Curiosity as an incentive to thinking

In common with other animals we are born with an instinct of curiosity. It provides the incentive for the young to discover the world in which they live.

The curiosity of the scientist is usually directed toward seeking an understanding of things or relationships, which, he notices, have no satisfactory explanation. Explanations usually consist in connecting new observations or ideas to accepted facts or ideas. An explanation may be the generalization, which ties together a bundle of data into an orderly whole that can be connected up with current knowledge and beliefs. The student attracted to research is usually one who retains more curiosity than usual.

We have seen that the stimulus to the production of ideas is the awareness of the present unsatisfactory state of knowledge. People with no curiosity seldom get this stimulus, for one usually becomes aware of the problem by asking why or how some process works, or some thing takes the form that it does. That a question is a stimulus is demonstrated by the fact that when someone asks a question, it requires an effort to restrain oneself from responding.

Asking "why" is a useful stimulus toward imagining what the cause or purpose may be. "How" is also a useful question in provoking thought about the mechanism of a process.

There is no satisfying the scientist’s curiosity, for with each advance we reach a higher level from which a wider field of vision is open to us, and from which we can see the events previously out of range.

1. Can accepted facts or ideas be always true?

2. If we took accepted facts and ideas for granted, wouldn't it slow down scientific progress?

3. How is the word "explanation" defined in the text?

4. What arouses the curiosity of a scientist or a scholar?

5. Can the curiosity of a scientist be ever satisfied?

6. How can you describe the process of cognition?

DISCUSSION AS A STIMULUS TO THE MIND

Productive mental effort is often helped by intellectual intercourse. Discussing a problem with colleagues or with lay persons may be helpful in one or several ways.

a) The other person may be able to contribute a useful suggestion. It is not often that he can help by directly indicating a solution of the impasse (problem), because he is unlikely to have such pertinent knowledge as has the scientist working on the problem, but with a different background or knowledge he may see the problem from a different aspect and suggest a new approach. Even a layman is sometimes able to make useful suggestions.

b) A new idea may arise from the pooling of information or ideas of two of more persons. Neither of the scientists alone may have the information necessary to draw the inference which can be obtained by combination of their knowledge.

c) Discussion provides a valuable means of uncovering errors. Ideas based on false information or questionable reasoning may be corrected by discussion. The isolated worker who is unable to talk over his work with colleagues will more often waste his time in following a false trail.

d) Discussion and exchange of views is usually refreshing, stimulating and encouraging, especially when one is in difficulties, and worried.

e) The most valuable function of discussion is, I believe, to help to escape from an established habit of thought, which has proved fruitless.

Discussions need to be conducted in a spirit of helpfulness and mutual confidence and one should make a deliberate effort to keep an open receptive mind.

1. Why can a different background of knowledge be helpful for a researcher?

2. What is the most valuable function of a discussion?

3. In what way may a lay person be valuable in a scientific discussion?

4. How should a discussion be conducted?

THE FIRST FOUR MINUTES

When do people decide whether or not they want to become friends? During their first four minutes together, according to a book by Dr Leonard Zunin. In this book "Contact. The first four minutes" he offers this advice to anyone interested in starting new friendship: "Every time you meet someone in a social situation, give him your undivided attention for four minutes. A lot of people's whole lives would change if they did just that".

You may have noticed that the average person does not give his undivided attention to someone he has just met. He keeps looking over the other person's shoulder, as if hoping to find someone more interesting in another part of the room. If anyone has ever does it to you, you probably did not like him very much.

When we are introduced to new people, the author suggests, we should try to appear friendly and self-confident. In general, he says: "People like people who like themselves".

On the other hand, we should not make the other person think we are too sure of ourselves. It is important to seem interested and sympathetic, realizing that the other person has his own needs, fears and hopes.

Hearing such advice, one might say: "But I'm not a friendly, self-confident person. That's not my nature. It would be dishonest for me to act that way".

In reply, Dr. Zunin would claim that a little practice could help us feel comfortable about changing our social habits. We can become accustomed to any changes in our personality. "It's like getting used to a new car. It may be unfamiliar at first, but it goes much better than the old one".

But isn't it dishonest to give the appearance of friendly self-confidence when we don't actually feel that way? Perhaps, but according to Dr. Zunin, "total honesty" is not always good for social relationships, especially during the first few minutes of contact. There is a time for everything, a certain amount of play-acting may be best for the first minutes of contact with strangers. That is not the time to complain about one's health or mention faults one finds in other people. It is not the time to tell the whole truth about one's opinions and impressions.

Much of what has been said about the strangers also applies to relationships with family members and friends. For a husband and a wife or a parent and a child, problems often arise during their first four minutes together after they have been apart. Dr. Zunin suggests that these first few minutes together should be treated with care. If there are unpleasant matters to be discussed, they should be dealt with later.

The author declares that interpersonal relations should be taught in every school, along with reading, writing and mathematics. In his opinion, success in life depends mainly on how we get along with other people. That is, at least, as important as how much we know.

1. How would you express the main idea of the text in a most general way?

2. What features are most important for human relations?

3. Have you ever employed a certain amount of play-acting while dealing with people?

4. In what situations?

INTELLIGENT MACHINES

The evolution of artificial intelligence is now proceeding so rapidly that by the end of the century cheap computers no larger man portable type-writers will exist that will be able to solve almost any problem faster and more efficiently than we can.

"Intelligence" in a machine, as in a human, is best defined as the ability to solve complex problems swiftly. This may involve medical diagnosis and prescriptions, resolving legal matters or playing war-games: in other words advising governments whether or not to go to war.

While computers have already enhanced the deadliness of weapons, the prospect for the future is that they will play the more beneficial role of preventing wars. If asked to assess the chances of victory, the computer will analyze facts quite differently from the life-long military expert with his martial enthusiasm and ambitions.

When the same statistics are fed into the emotionless machine each to be weighed with cold objectivity and then assessed against each other, the answer, far more often than in human decision-making, will be "if you start this war, you will lose".

The computer coolly appraises the chances of success before the conflict begins, may well advise that the fight is unwinnable - or that the chances of victory are unacceptably low - and needless disaster can be avoided.

1. How can the "intelligence" of a computer be defined best?

2. What are the possible uses of a computer?

3. Are you enthusiastic or sceptical about the planet "run by the computers"?

THE PURPOSE OF SCHOOL

If you ask yourself why children go to school, you'll probably say they go to learn their own language and other languages, arithmetic, geography, geometry, history, science and all other subjects. That is quite true: but why do they learn these things? And are these things all that they learn at school?

We send our children to school to prepare them for the time when they will be big and will have to work for themselves. They learn their own language so that they will be able to tell others clearly what they want and what they know, and understand what others tell them. They learn foreign languages in order to be able to benefit from what people in other countries have written and said and in order to make people from other countries understand what they themselves mean. They learn arithmetic in order to be able to measure and count things in their daily life, geography in order to know something about the world around them, and history to know something about human beings they meet every day. Nearly everything they study at school has some practical use in their daily life, but is that the only reason why they go to school?

No. There is more in education than just learning facts. We go to school above all to learn how to leam, so that, when we leave school, we continue to learn. A man who really knows how to learn will always be successful, because whenever he has to do something new which he had never had to do before, he will rapidly teach himself how to do it in the best way. The uneducated person, on the other hand, is either unable to do something new, or does it badly. The purpose of school, therefore, is not just to teach languages, arithmetic, geography, etc., but to teach pupils the way to learn.

1. What is the subject-matter of the text?

2. What subjects do children learn at school?

3. What do they learn the subjects for?

4. Are learning facts the only purpose of education?

5. What is the purpose of education in your opinion?

СОДЕРЖАНИЕ

1. Программа курса "Английский язык" для студентов заочной формы обучения.

Базовый курс.

Й год обучения.

2.1.1. Контрольная работа № 1 (1-5 вариант).

2.2.1. Тексты для чтения.

2.3.1. Контрольная работа №2 (1-5 вариант).