Методические указания и контрольные работы по английскому языку для студентов 2 курса ОЗО факультета философии и культурологии. Выпуск 3

ФЕДЕРАЛЬНОЕ АГЕНСТВО ПО ОБРАЗОВАНИЮ Федеральное государственное образовательное учреждение высшего профессионального образования «ЮЖНЫЙ ФЕДЕРАЛЬНЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ»

Снеговая О. А., Печерская Т. С.

МЕТОДИЧЕСКИЕ УКАЗАНИЯ И КОНТРОЛЬНЫЕ РАБОТЫ по английскому языку для студентов 2 курса ОЗО факультета философии и культурологии

Выпуск 3

Ростов-на-Дону 2008

Методические указания разработаны старшим преподавателем кафедры английского языка гуманитарных факультетов О. А. Снеговой, преподавателем кафедры английского языка гуманитарных факультетов Т. С. Печерской.

Ответственный редактор

доцент кафедры английского языка гуманитарных факультетов Е. Н. Донченко

Компьютерный набор и верстка

ст. преп. О. А. Снеговая

Печатается в соответствии с решением кафедры английского языка гуманитарных факультетов ЮФУ, протокол № 4 от 19 октября 2007 г.

2

Методическая записка Настоящие

методические

указания

предназначены

для

выполнения

письменных контрольных работ студентами 2 курса ОЗО факультета философии и культурологии. В выпуске 3 представлены 4 варианта контрольного задания № 3. Каждый вариант контрольной работы включает ряд упражнений по грамматике и текст для перевода, причем в упражнениях присутствует грамматический материал, предусмотренный программой по английскому языку для ОЗО. Тексты и упражнения расположены в порядке возрастания языковой трудности в соответствии с программой. Для того чтобы правильно выполнить контрольную работу № 3, необходимо усвоить следующий грамматический материал: формы и функции причастия, герундия и инфинитива; причастные, герундиальные и инфинитивные обороты. Контрольные работы должны выполняться аккуратно, четким почерком. При выполнении контрольной работы следует оставлять в тетради широкие поля для замечаний преподавателя. Материал контрольной работы следует располагать в тетради по следующему образцу:

Левая страница

Правая страница

__________________________________________________________________ Поля

Английский текст

Русский текст

Поля

Задания должны быть выполнены полностью и в той последовательности, в которой они предложены; их условия необходимо переписывать. Контрольная 3

работа должна быть выполнена в отдельной тетради, на обложке которой следует указать номер контрольной работы, номер варианта, факультет, отделение, фамилию преподавателя и студента. Если контрольная работа выполнена без соблюдения указанных требований или не полностью, она возвращается без проверки.

4

Вариант 1 1 Перепишите и переведите предложения на русский язык. Подчеркните соответствующую неличную форму глагола. 1) Historians suppose the name “London” to have come from two Celtic words. 2) Antigone’s love for her father made her leave Thebes with him. 3) Picasso was the son of an artist who earned his living teaching drawing and working as a museum curator. 4) Thirty or sixty thin volumes of which this work consists are assigned to Japanese stories, the reminder containing tales of Chinese or Indian origin. 5) Later we find Shakespeare using this style in prose dialogue. 6) World War I was said to have involved a propaganda battle between the British and Germans and the US public was the target of messages delivered in pamphlets, tracts, posters, cartoons and other forms of communication. 7) One strong reason for his taking part in this conference was his wish to say something

new. 2 Найдите ошибку в предложении и исправьте ее. Перепишите исправленный вариант и переведите его на русский язык. 1) But when we take the trouble to understand Aristotle’s questions, we can see that they are worth to ask. 2) We are interested with being invited to the conference. 3) People are afraid having time to think, so they go to the cinema, watch TV, go to the concert hall. 4) She only succeeded at entirely blocking the discussion. 5) Ancient Greek and Roman writers would often begin their poems with asking for the 5

aid of the Muses in their compositions. 6) He objected against being treated like a novice in laboratory research. 7) In spite being very complicated the problem has been solved. 3 Только одно предложение правильное. Найдите его и переведите на русский

язык.

Исправьте

остальные

предложения,

перепишите

исправленные варианты и переведите их на русский язык. 1) This group of ballads is known dating back from the 14th century. 2) I can’t help to think about it. 3) It was a common saying in those days that anyone who had anything to say was likely to say it in the form of a novel. 4) Generally to speak, the medieval school libraries in London have been neglected to a considerable extent. 5) By this time the restoration of the monarchy was seen be almost inevitable. 6) This preliminary analysis appears supporting some of Locke’s conclusions. 7) Contemporaries knew Leonardo primarily as an artist and didn’t suspect him to be a profound scientist and philosopher. 4 Найдите в 5, 6, 8, 9 и 10 абзацах текста 7 предложения, содержащие следующие

грамматические

формы:

независимый

причастный

оборот,

зависимый причастный оборот, сложное дополнение, сложное подлежащее, герундий. Перепишите и переведите предложения на русский язык.

6

5 Составьте предложения, используя фразы из колонки A и глаголы из колонки B. Запишите их и переведите на русский язык. A

B

Would you mind …?

publish

Do you mind …?

design

can’t stand

mould

can’t help

discover

be worth

draw up

be likely

improvise

be sure

sketch

6 Соотнесите слова из колонки A с определениями из колонки B. A

B

1 vivacity

a) true and faithful

2 genius

b) living for ever

3 insatiable

c) very fond of; loving

4 dissect

d) very great and unusual capacity of the mind or imagination

5 immortal

e) liveliness

6 anticipate

f) any particular kind of goodness or excellence

7 virtue

g) that cannot be satisfied

8 generous

h) look forward to a thing before it comes

7

9 loyal

i) cut up in small pieces very carefully in order to study or examine

10 devoted

j) having a noble mind; not mean or selfish; ready to give freely

7 Прочтите текст. Перепишите и письменно переведите 1-4 абзацы. Leonardo da Vinci 1) One of the ideals of perfection in mankind is that of perfect balance. A man whose brain is many-sided and can grasp the details and see the inner laws of art and science and yet have creative faculties as well as analytic; whose body is healthy and beautiful and vigorous, a worthy temple for the brain; whose personality is pleasant and kind, and whose whole being is animated by a spirit of lofty enterprise; such a man has the gifts of life in just balance, he approaches completeness. Such a man was Leonardo da Vinci, the greatest light of the Italian Renaissance whose many-sided genius is unique in the history of the world. 2) Visari, the famous biographer of painters, tells us of Leonardo’s early education: “In arithmetic he made such rapid progress that he often puzzled the master who was teaching him by the perpetual doubts he started, and by the difficulty of the questions he proposed. He also commenced the study of music and resolved to acquire the art of playing the lute. Being by nature of an exalted imagination and full of graceful vivacity, he sang to that instrument most beautifully, improvising, at the same time, both the verses and the music”. But drawing and modelling were the favourite tasks of his childhood. 3) Most of us think of him as an artist, particularly as the painter of the “Mona Lisa”, but he was much more than that. He had an insatiable thirst for knowledge. He not only saw, but attempted to reproduce the beauties of light and shade; he wanted to know the laws that governed them. He studied optics and the physiology of the eye. He gained a 8

knowledge of the laws which govern the movements of waves, and applied them to light and sound. And this was in the fifteenth century! 4) His painting and sculpture opened up other fields of inquiry. He studied the structure of the muscles and bones of the human body, dissecting some thirty dead bodies. He also studied the stricture and working of the heart and speculated on the circulation of the blood. 5) He keeping his ideas to himself and writing them in code in voluminous notebooks, his contemporaries knew nothing of his ideas and remained uninfluenced by them. 6) Not having been published at the time of his death, his notebooks were neglected until the 19th century, when it was found that Leonardo anticipated discoveries in almost every field. 7) He has been best known for his achievements as an artist. As a writer he helped to mould Italian prose. As a theoretician in art, he discovered and laid down immortal principles. 8) As a military engineer he is supposed to have designed the first parachute and to have constructed the first elevator. In order to design airplanes he studied the flight of birds, and for submarine designs he studied the manner in which fish swam. He also anticipated the use of steam and sketched a steam-cannon. Despite the seeming bloodthirstiness of his war machines, he was humanitarian who denied himself meat out of aversion to killing animals. 9) As a civil engineer he drew up plans for rebuilding Milan on new sanitary lines and for beautifying and strengthening the Castello. 10) In science Leonardo had amazing insight. He considered the moon to shine by reflected sunshine; and the earth not to be the center of the Universe, and to be rotating on its axis. 11) His virtues are not ended. As a man handsome, charming, tactful, athletic, he was popular and deserved to be, he was a generous and loyal friend, and devoted to his followers and pupils. 9

8 Ответьте письменно на вопросы к тексту. 1) What did Leonardo puzzle his master by? 2) What were his achievements as a man of Arts? 3) What human virtues is he noted for? Which of them appeal to you most? 9 Agree or disagree with the following statements. 1) It was not until the 19th century that we moderns learnt Leonardo’s ideas. 2) He was an engineer who visualized devices beyond the scope of his time. 3) He believed the earth to be the center of the universe.

10

Вариант 2 1 Перепишите и переведите предложения на русский язык. Подчеркните соответствующую неличную форму глагола. 1) The story of Pygmalion is the most famous of the myths that believe art to have the power of creation rather than the power of portraying. 2) Some art historians consider the middle of the thirteenth century to be the beginning of the Renaissance in Italy. 3) Maybe the first story-teller was a prehistoric mother trying to explain the world to her children. 4) University was established at Constantinople in 425, teaching being conducted both in Latin and Greek. 5) At one stage in his life Pablo Picasso was rumoured to be capable of painting three canvases a day. 6) In the Scottish capital Burns was enthusiastically received, this reception perhaps giving him hopes which were later to be disappointing. 7) In delivering my report I relied on the paper having been read and thought over by everybody. 2 Найдите ошибку в предложении и исправьте ее. Перепишите исправленный вариант и переведите его на русский язык. 1) We were told that the exhibition was worth to see. 2) If you never thought of asking a question you are not interested with having the answer. 3) The student didn’t mind to be transferred to another group. 4) Everybody was surprised by his being absent. 11

5) They are sure in winning the debate in the House of Commons. 6) People are afraid being alone when they have nothing to think about. 7) Unfortunately I haven’t succeeded at making much impression on you. 3 Только одно предложение правильное. Найдите его и переведите на русский

язык.

Исправьте

остальные

предложения,

перепишите

исправленные варианты и переведите их на русский язык. 1) Four departments of the British Museum are considered constituting the British National Library. 2) I couldn’t avoid to speak to her. 3) At any time between four in the afternoon and midnight, at least ten million viewers in Great Britain are sure be watching television. 4) With the Romans gone, Britain became a prey to invasion from all sides. 5) “The Jumping Frog” by Mark Twain is said have pleased its author best of all that he

had written in that style. 6) In 1611 Shakespeare appears having come to Stratford-on-Avon for good. 7) We saw the students to join in the hot discussion of this book. 4 Найдите в 2, 4 и 5 абзацах текста 7 предложения, содержащие следующие

грамматические

формы:

независимый

причастный

зависимый причастный оборот, герундий. Перепишите и переведите предложения на русский язык.

12

оборот,

5 Составьте предложения, используя фразы из колонки A и глаголы из колонки B. Запишите их и переведите на русский язык. A

B

Would you mind …?

examine

Do you mind …?

apply

can’t stand

widen

can’t help

allow

worth

use

be likely

move

be sure

create

6 Соотнесите слова из колонки A с определениями из колонки B. А

B

1 behaviour

a) strain in the relationship between two

2 mobility

parties

3 tension

b) trust in; depend upon

4 value

c) way of acting

5 background

d) a person who travels to a sacred place

6 impact

e) that which is owned; possessions

7 exile

f) that part which is further away or at the

8 rely

back

9 pilgrim

g) a person who is sent away or who goes

10 property

away from his own country for a long time h) influence; effect i) the quality of being mobile j) worth 13

7 Прочтите текст. Перепишите и письменно переведите 1, 3 и 6 абзацы. A New Direction? 1) We earlier suggested that it was possible to view global English as a complex system. Chaos theory, the mathematical method of modelling the behaviour of complex systems, is essentially a model of flow. Already used to understand the turbulent behaviour of fluid in pipes, or the aerodynamics of aircraft wings, the idea of flow can also be applied to language and culture. 2) The concept of globalization includes the ideas both of flow and counter-flow, producing a tension between the global and local. The English language flows into other languages, the latter adopting English words and phrases. English also “colonizes” the space of other languages by taking over certain communicative domains. But local languages also influence English, giving rise to new hybrid language varieties in second-language-speaking areas. If we examine communication patterns as flow we might widen our focus to include the translation of books or the dubbing of films as they move from one language to another, or of tourists moving from one city to another, telephone calls and Internet data carrying information and intellectual property from one part of the world to another. 3) Although the modelling of culture in terms of flow is still a poorly developed discipline, social scientists have become more interested in viewing the world in such ways rather than relying on static entities such as “cultures”, “nations” and “national economies”. Appadurai (1990) identifies five global flows in terms of metaphorical landscapes. These he terms ethnoscapes (people’s movement), technoscapes (technology transfer, technology convergence), financescapes (flows of capital and currency), mediascapes (flows of audio-visual product but also the images and narratives they convey) and ideoscapes (flows of ideas and ideologies). Here we 14

examine some of the more measurable kinds of flow, to see what broad shifts there might be as globalization develops. 4) The ultimate drivers of language are the people who use it. People move extensively: for business or education, as tourists and pilgrims, as migrant workers and immigrants, as refugees and exiles, taking with them languages and cultural values. Desire for physical mobility has created further massive industries in transport and services. The increase in people’s flow relates to other significant changes – rise of world trade, shifts to services requiring face-to-face contact, wider dispersal of families, the emergence of new cultural diasporas, the operations of transnational companies and the growing international trade in higher education. 5) Tourism is one well-documented form of people’s flow which has had a significant impact on the use of English. International travel has a globalizing effect. People are brought together, businesses and institutions form relationships of interdependency and closer communication. And, more directly than many other kinds of flow, international travel brings people from different language backgrounds together, promoting the need to learn a language in common. But there is also a growing provision for a customer’s own language, as service industries find they must compete on levels of service. 6) While there is little research that allows us to state confidently which languages will be encouraged through what kinds of contact, we can assume that international traffic within a single region will encourage the use of a regional language, whereas traffic between two or more world regions may encourage one of the “world languages”, of which English is the most important. 8 Ответьте письменно на вопросы к тексту. 1) In what way do social scientists prefer to view the world? 2) What is the increase in people’s flow connected with? 3) Why does international travel have a globalizing effect? 15

9 Agree or disagree with the following statements. 1) English is influenced by local languages. 2) Tourism has had a significant impact on the use of English. 3) International traffic within a single region will encourage one of the “world languages”.

16

Вариант 3 1 Перепишите и переведите предложения на русский язык. Подчеркните соответствующую неличную форму глагола. 1) The new logic shows this objection to be groundless. 2) We know nothing of his having published the article. 3) It was also during his last days that he wrote poetry for the first time, putting Aesop’s fables into verse. 4) Robert Southey was also a good prose writer, the best known of his prose works being “The Life of Nelson”. 5) He is said to reason with peculiar force and energy. 6) His poverty was supposed to show the uselessness of philosophy. 7) Democritus tried to resolve the conflicts that had arisen between the theories of change and permanence by offering a new conception. 2 Найдите ошибку в предложении и исправьте ее. Перепишите исправленный вариант и переведите его на русский язык. 1) Education has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth to read. 2) I am surprised by your not deserving any prize. 3) She has risen to be head of the company in spite being a woman in a man’s world. 4) Having made a considerable fortune, he succeeded at proving that it is easy for philosophers to become rich if they like. 5) All the happiness of my life depends from your loving me. 6) We object against her being given so much work. 17

7) He was accused in repeatedly having sold information to rival firms. 3 Только одно предложение правильное. Найдите его и переведите на русский

язык.

Исправьте

остальные

предложения,

перепишите

исправленные варианты и переведите их на русский язык. 1) Most of the earliest philosophers are believed to regard principles of a material kind as the only principles of all things. 2) It is a story about scheme for make money. 3) Returning from an expedition, George Washington fell off his raft in ice water and nearly drowned. 4) Frankly to speak he decided to hide some things. 5) His education seems have followed the usual Greek course of instruction. 6) I’d like you take up English. 7) To be first published in 1915, the book was described by Maugham as an autobiographical novel. 4 Найдите в 3, 4 и 8 абзацах текста 7 предложения, содержащие следующие грамматические формы: зависимый причастный оборот, герундий, сложное дополнение, сложное подлежащее. Перепишите и переведите предложения на русский язык. 5 Составьте предложения, используя фразы из колонки A и глаголы из колонки B. Запишите их и переведите на русский язык. A Would you mind …?

B organize 18

Do you mind …?

solve

can’t stand

visit

can’t help

give up

worth

explain

be likely

mention

be sure

share

6 Соотнесите слова из колонки A с определениями из колонки B. А

B

1 experience

a) the whole world

2 aesthetics

b) the science of thought

3 conception

c) the process of classification

4 cosmos

d) unquestioning

5 abstract

e) gained knowledge and skills

6 intuit

f) an observable fact or event

7 logic

g) the study of nature of beauty

8 taxonomy

h) separated from what is real

9 implicit

i) a general idea

10 phenomenon

j) to have an intuition

7 Прочтите текст. Перепишите и письменно переведите 2, 6, 7 и 8 абзацы. Plato 1) Philosophy in Athens was in a confused chaotic state. Socrates had shown that “science”, which provided the model for earlier speculation, could not account for the elements of value that played such an important part in human life. The Sophists 19

had shown that speculative philosophy led to contradictory, opposed conclusions and had not even given a consistent account of the world of facts with which it was concerned. 2) The problems that had accumulated for three centuries of exploration and debate failed to fit together in any neat scheme. The synthesis of old and new ideas required a genius: a combination of a poet’s sensitivity and a mathematician’s clear appreciation of abstract structure. It also required a flawless sense of coherence and form, an ability to see how the most intransigent parts went together. The genius of Plato was equal to the demand, and rescued philosophical speculation from the danger of neglect, trivialization, or rejection. 3) Plato became committed to philosophy as a result of the execution of Socrates. He gave up his earlier ambition to enter politics and wrote a great number of works on different philosophical subjects. They are in the form of dialogues with Socrates as the central figure, and are distinguished by purity of language and elegance of style. Plato did not intend to let the Athenians succeed in silencing Socrates by executing him. He intended to show that Socrates was, as he claimed to be, a public benefactor, not a criminal. 4) Plato argues that since what seems most reasonable to a human inquirer is also most true in the world of facts, there need not be a sharp distinction between human thought and the rest of the world. Both our minds and the world have the same order. If they did not, what seemed to be best in the order of thought would not be best when applied to fact. Thus, thoughts and things fall into the same pattern. 5) To explain why there are the systematic connections between different types of knowledge and reality, Plato insists that there must be a single form which is the form that orders reality. This is his “Form of the God”, which is the highest form and cause; it operates both in our thoughts and in fact, and gives reality its complex systematic order. According to Plato, the reason for our ability to know the outer world is that the same simplicity and order that please us in our ideas are also found in the objective 20

world. These are properties that we use as criteria to choose best theories, and so are standards of value. The good, as the highest value, including order and simplicity as special types, is present in thought and in the world of facts. 6) In summary, the way that our ideas relate to the world – both the world of nature and the world of form – is the first piece of evidence that there is a single ordered cosmos, in which idea and object, form and process, value and fact are related to each other. By a simple example, Plato tried to show how his forms relate to physical facts. The logical relations of the forms limit possible causes and changes. For instance, the forms (that is, the abstract concepts) of hot and cold are mutually exclusive. Physical fire “shares in” (has as an essential property) being hot. We can tell by formal reasoning that a “cold physical fire” cannot be found in nature. 7) A connecting relationship is obtained not only between reality and higher levels of knowledge, but also between objects and the guesswork of reflections, shadows and myth. The images that we see or imagine are images of something, just as reflections in a mirror are reflections of some other thing. All the different “snapshot views” we get as we walk around a castle tower are exactly related to the tower itself. When we can relate these immediate snapshot impressions to an object which is their cause, we find a systematic order in what would otherwise be a chaotic picture album of different snapshots. Though it is much harder to trace poetry, myth and imagination to origins and causes in the world of nature or of form, there too the object-reflection relation shows the expected kind of causality. 8) Ever since Plato, there have been philosophical Platonists in the West. What are the defining characteristics of Platonism? We can mention four that are important. (1) A Platonist believes that the function of philosophy is to arrive at some single systematic synthesis. (2) A Platonist always accepts some version of the theory of forms, which holds that generalizations have explanatory value. (3) A Platonist thinks that reality forms a single coherent system, which is not cut up into isolated departments. (4) Finally, a Platonist always believes the world of thought and facts to illustrate 21

some value. The good, the true, and the beautiful come together at a single highest point in every Platonic philosophy; a high point which is so for being and for thought. 8 Ответьте письменно на вопросы к тексту. 1) How can you prove that philosophy in Athens was in a confused chaotic state? 2) What role does Socrates play in his dialogues? 3) How should his theory of form be understood? 9 Agree or disagree with the following statements. 1) Plato became interested in philosophy because of Socrates’ execution. 2) Idea and object, form and process, value and fact are related to each other in a single ordered cosmos. 3) A Platonist thinks the function of philosophy is to come to some single systematic synthesis.

22

Вариант 4 1 Перепишите и переведите предложения на русский язык. Подчеркните соответствующую неличную форму глагола. 1) They thought her to be an eminent scholar. 2) The creative (Tynianov-style) comprehension of history and language serves the cause of freedom and defense of human dignity, bringing cultures together. 3) I’d like you to take up English. 4) In this play a priest appears and informs the audience about a new bell for his temple, the former having been long before removed. 5) Thales is said to have brought the science of geometry to Greeks. 6) Upon being rebuked by a Sophist for his stoical ways, he gave them a cleverer answer. 7) Democritus agreed with Parmenides to the extent of insisting upon the unchangeable nature of reality. 2 Найдите ошибку в предложении и исправьте ее. Перепишите исправленный вариант и переведите его на русский язык. 1) The world is a fine place and worth to fight for. 2) We sometimes are afraid having time to think because we don’t know how to use it. 3) It was such a funny story that I couldn’t help to laugh. 4) In spite being busy he did his best to help her. 5) I am surprised by your having exhibited such a picture. 6) They succeeded at removing all the obstacles. 7) A true scientist is interested being told about his mistakes. 23

3 Только одно предложение правильное. Найдите его и переведите на русский

язык.

Исправьте

остальные

предложения,

перепишите

исправленные варианты и переведите их на русский язык. 1) Thales is said putting forward this doctrine about the first cause. 2) He showed how to calculate the height of a pyramid by measure its shadow. 3) We know Greek philosophers call art an “imitation of nature”. 4) Thinking is supported be extremely important for philosophy. 5) Roman towns in Britain were real military camps surrounding by walls for defence. 6) Called by the name of his little town of Vinci where he was born, Leonardo grew up in Florence. 7) We know him having established a school of his own. 4 Найдите в 3, 4 и 5 абзацах текста 7 предложения, содержащие следующие

грамматические

формы:

сложное

дополнение,

сложное

подлежащее, независимый причастный оборот, зависимый причастный оборот. Перепишите и переведите предложения на русский язык. 5 Составьте предложения, используя фразы из колонки A и глаголы из колонки B. Запишите их и переведите на русский язык. A

B

Would you mind …?

interrupt

Do you mind …?

arrive

can’t stand

collect

can’t help

change

worth

recognize 24

be likely

enter

be sure

discover

6 Соотнесите слова из колонки A с определениями из колонки B. А

B

1 axiology

a) real thing

2 logic

b) meaning conveyed or intended

3 consciousness

c) the way something looks but not

4 entity

always real

5 cause

d) the way ideas can be connected

6 intuition

e) a process of relating judgements

7 sense

f) the study of the whole field of

8 thought

values

9 appearance

g) without beginning or end; lasting

10 eternal

forever h) awareness i) the ultimate power that produces the being of everything j) an immediate perception

7 Прочтите текст. Перепишите и письменно переведите 1, 2, 6, 7 и 8 абзацы. Aristotle 1) Aristotle was born in Stagira, a place not far from the semi-Greek kingdom of Macedonia, with which his family was closely connected. At the age of 17 he traveled to Athens for education and joined Plato’s Academy where he studied diligently. Eventually he was to become the most renowned of all Plato’s pupils. Plato called 25

him “the intelligence of the school”. But after Plato’s death, Aristotle left the school. The reason he gave was that he disapproved of the growing emphasis on mathematics and pure theory in the Academy and the continuing decline in natural philosophy. 2) In Athens he founded a school, the Lyceum, so called because Aristotle lectured in a hall near the temple of Apollo Lylaios (Apollo, the Wolf-God). He also built up a collection of manuscripts, a very early example of a “university library”. 3) In 323 BC the news arrived of the death of Alexander the Great. Since Aristotle was well known to have been Alexander’s tutor, be feared that anti-Macedonian reaction in Athens might lead to trouble. And, indeed, the accusation of “impiety” was raised. Aristotle had no mind to suffer the fate of Socrates. Saying he would not allow Athens to “sin twice against philosophy” he prudently retired to Chalsis, his mother’s hometown and died there next year. 4) Aristotle’s lectures were collected into nearly 150 volumes of which some 50 volumes have survived. They represent almost a one-man encyclopaedia of the knowledge of the time, much of it representing the original thought and observation of Aristotle himself. His extant writings include treatises on logic, which were not substantially modified for 2500 years; on astronomy, chemistry and biology, which remained standard until the Renaissance; on metaphysics or “first philosophy”; on the “practical sciences” of ethics and politics, and on poetics, all of which remain sufficiently up to date. 5) To see where Aristotle stands in the history of Greek thought, we can do no better than to take his own analysis as a starting point. He holds that being is fourdimensional. That is, each individual thing has four causes which are relevant to our understanding of it. Wise men of the past, trying to philosophize, were never wholly mistaken or mutually contradictory. Their preliminary speculative answers were incomplete; each tended to recognize and be satisfied with only one or two dimensions of a reality that requires four. 26

6) In Aristotle’s history of philosophy, the first stage is an opposition between materialism and formalism. Every real thing in nature has both a material cause – the stuff from which it is made – and a formal cause – the structure, number and order of parts that determine the matter. The Milesians hit on the material cause, the Pythagoreans on the formal. By his own day, Aristotle saw these two traditions developed into Atomism and Platonism. He wanted to reconcile these two philosophies. 7) Aristotle enumerates the four causes that he believed philosophy had been seeking and that he had discovered. Everything owes its existence and identity to a material cause (or passive potentiality of becoming) in combination with a formal cause. These two dimensions are brought together by an efficient cause, either a maker or an ancestor. And to understand things, we must also look for the final cause of each: for artificial things, this goal or end is the use they are designed to serve; for natural things, it is a goal of self-realization which directs the stages of growth and maturity. 8) Amazingly, Aristotle has contributed to almost all fields of knowledge. His contribution to the study of the form of thinking deserves a special mention. He elaborated formal logic so fully that it exists to this day almost intact. He thoroughly studied concepts, statements and conclusions, and formulated the basic laws of formal logic, such as the law of identity, the law of contradiction, and the law of the excluded middle. He also made a profound analysis of ten primary philosophical categories such as essence, quality, quantity, relation, place, time, position, possession, action and suffering. 8 Ответьте письменно на вопросы к тексту. 1) Why did Aristotle leave the school of Plato after the latter’s death? 2) What works did he write and on what subject matters? 3) What is the importance of Aristotle for philosophy? 27

9 Agree or disagree with the following statements. 1) Aristotle founded the first university library. 2) He left Athens after the death of Alexander the Great. 3) He wanted to reconcile Atomism and Platonism.

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