Английский для бакалавров

V.Read the text ‘The Telegraph’. Find in the text the English equivalents for the following Russian phrases:

очень важный вопрос; эффективная система связи на дальние

расстояния; электрический проводник; узкая полоска бумаги; код, в

VI. Find in the text ‘The Telegraph’ sentences with the predicate in the Passive Voice. Translate them.

VII. Translate the text ‘The Telegraph’. Pay attention to the sentences in the Passive Voice.

VIII. Put ten questions on the text ‘The Telegraph’.

IX. Describe the principle of action of the telegraph made by S. Morse.

Text C. THOMAS ALVA EDISON (1847 - 1931)

Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11,1847 in Milan, Ohio.

At the age of seven he entered school but left it very soon. The teacher thought that he was a dull boy. His mother then became his teacher. The boy loved books. He had a wonderful memory.

Edison began to work when he was twelve years old. His first job was a newspaper boy on a train. He soon began to produce his own newspaper. It was about the size of a handkerchief. He gathered news, printed and sold the newspapers all by himself. He had a small laboratory in the baggage car of this train. There he carried out experiments. Edison kept records of all his experiments. Then Edison got lessons in telegraphy and the next five years he worked as a telegraphist in various cities of the US and Canada.

In 1877 Edison invented a phonograph. This talking machine both recorded and played back. It resembled the present day tape recorder more than a record player.

Next Edison became interested in the invention of an electric-light bulb for lightning streets and buildings by electricity instead of by gas.

It had taken Edison and his assistants thirteen months to produce the incandescent lamp, but he already knew, that success awaited it. Edison was sure that the lamp should be burnt for a hundred hours.

Edison carried out experiments from morning till night. All his inventions were the results of his endless work. He sometimes made thousands of experiments. For months he slept no more than one or two hours a day. Yet he had time to read not only

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scientific books. He was fond of Shakespear and Tom Pain. He had over 10000 volumes in his library.

Edison continued to work all through his long life. He attributed his success not so much to genius as to hard work.

Edison's inventions include the phonograph, or gramophone, the megaphone, the cinematograph, the improved lamp of incandescent light, many greatly improved systems of telegraphic transmission and numerous other things.

I.Read the text without a dictionary.

II.Answer the questions:

1.Who was Edison's real teacher?

2.When did he start to work?

3.What was his first invention?

4 What do Edison's inventions include?

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III.Render in English:

ТОМАС АЛВА ЭДИСОН (1847—1931)

Text D. Coming Events

You are a guide of 3 specialists who arrived in Great Britain on a business trip from 12 January to 12 February. You can find the problems they are interested in in the following chart. Look through ‘Coming Events’ and make a programme for each of them. Fill in the chart.

Coming Events

CAD/CAM (Computer Aided Design/Computer Aided Manufacturing) International Show (8-10 January)

International show, organised by International Exhibitions to be held in Birmingham, further information from International Exhibitions Ltd, 8 Herbal Hill, London.

Glasgow Museum of Transport (28 January)

A visit is being arranged to Museum of Transport, 25 Albert Drive, Glasgow by Scottish AD Centre; Assemble at 6 p.m. but persons wishing to attend should first contact Jim Douglas on 041 332 6811 as numbers are limited.

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Henry Royce — mechanic (31 January)

Lecture to be presented by Donald Bastow at a meeting organised jointly between Western AD Centre and Western Branch to be held in the Queen's Building University of Bristol, commencing 7p.m.

Subject to be announced (5 February)

A lecture organised by Birmingham AD Centre will be announced in Mechanical Engineering News. It is to be held at the Chamber of Industry and Commerce. Further information from R. E. Smith

The history of the VW Beetle (11 February)

Lecture to be presented by Janathan Wood, Automobile Historian, at a meeting organised by Derby AD Centre to be held in Room U 020, Brockington Bldg, University of Loughborough, commencing 6.15 p.m.

Microprocessors in fluid power engineering (3-4 February)

Conference organised by the institution of Mechanical Engineers to be held at the University of Bath, further information from the Conference Department.

Computer-aided design (12-14 January)

A short course for engineers and draughtsmen organised by the IMechE is to be held at the Centre of Engineering Design, Cranfield Institute of Technology. Contact the Courses Officer for further information.

Jaguar sports cars (25 January)

Lecture to be presented by Mr Randle of Jaguar Cars Ltd at a meeting organised by Luton AD Centre to be held at the Sun Hotel, Sun Street, Hitchin, commencing 8 p.m.

Robot '90s (2-5 February)

14th International Exhibition Symposium on Industrial Robots organised by the Swedish Trade Fair Foundation to be held in Gothenburg, Sweden. Further information from the Swedish Fair Foundation, Goteborg, Sweden.

Sir Henry Royce Memorial Lecture (15 February)

Lecture, organised by IMechE AD Centre at 1 Birdcage Walk, London, to be given by Ing Sergio Pininfanna at 6p.m.

Students' Project — presentation evening (15 February)

Lecture to be given by undergraduates from local educational establishments, organised by Derby AD Centre to be held in Room U 020, Brockington Building, University of Technology, Loughborough, commencing 5.45 for 6.15 p.m. Further information from C.E. Hunter.

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Racing Jaguars (16 January)

Lecture to be presented by Mr J. Randle, Director, Product Engineering, Jaguar Cars Ltd at a meeting organised jointly between IProd E and NM Branch NP YMS by North Eastern AD Centre to be held at the Metropole Hotel, Leeds, commencing 7.15 p.m.

Formula one motor racing (25 January)

Lecture to be presented by Mr S. Hallam of Lotus Cars at a meeting organised by Western AD Centre to be held at the Queens Buildings, University of Bristol, commencing 7 p.m.

C O N V E R S A T I O N

Great Scientists

I.Learn to speak about great scientists. Make use of the

following articles.

Mikhail Lomonosov

Mikhail Lomonosov was born in 1711 in the family of a fisherman in the northern coastal village of Denisovka not far from Archangelsk. When he was ten years of age his father began to take him for sea fishing. The dangerous life of a fisherman taught him to observe the natural phenomena more closely. During the long winter nights young Lomonosov studied his letters, grammar and arithmetic diligently.

Being the son of a peasant, he was refused admission to the local school. After some years, through concealing his peasant origin, he gained admission to the Slavonic-Greek-Latin Academy and for five years lived a hand-to-mouth existence on three kopecks a day. The noblemen's sons studying with him made fun of the twenty- year-old giant who, in spite of the years and his own poverty, made rapid progress.

After five years came the chance of entering the Academy of Sciences, as there were not enough noble-born students to fill the quota. His ability and diligence attracted the attention of the professors and as one of three best students he was sent abroad. He spent all the time there studying the works of leading European scientists in chemistry, metallurgy, mining and mathematics. On his return to Russia in 1745 he was made a professor and was the first Russian scientist to become a member of the Academy of Sciences.

For versatility Lomonosov has no equal in Russian science. Many of his ideas and discoveries only won recognition in the nineteenth century. He was the first to discover the vegetable origin of coal, for instance, and as a poet and scientist he played a great role in the formation of the Russian literary language, eliminating

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distortions and unnecessary foreign words. He died in 1765. His living memorial is Moscow University, which he founded in 1755.

Roentgen

In 1895 a German professor Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen discovered a new kind of invisible rays. These rays could pass through clothes, skin and flesh and cast the shadow of the bones themselves on a photographic plate. You can imagine the impression this announcement produced at that time.

Let us see how Roentgen came to discover these all-penetrating rays. One day Roentgen was working in his laboratory with a Crookes tube. Crookes had discovered that if he put two electric wires in a glass tube, pumped air out of it and connected the wires to opposite electric poles, a stream of electric particles would emerge out of the cathode (that is, the negative electric pole).

Roentgen was interested in the fact that these cathode rays made certain chemicals glow in the dark. On this particular day Roentgen was working in his darkened laboratory. He put his Crookes tube in a box made of thin black cardboard and switched on the current to the tube. The black box was lightproof, but Roentgen noticed a strange glow at the far corner of his laboratory bench. He drew back the curtains of his laboratory window and found that the glow had come from a small screen which was lying at the far end of the bench.

Roentgen knew that the cathode rays could make the screen glow. But he also knew that cathode rays could not penetrate the box. If the effect was not due to the cathode rays, what mysterious new rays were causing it? He did not know, so he called them X-rays.

Roentgen placed all sorts of opaque materials between the source of his X-rays and the screen. He found that these rays passed through wood, thin sheets of aluminium, the flesh of his own hand; but they were completely stopped by thin lead plates and partially stopped by the bones of his hand. Testing their effect on photographic plates he found that they were darkened on exposure to X-rays.

Roentgen was sure that this discovery would contribute much for the benefit of science. Indeed, medicine was quick to realise the importance of Roentgen's discovery. The X-rays are increasingly used in industry as well.

Tsiolkovsky - Founder of Austronautics

Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, the founder of astronautics, was born in 1857, in the village of Izhevskoye, in Ryazansky province. When he was ten he had scarlet fever, and was left permanently deaf. This had a great influence on his life.

Only when Tsiolkovsky reached the age of fifteen he began to study elementary mathematics. At about this time he first thought of constructing a large balloon with a metallic envelope. Realising that his knowledge was not enough, he began to study higher mathematics. The result was that he became a mathematics and physics teacher and remained so for nearly forty years.

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Tsiolkovsky carried out experiments on steam engines for a time, but then he returned to the theoretical study of the metallic dirigible. In 1887, his first published paper on the dirigible appeared. Mendeleyev was interested in this work and helped Tsiolkovsky. The account of this aeronautical work was submitted to the Academy of Sciences who regarded it favourably and made Tsiolkovsky a grant of 470 roubles.

He had not given up his idea about space travel. A popular report on this subject was first published in 1895. Tsiolkovsky's idea of a spaceship was based on the use of liquid fuels.

During the next fifteen years Tsiolkovsky worked over other designs for spaceships. They were not meant to be working drawings for the construction of these vessels but as a rough guide to the equipment. Some of them are now standard practice in the guided missile field. He published several articles and books dealing with the mathematical theory of rocket flights and space travel. His calculations were used in modern theory of cosmonautics and practical space flights. They showed that it would be possible to travel out into space in rockets and even to set up manned space stations around the Earth.

Tsiolkovsky's contribution to science is so great that he is considered to be “Father of Cosmonautics”.

II.There is a competition among citizens of your town for the best name of a new street. You are sure that the street should be named after a scientist. Try to convince the jury in it. In your speech present information on:

1)The name of the scientist you’d like the street to be named after.

2)Where and when he/she was born and worked.

3)The field of science this scientist worked in.

4)The discovery or invention he/she made.

5)Where the results of his/her work are used now.

6)Why you have chosen this very scientist.

III. Discuss the traits of character of a real scientist.

IV. Speak about any great scientific discovery.

V.Pretend you are an inventor. Here is your chance to make you own invention. Describe you invention. What does it look like? What does it do? How does it work? Add drawings or a diagram if you wish. Your invention can be funny or serious.

VI. Write a short sci-fi story. The main hero wants to change the weather and the length of the days and nights on Earth.

D I A L O G U E S

Read the following dialogues. Reproduce them in pairs.

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Dialogue 1

A.Whom was an automobile invented by?

B.An automobile was invented by Benz.

A.When was it constructed?

B.The first automobile was constructed in 1855.

A.What country was it built in?

B.It was built in Germany.

Dialogue 2

A.What is known as a diode?

B.The simplest tube with two elements is known as a diode.

A.How are these elements called?

B.They are named a cathode and an anode.

A.Where are diodes used?

B.The diodes are used as detectors, as rectifiers and as switching devices.

Dialogue 3

A.Can you tell how many generations of computers are known today?

B.Certainly, I can. Five generations are known today.

A.Do you know what tubes were used in the first generation?

B.Let me think... It was based on vacuum tubes. Am I right?

A.Certainly, you are.

Dialogue 4

A.What generations of computers are widely used now?

B.Don't you know it? The fourth generation is used now!

A.What are they built on?

B.They are constructed on integrated circuits and chips.

A.It's very interesting. Tell me, please, what are computers used for?

B.They are used for solving complex problems.

Dialogue 5

A.Have you ever heard of physics of high energies?

B.Certainly, I have. The particles of nuclei are being studied by it.

A.What name has been given to these particles?

B.They have been named high energy particles.

A.Can you tell me about this discovery?

B.With pleasure! The discovery has been made possible due to a new experimental technology.

Dialogue 6

A.What is going on in our laboratory?

B.I think a new experiment is being carried out there.

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