It is essential to note it must be mentioned

1. A researcher is interested not only in the subject he is doing but in his science as a whole.

Vocabulary: to get pleasure from explaining any of one’s problems;to give a clear and full answer to questions; to be of help with one’s knowledge and experience; to get satisfaction from merely speaking of one’s work; to see one’s place in science; to know the history of one’s sci-ence; to be enthusiastic about one’s work; to enjoy teaching one’s science to others; to devote most of one’s time to science; to have other interests outside one’s field; to keep abreast of the achievements in one’s science and other related disciplines.

2. A sceptic may erroneously conclude that practitioners of natural science have managed to cope with their problems without the help of theoretical science.

Vocabulary: to advance along its own road; to use traditional tech-niques; many spheres of technology; to be perfected without the help of science; to develop at a faster rate; to put forward new ideas; to translate ideas into practice; to propose new methods; to facilitate the production; to find answers to practical questions; to move ideas and experiments from laboratories; to benefit from theory; applied sciences; practical utilization of a scientific discovery; to have influence on practical affairs; to have ef-fect on the applied sciences.

1.4.5. Read the text:

 

How can one expect to keep abreast of the achievements in science? Various digests, abstracts and synopses, reviews and compendiums are a must. There are yearbooks in which highly qualified researchers offer reviews of developments in large domains of science over the past twelve months. Many young researchers content themselves with studying journals covering only the last five or ten years. A result of this is the appearance of articles making old «discoveries», so the researcher wastes his energy.

 

Answer the following questions:

 

1. What literature should a researcher follow to keep abreast of the new developments in his field?

 

 

How should a young researcher go about his reading? Why is a knowledge of English so important for a scientist? How is the knowledge of Russian spreading in the world? 2. Which scientific journals are there in your line?

 

In what way do you choose articles to read – by the name of the author, by the name of the scientific centre where the author does research, by the ti-tle of the article, by the abstract at the beginning of it, by scanning it?

 

How regularly do you turn to literature: once a week, once a month, when you encounter difficulties, when you feel you’ve come to a blind al-ley, when you are to prepare a review on the latest developments in your field?

3. How important is English for you: is it a means to keep abreast of new ideas; are you learning it only in order to be able to take your qualify-ing exam; are you learning it to be able to communicate with foreign visi-tors to your Institute, to translate articles of interest for your colleagues, to contribute articles to foreign journals, to read your papers at international scientific meetings; are you learning it to be able to read fiction, poetry, watch films?

 

Additional material

 

Dialogue

 

Q: What do you do after receiving your bachelor’s degree?

 

A: With a bachelor’s degree you can apply to a graduate school and start working towards a master’s degree. If you have a bachelor’s degree you can also go to a professional school.

 

Q: What is a professional school?

 

A: Law and medical school are considered professional schools. If you go to a medical school it’s a four year program, basic program, and then you usually have internship. In the end you get a M.D., doctor of Medicine degree. Medical schools are run by the American Medical Asso-ciation, A.M.A. and law schools by the American Bar Association, A.B.A. It’s a three yeas program and you get a J.D., Juris Doctor degree.

 

Q: And if you go to a graduate school, how many years does it take to get a master’s and a doctorate?

A: I think it depends on the program and every program is different. Usually a master’s is a couple of years and a doctorate is another two or three years. Usually Ph.D. and master’s (degree) program are in the same place and you simply continue. The master’s degree is not very important, it’s a step on the way to get a Ph.D. You simply stay on the same program

 

 

and continue. But you can change. You can get a master’s degree in one place and then change schools and get a Ph.D. degree in another one.

 

Q: What do you know about honorary degrees?

A: I don’t know much about that. But I do know that my college gives honorary degrees. For example at the graduation ceremony when I got my bachelor’s degree they awarded some very accomplished elderly man a Doctor of letters degree. It’s an honorary degree and it means that the institution recognizes that person.

 

Q: What is the most important division at an American university? A: It’s a department. But you don’t belong to a department, you’re a

student and have a major. Your major is in one department and usually your advisor is also in that department. So the department requires certain courses. In order to major you have to do these certain courses. Perhaps a quarter or a half of your courses are in the direction of your major depart-ment.

 

Q: Could you name the positions which are occupied by the univer-sity teachers?

А: О.К. I’ll start with the bottom. A private institution can hire any-one. The lowest rank is instructor. Actually he teaches anything they need. I think the assistant professor is the next highest. Usually when you hire an assistant professor that’s someone who is likely to be on a tenure track.

That’s a lower rank and it’s assumed you eventually would achieve a higher rank. They do anything, they do whatever the department decides. An assistant professor usually has a master’s degree. Now when there are so few university jobs they are usually people who have almost a Ph.D., people who are writing their dissertations or are close to a Ph.D. and it’s assumed they will finish their Ph.D. They couldn’t move up until you get your Ph.D. You really have to have it before you get an associate professor or full professor.

 

Q: What is a tenure position?

 

A: Each department has some tenure positions which are life-time positions. It’s an academic protection. You can’t fire that person. An asso-ciate professor who after a number of years has done his Ph.D. is consid-ered for tenure. Say, there are four tenure positions and someone is retired and if you’re considered qualified enough you get tenure. It is a very long and difficult process because the college or university is committing itself to you, to that person. And if you don’t get tenure, and you’re turned down, you usually quit and go to another university.

 

Q: It is important not only what position you have but also where you work?

 

A: That’s right. Each organization, basically, runs its own show. A major university, Berkeley, for example has its own research organizations connected with the university. If you’re associated with the university you may have an academic title or simply be a part of the research organization at Berkeley. I think in a lot of areas you’re considered important and ac-complished if you’re a senior associate at Berkeley research institute. Be-cause Berkeley is very important. Because Berkeley is a big name. Every field has its big names.

 

Text

 

Science is not a licensed profession, and to be counted as a scientist one need not be a Doctor of Philosophy... But a scientist without a Ph.D. (or a medical degree) is like a lay brother in a Cistercian monastery. Gen-erally he has to labor in the fields while others sing in the choir. If he goes into academic life, he can hope to become a professor only at the kind of college or university where faculty members are given neither time nor fa-cilities for research … A young scientist with a bachelor’s or a master’s degree will probably have to spend his time working on problems, or prices of problems, that are assigned to him by other people and that are of more practical than scientific interest. Wherever he works, the prospects are slight that he will be given much autonomy and freedom. Having a Ph.D. or its equivalent – a medical degree plus post – graduate training in research – has become in fact, if not in law, a requirement for full citizen ship in the American scientific community.

To be successful as a scientist, it is important not only to have earned it at the right place. From the standpoint of rightness, American universi-ties may be divided into three groups. The first is made up of those institu-tions to which the term «leading» may appropriately be applied. They in-clude Chicago, Cal Tech, the University of California at Berkeley, Colum-bia, Harvard, Illinois, M.I.T. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Michigan, Princeton, Stanford, Wisconsin, Yale, and perhaps two or three others. These are the universities whose professors get the biggest research grants, publish most scientific papers, serve in the most important govern-ment committees, win most of the scientific prizes, and are most likely to be acknowledge as leaders in their fields... Ranking just below these twelve are universities like Minnesota and Indiana and U.C.L.A. (Univer-sity of California at Los Angelos), where scientists and scholars of interna-

 

 

tional renown are also to be found, but not in such dense clusters as at Harvard or Berkeley... This is not to say that first – rate scientists are to be found only at first-rate universities – or that there are no second-rate peo-ple at Berkeley and M.I.T. But the brightest students, like the brightest professors, tend to be found at the leading universities.

 

Although possession of Ph.D. is supposed to signify that a scientist has learned his trade as a researcher, it is now very common for young sci-entists to continue in a quasi-student statue for a year or two after they get their doctorates...

Older scientists as a rule are very happy to take on postdoctoral stu-dents. The postdoctoral, as he is sometimes called, is like an advanced graduate student in that he does research under the general direction of on older man. But he usually needs much less direction, and he can therefore be much more helpful to an experienced scientist who is eager to see his work pushed forward as rapidly as possible... Postdoctoral trainees can have the further advantage of serving a professor as a middleman in his dealings with his graduate students. For young scientists themselves, a year two of postdoctoral study and research has many attractions. For some it’s a chance to make up for what they didn’t learn in graduate school. For scientists whose graduate training has been good, the chief advantage of doing postdoctoral research is that it gives them a couple of years in which they can put all their effort into research. A postdoctoral fellowship can also be a relatively tranquil interlude between the pressures and intellectual restrictions of life as a graduate student, and the competition and distrac-tions of life as an assistant professor. Many scientists go abroad, not be-cause the training they get will necessarily be better than they would get in the United States, but because a postdoctoral fellowship gives them a chance to travel – often for the firat time in their lives.

 

UNIT II. TEXTS

 

SCIENCE IN THE MODERN WORLD