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UNIT 1 ART OR ENTERTAINMENT?Стр 1 из 13Следующая ⇒
UNIT 1 ART OR ENTERTAINMENT? LEAD-IN Discuss the following questions. · How important do you think for young people to be aware of the past? · Which areas of the past are you most interested in? Why? · In what way is art present in our everyday lives and what effect does it have? · What is the historic role of the museums? · What is the way we use our great national institutions?
Complete the text using the words and phrases given. A charge on the National cuLture
THE British Museum may have to introduce admission (1) ……………………. for its six million visitors a year because of reductions in its government grant. The 237-year-old museum - which (2) ……………………… the Elgin marbles, a magnificent collection of Greco-Roman antiquities, Egyptian sculpture and (3)…………………………. art - is one of the few great British institutions to have so far escaped financial purges. But a report, commissioned by Graham Green, chairman of the museum's (4)………………….., suggests that entry charges should be introduced to make up for the shortfall created by a million pound cut in grant. This would fly in the face of (5)……………….. made by Dr Robert Anderson, the museum's director that he would never ask visitors to pay. Dr Robert Anderson does not (6)…………………….. the introduction of admission charges. He compares museums to great reference libraries, "surpassing by far subordinate roles such as that of tourist attraction, heritage experience or entertainment centre. Charging changes the relationship between the museum and its public, encouraging these latter roles over the former». Most of those in the museum world share the distaste. Charges, they say, change the ethos: they make the experience more commercial, (7)……………………. against the brief visit, discourage repeat visits. As the National Art Collections Fund sees it, "a full day in a museum to 'get your money's worth' is enough to kill off any desire to return — especially for children". Sir Denis Mahon, leading British art (8)………………………….. earlier this year withdrew a bequest from the Walker Gallery, Liverpool, when it announced charges: "As a collector with something to offer, I am much in favour of a genuine partnership between the private sector and the state, but find it deeply distasteful that the public should be held to ransom for (9)……………………….. to its own property." The directors of the leading British Museums share the claim that “free admission is the cornerstone of democratic access to our cultural inheritance”. They are convinced that there are useful tools both to keep museums free from admission charges and to provide (10)……………………….. with sufficient means to run their art institution. Membership subscriptions and donations made through the British Museum Friends support the (11)…………………………… of important objects to complement the Museum’s complex and unique collection, as well as growing holdings of (12)…………………… objects held for the benefit of future generations. Members also contribute to the Museum’s active research programme, designed to deepen knowledge and promote understanding of the collection. Since its earliest days the Museum has relied on the generosity of donors and supporters – a public lottery was held (13) …………………… the £20,000 needed to purchase Hans Sloane’s initial collection for the nation. Charles M. Weisenberg, former public relation director of the Los Angeles Public Library claims that museum admission fees are clearly most hurtful to those least able to afford them. “Think of how the public and the politicians would explode if just the downtown public library were (14)…………………….. an admission fee. It is about time we made visiting an art museum as easy as visiting a library.” Vocabulary Work For the words 1-10 find the appropriate definitions A-J.
LISTENING World War I was?
World War I
4. In 1928 The British women gained
5. The women’ suffrage was obtained
6. Suffragettes used a lot of high profile methods except such as
Dropping atomic bomb was a
Speaking POINTS .
· Speak on one of the following Speaking Points.
Part 1
8 Make use of the following Internet sites and find the necessary information about the following artifacts: The Elgin Marbles, The Benin Bronzes, The Rosetta Stone; the museum: The Pergamon Museum, the historic event: The Boxer Rebellion. Deliver the information in class.
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/aes/t/the_rosetta_stone.aspx http://www.fotopedia.com/wiki/Pergamon_Altar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benin_bronzes http://www.fotopedia.com/wiki/Elgin_Marbles
9 Read the following article.
PANEL DISCUSSION * Panel discussion is the format of a debate in which participants representing various shades of opinion on a topic argue the case, usually under the guidance of a chairperson.
Ø Art Restitution: a rightful claim?
The relevant issues may be useful to consider while discussing the topic:
Ø the Baldin collection and the Russian government’s line on that issue Ø History of Looted Art, looting and looted countries
PART 2 13 Read the following text. The Museum Wars
Europe 's great art institutions are racing to transform themselves into modern centers of entertainment. Cool, cerebral and formidably focused, Mark Jones hides his erudition beneath an easy affability. In his six years as director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, he has overseen the transformation of a venerable if quaintly eclectic institution into one of Britain's most dynamic and ambitious museums that is rarely out of the headlines. Recent headlines have not always been friendly: the V&A has come under sneering attack over its Kylie Minogue exhibition, and Jones has been accused of pandering to pop culture. Unruffled, he insisted that the V&A, like all museums, must broaden its views and its range of visitors. At the Prado museum in Madrid visitors can peer into the past in a new exhibit of 19th-century photographs, which show artworks crammed on the walls wherever they would fit. Lithographs, paintings and plans chart the higgledy-piggledy development of one of Europe's best-loved art-treasure troves. Similarly, London's British Museum opened a new Enlightenment Gallery this year to celebrate the historic role of museums as centers of learning, displaying among other things intricate catalogs of 17th-century botanical specimens. While such exhibits enshrine the past, ambitious new plans for the future are transforming the dusty halls of some of Europe's most revered galleries. In Germany, Spain, Italy and Britain, museums are scrambling to create bigger, more-dazzling exhibition spaces, smart new restaurants and shops, study centers and inviting public areas. The push reflects a shift in how the public regards its artistic institutions. "People want more than the old-style museum," says John Lewis, chairman of the Wallace Collection, a gallery of 17th- and 18th - century paintings, porcelain and furniture in London. "We are driven to become more an arm of the entertainment and education industries rather than the academic institutions we used to be." Throughout Europe, the race is on. With demand for culture increasingly driving tourist dollars, "cities are trying to compete for them," says research analyst Richard Cope. Madrid is hoping the $226 million refurbishment of the site that contains the Prado, the Reina Sofia modern-art museum and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, will raise its cultural profile to match that of London. New galleries will increase the museum's current exhibition space to more than 160,000 square meters—not including the 13,000 square meters for cafes, restaurants, theaters and offices, all linked by tree-lined paths. No European museum expansion is more ambitious than Berlin's restoration of Museum Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the city center. The $2.1 billion project slated for completion in 2015 aims to turn the island into the largest art complex in Europe, covering all the major cultures in six museums filling 88,000 square meters. The Alte Nationalgalerie, an ornate classical temple built in 1866, reopened two years ago, displaying 19th-century artists, including German Romantics. Renovation of the neighboring Bode Museum, with its collection of Medieval and Renaissance art, is well underway, and the Neues Museum is being rebuilt to house Egyptian and prehistoric works. There are even plans to reconstruct the neighboring Hohen-zollern Palace to showcase Berlin's extensive collection of non-European art. And British architect David Chipperfield has been commissioned to create a striking new entrance to the whole complex. These institutions are hoping to repeat the triumph of London's Tate Museum, which spent $243 million to convert a disused power station into a gallery of modern art. When the Tate Modern opened in 2U00, director Sir Nicholas Serota described its creation as part of a "sea change" in culture, with visual arts becoming the most popular creative medium. His remark has proved amazingly prescient: in 2002, the top two attractions among foreign tourists to London were the Tate Modern and the refurbished British Museum. A year after the Tate Modern opened, its impact on the local economy was estimated at nearly $200 million—far higher than the $42 million the McKinsey consulting firm first estimated the museum would contribute when it developed the business plan in 1996. Smaller galleries, too, are hoping to cash in. Italian Culture Minister Giuliano Urbani plans to transform Florence's charming Uffizi Gallery into a world-class cultural destination. The original horseshoe-shaped building, created in 1560, will be restructured to increase its exhibit space from 6,000 to 13,000 square meters. The $72 million expansion will enable curators to show 800 works now in storage. When completed the "nuovo Uffizi" will accommodate 7,000 visitors daily, nearly double its current capacity. "We will surpass even the Louvre," predicts Urbani. Some purists oppose the idea of turning museums into glitzy consumer complexes. "My reservation is whether we lose that calm and that moment of reflection, that sense of civic space," says Tristram Hunt, a museum curator. Still, the trend seems irreversible: London's Victoria and Albert Museum now regularly stays open until 10 p.m., offering a cash bar and live music. The opening crowd for Kylie, Mark Jones of the V&A admits, was different from that for Van Gogh. But museums should be fun as well as instructive: "I want to show beautiful things beautifully so that people can enjoy them. I'm bored with the idea that people should only go to a museum to be better educated. Why shouldn't they go for pure pleasure?" The debate over the role of the modern museum will no doubt go on. Only now it will be conducted in state-of-the-art lecture halls and over perfectly frothed cappuccinos.
NEWSWEEK, STEFAN, August, 2007
14 Answer the following questions and sum up the information provided in the text.
Vocabulary
1 to record information ……………………………………………… 2 mixed together in an untidy way ……………………………………… 3 a place that is full of something good ……………………………………… 4 preserve and protect ……………………………………. 5 to respect and admire ……………………………………………. 6 to get more attention from the public ………………………………….. 7 to be planned to happen ………………………………………. 8 a traditionalist ………………………………………….
A B
1. Они превратили старый железнодорожный вокзал в научный музей. 2. По его первому роману сняли телевизионный фильм. 3. Нам придется восстановить часть стены. 4. Они превратили старую школу в дорогие квартиры. 5. Большой театр сейчас реставрируют. 6. Эти исторические здания, пережившие три разрушительные войны, были тщательно восстановлены. 7. Необходимо обновить это кафе, если мы хотим привлечь больше посетителей.
Part 3 Part 1 Коммуникация, интерактивность - базовые понятия для современного музея, и этим он отличается от музея классического. Музей - относительно недавнее изобретение человечества. Своим появлением он обязан масштабным послереволюционным конфискациям, захватническим войнам и тщеславию диктаторов. Чтобы придать некоторую легитимность выставленным трофеям, создатели музеев акцентировали их просветительскую миссию: музей-де приобщает к прекрасному широкие массы. До некоторой степени это действительно так. В 1793 году в Париже открылся Музей Наполеона, нынешний Лувр, до сих пор самый посещаемый в мире - 7 млн зрителей в год. Впервые в истории колоссальное число произведений искусства свезли в одно место. Лувр был задуман как «национальная витрина с сокровищами». Эта идея легла в основу всех крупнейших художественных собраний - от нью-йоркского Метрополитен до Эрмитажа. Наименование «храм искусств», Temple der Kunst, прусского происхождения. Именно в Германии в начале XIX века сформулировали неписаное правило: музей создан для торжественного благоговения. В храмах-музеях чудодействовали священники-искусствоведы. Зрителей приравнивали к пастве или студентам, которых надо учить. «Главная услуга, которую музей может оказать посетителям, - пробудить их любопытство»,- считал авторитетнейший музеевед XX века Кеннет Хадсон (1916-1999). Крупные музеи вроде Британского Хадсон называл «центрами академической спеси», картинные галереи считал «отсталыми детьми музейного семейства», эрудитов-искусствоведов - злом (они «заставляют зрителя чувствовать себя маленьким, невежественным и отпугивают тех, кто не желает подвергаться унижению»). Благодаря Хадсону современные музеи стали гораздо более открытыми и дружественными. Он считал, что необходимо развивать инфраструктуру музея: максимум открытых пространств, стеклянный вход (символ дружественности), много кафе и ресторанов и большой магазин. По таким принципам в 1980-х построили стеклянную пирамиду и подземное фойе - новый вход в Лувр. Сегодня в мире приблизительно 50 тысяч музеев. Две трети из них возникли за последние 50 лет. В моде sight-museums - музеи истории на месте ее действия. Чем больше они отдалены от крупных городов, тем лучше. Рядом строят отели, открывают магазины, рестораны и кафе, словом, создают рабочие места и привлекают туристов. Музейным экспонатом сегодня может стать любой пустяк. В лондонском Музее Виктории и Альберта наряду с античной керамикой и средневековыми реликвиями выставляют пластмассовые клипсы 1970-х годов. Страны соревнуются в создании необычных музеев. В крошечном Израиле музей есть в каждом кибуце: в одном собрали тысячи видов кактусов, в другом как зеницу ока берегут подбитый в шестидневную войну египетский танк. Огромное влияние на индустрию развлечений оказал Диснейленд. В 1960-е годы в США развернулись споры: должен ли музей быть башней из слоновой кости, где живут знатоки и ученые, или площадкой для развлечений и начальной школой искусств. В итоге пришли к общему мнению, что искусство - удел немногих, развлечение - для всех. Музеи начали масштабную перестройку: в них стали устраивать концерты, приемы, открывать детские студии, сувенирные лавки, службы PR. В 1990-е годы люди, наконец, поняли, что музей может быть коммерчески успешным предприятием. Американцы оставляют в музейных кафе и магазинах около $1 млрд ежегодно. Символической фигурой музейного мира 1990-х годов был Томас Кренц, директор Музея Гуггенхайма* в Нью-Йорке. В первые годы его работы из музея ушли почти все ведущие научные сотрудники. Он продал несколько картин из собрания (абсолютное святотатство с точки зрения традиционных музейщиков), а на вырученные деньги провел ремонт. Кренц открыл филиалы Гуггенхайма по всему миру и прославился эффектными высокобюджетными выставками. В 2005 году после триумфальной выставки «Россия!» Кренца отправили на повышение, руководить всей музейной сетью Гуггенхайма. Революционный музейный менеджмент стал примером для многих. Комитеты попечителей все чаще ищут кандидатов на директорское кресло не среди искусствоведов, а среди управленцев с дипломами МБА. Сегодня это обычная практика. В 1999 году Малкольм Роджерс возглавил Бостонский музей изобразительных искусств. В 1997 году в испанском Бильбао, портовом городе мятежной Страны басков, открылся филиал американского Музея Гуггенхайма. Открытие омрачили угрозы терактов: баскские сепаратисты не хотели ничего американского. Но в первый же год посмотреть выдающееся творение архитектора Фрэнка Гери приехали 6 млн. посетителей! Больше смог привлечь только Лувр. По данным Financial Times, за три года лишь на продаже входных билетов музей заработал городу 100 млн евро. Плюс еще 500 млн евро было инвестировано в туристическую индустрию. 160 млн евро вложили в местную экономику богатые патроны музея. В городе открылись сотни гостиниц, ресторанов, роскошные бутики. 80% туристов приезжают в Бильбао в первую очередь затем, чтобы посмотреть музей. Некогда отсталый экономический район превратился в цветущий край и центр туризма. Человек идет в музей за новым опытом. Бродя по залам, слушая экскурсовода, он вынужден напрягать воображение и даже мышцы. Чем активнее он включится в процесс, тем больше запомнит, получит более яркие впечатления.
PART 2
В современном музее посетитель может: ü Попасть в доисторический лес, на деревенскую свадьбу XIII века и в китайский театр XVIII века. Музей истории Гонконга воспроизводит исторические интерьеры и пейзажи в натуральную величину. Иллюзия подлинности дополняется специально записанными шумами и театральным светом. ü Примерить кринолин. В Музее Виктории и Альберта* в Лондоне, в недавно отреставрированном крыле - Британских галереях - зрители осваивают бытовые обычаи прошлого: можно, например, примерить кринолин. Галереи названы лучшим музейным проектом 2003 года в Европе. ü Научиться водить сухогруз. В музее мореходства в Гонконге на огромных мониторах воссоздан местный порт. Любой посетитель может стать капитаном - взять в руки штурвал и пришвартоваться к причалу. ü Стать криминалистом. В 2004-м в Британском музее «просветили» томографом одну египетскую мумию, провели ей анализ крови и ДНК. Исследования, дополненные компьютерной реконструкцией и документальным фильмом, легли в основу выставки, которая пользовалась огромной популярностью. ü Полетать на дельтаплане. В музее космоса в Гонконге посетителя кладут животом на кушетку и пристегивают к спине дельтаплан. Перед ним панорамный экран с пейзажем Гранд-Каньона. В лицо дует ветер. Надо так управлять дельтапланом, чтобы не врезаться в скалы. ü Посетить ресторан, купить сувениры. Из Лувра нельзя выйти, минуя музейный магазин. В нем продается все - от альбомов и фильмов по искусству до маек и солнцезащитных очков. Магазин нью-йоркского Музея Гуггенхайма работает даже тогда, когда экспозиция закрыта для посетителей.
Role-play TOPIC: Should we turn museums into glitzy consumer complexes?
v Enter the sites of some museums and study their way to attract more visitors. www.nationalgalley.org.uk www.hrp.org.uk www.museum.ru/gmii www.tretyakovgallery.ru www.vam.ac.uk www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk UNIT 2 global issues LEAD-IN Questions 1-6 · Choose the correct letter, А , В or C. 1 Rich people have been known to live in suburbs A at least since the 6th century ВС. В since the 1st century ВС. С only in modern times. 2 During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, London A encouraged poor people to move to the edge of the city. В expanded by incorporating nearby towns. С rebuilt its walls to contain a larger area. 3 In the 19th century, the development of suburbs was encouraged by A the high quality of suburban housing. В improvements in public transport. С a wish to own weekend homes. 4 European suburbs, unlike those in North America, A consist largely of low-density housing. В are well planned. С have individual characters. 5 Suburban sprawl is said to destroy A town centres. В business activity. С human relationships. 6 A major reason for the development of suburban sprawl in the USA was A improvements in car manufacture. В the availability of money to buy homes. С people's unwillingness to live in high density housing.
Questions 7-11 · Choose FIVE letters A-J. · Which FIVE claims does the writer make about suburban sprawl?
A Housing and other components are usually separated from each other. В There are insufficient controls over the actions of developers. С Life in housing districts is more limited than in traditional towns. D The residents have no input into the names of new suburbs. E Names may give a false impression of suburbs. F The design of school buildings tends to be old-fashioned. G The size of schools creates problems for their students. H The location of schools encourages the use of cars. I The population is too small to support shops serving a small area. J One reason for heavy traffic in suburbs is that a car is likely to contain only the driver. SPEAKING PART 1 9 Read the following text.
THE OTHER POPULATION CRISIS
A IT is an unquestioned principle that has dominated international thinking for decades: we live in an overcrowded world teeming with billions of humans who are destined to suffocate our cities and squeeze our planet of its precious resources. Our species is inexorably wrecking Earth: flooding valleys, cutting down forests and destroying the habitats of animals and plants faster than scientists can classify them. Our future is destined to be nasty, brutish, and cramped.
В Or is it? Now, it seems, population analysts have suddenly started to question the 'self-evident' truth that we are destined eventually to drown under our own weight. While accepting that populations will continue to rise, they point out that this rise will not be nearly as steep or as long-lasting as was once feared. They even claim they can envisage the day when world population numbers will peak and begin to decline.
С As evidence, statisticians point to a simple, stark fact: people are having fewer and fewer children. In the 1970s, global fertility rates stood at about six children per woman. Today the average is 2.9 and falling. Such a rate will still see the world's population increase to nine billion by 2050, a rise of fifty per cent on today's figure. That is not good news for the planet, but it is far less alarming than the projections of fifteen billion that were once being made. More to the point, statisticians predict that after 2050 the number of humans will go down. Such trends raise two key questions. Why has the rise in world populations started to die out so dramatically? And what will be the consequences of this decline?
D Answers to the first question depend largely on locality. In Europe, for example, couples will have only one or two children when they might have had three or four in the past. There are various reasons for this. Social analysts pin it on some jumble of female education and fiscal autonomy, secularization, birth control, Sex and the City, a heightened desire for personal freedom, and increasing uncertainty about bringing a child into a world plagued by terrorism, and global warming. In a hyper-individualistic, ultra-commodified culture like ours, parenthood, for better and worse, is less a fact of life than just another lifestyle choice. Women now have their own career options, and are no longer considered failures if they do not marry and produce children in their twenties or thirties. This has taken a substantial number out of the pool of potential mothers. In addition, parents have aspirations for their offspring, choices not available to past generations but which cost money, for example, higher education and travel.
E These and other pressures have reduced the average birth rate in European countries to 1.4 per couple. Britain, Ireland, Australia, Spain, Italy and dozens of other countries are contending with fertility rates well below replacement levels. Forty per cent of female university graduates in Germany are childless. Given that a country needs a birth rate of 2.1 to maintain its numbers, it is clear to see that in the long term there will be fewer Europeans. The causes of declining numbers in other countries are more varied and more alarming. Russia's population is dropping by almost 750,000 people a year. The causes are alcoholism, breakdown of the public health service, and industrial pollution that has had a disastrous effect on men's fertility. In China, the state enforces quotas of offspring numbers, and it is expected that its population will peak at 1.5 billion by 2019 then go into steep decline. Some analysts suggest the country could lose twenty to thirty per cent of its population every generation. There is also the exodus from the countryside, a trek happening across the globe. Soon half the world's population will have urban homes. But in cities, children become a cost rather than an asset for helping to work the land, and again pressures mount for people to cut the size of their families.
F Some more nebulous and disputable factors are worth mentioning. Infertility is killing off the secular world. In some countries, where atheism reigned as state policy for generations, the United Nations forecasts extreme declines in population by 2050, ranging, for example, from 22% for Russia to nearly 50% for the Ukraine. Secular Western Europe will lose 4% to 12% of its population, while the population of the churchgoing United States continues to grow. Is secularism at fault? The numbers do not suggest otherwise. Secularism promotes a more short term and hedonistic attitude towards life. Since secular people have little faith in God or an afterlife, the tendency is for them to adopt the attitude of “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die”. Of course, not all secular people are like that. But in general, secularism promotes such attitudes.
G The impact of all this is harder to gauge. In Europe, demographers forecast a major drop in the numbers who will work and earn money, while the population of older people - who need support and help - will soar. So, the urging by a British politician that it is the patriotic duty of women to have children makes sense. There will be no workforce if people do not have children. At present the median age of people is twenty-six; within a hundred years, if current trends continue, that will have doubled. More and more old people will have to be supported by fewer and fewer young people. In China, the problem is worse. Most young Chinese adults have no brothers or sisters and face the prospect of having to care for two parents and four grandparents on their own. Pensions and incomes are simply not able to rise fast enough to deal with the crisis.
H There are people who cling to the hope that it is possible to have a vibrant economy without a growing population, but mainstream economists are pessimistic. On the other hand, it is clear that reduced human numbers can only be good for the planet in the long term. Until we halt the spread of our own species, the destruction of the last great wildernesses, such as the Amazon, will continue. Just after the last Ice Age, there were only a few hundred thousand humans on Earth. Since then the population has grown ten thousandfold. Such a growth rate, and our imperfect attempts to control it, are bound to lead us into an uncertain future.
PANEL DISCUSSION * Panel discussion is the format of a debate in which participants representing various shades of opinion on a topic argue the case, usually under the guidance of a chairperson.
Ø Economic and social causes of low birth rates in Russia.
The relevant issues may be useful to consider while discussing the topic: Ø Financial and social incentives that the Russian government has announced to ensure a stable population. Ø Survey of the Internet discussions of the birth rate issue. Younger generation opinions on the issue. Ø Large families is the way out of the population crisis? Ø Modern families: a profile of a typical family, its living habits, challenges, prospects.
Part 2 R ead the following text.
UNLIKELY BOOMTOWNS?
PART 3 Город для людей
Представьте себе, что вы на своем автомобиле едете по крыше офиса, ныряете в паркинг-лифт - машина уезжает вниз, а вы успеваете на работу как раз вовремя. По окончании рабочего дня вы снова по крыше летите над суетой и пробками в соседний магазин... Это не утопия, как вы подумали: это предложение немецких архитекторов по строительству в Москве зданий с дорогами на крышах. Авторы уверены, что такое решение просто необходимо для мегаполиса, инфицированного пробками. Причем эти бессветофорные трассы будут безопасны, и шума от них не больше, чем от обычных лифтов. Сегодняшние мегаполисы, сформированные по градостроительным принципам прошлого века, перестают отвечать на вызовы реальной жизни, не в силах переваривать потоки машин и все большую концентрацию населения. Ни новые развязки, ни спальные районы (dormitories), уходящие за горизонт, ни уплотнение застройки не решают проблемы - людям не становится в городе комфортнее. Думает ли сегодня кто-то о концепциях городов будущего и в каком направлении движется эта мысль? На самом деле думают: социологи, ученые, управленцы и самая продвинутая часть мирового архитектурно-градостроительного сообщества, поскольку все они уверены в системном кризисе городов. Уверенность основана на статистике: сто лет назад горожане составляли всего процентов десять мирового населения, а к середине этого века, по прогнозам социологов, в городах будет обитать порядка 75 процентов землян. Если учесть, что население планеты к тому времени может достигнуть 12 миллиардов человек, количество горожан впечатляет. При этом люди будут стремиться в крупные города, и очень скоро они сконцентрируются в мегаполисах - миллионов по 20 человек в одном месте. Что тогда? Греческий архитектор-градостроитель Константин Доксиадис считает, что без принципиального переустройства городов наступит урбанистическая катастрофа. Уже сегодня человек в городе потерпел поражение. "У нас есть машины, способные развивать огромные скорости, но что толку, если мы едем на них со скоростью телеги? - поражается он. - Это говорит только об одном: техника достигла прогресса, а система городского устройства - нет. Удивительная закономерность выявилась в современных городах: чем выше скорость транспорта, тем больше надо времени, чтобы добраться до центра города". Трудно не согласиться: скорости и масштабы городов выросли, но увеличилось и время достижения человеком своей цели - точки назначения. По расчетам специалистов, на семью, детей, самообразование и развлечения человек имеет (за вычетом сна, работы и еды) максимум шесть часов в сутки, но почти половина этого времени в мегаполисе тратится на транспорт. Это потому, что со времен появления первого города принцип построения транспортных путей не менялся. Доксиадис видит выход в создании принципиально новых систем города. Например, транспортная, говорит архитектор, должна быть похожа на систему кровообращения: у поверхности кожи скорость потока крови маленькая - это мелкие сосуды и капилляры, по мере углубления сосуды расширяются, ток крови увеличивается, и в центральной аорте он в 700 раз выше, чем в поверхностном сосуде. Нужно строить именно такую систему, чтобы увеличивать реальные скорости до тех, которые может осилить техника. И архитекторы, и социологи, конечно, ищут ответ на вопрос: почему города перестали быть комфортными и, главное, что с этим делать? Тот же Константин Доксиадис уверен, что одна из причин в том, что каждый специалист, занимающийся проблемой городов, видит объект со своей узкопрофессиональной точки зрения: архитекторы заняты формой, транспортники - дорогами, бизнес - наиболее выгодными проектами с точки зрения продаж. Более того, именно последнему сегодня подчинены законы развития городов. Достаточно пожить в таком режиме лет пять - десять, и коммерческие здания, богатые дома - все, из чего можно делать деньги, - подвинут рядовое население на окраины. А рост цен на аренду и недвижимость только ускорит социальную дифференциацию общества. И мы получим то, с чем сегодня уже столкнулось западное общество, - города, в которых трудно жить и быть счастливыми. Европа сегодня понимает, что действия городских властей заключаются не только в привлечении инвестиций под новые объекты или расширение транспортных сетей, а в том, чтобы заново связать городские объекты с социальной, культурной и экономической структурой жизни. И не важно на самом деле, как именно будут выглядеть города будущего, важно, по какому принципу они будут работать на людей. ИТОГИ, 11.12.06, Ирина Мельникова
Role-play TOPIC: Metropolis is about to die from gridlock: viable ways out?
UNIT 3 science approach LEAD-IN 1 “ Ars longa, vita brevis” are the first two lines of a Latin translation of an aphorism by Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates. The words are commonly translated in English as “Art is long, life is short.” The full text in Latin is “Ars longa, vita brevis, occasio praeceps, experimentum periculosum, iudicium difficile”. · Find the commonly accepted English translation. · Think of the most common and significant caveat in this translation. · Dwell on the aphorism and provide your own understanding of it.
KILLER BLOW
A meteor as big as the city of San Francisco 1)…………………… towards the Earth at 20 km per second, 2) ………………….. into the tropical lagoons of the Gulf of Mexico and 3) ……………………… a fathomless hole. As a result, a tidal wave 4) ……………. outwards. Fires 5) …………………. across North and South America and fallout 6) ………………… the sun and 7) ……………………….. the Earth into permanent gloom. This catastrophic event is the classic answer as to why dinosaurs were 8) ……………… 65 million years ago, but does the theory hold water? Everyone agrees that the Earth suffered a large meteor strike towards the end of the Cretaceous period, yet more than 20 years after the Chicxulub impact was proposed as the cause of mass extinction, scientists are still arguing over what really killed the dinosaurs. On one side are the 'catastrophists', who say the impact snuffed out the majority of life on Earth in a 9) ………………… of months or a few years. On the other are 'gradualists', who point out that the fossil record shows a steady decline in the number of species, starting several hundred thousand years before the end of the Cretaceous period. The gradualists don't deny the Chicxulub impact happened, but maintain that it wasn't responsible for the mass10) ……………….. . The debate between the two sides has been polarised and 11) ………………., but thanks to a feat of engineering, scientists may finally be able to find out exactly what happened to our planet on that fateful day 5 million years ago. By boring through solid rock, drilling contractors have pulled out a core, 1112 metres long and 7.6 cms in diameter, which records the full story of the impact and its 12) ……………………. . Geologists (mainly catastrophists, of course) are queuing up to analyse the core. In so doing, they hope to confirm whether the impact was devastating enough to kill the dinosaurs. For the catastrophists, however, there are two big problems. First, they don't know how intense and widespread the meteor's effects were and would have to provide evidence of an extreme global change that lasted for at least a year. Secondly, it wasn't just meteors that were stirring up unrest. At that time, an area known as the Deccan Traps in what is now Western India was enduring one of the most intense 13) ………………….. of volcanism in Earth's history. A 'hot spot' deep in the mantle was producing plumes of superheated lava that burst through the crust, inundating 2,5 million square km of land. Greenhouse gases and water vapour emerged with the lava and, in 1981, Dewey McLean proposed that the Deccan Traps 14) ………………….. severe global warming and a mass extinction. In support of this theory, the gradualists point out that this is not the only episode of supervolcanism that has occurred simultaneously with a mass extinction. At the Permian-Triassic boundary 250 million years ago, over 90% of marine 15) ………………….. became extinct just as the region that is now Siberia was being flooded with lava.
3 Find the linking words used in the text. Study the way they organize the structure of the text. e.g. Everyone agrees that …., yet more than 20 years ….
1 One of the immediate ……………………. of the meteor strike was a tidal wave. 2 The extensive fires that …………………….. by the impact..........................to a long period of darkness. 3 Catastrophists believe that the Chicxulub impact ......................in the extinction of the dinosaurs. 4 Gradualists refuse to believe that the impact......:........................ for the end of the dinosaurs. 5 Dewey McLean's theory suggests that the Deccan Traps................................... the Earth's temperature to rise and, …………………......, there was a mass extinction. 6 Some researchers are convinced that the volcanic activity which formed the Deccan traps.................................. in part to the end of the dinosaurs. 7 Up until now, many scientists have seen these eruptions as being too infrequent to ................................ extreme environmental change. 8 However, new research suggests that this volcanic activity could provide a watertight a ................................................for the dinosaurs' extinction, as it shows the Deccan Traps were formed more quickly than previously thought. 4 Write the summary of the article Killer Blow following the suggested structure. (about 100 words) Use the words different from those in the text, such as
The Chicxulub meteor strike ……………………. and ………………….. . Catastrophists believe…………………………, but gradualists don’t ……………………., pointing to ………………….. . There has been a long-running ………………. . Catastrophists need ……………………….. Moreover, gradualists ………………………… .
! Avoid quoting the text, use the vocabulary different from the language of the text. !
5 Listening 1 ( Мультимедийный каталог института : номер – 2143 IELTS Objective Advanced, Unit 13 – Listening)
1 The name 'comet' comes from the Greek and means 'long-haired'. 2 'Asteroid' is another name for 'comet'. 3 Comets follow circular orbits around the sun. 4 The nucleus of a comet is made solely of icy matter. 5 When a comet gets closer to the sun, it changes its shape. 6 The tail of a comet consists solely of dust and debris.
1 The ESA Rosetta Mission was also called the ……………………………. . 2 The mission was delayed in 2003 because of a ………………………………… . 3 The revised flight plan includes several flybys - one of ……………… and three of ……………………. . 4 The indirect route will allow Rosetta to visit ……………………………………… . 5 Rosetta will arrive at its final destination (the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko) in ……………………………………. . 6 Once in orbit, it will carry out its ………………………. . 7 The Rosetta Lander will remain in one place, attached to………………………. . 8 Comets' tails are made up of ……………….. and …………………… . 9 As well as giving us information about comets, data from Rosetta may help us to understand how ............................................ Listening 2 ( Мультимедийный каталог института : номер – 2143 IELTS Objective Advanced, Test Folder 7 – Listening) · You will hear part of a lecture about meteorites, and about some craters they have created on Earth. · What does the lecturer say about each meteorite or crater? · Choose your answers from the boxes, matching them:
e.g. Ensesheim - the meteorite was damaged by humans. (The speaker says people began chipping off pieces.)
6 SPEAKING. GIVING OPINIONS · Read about some scientific innovations which may affect our present and future.
Arguing for: I think it's a good idea because ..., There's a lot to be said for it, for instance ... Arguing against: I'm completely against it because ..., There are too many drawbacks/dangers such as ... Hedging: I'm not sure. You could say ... , but..., It's hard to say. One way of looking at it is ..., but ... Part 1 7 Read these comments about space exploration and discuss how far you agree with each opinion. ü Space exploration is ridiculously expensive, considering how little we get for the money wasted on it. ü It's stimulating to think about what exists beyond, but what are the chances of getting something useful out of space exploration? It should be scaled down. ü We've got our priorities wrong. It's about time science turned its eye back to this planet and set about doing something about poverty, disease and pollution. Once we've sorted out our own problems, let the exploration continue. ü The equivalent of exploration in the 21st century often has more to do with overcoming physical challenges than discovering the unknown.
Read the following text. Summarising PART 2
Science vs. Pseudoscience
Illusion—can a rope cut in half really be made whole again? Is a ghost actually present in a photograph?—was the focus of Joe Nickell, author of books investigating claims of the paranormal. The paranormal, Nickell said, is a question of good science versus bad science, or science and pseudoscience. Some who investigate the paranormal begin with the answer and look only at evidence that proves that answer. Good science, however, requires looking at all evidence to delve behind the illusion. Nickell explained several cases of what were originally thought to be instances of the paranormal by showing the evidence that proved them otherwise. Here is one of them. The media reported that a flying saucer had crashed on a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico. Nickell investigated and found that the rancher on whose property the crash took place never referred to the debris as a flying saucer; only the media described it that way. The rancher described the material he found as light and consisting of foil, sticks, rubber, string, and tape. The debris matched a balloon with a radar target attached to it. Indeed, a spy balloon sent up by the US government, in what was termed Project Mogul, was lost near Roswell. When we speak of knowing science we do not mean simply knowing scientific facts (e.g., the distance from earth to sun; the distinction between mammal and reptile, etc.) We mean that one must clearly understand the nature of science itself— the criteria of valid evidence, the testing of hypotheses, the establishment of useful theories, the many aspects of the methods of science which make it possible to draw accurate, reliable, meaningful conclusions about the phenomena of the physical universe. Pseudoscience lays emphasis on unverifiable eyewitness testimony, stories, faked footprints, blurry photos, and tall tales, hearsay, rumor, and dubious anecdotes. Pseudoscience writers tend simply to make up bogus “facts” where needed, instead of going to the trouble of consulting reliable reference works, much less investigating directly. Yet these fictitious facts are often central to the pseudoscientist’s argument and conclusions! The first edition of any pseudoscience book is almost always the last, even though the book may go through innumerable new printings, over decades or centuries. Compare to science textbooks, which usually see a new edition every few years because of the rapid accumulation of new facts, ideas, discoveries, experiments and insights in science. One of the most bizarre recent tactics of pseudoscientists is to publish a novel, a work of fiction in which essentially everything is made up by the author - as usual in works of fiction! - but then to turn directly around and treat the completely made-up material as if it were actual, factual and researched. Recent examples of this tactic are The Celestine Prophecy, by James Redfield (1994), and The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown (2003). Science and pseudoscience are precisely opposed ways of viewing nature. Science relies on, and insists on, difficult, narrow, strict procedures of self-questioning, testing and analytical thinking that make it hard to fool yourself or to avoid facing facts. Pseudoscience, on the other hand, preserves the ancient, irrational, unobjective modes of thought which have given rise to most superstition and to most of the fanciful and mistaken ideas about man and nature... from voodoo to racism; from the flat earth to the house-shaped universe with God in the attic, from doing rain dances to torturing and brutalizing the mentally ill to drive out the demons that possess them. Pseudoscience encourages you to believe anything you want, and supplies many examples of specious "arguments" by which you can fool yourself into thinking your belief has some validity, despite all the facts being to the contrary. One of the features of pseudoscience is that any particular pseudoscience somehow involves almost all the other pseudosciences. Thus, someone who believes that flying saucers exist and are piloted by space aliens might also claim to communicate with the aliens via a Ouija board*; a spirit medium who is supposedly communicating with spirits of the dead might also claim to be a "psychic" who can read living minds and foretell the future. The explanation for this continuum is that pseudoscience is a manifestation of an entire anachronistic world view, evidence of an individual's powerful belief in an animistic universe that is essentially magical and fundamentally "nonmaterial." No amount of evidence, investigation or fact-finding has ever shaken a pseudoscientist's faith in his delusions. The popularity of pseudoscience is assured, because it invariably tells us things that are reassuring far past the point of being too good to be true. You are grieving over your beloved lost pet dog? Well, this psychic lady can tell you precisely where to find it, all she has to do is touch its photo! You are 75 years old and in poor health, but this hippy-looking professor says he's right on the verge of discovering how people can live for 5,000 years, even you! Wow, where do we send our money?!? You're 100 pounds overweight and have never been able to slim down? Well, here's a new miracle diet: eat as much as you want of anything you want and still lose weight, by taking this mystical special wonder herb! Only $100 for a 2-week supply! Moreover, the media provide a continuous bombardment of sheer nonsense, misinformation, fantasy and confusion - proclaimed to be “true facts.” Sifting sense from nonsense is an almost overwhelming job. A typical reporter asked to write an article on astrology thinks he has done a thorough job if he interviews six astrologers and one astronomer. The astronomer says it's all total bunk; the six astrologers say it's great stuff and really works and for $50 they'll be glad to cast anyone's horoscope. Everything in pseudoscience seems to generate something for sale; look for courses in how to remember past lives, how to do remote viewing, how to hunt for ghosts, how to become a prophet, how to heal yourself of any disease mentally, how to get the angels on your side, how to... you name it, you got it... but pay up first. It is, unfortunately, vital for each citizen to learn to distinguish carefully between science and pseudoscience. In a democracy, every voter must be capable of seeking and recognizing authentic sources of information. Pseudoscience often strikes educated, rational people as too nonsensical and preposterous to be dangerous, a source of amusement rather than fear. Unfortunately, this is not a wise attitude. Pseudoscience can be extremely dangerous. Penetrating political systems, it has justified atrocities in the name of racial or religious purity; penetrating the educational system, it drives out science and sensibility; penetrating the health professions it dooms thousands to unnecessary death or suffering; penetrating religion, it generates fanaticism, intolerance, and holy war; penetrating the communications media, it makes it nearly impossible for voters to obtain factual information on public issues of extreme importance. So, to overcome illusion we have to resort to a bit of critical thinking the goal of which is to arrive at the most reasonable beliefs and take the most reasonable actions.
NOTES: *A Quija board (correctly pronounced "wee-jah" /wiʤə/ although often pronounced "wee-gee" ) is any flat surface printed with letters, numbers, and other symbols, to which a planchette or movable indicator points, supposedly in answer to questions from people at a séance. The fingers of the participants are placed on the planchette that then moves about the board to spell out messages.
VOCABULARY WORK 15 Find the words in bold in the text, put them in either column “SCIENCE” or “Psuedoscience” and match them with nouns to make collocations. Explain their meanings.
PANEL DISCUSSION * Panel discussion is the format of a debate in which participants representing various shades of opinion on a topic argue the case, usually under the guidance of a chairperson.
Ø PSEUDOSCIENCE helps to survive in our rough world.
The relevant issues may be useful to consider while discussing the topic:
Ø Alternative medicine: a reliable substitute for conventional medicine or a rush for wealth. Ø People with supernatural abilities: healers or charlatans? Ø Astrology: can it define our life. Ø “Junk Science” versus critical thinking
PART 3 PANEL DISCUSSION · What points of the above article would you challenge? · Read the following statements about positive and negative aspects of Internet. · Which statement would you support or challenge? Positive
Negative
Arguments "for" 1. …………………………………………………………………………………... …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2. ……..…………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3. …………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………… Arguments "against" 1. …………………………………………………………………………….………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2. ……………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3. ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………
UNIT 1 ART OR ENTERTAINMENT? LEAD-IN |
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