as mankind:
"All of you know that the idea of communicating intelligence without
visible means is almost as old as mankind".
Такие сравнения не используются последовательно в тех или иных
функциях, типичных для научной литературы, не служат целям изложения
научных фактов и формулирования научных положений, уточнения научных
понятий. Эта роль выпадает на долю речевых (индивидуальных) сравнений,
которые используются:
а) для положительной оценочной характеристики деятельности ученого:
"Rankine's name is not mentioned..., although to the English engineer
this seems like leaving out the name of Colambus in a history of the
discovery of America".
Общая черта, выбранная здесь для сравнения - это та пионерская роль,
которую сыграл Колумб в истории открытия Америки и Рэнкин — в истории
развития техники.
Сравнение используется также и для положительной оценки критических
выступлений ученого в печати:
"...the sentence, however decisive, is always delivered in kindly and
gentle tones, as that of a judge who regrets rather than denounces, the
faults which he condemns"
б) для характеристики объекта исследования:
"These individuals (neuters) act as soldiers doing apparently no work,
but keeping watch over the nest and attacking intruders with great
boldness".
Для науки характерно определять явления путем их описания с помощью
точных данных (цифр, рисунков, графиков и т. д.), полученных путем
эксперимента. И всякий раз, когда ученый имеет такие данные, он отдаёт
предпочтение им, а не образной характеристике. Однако, если точные
количественные и качественные данные отсутствуют, образ-аналогия (в данном
случае — стилистический прием сравнения) оказывается наиболее наглядным и
детализирующим средством описания предмета исследования.
Что касается тематики сравнений (т.е. той области, из которой они
берутся), то здесь, как и в случае метафоры, выделяется группа сравнений,
основанных на теме военного дела, военного искусства: these individuals act
as soldiers; a huge gannet... looking like a sentinel; …the delegates
studied special clearly-defined questions like officers sent by a general
to make a reconnaissance in a country.
Выделяется также группа сравнений, которые по своей теме относятся к
явлениям повседневной жизни:
"Are we searching for some inner truth that will lead us to the origin
of life, or are we, like the man who spends his week-ends working out the
crossword puzzles in his Sunday paper, exercising our minds in a scientific
game because we have nothing better to do?"
Если рассматривать сравнения с точки зрения тех понятий, которые они
определяют и уточняют, то становится очевидным, что это могут быть понятия,
относящиеся к естественнонаучным явлениям: heat, sensibility, pressure,
wave; понятия, имеющие абстрактный характер: idea, science; понятия
конкретные: a name, a scientist и т.д.
Во всех случаях употребления речевых сравнений автор проявляет свое
эмоциональное отношение к описываемому, ибо образ обладает эмоциональными
оттенками: он действует на читателя (слушателя) в силу своей чувственности
и конкретности; он живо представляется воображению и затрагивает чувства
именно потому, что действует на воображение.
ГЛАВА ЧЕТВЕРТАЯ: ПРАКТИЧЕСКАЯ ЧАСТЬ.
СТИЛИСТИЧЕСКИЙ АНАЛИЗ НАУЧНОГО ТЕКСТА НА ВЫЯВЛЕНИЕ ЭМОЦИОНАЛЬНОГО И
ЭКСПРЕССИВНОГО.
1. Текст "The search for extraterrestrial life."
The discovery of life on another planet would be a monument to our
age. Not only would it be an unparalleled technological achievement, but it
would be striking scientific event that would enlarge our view of nature
and ourselves and provide unique evidence bearing on the origin of life. In
this article, I am going to throw light on coming search for life on Mars.
Venus, our other close neighbor among the planets, has been excluded from
consideration, for the time being at least, because its high surface
temperature — in the neighborhood of 400° C — seems incompatible with life
or, for that matter, with much organic chemistry of any kind. The planets
of the solar system beyond Mars are out of reach for the present.
The Martian Environment
I have given the reason for thinking that if life ever existed on
Venus, it does so no longer. What can be said about Mars? We can say that
although the situation is not brimming with hope, neither is it hopeless.
The Martian environment is a harsh one by terrestrial standards. The mean
temperature is —55° C, compared to +15° C for the Earth. The atmosphere is
thin and very dry; it contains carbon dioxide and a small amount of water
vapor, but no detected oxygen. Owing to the low density of the atmosphere
and the absence of a magnetic field, the surface of
Mars is bombarded by cosmic rays and solar radiation in an almost
unbearable form. Mars is geologically a dead planet whose surface has been
undisturbed by anything except meteorite impacts for a very long time which
lacks the great variety of ecological habitats characterize the Earth.
Our knowledge of planetary environments is still fragmentary, and
one's subjective estimate of the likelihood of finding life on Mars is
liable to undergo violent fluctuations from time to time as new data
accumulate. The fact is that nothing that we have learned about Mars — in
contrast to Venus — excludes it as a possible abode of life. Martian
temperatures are not very different from those of Antarctica, where a
varied microbial life, and even a few flowering plants and invertebrate
animals, have been found. Although the mean temperature on Mars is low, the
seasonal and diurnal fluctuations are great, and temperatures as high as
25° C have been measured near the equator.
Scarcity of Water
The scarcity of water is probably the most serious limiting factor for
any Martian biology. The atmosphere of Mars contains approximately 14
microns of precipitable water, or roughly 1/1000 the amount found in our
atmosphere. In has been argued that the lack of water excludes the
possibility of life as we know it on Mars. It is certainly true that no
terrestrial species could survive under average Martian conditions as we
know them, except in a dormant state. But if we admit the possibility that
Mars once had a more favorable climate which was gradually transformed to
the severe one we find there today, and if we accept the possibility that
life arose on the planet during this earlier epoch, then we cannot exclude
the possibility that Martian life succeeded in adapting itself to the
changing conditions and survives there still.
The phenomenon that first led astronomers to suggest that Mars is an
inhabited planet—the seasonal change of color in the maria, or dark
regions—is still unexplained. This effect is described as a wave of
darkening that starts at the edge of the melting polar ice cap in the
spring and progresses toward the equator as the season advances. The color
of the maria transforms from grayish to violet, although some observers
have reported vivid greens and blues. By midsummer, the wave reaches the
equator; then, with the approach of winter, the color fades. It is
generally agreed that the phenomenon is associated with the seasonal
translocation of water vapor from one pole to the other. It could thus
reflect the growth of vegetation, stimulated by the availability of water,
or it could result from an inorganic process such as the uptake of water by
hygroscopic salts. The biological explanation readily accounts for one
striking fact; namely, that the maria continue to reappear despite the
great dust storms that sometimes obscure the entire disc of the planet.
This regenerative capacity suggests that something in the maria is capable
of growing up through the dust layer.
Microbial life could conceivably be the only form of life on Mars, but
it is hard to imagine there being life on Mars without microbes. For the
purposes of fundamental biology, it would be just as striking to find
microbial life on Mars as higher forms. Any form of Martian life would be
intensely interesting to science. From a fundamental viewpoint, there is
only one form of life on the Earth. All species are constructed out of the
same few building blocks; despite appearances, the differences between
species are relatively superficial. The question we ask is whether another
form of life exists on Mars.
If there is life on Mars, then it is a reasonable assumption— indeed,
I believe it is a necessary consequence—that its carbon cycles through this
atmosphere. We would expect to find on Mars, as we find on Earth, a
continual exchange of carbon between the atmosphere and the biosphere.
One of the strongest statements that can be made about Martian biology
is that if there is life on the planet there must be at least one
photosynthetic species. This is so because the sun is the only
inexhaustible source of energy in the solar system. All life on the Earth
depends ultimately on those species which are capable of utilizing solar
energy. Since photosynthetic organisms must receive light from the sun,
this argument leads to the corollary that, if there is life on Mars, some
of it must live on the surface. There is no use imagining that if there is
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