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LEARN WITH DRAWINGS |
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Important : pour écouter la prononciation des mots vous devez télécharger Babylon sur votre ordinateur.
TOPIC: SCIENCE étudiez attentivement ces dessins de Drew et répondez aux questions. DRAWING 1
1. Does the word science refers to a particular subject or discipline here? Which one? A1. Science refers to chemistry or physics here. 2. Where and on what occasion could all this happen? A2. This could happen during a class or in the laboratory of a research centre. 3. Who is the character under the table? What is he doing? Why is he here? A3. The character might be a student attending a class of chemistry or physics. The fact that he is under the table indicates that he must be a very inattentive student. 4. Who or what is being mocked at and debunked in this drawing? A4. What is being mocked in the drawing is the traditional failure of those experiments which, during the course of Physics lessons, happen to fall under the teacher's expectations. More often than not such experiments are traditionally supposed to fail, and it is a surprise when ironically they succed while you are not watching. GRAMMAR REVIEW "Science only happens to succeed when..." ...... 1. Who are the two characters in the drawing? Explain the situation.A1. The drawing shows two persons, an adult and a child. The adult could be a father and the child his son. We understand from the dialogue that one of the two is lecturing the other one about molecules, an important point of chemistry. 2. What science is being concerned here ---> biology / chemistry / physics / mathematics / astronomy ? A2. Chemistry is concerned. 3. What is a molecule? A3. A molecule is the smallest unit of a substance. It is composed of two or more atoms. The properties of a given substance are found in its molecules. So, a molecule is what defines a substance. You have molecules in everything, and the father is right when he says molecules are everywhere. To understand what a molecule is we can compare it with words : ---> atoms are to molecules as letters are to words. ---> a molecule is to a substance as a word is to a book.
---> a substance is to the universe
as a book is to literature.
...... 1. What is being tested?A1. What is being tested is the solidity and resistance of a hard hat. 2. What is being used for testing? A2. What is being used for testing is a huge hammer mounted on a tank. 3. What do you think of this drawing? A3. For the test to be done in real conditions a real human being has been placed under the hard hat. The man who is wearing the hat is in danger of getting crushed by the huge hammer about to fall upon his head. There's a huge discrepancy between the object which is put under test and the tool used for testing. Such a grotesque situation is absolutely ludicrous! GRAMMAR REVIEW: COMPOUND WORDS
The above structure contains a "compound word" with the adjective "hard" placed in front of it. The compound word "hat test" has an "open form", which means that no hyphen separates the two nouns although they are not melted together. Compound words in which the words are melted together have a "closed form" EX: firefly, teacup secondhand, softball, childlike, crosstown, redhead, keyboard, makeup, notebook ....Compound words in which the words are separated by a hyphen have a hyphenated form". EX: daughter-in-law, master-at-arms, over-the-counter, six-pack, six-year-old, mass-produced, .... Many compound words have an "open form". EX : railway station, post office, real estate, middle class, full moon, half sister, attorney general ...
...... 1. To what extent can the following titles suit this drawing? Explain why or why not. A1.a) (Maths explained) "Maths explained" perfectly suits this humorous drawing. The human pryramid formed by the three acrobats looks like an operation well known to mathematics lovers. What's more, the elements of the calculation are indicated by means of captions for the operation to be recognised easily. b) (Weightlifting) At least one of the three acrobats used to draw the operation is a weight-lifter. The man at the bottom of the pyramid supports all the weight on his shoulders. c) (Acrobats) All this could happen in a circus show. It takes acrobats to form a pyramid such as the one in the drawing. 2. What do you call the operation or calculation which is represented in the drawing? A2.This operation is called a fraction, a number which is the result of dividing two numbers. 3. Comment upon this drawing. A3. What we have is a drawing of three men forming a pyramid. The pyramid looks like a well known calculation called a fraction with its denominator, fraction bar and numerator.
...... 1. What does the symbol between quotation marks represent? A1. This symbol is a Greek letter. 2. What relation does it have with cows? A2.The pronunciation of the Greek letter "µ" (MYOO) somewhat resembles the mooing of a cow. 3. Can you explain the joke? A3. Mathematics makes a great use of Greek symbols. We all know, for example, that PI (PIE) is universally used to represent the number which is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. The drawing alludes to another symbol, the Greek letter "µ" whose pronunciation somewhat resembles the mooing of a cow. The joke is a schoolboy's joke with deriding intentions : Greek cows do not use Greek letters when they are mooing, so why do we have to use such foreign letters for doing maths? Such a schoolboy's remark aims at deriding in a funny way the meta-language of science. It shows at the same time how surprising the symbols which are used in mathematics appear to be when you come across them for the first time.
Good bye! |
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