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Поиски начала – едва ли не самые трудные поиски, в которые пускается пытливый человеческий ум. Любое явление когда-то и где-то началось, зародилось, возникло – это кажется нам очевидным. Но, шаг за шагом добираясь до его истоков, исследователь находит бесконечную цепь превращений, переходов из одного состояния в другое. Оказывается, что всякое начало относительно, оно само является следствием долгого предшествующего развития, звеном бесконечной эволюции. По этой проблеме нет единого мнения. Она до сих пор является предметом жарких дискуссий и нескончаемых споров. Происхождение жизни на земле и человеческого рода мыслится или как единовременный акт «творения», или как итог длительного процесса, звено в цепи превращений. Существуют разногласия и по поводу происхождения собственно человеческих институтов, таких, как семья, собственность, государство
То же можно сказать и об искусстве. Когда, где и почему оно «началось» – точный и простой ответ невозможен. Оно не началось в строго определенный исторический момент – оно постепенно вырастало из неискусства, формировалось и видоизменялось вместе с создающим его человеком. В изучении его древнейших форм историки изобразительного искусства находятся в более благоприятном положении, чем историки искусства слова, музыки и театра. Последние могут судить о первобытных песнях и зрелищах только по косвенным данным, по аналогии с творчеством ныне живущих народов, задержавшихся вплоть до XIX и даже XX века на стадии первобытно-общинного строя. Эти аналогии приблизительны: каким бы архаическим ни был общественный строй народов, оттесненных с магистрального пути истории, все же протекшие тысячелетия не могли оставаться для них неподвижным временем без развития. Время само есть движение и развитие.
19. Translate the following questions into English and give the answers in English.
1. Почему поиски истоков цивилизации особенно трудны?
2. Как можно представить любое явление с точки зрения эволюции?
3. Почему говорят, что всякое начало относительно?
4. Чем вызваны дискуссии по проблемам эволюции?
5. Как вы думаете, является ли происхождение жизни на земле единовременным актом творения или результатом эволюции? Обоснуйте свою точку зрения.
6. Вы согласны с мнением о том, что искусство развивалось наряду с создающим его человеком?
7. Как можно объяснить тот факт, что историки изобразительного искусства находятся в более благоприятном положении, чем историки слова, музыки и театра?
8. Есть ли смысл, по вашему мнению, проводить аналогию между творчеством первобытных народов и творчеством народов, живущих в условиях первобытно-общинного строя?
9. Будут ли выводы, основанные на этих аналогиях объективными? Почему?
10. Какова роль времени в истории человечества?
20. Give the summary of the text in English.
Unit 2
Future of human civilization
1. Before you read answer the following questions.
1. How has the human society been developing over the past decades?
2. Why has our epoch been considered transitional?
3. What contradictions of progress do you see?
2. Read and translate the text.
Development of Mankind
Historically, man’s and society’s transformation activity was the trigger of the emergence of civilization. Today civilization operates in a rapidly changing context, which is compounding complexity and uncertainty at all levels of society.
Yet nation states remain the principal actors in world affairs. Their behavior is shaped as in the past by the pursuit of power and wealth, but it is also shaped by cultural preferences, commonalities and differences. The “international” system of the twenty first century”, Henry Kissenger has noted, “will contain at least six major powers – the United States, Europe, China, Japan, Russia, and probably India as well as a multiplicity of medium-sized and smaller countries”. These six major powers belong to five very different civilizations. In this new world, local politics is the politics of ethnicity; global politics is the politics of civilizations. The rivalry of the superpowers is replaced by the clash of civilizations. In this new world the most pervasive, important and dangerous conflicts will be between peoples belonging to different cultural entities.
Ever-increasing diversity among peoples, nations and cultures is impacting business organizations in a globalizing world of multicultural workers. Individuals (at least the better-off ones, mostly from the developed world) now have almost endless choices of lifestyle – they can communicate and work from any location they choose, shop, learn and research on-line. In addition, some of the traditionally most excluded people in society, such as the disabled and the elderly, can become included via the communications revolution.
The “included” people are forming one intricately connected world, a global village, with complex interrelations and dependencies among the members. Markets are now global, and competitors come from unexpected directions, as do alliance partners.
Humankind appears to be in the midst of a chaotic transformation on various fronts. Major shifts lie ahead in the workplace, where the roles of home and office tend to be reversing. The home is becoming the place of productivity and the office more like a social hub where people go to meet with others.
Although people still need and want products, the old industrial era is no longer sustainable and the emphasis on manufacturing is giving to, or being expanded to, include knowledge-based service, information, bioscience and new materials economies.
The speed of change on multiple fronts seems to be pushing humankind to the limits of its adaptability. People have no sooner adapted to one change than the next one is upon them, bringing more uncertainty and complexity. The challenges are for people and nations to operate under rapidly mutating circumstances, which requires a rethink of paradigms both in theory and in practice.
3 . Answer the questions.
1. What factors trigged the emergence of civilization?
2. What is changing in the world today?
3. Do you agree that individuals now have almost endless choices of lifestyle?
4. Can you give examples of “excluded” and “included” people and nations?
5. How can excluded people become included?
6. What does “a global village” mean?
7. What global trends are seen in business organizations?
8. How is today’s workplace different from what we had in the past?
9. What is the old industrial era being replaced by?
10. What challenges does the high speed of change on various fronts imply?
4. Match the words on the lefts with the definitions on the right.
1. commonality a) something that has separate and distinct existence and objective
or conceptual reality
2. multiplicity b) political organization
3. polity c) possession of common features or attributes
4. ethnicity d) variety
5. diversity e) the quality or state of being various
6. efficiency f) change
7. entity g) ethnic quality or affiliation
8. shift h) essence; organization
9. superpower i) the quality of being efficient
10. paradigm j) a state or nation having international authority or influence
5. Find the synonyms of the following words.
1. similarity 6. invalids
2. chase 7. perilous
3. collision 8. quickly
4. competition 9. combine
5. workers 10. wealthier
6. Translate the following sentences from Russian into English.
1. Человеческая цивилизация развивалась в результате преобразующей деятельности человека.
2. Сегодня, как и прежде, главными актерами на политической сцене остаются супердержавы.
3. В будущем основные конфликты могут интерпретироваться как столкновения различных культур.
4. Чем богаче нация, тем шире выбор жизненных стилей, которые индивиды могут позволить себе.
5. Человечество находится в самом центре драматических перемен.
7. Look through the text and suggest a headline.
There are many scenarios that have been suggested that could happen in the future. Some are certain to happen and will almost certainly end humanity, but will only happen on a very long timescale. Others are likely to happen on a shorter timescale, but will probably not completely destroy civilization. Still others are extremely unlikely; and may even be impossible.
It is certain that events in space can cause life on Earth to come to an end. The certain events, however, will happen at an extremely long timescale measured by billions of years. Projections indicate that the Andromeda Galaxy is on a collision course with the Milky Way. Impact is predicted in about 3 billion years, and so Andromeda will approach at an average speed of about 140 kilometers per second: the two galaxies will probably merge to form a giant elliptical. The merging could eject the solar system in a more eccentric orbit and an unwanted position in the merged galaxy causing our planet to become uninhabitable in about 5 billon years. Stellar evolution predicts our sun will exhaust its core hydrogen and become a red giant. In doing so, it will become thousands of times more luminous. Even in its current phase of stellar evolution, the sun is increasing in luminosity (at a very slow rate).
Many scientists predict that in fewer than one billion years, the runaway greenhouse effect will make Earth unsuitable for life. It has been suggested that global warning might cause the climate on Earth to become like Venus.
A much more likely climatic change is a return to an Ice Age, of which there have been many in the recent past. More ice ages will almost certainly come at an interval of 40.000-100.000 years. This would be a serious impact on civilization. As we know it today, because vast areas of land (mainly in North-America and Europe) could become uninhabitable. It would still be possible to live in the tropical regions, but with possible loss of water.
A less predictable scenario is a global pandemic. For example, if HIV mutates and becomes as transmissible as the common cold, the consequences would be disastrous, but probably not fatal to the human species, as some are immune to HIV.
Another possibility is the megatsunami: a megatsunami could, for example, destroy the entire east coast of the United States of America. The coastal areas of the entire world could be flooded in case of the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
However, the most likely scenario is via an ecological disaster such as world crop failure and collapse of ecosystem services that could be induced by the present trends of overpopulation and non-sustainable agriculture.
Another category of disasters are unforeseen consequences of technology. It has been suggested that learning computers take unforeseen actions or that robots, would out-compete humanity. Biotechnology could lead to the creation of a pandemic. Nanotechnology could lead to grey area in both cases, either deliberately or by accident.
As for the threats for humanity coming from humanity itself the outcome is dependent on human choice and the possible formation of a global movement which could influence the trajectory of global development.
8. Find the key words in each paragraph of the text and translate them into Russian.
9. Find the English equivalents of the following word combinations in the text and translate the sentences with them into Russian (in writing)
1. путь, на котором неизбежно произойдет столкновение
2. приближаться со средней скоростью
3. непригодный для жизни
4. ледниковый период
5. глобальная пандемия
6. человеческий род
7. непредсказуемые последствия
8. область неопределенности
9. намеренно или случайно
10. траектория развития человечества
10. Give the summary of the text in Russian using the key words and word combinations from exercises 8 and 9.
11. Read the following text.
Дата: 2019-04-23, просмотров: 300.