. Решетнева Барановская Л.А. Б24 Письменный научный и технический английский язык (Writing Scientific and Technical English) : учебное пособие / Л.А. Барановская. — Моcква : ИНФРА-М, 2025. — 232 с. — (Высшее образование). ISBN 978-5-16-019342-7 (print) ISBN 978-5-16-112011-8 (online) This book has been specially designed for students taking courses in Physics, Chemistry, Engineering or technical subjects. It offers comprehensive coverage of the structure of Scientific English at textbook level and a wide variety of written exercises. The approach adopted is flexible. Certain units, such as those dealing with dimensions and properties, definitions, descriptions, tables and graphs, develop along functional lines, while in other areas, such as relative clauses and compounds nominals, the grammatical elements are stressed. The supplementary unit A Glimpse at English Phonetics gives students practice in pronunciation and transcription of English sounds, improves their speaking and listening skills. УДК 811.111(075.8) ББК 81.432.1я73 ISBN 978-5-16-019342-7 (print) ISBN 978-5-16-112011-8 (online) © Барановская Л.А., 2025
Оглавление Abbreviations...........................................................................................................5 Author's notes..........................................................................................................6 Preface. ......................................................................................................................7 Unit 1. INTRODUCTION TO SCIENTIFIC STATEMENTS........................................8 Be and Have in Scientific Statements................................................................................................... 8 Statements Requiring the Present Simple........................................................................................11 Unit 2. REFERENCE UNIT ON ARTICLES. ..............................................................19 The Indefinite Article.................................................................................................................................19 The Definite Article. ....................................................................................................................................23 Unit 3. DIMENSIONS AND PROPERTIES..............................................................27 Dimensions. ...................................................................................................................................................27 Properties.......................................................................................................................................................33 ’Fronted’ Statements.................................................................................................................................35 Qualified Statements of Dimensions. ..................................................................................................37 Unit 4. COMPARISONS AND MODALS. ................................................................40 Simple Statements of Comparison......................................................................................................40 Qualified Comparative Statements......................................................................................................48 A Note on Modals in Scientific and Technical English.................................................................54 Unit 5. IMPERSONAL SCIENTIFIC STATEMENTS — THE PASSIVE...................58 Form of the Passive....................................................................................................................................58 Use of the Passive.......................................................................................................................................61 By and the Agent........................................................................................................................................67 Must, Should, and the Passive...............................................................................................................71 Passives and Infinitives.............................................................................................................................73 Passive and Active......................................................................................................................................75 Unit 6. MORE INFORMATIVE STATEMENTS — RELATIVE CLAUSES...................78 Introduction..................................................................................................................................................78 Passive Relative Clauses...........................................................................................................................79 Active Relative Clauses.............................................................................................................................84 Reduced Relative Clauses........................................................................................................................86 Unit 7. MORE CONCISE STATEMENTS...................................................................93 Compound Nouns......................................................................................................................................93 Naming and the Possessive Genitive..................................................................................................98 3
Оглавление Reductions of Passive Relative Clauses........................................................................................... 101 Reductions of Active Relative Clauses............................................................................................. 109 Reductions of Passive if and when Clauses................................................................................... 111 Unit 8. DEFINITIONS............................................................................................ 113 General Definitions and a Definition Formula.............................................................................. 113 Specific Definitions.................................................................................................................................. 125 Expanded Definitions............................................................................................................................. 128 Unit 9. SCIENTIFIC STATEMENTS REFERRING TO THE PAST............................ 132 Form of the Past Simple........................................................................................................................ 132 Use of the Past Simple........................................................................................................................... 134 Form of the Present Perfect................................................................................................................. 139 Use of the Present Perfect in Descriptions. .................................................................................... 141 Other Uses of the Present Perfect..................................................................................................... 145 It + passive verb + that.......................................................................................................................... 150 Unit 10. EXPERIMENTAL AND EXPLANATORY DESCRIPTIONS. ....................... 152 Experimental Descriptions................................................................................................................... 152 Descriptions of How Things Work..................................................................................................... 158 How Things are Produced.................................................................................................................... 164 How Things were Discovered or Invented. .................................................................................... 169 Unit 11. FURTHER WORK ON DESCRIPTIONS. ................................................... 171 General Descriptions.............................................................................................................................. 171 Descriptions of Objects and Substances........................................................................................ 175 Descriptions of Concepts...................................................................................................................... 178 Descriptions of Figures, Shapes, and Plans. ................................................................................... 181 Thought-connectives. ............................................................................................................................. 184 Unit 12. TABLES AND GRAPHS........................................................................... 189 Tables and Graphs Without a Time Reference............................................................................. 189 Tables with a Single Time Reference. ............................................................................................... 195 As Clauses................................................................................................................................................... 195 Tables and Graphs with a Multiple Time Reference. .................................................................. 197 Unit 13. SUPPLEMENTARY UNIT: A GLIMPSE AT ENGLISH PHONETICS.......................................................................................................... 205 Phonetics. .................................................................................................................................................... 205 Phonetic Transcription........................................................................................................................... 206 Selected bibliography. ........................................................................................ 220 Appendices.......................................................................................................... 221 4
Abbreviations approx. = approximately 1°С = 1° Сentigrade C1H4 [‘siː’wʌn ‘eɪtʃ ‘fɔː] = methane Ca [‘siː’eɪ] = calcium cc. = cubic centimeter cm-gm wt/sec. = centimeter-gram weight per second d = diameter ft-lb wt/sec. = foot-pound weight per second H2SO4 [‘eɪtʃ ‘tu: sˏəʊ ‘fɔː] = sulfuric acid i.e. = for example kph. = kilometer per hour kw = kilowatt mph. = mile per hour Pb = lead psi. = pound per square inch 100 % =100 per cent 5
Author's notes The exercises have been marked *, **, ***: * exercises are simple and should give little difficulty if the explanation and examples have been studied carefully; ** exercises usually require students to produce a certain amount of their own work. However, quite a lot of help is given in terms of example sentences and in the organization of the written material; *** exercises are rather more advanced and require students to produce passages of continuous scientific or technical English. 6
Preface I have attempted to give practice in a series of structured contexts through which the master students of engineering and postgraduates can develop their abilities to express their technical and scientific knowledge in English. To begin with, this course should be useful for students who are required to use English in the course of their higher studies in engineering and science, but whose knowledge of English is limited to what they have learnt in a general English course. I hope that this course will do something to resolve the problem of teaching - engineering master students and postgraduates how to communicate technical and scientific information in the most widely used language of science. The scope of this book has been restricted in a number of ways. Firstly, it is designed to improve written English. The models of sentence and paragraph organization, therefore, have been drawn up to help students, especially weaker students, to write more correctly and more within the style best suited to technical and scientific subjects. Secondly, the types of exercises have been limited to those requiring the student to produce no more than fairly short, fairly straightforward descriptions, explanations and interpretations. Thirdly, the student will not find any detailed discussion of grammatical items. The main grammatical difficulties are encountered in descriptive work. Finally, the content of the examples and exercises has been limited to the fields of engineering, chemistry, physics. Larisa Baranovskaya 7
Unit 1 INTRODUCTION TO SCIENTIFIC STATEMENTS BE AND HAVE IN SCIENTIFIC STATEMENTS In scientific English the main verbs of sentences are usually in the Present Simple tense. It is not difficult to see why. Scientific textbooks contain information about the present state of scientific knowledge. They describe experiments showing how this knowledge can be obtained. They also show how this knowledge is used in the service of man. As a result, you will probably use the Present Simple in most of your scientific writing. As the Present Tense is so common, it is important to make sure that the subjects and verbs agree. *Exercise 1. Underline the subjects of these sentences and cross out the verbs which do not agree. (Underline all parts of the subjects, not just the nouns.) Here is an example: This gas has/have a greater density than air. This gas has/have a greater density than air. 1. Water boils/boil at 100° centigrade. 2. A thermometer measures/measure temperature. 3. Oxygen and hydrogen is/are gases. 4. Mathematics is/are an important subject for an engineer. 5. The light bulbs in this room produces/produce 100 watts each. 6. The liquid in those bottles is/are dangerous. 7. The results of the experiment proves/prove the law. 8. Everybody recognizes/recognize the importance of practical work. 8
Be and Have in Scientific Statements 9. Some substances, most of which are metal, is/are good conductors of electricity. 10. Most kinds of wood floats/float on water. 11. At least one kind of wood sinks/sink in water. 12. The average monthly rainfall figures for this area shows/show a small decline in annual total over the last thirty years. The last two sentences are examples of an important fact about scientific writing: the main verb is often simple but the rest of the sentence complicated. In 12 the verbs consist of only one word. How many words do the subjects contain? In spoken English the noun parts of a sentence are often simple and the verb parts complicated. The opposite is true of written scientific English. In fact, about a third of all scientific statements have is or are as the main verb. This causes difficulty for students who speak languages in which it is not always necessary to use a verb like be. The difficulty arises because English is one of those languages in which all written sentences must contain at least one main verb. *Exercise 2. Rewrite these 12 sentences putting in the main verb is or are. (This is the first writing exercise in the Unit. Therefore you should try to get it right. This also means: • • starting each sentence with a capital letter; • • finishing each sentence with a full stop; • • making sure you copy the words accurately). 1. These test-tubes. 2. Oxygen necessary for all growth. 3. Oxygen and hydrogen gases. 4. This solution a mixture of chlorine and sodium. 5. Angles measuring 90° right-angles. 6. The natural water in many parts of the world hard. 9
Unit 1. Introduction to Scientific Statements 7. Gold and silver not radioactive elements. 8. One of the machines out of order. 9. Two of the three pieces of metal copper. 10. A beaker or a small glass necessary for this experiment. 11. The breaking strain of the rope 200 kilos. 12. 200 kilos the breaking strain of the rope. (Be careful!) The other very common verb in scientific statements is the main verb have. Again this can cause a problem because of the grammatical differences between English and many other languages. *Exercise 3. Put either is or has into the spaces. 1. Water …….. a boiling point of 100°C. 2. The boiling point of water …….. 100°С. 3. Stainless steel …….. a metal alloy. 4. Stainless steel …….. rust-proof. 5. This car …….. a maximum speed of 140 kilometers an hour. 6. The maximum speed of this car …….. 140 kilometers an hour. 7. The angle of reflection …….. 9°. 8. The simplest hydrocarbon …….. methane which …….. one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms. 9. In chemistry each element …….. its own symbol, which …….. usually a capital letter followed by a small letter. 10. If a plane figure …….. three straight sides, it …….. a triangle. *Exercise 4. In the following sentences the main verbs have been left out. Rewrite the sentences putting in either is, are, has, or have. 1. A triangle a figure which has three straight sides. 2. The Dead Sea a high salt content. 3. There several types of pump. 4. Most kinds of stainless steel a small percentage of chrome. 5. Stainless steel the property of resisting corrosion. 6. Modern bridges often several kilometers long. 10
Statements Requiring the Present Simple 7. A modern bridge sometimes a length of several kilometers. 8. Isosceles triangles two equal angles. 9. The total population of the world about 7,500 million. 10. A hexagon a plane figure with six sides. Read this description of a car. The Moto 1100 The Moto 1100 is a small family car. It has a small engine which is in the front. The engine has a capacity of 1,100 cubic centimeters. It is a front wheel drive car. The gear lever is on the floor. There are seats for four or five people. It has four forward gears and a reverse. It has a maximum speed of about 130 km an hour. One advantage of this car is that it has a very low fuel consumption. Notice how it is possible to write a simple technical description using only be and have. Notice also that the sentences are short. **Exercise 5. Write a simple factual description of any vehicle you know about. Use mainly be and have. Keep most of your sentences short. (A vehicle is any car, bicycle, lorry, etc.) STATEMENTS REQUIRING THE PRESENT SIMPLE (a) The Present Simple is used for regular actions and regular processes: He studies physics six hours a week. (b) It is used for general statements: Area equals length times height. (c) It is used for factual statements and observations: This type of vinegar contains about 3% acid. (d) It can be used in descriptions of experiments: The temperature rises until it reaches 100, but after that it remains constant. 11
Unit 1. Introduction to Scientific Statements In other words, always use the Present Simple unless there are good reasons for using another tense. Form of the Present Simple: they we produce you I it he she produce S + An S has been used for two reasons. First it is a reminder, so that you remember to add it on after a subject in the third person singular. An S has also been used because it is not always a simple matter of adding an s to the base form of the verb. Sometimes spelling changes are necessary: Verbs ending in ss, sh, ch, x, and о add es to the base. they pass he passes they push he pushes they watch he watches they mix he mixes they go he goes Verbs ending in Y after a consonant change у to i and add es. they hurry he hurries they magnify it magnifies Verbs ending in Y after a vowel follow the main rule (add s). they obey it obeys they say he says *Exercise 6. Rewrite these sentences putting the verbs in brackets into the correct form. 1. He (study) biology. 2. The current (pass) along the wire. 3. This ring (weigh) 125 grams. 4. Sound (travel) at a speed of 333 meters a second. 5. Rain (wash) salt from the soil. 12