English II

UNIVERSITÀ DEL SALENTO

Department of Innovation Engineering

Master’s degree in Computer Engineering

English II

English II

Dott. Marco Chiarelli

Academic Year 2016/2017 1

Quest’opera è stata rilasciata con licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale

- Condividi allo stesso modo 3.0 Unported. Per leggere una copia della licenza visita il sito web

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ o spedisci una lettera a Creative Commons,

171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

cbea

Questi appunti sono stati scritti utilizzando L TEX tramite la distribuzione MiKTeX

A http:

//miktex.org/

Come editor è stato usato TeXMaker 4.4.1 http://www.xm1math.net/texmaker/

Dei contenuti rielaborati in questa opera, salvo esplicitamente scritto il contrario, il prof.

Pietro Luigi Iaia non se ne assume alcuna responsabilità.

2

Sommario

Le seguenti dispense vogliono essere uno strumento didattico utile alla preparazione

del corso di Inglese II, il quale docente è il prof. Pietro Luigi Iaia, presso il CdL in

Ingegneria Informatica et Ingegneria delle Telecomunicazioni at Unisalento.

3

Abstract

The following work want to be a useful instrument for the preparation of the English

II exam, whose teacher is the prof. Pietro Luigi Iaia, at Computer Engineering and

at Communication Engineering AT UNISALENTO.

4

Indice

1 Specialized Discourse 1

1.1 SD: EARLY DEFINITIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.2 THE ISSUE OF TERMINOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.3 RECENT DEFINITIONS OF SPECIALIZED DISCOURSE . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1.4 SD: MULTIDIMENSIONAL NATURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1.5 SD: GENERAL FEATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1.6 SD: LEXICAL FEATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.6.1 MONOREFERENTIALITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.6.2 LACK OF EMOTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.6.3 PRECISION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.6.4 TRANSPARENCY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.6.5 CONCISENESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.6.6 CONSERVATIVISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.6.7 IMPRECISION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.6.8 REDUNDANCY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

1.6.9 METAPHOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

1.7 SD: SYNTACTIC FEATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

1.7.1 OMISSION OF PHRASAL ELEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

1.7.2 HOW TO ACHIEVE CONCISENESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

1.7.3 PREMODIFICATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

1.7.4 NOMINALIZATION - DEFINITION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

1.7.5 NOMINALIZATION - REALIZATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

1.7.6 SENTENCE COMPLEXITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

1.7.7 SENTENCE LENGTH - LEGAL DISCOURSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

1.7.8 VERB TENSES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

1.7.9 USE OF THE PASSIVE + DEPERSONALIZATION . . . . . . . . . . . 9

1.8 SPECIALIZED DISCOURSE: TEXTUAL FEATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

1.8.1 ANAPHORIC REFERENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

1.8.2 USE OF CONJUNCTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

1.8.3 THEMATIC SEQUENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

1.8.4 ARGUMENTATIVE PATTERN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

1.8.5 THE EMOTIVE FORCE OF SPECIALIZED TEXTS . . . . . . . . . . . 11

1.9 THE LEXIS OF COMPUTER SCIENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

1.9.1 COMPUTER SCIENCE: SPECIALIZATION AND BORROWING . . . 11

1.9.2 COMPUTER SCIENCE: NEOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

1.9.3 COMPUTER SCIENCE: ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATION . . . . . 13

1.9.4 COMPUTER SCIENCE: RECENT DEVELOPMENT . . . . . . . . . . . 13

1.10 POPULARIZATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

1.10.1 POPULARIZATION AND TRANSLATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

5

1.10.2 POPULARIZATION: FEATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

1.10.3 POPULARIZATION: DEFINITIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

1.10.4 POPULARIZATION: SCHEMATIC DISTANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

1.10.5 POPULARIZATION: NOVEL FORMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

1.11 MULTIMODAL POPULARIZATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

2 Cambridge English for Engineering - Esercizi Risolti 18

2.1 UNIT 1: Technology in Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

2.1.1 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

2.1.2 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

2.1.3 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

2.1.4 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

2.1.5 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

2.1.6 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

2.1.7 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

2.2 UNIT 2: Materials Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

2.2.1 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

2.2.2 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

2.2.3 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

2.2.4 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

2.2.5 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

2.2.6 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

2.2.7 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

2.2.8 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

2.3 UNIT 3: Components and assemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

2.3.1 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

2.3.2 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

2.3.3 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

2.3.4 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

2.3.5 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

2.3.6 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

2.3.7 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

2.3.8 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

2.3.9 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

2.4 UNIT 4: Engineering design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

2.4.1 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

2.4.2 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

2.4.3 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

2.4.4 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

2.4.5 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

2.4.6 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

2.4.7 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

2.5 UNIT 6: Technical development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

2.5.1 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

2.5.2 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

2.5.3 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

2.5.4 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

2.5.5 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

2.6 UNIT 8: Monitoring and control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

6

2.6.1 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

2.6.2 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

2.6.3 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

2.6.4 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

2.6.5 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

2.6.6 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

2.6.7 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

2.7 UNIT 9: Theory and practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

2.7.1 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

2.7.2 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

2.7.3 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

2.7.4 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

2.7.5 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

2.7.6 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

2.7.7 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

2.8 UNIT 10: Pushing the boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

2.8.1 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

2.8.2 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

2.8.3 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

2.8.4 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

2.8.5 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

2.8.6 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

2.8.7 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

3 English II Grammar Lessons 55

3.1 Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

3.1.1 Present simple and Present continuous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

3.1.2 Past simple and Past continuous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

3.1.3 Future simple and Future continuous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

3.1.4 Present perfect and Present perfect continuous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

3.1.5 Past perfect and Past perfect continuous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

3.1.6 Future perfect and Future perfect continuous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

3.1.7 Time clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

3.1.8 Conditional tense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

3.1.9 If clauses & conditional sentences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

3.1.10 Present tenses and going to for future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

3.1.11 Modal verbs can, may, must . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

3.1.12 Infinitive and Gerund . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

3.1.13 Direct - indirect object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

3.1.14 Reported speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

3.1.15 Passive voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

3.1.16 Indirect questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

3.2 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

3.2.1 Present simple tense exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

3.2.2 Present continuos tense exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

3.2.3 Present simple + continuous exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

3.2.4 Past simple exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

3.2.5 Past continuous exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

3.2.6 Future simple exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

7

3.2.7 Future continuous exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

3.2.8 Future simple + continuous exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

3.2.9 Present perfect exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

3.2.10 Present perfect continuous exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

3.2.11 Present perfect + continuous exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

3.2.12 Past perfect exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

3.2.13 Past perfect continuous exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

3.2.14 Past perfect + continuous exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

3.2.15 Future perfect exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

3.2.16 Future perfect continuous exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

3.2.17 Future perfect + continuous exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

3.2.18 Time clauses + Conditionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

3.2.19 Be going to exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

3.2.20 Present simple + Present continuous for future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

3.2.21 Will + Going to + Present continuous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

3.2.22 Modal verbs - Can, May, Must . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

3.2.23 Modal verbs and imperative, infinitives, gerunds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

3.2.24 Direct and Indirect object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

3.2.25 Reported speech and Passive voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

3.2.26 Indirect questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

8

Ringraziamenti

Un grazie particolare va ai miei compagni

d’università, Dino Sbarro, Gabriele Accarino, Giampiero D’Autilia, Matteo Settembrini, Paolo

Panarese ed Emanuele Costa Cesari. ii

Capitolo 1

Specialized Discourse

1.1 SD: EARLY DEFINITIONS

• 1920s-1930s – Prague School

focus on the functional style of scientific/technical discourse, diverging from everyday

texts at the level of

– word morphology (e.g., foreign words with original plural suffix; obsolete forms of

verbs/adjectives);

– word formation (e.g., use of classical prefixes, nominal premodifications, etc.).

• 1940s-1960s – Halliday, McIntosh & Strevens (1964)

focus on the notion of specialized register as a language variety with specific morpho-

syntactic, lexical and stylistic features diverging from common language in relation to:

– the topic of communication;

– the ‘community of specialists’ using it.

1.2 THE ISSUE OF TERMINOLOGY

Specialized discourse as:

• Restricted language: i.e., standard messages using set phrases with only few established

variants (cf. Dodson 1974; Wallace 1981) – inappropriate because specialized discourse

exploits the language code in more creative ways;

• Special language: using linguistic and non-linguistic conventions which may be absent

from general language (e.g., language for maritime telecommunications) – inappropriate

because specialized discourse uses conventions in more varied pragmatic ways;

• Microlanguage: inappropriate for its reference to a microcosm lacking the expressive

(lexical, morpho-syntactic and textual) richness of standard language;

1

1.3 RECENT DEFINITIONS OF SPECIALIZED DISCOUR-

SE

• Gotti (2005): “Specialized discourse reflects the specialist use of language in contex-

ts which are typical of a specialized community, stretching across the academic, the

professional, the technical and the occupational areas of knowledge and practice.”;

• Halliday (1978): specialized registers classified according to:

– Mode medium of communication;

– Field topic of communication;

– Tenor relationship between the participants in specialized interaction.

• Turner (1980): use of jargon determining opacity in specialized discourse, depending on

unfamiliar lexis and content for the unqualified participant:

– Patient (to Nurse): Good morning. I’m here to have my tonsils out.

– Nurse (to GP): Doctor, there’s a patient here for a tonsillectomy.

1.4 SD: MULTIDIMENSIONAL NATURE

Tenor-based distinctions

• Scientific exposition: specialized terminology with no explanation;

• Scientific instruction: specialist addressing non-specialists: explanation of specialized

lexis for educational purposes;

• Scientific journalism: specialist providing technical information through everyday lexis

drawing on the layman’s everyday experience;

1.5 SD: GENERAL FEATURES

• Hoffmann (1984): 11 pragmatic features of specialized discourse:

– exactitude, simplicity and clarity;

– objectivity;

– abstractness;

– generalization;

– density of information;

– brevity;

– emotional neutrality;

– unambiguousness;

– impersonality;

– logical consistency;

– use of defined technical terms, symbols and figures.

2

• Inconsistency in Hoffmann’s criteria:

– clarity may conflict with simplicity;

– unambiguousness may conflict with conciseness and abstractness.

• Sager et al. (1980): 3 crite