Учебное пособие по развитию навыков устной речи и чтения для студентов 1 курса технических специальностей

3) What is Nina’s hypothesis and how is she going to test it?

Nina Jones: Facebook Photo-fit

Occupation: A-level student
Idea: "What makes up a typical Facebook profile picture? Adults seem to choose pictures showing an event in their lives - their wedding, or a photo with their children - whereas teenagers seem to show themselves having a good time, often with friends at a party. Through investigation (a standardized coding scheme coupled with a survey), I will test these predictions, and also look into why this occurs."

4) What is a unique phenomenon that John is going to investigate?

John Rowlands: Noctilucent Clouds

Occupation: Aerial photographer
Idea: "To investigate the frequency and brightness of noctilucent clouds, believed to be linked to climate change. The sun is currently climbing slowly out of a century-low in activity, and so there is a chance to study noctilucent clouds and solar cycle."
5. Discuss the following questions in class.
1) Which experiment would you take part in yourself?
2) Who would you like to help with their research?


B. Hi-Tech
1. Do you know when these achievements of modern technology appeared? Match the date with the invention.
1) iPod touch 1983
2) DVD 1999
3) Digital camera 2007
4) Mobile phone 2010
5) iPad 1983
6) Digital TV 1986
7) Karaoke machine 1995
2a. Give each of the innovations a number from 0 to 5 depending on whether it doesn’t interest you at all (0) or interests you enormously (5).
Mark each of the inventions 0 to 5 depending on how important they are to you in your life.
2b. Work in pairs and share your opinion with each other. Find the differences and common things between you and be ready to report them back to the group.
3. Read about the UK’s most exciting scientific advances and say what they are and what fields of science they are connected with.
A. Researchers and engineers from three UK institutions are developing the world’s largest ground-based telescope to dramatically improve our view of the Universe. For 400 years scientists have built ever-bigger telescopes to study space. The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) will be a ground-based optical/infra-red telescope with a 42m diameter mirror larger than all the current ground-based telescopes combined. This huge mirror will be built from 984 hexagonal segments. It will use Adaptive Optics to compensate for blurring of images caused by the Earth’s atmosphere, capturing images up to 10 times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope. The giant telescope will allow us to study Earth-like planets orbiting stars outside our solar system.

B. Researchers from central London are working on using nanotechnology to make advances in healthcare. Nanotechnology is the science of the very small – working on a scale one-billionth of a metre. It has been used by scientists in many disciplines to create new materials and devices by controlling matter on the atomic and molecular level. Davy Faraday researchers are exploring how nanoparticles can be used in healthcare, from disease diagnosis to cancer treatment. The research team is focusing on two specific particles – gold nanoparticles and magnetic colloids. Gold nanoparticles can be used in blood sugar monitoring and anti-cancer therapy. Magnetic colloids are used as MRI contrast agents and have great potential for anti-cancer therapy and drug delivery.

C. Researchers from London South Bank University are collaborating with other institutions to create inspection robots able to climb walls and swim. Mobile robots can have many uses, from security to domestic applications. Researchers are developing mobile robots able to climb walls and swim to perform non-destructive testing of critical infrastructure using imaging techniques.