Task 3. Do you agree that

a. Mathematics requires a great deal of imagination.

b. Mathematics is like poetry.

c. Many people don’t like maths because they were not encouraged at school.

d. All people have a capacity for mathematical thinking.

Give your reasoning.

Task 4. Here are some quotes about mathematics and mathematicians. How do you understand them? Do you agree with them? Give your reasons

“The essence of mathematics is not to make simple things complicated, but to make complicated things simple”. /S.Gudder/

“But mathematics is the sister, as well as the servant, of the arts and is touched with the same madness and genius”. /Harold Marston Morse/

”Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house”. /RobertHeinlein, Time Enough for Love/

”Although he may not always recognize his bondage(зависимость, подчинение), modern man lives under a tyranny of numbers”. /Nicholas Eberstadt, The Tyranny of Numbers?/

“I used to love mathematics for its own sake, and I still do, because it allows for no hypocrisy and no vagueness (неопределённость, неясность)...”. /Stendhal (Henri Beyle), The Life of Henri Brulard/

”As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality”. /Albert Einstein, Sidelights on Relativity/

”One cannot escape the feeling that these mathematical formulas have an independent existence and an intelligence of their own, that they are wiser than we are, wiser even than their discoverers...”. /Heinrich Hertz/

”Pure mathematics is the world's best game. It is more absorbing than chess, more of a gamble(азартная игра) than poker, and lasts longer than Monopoly. It's free. It can be played anywhere - Archimedes did it in a bathtub.”. /Richard J. Trudeau, Dots and Lines/

“The man ignorant of mathematics will be increasingly limited in his grasp(способность быстрого восприятия) of the main forces of civilization.”. /John Kemeny/

“`A mathematician is a machine for converting coffee into theorems”. / Paul Erdos /

“Mathematicians are born, not made. “ / Henri Poincare /

”Mathematicians stand on each other's shoulders. “ /Carl Friedrich Gauss/

”Mathematics knows no races or geographic boundaries; for mathematics, the cultural world is one country”. /David Hilbert/

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