Unit six

Topic: Scientific Contributions to Technology

Grammar: Degrees of Comparison

Passive Voice

Part I Preliminary Exercises

Exercise 1. Guess the meaning of the following international words:

technology, mechanic, material, theory, biological, evolution, characteristic, modern, machine, progress, natural, plastic, erosion, mineral, energy, engineer, electric, motor, industrial, operation, process, specialization, productivity, factor, transport, mechanization, cellulose.

Exercise 2. Translate the following pairs of words into Russian:

work – to work

use – to use

look – to look

catch – to catch

hand – to hand

machine – to machine

man – to man

crop – to crop

pattern – to pattern

plant – to plant

step – to step

power – to power

Exercise 3. Practice the stress in the following groups of words. Mind that a large group of words, used either as nouns or verbs, have differences in stress.

Nouns	Verbs
´increase ´decrease ´progress ´produce ´process ´present ´transport ´record	in - ´crease de – ´crease pro - ´gress pro - ´duce pro - ´cess pre - ´sent trans - ´port re – ´cord

Exercise 4. Read and translate, mind the stress.

1. The average increase in prices is about 5%.

Prices have increased by 5%.

2. Anne received a large number of birthday presents. Her father presented her a car.

3. There will be a sale of home produce on Saturday. How much does it cost to produce this product?

4. You are making a good progress in your study of English. You are progressing well in your study of English.

5. This program was recorded. It was not a ‘live’ broadcast. We have records of several of Beatles’ concerts.

6. He has no car so he always uses public transport.

Airlines transport goods as well as passengers.

Exercise 5. Fill in the missing words in the table.

Verb	Person noun	General noun	Adjective
	Engineer
Manufacture
		Reduction
Use
		Work
		Science
Develop
			industrial
		Invention

Exercise 6. Read the title of text A and state which of the following points may be discussed in it:

1. Centres of learning

2. Evolution of scientific thinking

3. The Industrial Revolution

4. Development of transport

5. Mechanization

6. New sources of power

7. Global trade

8. Major importance of rivers.

9. Growth of towns and cities.

10. Progress in the use of natural resources.