СОЧ № Английский язык 11ЕМН класс

Задание:

Read the text and answer to the questions.
Science Nourishes the Mind and the Soul BRIAN GREENE
ONE DAY, WHEN I WAS ABOUT ELEVEN, walking back to Public School 87 in Manhattan after our class visit to the Hayden Planetarium, I became overwhelmed by a feeling I’d never had before. I was gripped by a hollow, pit-in-the-stomach sense that my life might not matter. I’d learned that our world is a rocky planet, orbiting one star among the one hundred billion others in our galaxy, which is but one of hundreds of billions of galaxies scattered throughout the universe. Science had made me feel small.
In the years since, my view of science and the role it can play in society and the world has changed dramatically.
While we are small, my decades of immersion in science convince me this is cause for celebration. From our lonely corner of the cosmos we have used ingenuity and determination to touch the very limits of outer and inner space. We have figured out fundamental laws of physics— laws that govern how stars shine and light travels, laws that dictate how time elapses and space expands, laws that allow us to peer back to the briefest moment after the universe began.
None of these scientific achievements has told us why we’re here or given us the answer to life’s meaning—questions science may never address. But just as our experience playing baseball is enormously richer if we know the rules of the game, the better we understand the universe’s rules— the laws of physics—the more deeply we can appreciate our lives within it.
I believe this because I’ve seen it.
I’ve seen children’s eyes light up when I tell them about black holes and the big bang. I’ve witnessed the self-worth and confidence a young student gains by completing even the simplest of mathematical calculations. I’ve spoken with high school dropouts who’ve stumbled upon books describing the amazing achievements of science and returned to their studies with purpose and zeal. I’ve received letters from young soldiers in Iraq, telling me how reading popular accounts of relativity and quantum physics has provided them hope that there is something larger, something universal that binds us together. Such is the capacity of science, not only to explain, but to inspire.

Which is why I am distressed when I meet students who approach science and math with drudgery. I know it doesn’t have to be that way. But when science is presented as a collection of facts that need to be memorized, when math is taught as a series of abstract calculations without revealing its power to unravel the mysteries of the universe, it can all seem pointless and boring.
Even more troubling, I’ve encountered students who’ve been told they don’t have the capacity to grasp math and science.
These are lost opportunities.
I believe we owe our young an education that captures the exhilarating drama of science.
I believe the process of going from confusion to understanding is a precious, even emotional, experience that can be the foundation of self-confidence. I believe that through its rational evaluation of truth and indifference to personal belief, science transcends religious and political divisions and so does bind us into a greater, more resilient whole.
I believe that the wonder of discovery can lift the spirit like Brahms’s Third Symphony.
I believe that the breathtaking ideas of science can nourish not only the mind but also the soul. A native New Yorker, BRIAN GREENE teaches physics and mathematics at Columbia University. He is a proponent of string theory, which attempts to unify all the forces of nature into a
single framework. He authored The Fabric of the Cosmos and The Elegant Universe.
1. Who is the author of this essay? Give evidence from the essay to support your answer.
2. What is the author hoping to persuade the reader of?
3. Why does the author include the personal anecdote at the beginning of the essay?
4. Who is his intended audience? Give evidence.
5. Why did he include different examples of people who were inspired by science? The author uses logos to persuade the audience. Give the examples of it and explain why.
6. The rhetoric in this text is heavily dependent on contrast. Find examples of these contrasts and explain.

Решение:

1. The author of this essay is a science teacher who believes that science plays a huge role in the society and “can nourish not only
   the mind but also the soul”.
2. In his “This I believe essay” he proclaims that not only science can explain “fundamental laws of physics” but it can also inspire people, bring “the wonder of discovery” and “lift the spirit like Brahms’s Third Symphony”.
3. The author uses a personal anecdote to show that he also belonged to that category of people who had many questions when he was young and thought that his life was nothing.
4. The writer’s audience is intelligent people who are eager to know more, who are interested in “the amazing achievements of science and returned to their studies with purpose and weal”
5. He gives many well-presented
   examples that demonstrate the role
   of science in different age
   categories of people.
   These are ‘children’s eyes light up
   when I tell them about black
   holes”, “dropouts who stumbled
   upon the books describing the
   amazing achievements of science”
   and “young soldiers in Iraq” who
   read scientific books in search of
   answer “that there is something
   larger, something universal that
   binds us together. He is trying to
   appeal to our emotions because we
   may belong to one of these
   categories.
6. The author juxtaposes science to
   religion. He says that even soldiers
   who are very religious people read
   science book in order to find
   answers to the questions.