Lesson 3:

Topic: General English words

Aims:

1-To learn the meanings of the verbs “elaborate” and “fabricate”.

2- To learn the difference between the verbs “elaborate” and “fabricate”.

3- To learn the meanings of the words “experience” and “experiment”.

4- To learn the difference between the words “experience” and “experiment”.

1- Elaborate and Fabricate:

Don’t ever write "The sample was elaborated......" To "elaborate" in English means the
following:
ELABORATE (elaborated, elaborating, elaborately, elaborateness, elaborative, elaborator,
elaboration):
1. perfected, painstaking.
2. ornate.
3. refine, improve.
What you typically want to express is "The sample was fabricated....." FABRICATE
(fabricated, fabricating, fabricative, fabricator, fabrication):
1. to make by art or skill and labor; construct: The finest craftspeople fabricated this clock.
2. to make by assembling parts or sections.
3. to devise or invent (a legend, lie, etc.)
4. to fake; forge (a document, signature, etc.) – Syn.1. See manufacture.
As you can see, the difference in meaning is great. Try these.
1. The sample was fabricated by sputter deposition.
2. This is a very elaborate experiment. It will take many weeks.
3. The work elaborated the procedure at length.
4. The last stage of sample fabrication was accomplished by annealing.
5. The elaborate sample fabrication procedure was the result of many months of hard
effort.
2- Experience and Experiment:

An experiment is what you do to investigate something. It is the process by which you learn
something. Also, please don’t use the word "experiment" to refer to the instrumentation
with which you do the experiment. You can say "experimental setup", but the experiment
is the PROCEDURE you use to test a hypothesis.
An experience is something that happens to you that is memorable in some way. Here
are some of the definitions.
Experience -noun
1. a particular instance of personally encountering or undergoing something: My encounter
with the bear in the woods was a frightening experience.
2. the process or fact of personally observing, encountering, or undergoing something:
business experience.
3. the observing, encountering, or undergoing of things generally as they occur in the
course of time: to learn from experience; the range of human experience.
4. knowledge or practical wisdom gained from what one has observed, encountered, or
undergone: a man of experience.
5. Philos. the totality of the cognitions given by perception; all that is perceived, understood,
and remembered.
-transitive verb
6. to have experience of; meet with; undergo; feel: to experience nausea.
7. to learn by experience.
8. experience religion, to undergo a spiritual conversion by which one gains or regains faith
in God.
Experiment
1. a test, trial, or tentative procedure; an act or operation for the purpose of discovering
something unknown or of testing a principle, supposition, etc.: a chemical experiment;
a teaching experiment; an experiment in living.
2. the conducting of such operations; experimentation: a product that is the result of long
experiment.
To summarize, experiences are personal, and experiments are scientific. Test your
knowledge!
1. I went helicopter skiing last year. What an experience!
2. The experiment indicates that the modulus of a single nanotube is approximately 1
TPa.
3. The sample is not fixed rigidly in place. Why don’t you experiment with different
glues?
4. I have little experience with research. I’m still an undergraduate.

From: Scientific English as a Foreign Language.