Ex. 2. Which of the adjectives and expressions below would you use to describe an ideal scientific writing? Give reasons for your choice. What adjectives would you add?

VOCABULARY

COMMONLY CONFUSED WORDS

Ex. 1. What do we actually mean when we say in Russian «актуальное исследование» or «актуальные задачи»? Look at the entry from Большой толковый словарь русского языка[1].

Can you translate the examples from the entry?

Ex. 2. Read and translate the sentences. Think about the ways of translating Russian «актуальный» into English.

1.This program was initiated to support high quality, independent and timelyresearch on gender issues.

2.Our faculty members are involved in innovative, timelyresearch projects that change the life of our society.

3.Improving Russian students’ knowledge base of environmental issues is as relevant as ever.

4.The book highlights challengingresearch issues in modern Russian history.

5.The most recent survey published by the US government has described youth drug abuse as an acutesocial problem.

6.Our Committee latest initiative is dedicated to urgent global environmental issues such as appropriate use of the Earth's natural resources and global warming.

7.District libraries regularly discard the books that lost their topicality.

Ex. 3. Study the definitions from Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English[2]. Complete the chart below with the best possible interpretations from the box. Each English word can match several Russian interpretations.

Ex. 4. Use the definitions from ex. 3 to complete the sentences. Translate them into Russian. DON’T CONFUSE RUSSIAN актуальный WITH ENGLISH actual!

1. The fight ended only with the e.g. timely (своевременный) arrival of the police.
2. The …………………. (относящийся к делу) documents were presented in court.
3. We received all the ………………… (важный) information.
4. I am not joking. Those were his ……………… (подлинный) words.
5. Youth unemployment is one of the most ………. (острый) problems in the UN countries.
6. The report called for …………… (незамедлительный) action to reduce air pollution.
7. The threat posed by climate change is a global problem. It is a ……… (злободневный) issue which generates heated debates among governments and environmentalists.
8. Praised by Lenin as "a very ……… (своевременный) book", Gorkiy’s novel Mother described the beginning of the revolutionary movement in Russia.
9. New Literary Observer publishes ……….. (злободневный) issues from the many international and interdisciplinary projects which are undertaken in literary criticism and cultural studies.
10. There is currently no issue in Russia that is more ………. (насущный), and of greater importance, than that of climate change.
11. Shakespeare’s language was entirely appropriate and …………. (актуальный, соответствующий своему времени) to the day, however, today it is hard to be understood.
12. Why is an average student still studying Shakespeare today? Because his plays written four centuries ago are still ……………….. (актуальный, имеющий отношение к сегодняшнему дню)!
13. The show starts at 19 p.m. but the …………….. (сам) performance of our band doesn’t start until 20.30.
14. The origin of species remains one of the most …………………. (интересный, но трудноразрешимый) problems in biology.

READING

Reading a Scientific Paper[3]

Why bother reading scientific papers?

If you are considering doing original scientific research, reading the scientific literature is a must! Scientific papers contain the most up-to-date information about a field. So if you have a topic you are interested in studying, reading the scientific literature in that field will help you understand what has already been discovered and what questions remain unanswered. The great thing about science is that every time one question is answered, the answer unlocks twice as many new questions. This means that once you have read the literature and know what people have already discovered, you will probably be able to see what still needs to be done in the field and use that to design your own relevant research project.

Two Types of Scientific Papers Containing Two Types of Information

There are two types of scientific papers: review articles and primary research articles. Review articles give an overview of the scientific field or topic by summarizing the data and conclusions from many studies. These types of articles are a good starting place for a summary of what has been happening in the field. And they often contain more background information than primary research articles do, which means if at any point you are confused while reading the primary literature, it will help to go back and look at reviews. It is also wise to read several reviews by different authors for a well-rounded perspective of the field; individual authors have their own biases and you want to make sure you are exposed to as many different points of view as possible before you settle on your own conclusions.

Primary research articles contain the original data and conclusions of the researchers who were involved in the experiments. These articles also contain details about how the experiments were done. Or, in the cases of some journals, they might contain web addresses for "supplemental data" found online, which detail the methods used by the authors. In general, primary research articles should be consulted any time you need to get more information about how an experiment was carried out, or if you need to review the original data, or to evaluate for yourself the validity of the authors' conclusions. Primary research articles are also useful for seeing how experts in that scientific field visually represent their data.

The Parts and Uses of Research Articles

In order to make them instantly recognised and easily understood, research papers always follow a standard format, each part of which has a specific function.

Abstract

The abstract is a summary of the paper. It summarizes, usually in less than 300 words, the area of interest, methodology and principal results of the work. It should let the reader get a good impression of what the paper contains. Reading the abstract will help you decide if the article was what you were looking for, or not, without spending a long time reading the whole paper.

Introduction

The introduction describes the state of knowledge in the relevant area, with reference to work already published, and shows why the work in the paper was necessary. It should clearly state what hypotheses are being tested in the paper, and why the chosen research method is appropriate. Reading the introduction is a test of whether or not you are ready to read the rest of the paper; if the introduction does not make sense to you, then the rest of the paper will not either.

Materials and Methods

This section describes how the research was carried out. It covers everything relevant to the actual experimental procedure, and also how the data collected were analysed. Reading the methods section is helpful in understanding exactly what the authors did. An important criterion when assessing the methods section is to ask, 'does the author(s) give enough information to allow me to repeat the experiment?' If the answer to this is no, then the methods section is not detailed enough.

Results

The results section represents a summary and analysis of the data. Usually graphs and tables will be included here. The accompanying text contains verbal descriptions of the pieces of data the authors feel were most critical. Note that the results section should simply present the results of the work described, without discussing them.

Three types of information can be extracted from the results section: data from the experiments, ideas about how to improve the methods, and an understanding of how to represent similar data. Clearly, this is the section of the paper you refer to if you need to know exactly what the researchers found out, particularly if you need data to compare with your own findings, or to use to build your own hypothesis. The results section is also useful for understanding whether the methods of an experiment worked well.

Discussion

This is the most 'open' section of the paper. It is where the authors draw conclusions about the results. They may choose to put their results in the context of previous findings and offer theories or new hypotheses that explain the sum body of knowledge in the field. Or the authors may comment on new questions and avenues of exploration that their results give rise to. The purpose of discussion sections in papers is to allow the exchange of ideas between scientists. However, this section is often a good place to get ideas about what kind of research questions are still unanswered in the field and thus, what types of questions you might want your own research project to tackle.

References

Throughout the article, the authors will refer to information from other papers. These citations are all listed in the references section, sometimes referred to as the bibliography. Regardless of the type of source, there will always be enough information (authors, title, journal name, publication date, etc.) for you to find the source at a library or online. This makes the reference section incredibly useful for broadening your own literature search.