Identify the function of –ing form (Gerund or Participle)

1. The natural philosophers of the Enlightenment frequently sought to safeguard their claims to a discovery, while minimizing the risk of public error, by depositing their dated observations in an archive or by concealing them in a cipher.

2. By connecting thermodynamics with the properties of atoms in motion, statistical mechanics describes the behavior of matter from bottom up.

3. Meitner, a skilled mathematician with a canny grasp of nuclear physics, found the answer. Talking with her nephew that night, she realized that Hahn was splitting uranium nuclei, thus producing barium and releasing energy.

4. All the day he sat in his laboratory, vainly hoping that the sight of all the familiar apparatus would jolt his memory, and trying without success to understand the scribbled note of the night before.

5. In 1939 Einstein alerted President Roosevelt to the danger of Germany’s development of an atomic bomb (A-bomb), thus contribut ing to setting up of the Manhattan project.

6. Twentieth century astronomy had been dominated by professionals. Using giant telescopes that cost millions they studied distant galaxies, while amateurs were relegated for the most part, to charting the brightness of variable stars and making drawings of the Moon, Mars, and Saturn rings.

 

13. Rewrite the following sentences using Gerund.

Example: They arrived at definite conclusions because they made a lot of controlled experiments.

They arrived at definite conclusions by making a lot of controlled experiments.

 

1. Since Galileo’s time, physicists have flourished mainly because kept things simple and broke down the complexities of the everyday world into their simplest component parts.

2. Both scientists and theologians began to ask just how all these species had come about, and why each seemed so perfectly suited to the environment in which it lived – fish can swim in the sea, birds can fly in the sky, and so on.

3.  One of Gauss’s disciples used to put the book under his pillow before he went to bed in the hope – frequently fulfilled – that he would wake up in the night to find that a re-reading made things clear.

VOCABULARY STUDY

14. Choose the correct form (noun or participle). Check up the meaning of the words in the Grammar Reference (GR-17 p. 204).

Example: Human being/beings can be considered the only species endowed with the gift of reason.

Human beings ( человеческие существа / люди ) can be considered the only species endowed with the gift of reason.

1. It’s worth examining the shortcoming/shortcomings of Drexler's original vision because this may give clues as to how we might make radical nanotechnology feasible.

2. The working/workings of the world inspire curiosity of scientists.

3. The teaching/teachings of Aristotle and his commentators were the basis of medieval science.

4. Fermat’s earning/earnings as a civil servant enabled him to pursue mathematics in his spare time.

5. Glass making/makings at his mother’s glass factory fascinated young Dmitri Mendeleyev as his first encounter with practical chemistry.

6. Hooke’s superb drawing/drawings appeared in his book Micrographia in 1665.

7.  Firmer footing/footings to Copernicus’s ideas appeared only in Galileo’ s time.

8. In 1936 the Proceeding/Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society published a ground-breaking article by Alan M. Turing.

9 . Hubble’s dramatic finding/findings attracted the attention of the famous physicist Albert Einstein.

10. So-called a priori reasoning/reasonings in science prevailed in medieval science.

11. Mendeleyev’s being/beings the first in his class brought him a gold medal when he qualified as a teacher in 1855.

12. Working/workings closely with radioactive materials without realizing the dangers involved was typical of the Curies’ practices.

13. Gathering/gatherings of scientists in the form of workshops and symposia provide them an opportunity to exchange ideas.

14. Leonardo’s belonging/belongings, including 13,000 priceless pages of his notes, were shipped to Italy after his death.

 

 

UNIT 12 ASTROPHYSICS

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