Science for University Students. Part II. Translations. Сологуб Л.И. - 55 стр.

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4. в сущности, все химически препараты токсичны, если…
5. обычная столовая соль может вызвать рак желудка
6. химический препарат может быть безвреден на уровне
меньших доз
7. стандартные тесты на рак с использованием грызунов
- устаревший атрибут невежественности прошедших
десятилетий.
IV. Choose the key-words to sum the information up, arrage them into
a scheme. Check up your work use the key-model. Make up a
summary translation of the text in Russian.
Text 9
To See Ourselves As Others See Us
The words of Robert Burns, “O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us to see
ourselves as others see us!” are as applicable to scientists as they are to all other
individuals. As we make our New Year’s resolutions, this may be an important
admonition to remember while we strive to preserve the health and vitality of
scientific institutions. As science has become more visible and more powerful, it
has also attracted more armchair critics and more adversaries. The visibility
delights, but the criticism bewilders. We see ourselves as out to do good and to
increase the standard of living, yet we are accused of torturing animals, polluting
the environment, embarking on megaprojects of little interest to the populace,
and tampering with the genetics of natural species. While most of these types of
charges can be answered, and some of them are demonstrably false, most
scientists would agree that others may have some substance. When the public
has been asked to vote, it has supported science on most issues. But there
appears to be growing skepticism toward science and a willingness by the public
to believe illogical alternatives.
It is vital that scientists sensitize themselves to public concerns and address
them in a compassionate and candid way. It is probably hopeless to convert the
extremists — the no-animals-in-research, no-pesticides, no-genetic-engineering,
and no-progress crowds — although careful answers to each of their positions
should be developed. It is more important to understand why a portion of the
general public is sympathetic to the argument that science can produce more
harm than good.
The most unsettling feature of science is probably the rapidity at which it
changes cultural values. When science was curing a few diseases and producing
a few labor-saving gadgets it was viewed with unmitigated awe and respect.
Now, the speed of scientific advances threatens to alter values faster than the
social system can accommodate to such change. Sydney Brenner’s statement
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