Unit 1 the national technical university of ukraine "kyiv polytechnic institute"

It’s my job

When I left school, I started work for a plastics company, one of the biggest in the country. We make everything from small components for medical equipment to large water pipes – the blue ones which are replacing metal pipes everywhere.

My apprenticeship lasts for three years. I’m in my final year now. It’s a mix of work, which I get paid for, of course, on-the-job training, and study at the local college.

I’ve learned a lot of practical skills from the on-the-job training. It’s supervised by skilled workers. There’s quite a lot of paperwork as I have to complete forms to show I’ve reached the right standard.

I had day release to attend college one day a week in the first two years of my apprenticeship and I’ve got two days a week in my last year. I’ve learned things like working in teams, problem-solving, communication skills, and using new technologies at work, as well as engineering subjects. This year I’m completing an HNC, a Higher National Certificate, in Engineering I like learning while working, but it’s quite hard work. There’s a lot of studying to do – at home in the evenings and at weekends too. I’m doing about ten hours a week right now. It’s quite hard when your friends are out having a good time.

Once I’m fully qualified and have a bit more experience. I hope to get promoted to team leader. That means I’ll be in charge or a team of six – more responsibility and better pay.

Unit 2 economy and industry of ukraine Gas Industry

There is now a process which makes it easier to transport gas over longer distances. It’s called liquefied natural gas. Put simply, gas can now be frozen into liquid form and transported to distant countries in refrigerated tankers. When the LNG is delivered it is heated and converted back into gas form. Then it is supplied to customers using local pipelines.

Having said that, there are two main risks associated with LNG: financial and political. Firstly, the cost of producing and shipping LNG today is still higher than transporting oil, although rapid innovations are reducing the costs. For instance, bigger tankers can now be used. What’s more, the energy industry is expected to invest a massive $100 billion in LNG over the next ten years despite the high capital costs.

Secondly, Russia and the former Soviet Union hold the world’s largest natural gas reserves. Some analysts are therefore concerned that Russia will have a high level of control over the global LNG market within the next decade.

So, as we can see there are political and financial risks associated with the LNG business. Yet, the potential profits are enormous for energy firms with the capital to develop LNG projects. And many experts believe that gas will be the dominant fuel for at least another 50 years.

Unit 3 from the history of computer

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.

Silicon Valley in Northern California is home of the world’s largest technology companies. These include Apple, Google, Oracle, Intel, Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard. The valley is also home to the Computer History Museum in Montain View. It reopened last month after nineteen million dollars worth of improvements. The project took nearly two years. One of the additions is permanent exhibit called “Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing”. Alex Bochannek is a curator at the museum. Mr. Bochannek says the new exhibit tells the story of more than one thousand historical objects.

Alex Bochannek: “Some of the oldest items are actually not computers. They are devices that helped people calculate. And the first object people see walking into the exhibit is an abacus from the 1800. Because this is a daily-use device made from wood, few of them have survived.

Mr. Bochannek says people have the chance to handle some of the objects in the exhibit. He says one of the more popular items is a portable computer from 1981.

Alex Bochanek: We think of portable computers today as laptops. But Osborne One was about the size of sewing machine and weighed 24 pounds. So, just been able to pick one of those up will help our visitors to understand how difficult portability was about 30 years ago.