Профессионально-коммуникативная подготовка студентов

The Japanese have been able to accept a slower payout. If they used the U.S. standard formula of about 30% return on capital investment – instead of the 20% return common in Japan – robot investments would be cut by half, says Edwin Mansfield, director of me University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Economics and Technology. The Japanese prefer a simpler comparison. The average cost of an industrial robot is $40,000 – about the same as the annual income, with bonus, of a skilled worker in a Nissan factory. But the cost of robots is dropping, while labor costs are rising. Investing now could save money ten years from now.

Will robots make a comeback in the U.S.? Yes, eventually. Companies that sacked robots for complex jobs are rehiring them for simpler tasks. Deere, for example, decided to kick robots off its spraypaint line, but now uses them to torque a series of about 20 identical cap screws on tractor transmissions, a boring, repetitive job with a high degree of human error. Instead of using robots as a quick fix, some companies are including them as part of a broad revamping of their entire manufacturing process. Electrolux Corp. designed a new upright vacuum cleaner to be more easily assembled by robots and employees in its new $40 million automated plant in Bristol.

But it will be a long and slow road. The latest hot robot application in Japan is in construction. Komatsu Ltd. has developed a robot that installs panels of up to 1,100 pounds in the exterior walls of buildings, boosting labor productivity six fold. Shimizu Corp. produces its own robots to spray fireproofing materials on steel structures, to position ceiling panels in buildings, to plaster floors and to lay concrete segments in tunnels.

Is the U.S. construction industry interested? Not a chance. “There’s basically nothing going on,” complains David Panos, assistant director of Carnegie Mellon University’s Field Robotics Center, which is trying to ignite interest. “It’s the same old story. They’re focused on the short term. The Japanese are focused on the long term.” Not to mention the outcry from powerful construction unions if jobs were threatened by robots.

Pioneered in the U.S., exploited in Japan – it’s getting to be a too familiar story.

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SUPPLEMENTS

ANNOTATION

An annotation is a brief summary of a book, article, or other publication. The purpose of an annotation is to describe the work in such a way that the reader can decide whether or not to read the work itself. An annotation helps the reader understand the particular usefulness of each item. The ideal annotation shows the relationships among individual items and may compare their strengths or shortcomings.

The following points provide guidance for writing annotations. As appropriate each of these issues might be assessed and commented on in the annotation.

1.Qualifications of the author, unless very well known.

2.The scope and main purpose of the publication (book, article, web site).

3.The intended audience and level of reading difficulty.

4.The author’s bias or assumptions, upon which the work’s rationale rests.

5.The method of obtaining data or doing research.

6.The author’s conclusions.

7.Comparison with other works on the same subject.

8.Materials appended to the work – maps, charts, photos, etc.

9.The work’s importance or usefulness for the study of a sub-

ject.

Not all of these points are necessary for every annotation, and they certainly do not have to be noted in the order listed here, but they at least ought to be kept in mind when writing an annotation.

HOW TO WRITE ANNOTATION

I. Formulate the theme of information from the text using the following clich«s: the text deals with (touches upon, is devoted to, describes), the main idea of the texts is to show (to analyze, to describe). Determine the sphere of knowledge this information belongs to.

II. Process the information given in the text in the following

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way: a) divide the text into some parts according to its content; b) write out a number of key-words to each part of the text; c) retell each part using the key-words; d) determine the main idea of the text;

e)retell the text in 10–12 sentences.

III. Give the summary of each paragraph using key words and language clich«s: it is reported about the development of (the improvement of, the experiment in the field of, the results of, a new design of, the characteristics of); details of design (technology, process) are given; it is told in details about; a brief description of … is given; it is told in short about; special (much) attention is given (is paid) to; it is specially noted that; some facts (figures, terms, characteristics) are given.

IV. Present your annotation of the text according to the following structure.

1.Sphere of knowledge this information belongs to.

2.The theme of the text.

3.Summary of the text.

ABSTRACT

An abstract is a condensed version of a longer piece of writing that highlights the major points covered, concisely describes the content and scope of the writing, and reviews the writing’s contents in abbreviated form. There are two types of abstracts are typically used:

1)descriptive abstracts – their purpose is to tell readers what information the report, article, or paper contains;

2)informative abstracts – their purpose is to communicate specific information from the report, article, or paper.

Writing an abstract you may use the following steps:

1. Reread the article, paper, or report with the goal of abstracting in mind. Look specifically for these main parts of the article, paper, or report: purpose, methods, scope, results, conclusions, and recommendation.

2. Use the headings, outline heads, and table of contents as a guide to writing your abstract.

3. If you’re writing an abstract about another person’s article,

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paper, or report, the introduction and the summary are good places to begin. These areas generally cover what the article emphasizes.

4.After you’ve finished rereading the article, paper, or report, write a rough draft without looking back at what you’re abstracting.

5.Don’t merely copy key sentences from the article, paper, or report: you’ll put in too much or too little information.

6.Don’t rely on the way material was phrased in the article, paper, or report: summarize information in a new way.

7.Revise your rough draft to correct weaknesses in organization.

8.Improve transitions from point to point.

9.Drop unnecessary information.

10.Add important information you left out.

11.Fix errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

HOW TO WRITE ABSTRACT

I. Formulate the theme of information from the text using the following clich«s: the texts deal with (touch upon, are devoted to, describe).

II. Process the information given in the text in the following way: a) divide the text into some parts according to its content; b) write out a number of key-words to each part of the text; c) retell each part using the key-words; d) determine the main idea of the text;

e)retell the text in 10-12 sentences.

III. Find out author’s conclusion in the text; write it down using the following clich«s: the author concludes with a consideration of, the author comes to the conclusion that, in conclusion the author says that.

IV. Give your own comments on the information from the text. Try to answer the questions: a) how do you evaluate the actuality of thisinformation; b) how do you think who and for what purposes could use it. Use the following clichÉs: the information of the texts is addressed to the students (graduates, engineers, specialists, all those interested in); the texts may be recommended to; the information of the texts is interesting (important, useful, hard to understand).

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V. Present your abstract of the information from the text according to the following structure:

1.The theme of the text.

2.The main idea of the text.

3.Summary of the text.

4.Author’s conclusion.

5.Your own comments.

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References

1. Mining and Quarry World // Coal International [Электронный ресурс]. – Newark: Coal International Tradelink Publications. – July/August. – 2002. – Режим доступа: www.coal.dp.ua. – Загл. с экрана.

2.Morris, N. Mastering Electrical Engineering / N. Morris. – London: Macmillan Press LTD, 1998. – 392 p.

3.Watson, J. Mastering Electronics / J. Watson. – New York: Palgrave McMillan, 1996. – 416 p.

4.Weber, L. DGPS Architecture Based on Separating Error Components, Virtual Reference Stations and FM Subcarrier Broadcast [Электронный ресурс] / L. Weber, A. Tiwari. – Colorado: ION,

1995. – Режим доступа: http://www.ion.org/publications/toc/95amtoc.html. – Загл. с экрана.

5. Weber, L. Performance of an FM subcarrier (RDS) Based DGPS System [Электронный ресурс] / L. Weber, A. Tiwari. – Cambridge: ION, 1992. – Режим доступа: http://www.ion.org/publications/toc/95amtoc.html. – Загл. с экрана.

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Оглавление

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Стрельников Павел Алексеевич

ПРОФЕССИОНАЛЬНОКОММУНИКАТИВНАЯ ПОДГОТОВКА студентов по направлению “Электроэнергетика и электротехника”

Учебное пособие по английскому языку

Редактор О. А. Вейс

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