Choose a text and propose your own interpretation. Write it down, render and discuss it in groups.

1. ‘Europe without philology… is a civilized Sahara, damned by God. There one can still find Castles, Kremlins, Acropoli, Gothic towns, cathedrals, but people will watch them without understanding and even may get frightened by them, not knowing what force has made them appear and which blood is running in the veins of this powerful architecture’.

 

2. ‘Why should one equal a word to what it denotes: a thing, grass, an object? Is a thing the master of the word? The word is Psych e [Goddess of the Soul]. A word which is alive and functioning doesn’t mean an object as it is, but as if chooses it as a body for temporary living. Thus words are wandering around their objects like the soul is wandering around a left but not forgotten body.… A word as a symbol of, a word as a way of, a word as a sense of…’. The hierarchy of 4 meanings is defined by Dante in his work ‘Festivity Dinner’: ‘Direct meaning teaches us what happened; Allegory (cognitive meaning) brings us beliefs; Moral (pragmatic) meaning teaches us how to act; what you strive at is being discovered by analogy’.

 

Ž FINDING A PROBLEM AND DISCUSSING IT

Problem is a question to be considered, solved, or answered; e.g. math problems; the problem of how to arrange transportation.

Problem is a state of difficulty that needs to be resolved; race problem – a social and political problem caused by conflict between races occupying the same or adjacent regions; balance-of-payments problem – an economic problem caused by payments for imports being greater than receipts for exports.

Problem – noun 1. difficulty, trouble, dispute, plight, obstacle, dilemma, headache (informal) disagreement, complication, predicament, quandary.

(Problem. (2009). In The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language)

& _ 1 Read the text and explain in your own words what a Round Table is (interpretation):

 

· What is a Round Table?

· What is its goal?

· Who participates in it?

· What is the role of its mediator?

· What responsibilities do the participants have?

The rules of effective interaction in the Round Table format

Webster’s New World Dictionary of American Language gives the following historical reference explaining the notion Round Table: ‘The large table around which, according to legend, King Arthur and his knights sat: it was made circular to avoid disputes about precedence.’ Its contemporary meaning is given as ‘ а group of people gathered for an informal discussion, conference, etc., at or as if at a circular table’.

In the Russian Language Explanatory Dictionary by S.I. Ozegov and N.U. Shvedova the notion Round Table is interpreted as ‘a meeting during which its participants are discussing different problems in the form of direct interaction, exchange of opinions’. As you see, the focus is on informal, interpersonal communication.

 

Round table is a format which is widely used in academic settings. Communication in the frame of Round Table is characterized by trust and openness, high level of knowledge of the participants, readiness for active participation, spontaneity and joint search. All this is the basis that assists the birth of new knowledge. In other words, this is not a ‘table with ready-made dishes’: this ‘table’ is open to new ideas which were not in their mind before one sits at a table. This format resembles Socratic method of communicants` interaction as its goal is to help the communicants to generate new ideas, realize individual knowledge as a value that can always become a public one. ( Introduction to the 1^st volume of the book ‘La Table Ronde’ (2010). Minsk: BSU)

What should one know to participate effectively in a Round Table discussion?

 

· Firstly, communication in this formatis not a kind of chaos but a pretty well organized activity. The one who initiates the discussion – a moderator or a leader – ascribes certain roles to oneself. It is definitely a set of particular roles but not just one role as the function of the moderator is quite complex. It includes such activities as introduction of the participants to each other and formulation of the questions for discussion. One should also be a time watcher to guarantee everybody equal opportunities to speak. Besides, it’s necessary to control the content of the talk so that not to get aside from the topic of the discussion. Political correctness, that is gender, race and age aspects of communication appropriateness, is another point for the moderator to consider. The moderator is also the one who gives a word to speak, who poses questions and sums up. In some cases it is necessary to make notes so that to prepare a kind of memorandum at the end of discussion. Of course, the moderator can ask some participants to share these responsibilities in case it is difficult to fulfill all of them at once, as is the case with a moderator who is inexperienced in the field. In this case the leading roles are shared among the communication leader, the time watcher, the political correctness watcher, the minutes writing person and the summing up person;

 

· Secondly, each participant is responsible for the constructiveness and general spirit of the communication including openness, kindness, readiness to cooperate, tolerance, and understanding of a communication situation. It is important for each one to be listened to and understood, which means one is to be ready to ask and answer additional questions. Why debate the pros and cons of issues if they are not introduced properly? So the statement of issues and their proper wording is the responsibility of the speakers. Sometimes it may be necessary to repeat the problem discussed or announce its direction changed if it is the case. It may be necessary in some cases (if time permits) to discuss whether one is happy with the way communication is processing, and to make suggestions how to turn it into a more constructive path. In other words, it’s necessary to control both the subject-matter of a round table discussion and the situation of the discussion as it is.

 

· Thirdly, and it is really important to add, that the participants should care about their diction and the strength of their voice, just as about what they say (avoiding bla-bla-bla talk). A proper for the communicative situation command of language (topic vocabulary, grammar and syntax patterns, register) plus communicative skills, respect for the audience, knowledge of the aims of communication, one’s role and general format rules – all these issues are of crucial importance for any effective communication including round table discussion.

² 2 a) Listen to the round-table discussion on universities of Great Britain (Audio Recording 6) and fill in the table.

No.	The name of a university group(type)	The time of its appearance	Its characteristic features	Types of classes proposed	Students (target group)	Knowledge it gives

b) Listen again and discuss:

· Who participates in this discussion?

· Do the participants follow the rules of effective interaction in the Round Table format? Evaluate each participant in terms of his/her behaviour during the round table discussion.

· Do you think the whole discussion is effective and why?

The script of the Round Table is given in Tapescripts, pp. 206-208.

3 Choose one of the topics for discussion and organize it according to Round Table format rules (remember to set time limit to your discussion).

§ My university study: Do I take it as a hobby or job?

§ One month at university: What have I accomplished?

 READING, REVIEWING, REPORTING

 

Review (n)

1) a brief statement or account of the main points of something;

2) a formal assessment or examination of something with the possibility or intention of instituting change if necessary;

3) a critical appraisal of a book, play, movie, exhibition, etc., published in a newspaper or magazine.

(Review (1997). In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English.)

 

Review (v)

inspect, overlook, reconsider, re-examine, retrace, revise, survey; analyze, criticize, discuss, edit, judge, scrutinize, study.

(Review (2002). In Concise Edition Dictionary and Thesaurus.)

Report (n)

1) an account given of a particular matter, esp. in the form of an official document, after thorough investigation or consideration by an appointed person or body;

2) a spoken or written description of an event or situation, esp. one intended for publication or broadcast in the media press;

3) a teacher's written assessment of a student's work, progress, and conduct, issued at the end of a term or academic year.

(Report (1997). In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English.)

 

Report (v)

announce, annunciate, communicate, declare; advertise, broadcast, bruit, describe, detail, herald, mention, narrate, noise, promulgate, publish, recite, relate, rumor, state, tell; minute, record.

(Report (2002). In Concise Edition Dictionary and Thesaurus.)

Presentation (n)

1) a demonstration or display of a product or idea;

2) the manner or style in which something is given, offered, or displayed.

(Presentation (1997). In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English.)

Present (v)

introduce, nominate; exhibit, offer; bestow, confer, give, grant; deliver, hand; advance, express, prefer, proffer, tender.

(Presentation (2002). In Concise Edition Dictionary and Thesaurus.)

& 1 Look through the text Leonardo da Vinci. Express your opinion whether you share the idea by Liana Bortolon and really 'view Leonardo with awe'.

Liana Bortolon (1967) ‘Because of the multiplicity of interests that spurred him to pursue every field of knowledge Leonardo can be considered, quite rightly, to have been the universal genius par excellence, and with all the disquieting overtones inherent in that term. Man is as uncomfortable today, faced with a genius, as he was in the 16th century. Five centuries have passed, yet we still view Leonardo with awe’.

Leonardo da Vinci

(April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519)

1. Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinchi was an Italian polymath, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance man, a man whose unquenchable curiosity was equaled only by his powers of invention. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived. According to art historian Helen Gardner, the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent and ‘his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, the man himself mysterious and remote’.

2. Born the illegitimate son of a notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant woman, Caterina, at Vinci in the region of Florence, Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Florentine painter, Verrocchio. Leonardo was and is renowned primarily as a painter. Two of his works, the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, are the most famous; most reproduced and most parodied portrait and religious painting of all time, respectively, their fame approached only by Michelangelo's Creation of Adam. Leonardo's drawing of the Vitruvian Man is also regarded as a cultural icon.

3. In 1466, at the age of fourteen, Leonardo was apprenticed to one of the most successful artists of his day, Andrea di Cione, known as Verrocchio. Verrocchio's workshop was at the centre of the intellectual currents of Florence, assuring the young Leonardo of an education in the humanities. Other famous painters apprenticed or associated with the workshop include Ghirlandaio, Perugino, Botticelli, and Lorenzo di Credi. Leonardo would have been exposed to a vast range of technical skills and had the opportunity to learn drafting, chemistry, metallurgy, metal working, plaster casting, leather working, mechanics and carpentry as well as the artistic skills of drawing, painting, sculpting and modeling. By 1472, at the age of twenty, Leonardo qualified as a master in the Guild of St Luke, the guild of artists and doctors of medicine.

4. Leonardo is revered for his technological ingenuity. He conceptualized a helicopter, a tank, concentrated solar power, a calculator, the double hull and outlined a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or were even feasible during his lifetime, but some of his smaller inventions, such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire, entered the world of manufacturing unheralded. As a scientist, he greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of anatomy, civil engineering, optics, and hydrodynamics.

5. In 1482 Leonardo, who according to Vasari was a most talented musician, created a silver lyre in the shape of a horse's head.

6. Many of Leonardo's most prominent pupils or followers in painting either knew or worked with him in Milan, including Bernardino Luini, Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio and Marco D'Oggione.

7. Renaissance humanism saw no mutually exclusive polarities between the sciences and the arts, and Leonardo's studies in science and engineering are as impressive and innovative as his artistic work, recorded in notebooks comprising some 13,000 pages of notes and drawings, which fuse art and natural philosophy (the forerunner of modern science). These notes were made and maintained daily throughout Leonardo's life and travels, as he made continual observations of the world around him. His notes and drawings display an enormous range of interests and preoccupations, some as mundane as lists of groceries and people who owed him money and some as intriguing as designs for wings and shoes for walking on water. There are compositions for paintings, studies of details and drapery, studies of faces and emotions, of animals, babies, dissections, plant studies, rock formations, whirl pools, war machines, helicopters and architecture.

8. Leonardo's approach to science was an observational one: he tried to understand a phenomenon by describing and depicting it in utmost detail, and did not emphasize experiments or theoretical explanation. Since he lacked formal education in Latin and mathematics, contemporary scholars mostly ignored Leonardo the scientist, although he did teach himself Latin. In the 1490s he studied mathematics under Luca Pacioli and prepared a series of drawings of regular solids in a skeletal form to be engraved as plates for Pacioli's book De Divina Proportione, published in 1509.

9. It appears that from the content of his journals he was planning a series of treatises to be published on a variety of subjects. A coherent treatise on anatomy was said to have been observed during a visit by Cardinal Louis D'Aragon's secretary in 1517. Aspects of his work on the studies of anatomy, light and the landscape were assembled for publication by his pupil Francesco Melzi and eventually published as Treatise on Painting by Leonardo da Vinci in France and Italy in 1651, and Germany in 1724, with engravings based upon drawings by the Classical painter Nicholas Poussin. According to Arasse, the treatise, which in France went into sixty two editions in fifty years, caused Leonardo to be seen as ‘the precursor of French academic thought on art’.

10. A recent and exhaustive analysis of Leonardo as Scientist by Frtijof Capra argues that Leonardo was a fundamentally different kind of scientist from Galileo, Newton and other scientists who followed him. Leonardo's experimentation followed clear scientific method approaches, and his theorising and hypothesising integrated the arts and particularly painting, these, and Leonardo's unique integrated, holistic views of science make him a forerunner of modern systems theory and complexity schools of thought.

11. During his lifetime Leonardo was valued as an engineer. In a letter to Ludovico il Moro he claimed to be able to create all sorts of machines both for the protection of a city and for siege. When he fled to Venice in 1499 he found employment as an engineer and devised a system of moveable barricades to protect the city from attack. He also had a scheme for diverting the flow of the Arno River in order to flood Pisa. His journals include a vast number of inventions, both practical and impractical. They include musical instruments, hydraulic pumps, reversible crank mechanisms, finned mortar shells, and a steam cannon.

12. In 1502, Leonardo produced a drawing of a single span 720-foot (240 m) bridge as part of a civil engineering project for Ottoman Sultan Beyazid II of Istanbul. The bridge was intended to span an inlet at the mouth of the Bosporus known as the Golden Horn. Beyazid did not pursue the project, because he believed that such a construction was impossible. Leonardo's vision was resurrected in 2001 when a smaller bridge based on his design was constructed in Norway. On May 17, 2006, the Turkish government decided to construct Leonardo's bridge to span the Golden Horn.

13. For much of his life, Leonardo was fascinated by the phenomenon of flight, producing many studies of the flight of birds, including his c. 1505 Codex on the Flight of Birds, as well as plans for several flying machines, including a helicopter and a light ornithopter. Most were impractical, like his aerial screw helicopter design that could not provide lift. However, the hang glider has been successfully constructed and demonstrated.

(Retrieved and adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci)

2 Using paragraphs 3, 8 and 13 write down a review on Leonardo da Vinci as a learner.