Complex Object vs. Complex Subject

1. Note the following.

The same idea can often be expressed using either the Complex Object or

the Complex Subject.

(You are familiar with the Complex Subject structure: See Lesson 4).

 

2.Compare the two sentences.

Matteris believed to consistof atoms.(Complex Subject)

Scientists believe matter to consist of atoms. (Complex Object)

3.Translate the sentences into Russian.

Use:

a) The Complex Subject,

b) The Complex Object.

1.Ожидается, что результаты будут вскоре получены. (expect)

Ученые ожидают, что результаты будут вскоре получены.

2.Считается, что данные достоверны. (consider)

Исследователи считают, что данные достоверны.

3.Есть сомнение в том, что вселенная конечна. (doubt)

Некоторые космологи сомневаются в том, что……..

4.Известно, что вселенная расширяется. (know)

Нам известно, что…..

Writing a paper

1. Write a paragraph on the subject of your specialization. Include 4–5 sentences in the Complex Object.

 

Part III

Vocabulary

1. Read the text.

Advanced Al will emerge step by step, and each step will pay off in knowledge and increased ability. As with molecular technology (and many other technologies), attempts to stop advances in one city, county, or country will at most let others take the lead. A miraculous success in stopping visible Al work everywhere would at most delay it and, as computers grow cheaper, let it mature in secret, beyond public scrutiny. Only a world state of immense power and stability could truly stop Al research everywhere and forever - a "solution" of bloodcurdling danger, inlight of past abuses of merely national power. Advanced Al seems inevitable. If we hope to form a realistic view of the future, we cannot ignore it.

In a sense, artificial intelligence will be theultimate tool because it will help us build all possible tools. Advanced Al systems could maneuver people out of existence, or they couldhelp us build a new and better world. Aggressorscould use them for conquest, orforesighted defenders coulduse them to stabilize peace. They could even help us control Al itself. The hand that rocks the Al cradlemay well rule the world.

As with assemblers, we will needforesight and careful strategy to use this new technology safely and well. The issues are complex and interwoven with everything fromthe details of molecular technology to employment and the economy to the philosophical basis of human rights. The most basic issues, though,involve what Al can do.

 

2. Translate the underlined parts of the sentences.

3. Find Russian equivalents of the words/word combinations in bold.

4. Translate the following sentences.

a)

1. Ultimatelyeverything of value will become an information technology: our biology, our thoughts and thinking processes, manufacturing and many other fields.

2. The ultimate i-kilogram computer – about the weight of a laptop today – which I envision late in this century, could provide 1042 cps, about 10 quadrillion (1016) times more powerful than all human brains put together today.

3. If you take any object whatsoever – a block of wood, a chunk of iron – and you cut it in half and then cut that half in half again, and keep cutting on and on, what is the most basic constituent you will ultimately come upon?

4.Ultimately, we'll use a significant portion of the matter and energy in our vicinity as a computing substrate.

5. Self-replication willultimately be feasible in non-biological nanotechnology-based systems as well, which will introduce its own dangers.

6. Ultimately, we will merge with our technology.

 

b)

1. The researchers in charge of the mission did not share their findings beyond flashes of slides at conferences.

2 The universe is big in both space and time and, for much of humankind's history, was beyond the reach of our instruments and our minds.

3. Programming genuine artificial intelligence will require new science. This places it beyond firm projection.

Increasingly powerful atom smashers have as yet found no evidence of any additional fundamental forces beyond these four.

4. The universe is big in both space and time and, for much of humankind's history, was beyond the reach of our instruments and our minds.

5. The observers may define the concept of human as being based on our limitations, but I prefer to define us as the species that seeks – and succeeds – in going beyond our limitations.

6. We will be able to go beyondthe limits of biology, and replace your current "human body version 1.0" with a dramatically upgraded version 2.0, providing radical life extension.

 

c)

1. We need accurate foresight, though; people clinging to comforting doubts about Al seem likely to suffer from radicallyflawed images of the future

2. Although Al researchers may gain useful insights about the organization of thought from the resulting advances in brain science, neural simulationcan succeed without such insights.

3. The standard model utilizes twenty or so numbers that have been established through decadesof fastidious research but as a theory it offers no insightwhatsoever into why these key parameters take the values they do.

4. Still, few would deny that programming computers to equal human abilities will indeed require freshinsights into human psychology.

 

d)

1. It might be possible to see the distant future of the Earth using methods which do not involve relativity at all.

2. Another of the genes involved in smoking addictiveness is also known to play a role in controlling how people respond to stress.

3. NASA has decided now that its luna project should involve a permanent base after canvassing the opinions of more than 1,000 scientists from 14 countries and is open to the idea of making the outpost an international project.

4. One of the genes that appears to differ between smokers who give up and those who cannot is called cadherin 13, which produces a substance known to beinvolved in controlling how nerve cells in the brain stick together.

5. Another of the genes involved in smoking addictiveness is also known to play a role in controlling how people respond to stress.

 

 

LESSON 7

Modal verbs

Part I

Grammar

General

 

1. Read and translate paragraphs A, B, C, paying attention to the parts in bold.

 

A

In recent years an abstract mathematical scheme known as “M theory” has been constructed, and it appears to contain various superstring theories within it. It is too soon to say whether M theory will finally reconcile gravitation and quantum mechanics, but, if such a theory is to live up to expectations, it should explain some basic facts about the physical world. For example, four-dimensional space-time would have to emerge from the theory, rather than be put into it. The forces and particles of nature also aught to be describedpreferably including their key properties, such as interaction strengths and masses. However, unless M theory or a future variantcan yieldsuch information, it will remain little more than an elegant exercise in mathematics.

B

The laws of physics mightseem to be finely tuned to make our existence possible. These arguments suggest that during inflation the cosmological constant and other parameters could have takena virtually limitless range of different values.

We may never find any direct evidence of the existence of other universes, and we certainly will never get to visit one.

 

C

The ARV robots are less like soldiers and more like tanks. In fact, the Army’s intention is to use them as support for manned vehicle missions. The robots could take the most dangerous positions and provide support whenever the manned vehicles enter a combat situation. We’ll look at how robot soldiers might change the face of warfare forever.

Ideally, robot soldiers would be able to achieve the same military goals a human group could manage. They’ll have to be autonomous and able to identify targets, distinguish between friendly and enemy forces, engage the and interact with others in ways beyond simply firing a weapon.

 

2. Note the following.

 

а) Modal verbs can could, must, may, might, shall, should, will, would are followed bya verbwithout to.

б) Modal verbs don’t have infinitive or tense forms.

c) To form the negative form, not is put after the modal verb. No other auxiliary verb is needed.

d) To ask a question we put the modal verb before the subject.

e) Modal verbs can and must have equivalents that behave as common verbs.

Can - be able.

Must – have to.

3. Note that the Perfect Infinitive or the Continuous Infinitive can be used after modal verbs.

 

Ex.:

1. A technology-of-the-20th-century symposium held in 1895 might not have mentioned airplanes, radio, antibiotics, nuclear energy, elec­tronics, computers or space exploration.

 

2. The conditions of modern life could be driving changes to genes for certain behavioral traits.

Use of modal verbs

Can

 

1. Translate the sentences.

 

1. The winds blowing from the Atlantic canbring plenty of rain to the island.

2. Voice-recognition programs can identify words quite well.

3. Investment will not guarantee that all negative impactscan be overcome, but business as usual will guarantee disastrous consequences for the human race.

 

2. Answer the question.

 

What tense is the modal verb can used in?

 

 

Could

1. Read the sentences.

 

1. Although researchers have known for years about bismuth ferrite's piezoelectric properties, it could not be made to produce enough voltage to be considered as a replacement for lead.

2. No one could control the structure of bismuth so that it could perform as well as lead and lead-based compounds as a piezoelectric substance. .

3. In a special purpose machine the computational procedure could be part of the hardware.

 

2. Answer the question.

 

1. What tense is the modal verb could used in?

 

2. Is there a real (or theoretical) possibility of performing the action in the above sentences?

3. Is the subjective attitude of the author expressed?

3. Note the following.

The modal verbs can and could are only used in the Present Simple and the Past Simple respectively. In all other cases the equivalent of can (be able) is used with the same meaning of theoretical possibility.

Be able

1. Translate the sentences.

 

1. After learning how neurons work, engineers will be able to design and build analogous devices based on advanced nanoelectronics and nanomachines.

2. With this knowledge, engineers will be able to build fast, capable Al systems, even without understanding the brain and without clever programming.

3. Wemust be able to predict how climate change will impact regions in the next 10 to 20 years.

4. We may be able to control and manipulate some of our gestures but not all of them.

5. Astronomers have been able to conduct numerous experiments over the years to support Hubble’s notion that the Universe is expanding.

6. Though the programming path to Al seems open, our knowledge does not justify the sort of solid confidence that thoughtful engineers had (decades before Sputnik) in being able to reach the Moon with rockets.

Can vs. be able

1. Read the sentences paying special attention to the parts in bold.

1. With the advent of quantum mechanics we were able to explore the rules that govern particle interactions on the atomic scale and smaller.

2. If the compiler is not able to derive the correct scheduling constraints for a set of interface methods, we show how the useris able to overridethe compiler through user annotations that carry proof obligations.

3. Postdoctoral associate Gustavo Wiederhecker and his colleagues achieved static displacement—that is, they were able to bend and hold their structure in place rather than causing it to move back and forth.

 

2. Answer the questions.

 

1. Is the modal verb be able in the above sentences the equivalent of can ?

2. Does it refer to general possibility or to a single achievement?

3. Consider two variants of translating the modal verb be able in this context:

«может» (in general) or «смогли», «в состоянии», «способны» (in the particular case).

Which variant should be better used?

 

3. Translate the sentences.

Must

1. Read and translate the sentences.

 

1. In a general purpose machine the instructions must be as changeable as the numbers they acted upon.

2. This factmust be interpreted in a slightly different way.

3. Caution must be used when interpreting these results.

4. Wemust be able to predict how climate change will impact regions in the next 10 to 20 years.

 

2. Answer the question.

 

What is the only tense in which modal verb must is used?

 

Have to

1. Translate the sentences.

1. In fact, lead in electronics is so pervasive that the document had to include a list of exemptions to the metal's ban, most notably in piezoelectronic devices.
2. To meet this demand for ubiquitous memory, electronics makers have had to pack in more and more data, even as they shrink the sizes of their gadgets.

3. Four-dimensional space-time would have to emerge from the theory, rather then put into it.

 

2. Answer the questions.

1. Is the modal verb have to the equivalent of must in the above sentences?

2. In what tenses can the modal verb have to be used?

Must vs. have to

1. Read the sentences.

 

1. Whenever somebody wants to build a new robot, they usually have to start from square one.

2. In the scientific community, where results have to be reviewed and duplicated, bias must be avoided at all costs.

3. Data are not going to replace voice as the fundamental emergency communication, because in environments where youhave to use your eyes and hands for other things, you have to be ableto talk.

 

2. Answer the questions.

 

1. Is the modal verb have to the equivalent if must in the sentences above?

2. Does it have the meaning of obligation that does not depend on us?

 

3. Translate the sentences above.

 

The negative form of the verb have to

1. Note the following.

a)The negative form of the modal verb have to is translated as:

«не нужно», «не обязательно».

 

b) The negative form of the verb need can be also used with the same meaning.

2. Translate the sentences.

 

1. Solar collectors do not have tobe placed on the roof of the building for which they are intended to be used.

2. Just as you don’t have to reinvent the light bulb to make use of it, you needn’t recreate the works of the great thinkers to enjoy them and profit with them.