3. Russia deliver 12 key modules for the station.

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4. the official life of the station to be 10 years.

5. the station and stay on it up to 187 days.

6. than merely the next great adven­ture of the space age: it is a political program as well as a science program.

7. in the implementation of this mas­sive engineering project weighing 400 tons.

Exercise 3. Read and learn.

Satellites

Peter: Hello, Ann. How did you happen to come to California?

Ann.: Hello, Peter. How are you? My father got a job here. It is so exciting to meet you here. I’ve not seen you since you gradu­ated from the University.

P.: I’m working on a newspaper. I cover the space research prob­

lems. Now I study the application of space satellites for scien­tific purposes.

A.: I think that the best application of satellites is for military pur­

poses.

P.: You are absolutely wrong. The most promising field of appli­

cation of satellites is the scientific one.

A.: Oh, Yes, I know satellites look down on everything: the

clouds, forests and oceans, the winds, ice on the sea. But don’t forget spy (шпион) satellites.

P.: Spy and weather satellites gather data for forecasting. The

Japanese have a satellite studying the ocean; European and Russian satellites produce radar images of the ground; an American satellite is studying the upper atmosphere.

A.: It seems to me that the era of satellites has passed. You see,

the Japanese have already delayed the launch of their earth observing mission.

P.: Yes, they did, because of cost. The most effective way to

gather data is not always with a big satellite.

A.: Have you met my elder brother Mike?

P.: Of course, I have. We played in the same football team at the

college, though he is about three years older than me.

A.: He is five years older than you. He takes part in the research

programme at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies. They are developing now a small cheap satellite. It would carry three simple instruments to measure clouds, water vapour and surface temperature.

P.: Oh, really. I think, that such researches make sense, and help

develop a single Global Climate Observing System.

A.: Such a system could change the world or at least see the world

changing.

Exercise 4. Comment on the following statement.

Space exploration ought to be abandoned (откладываться) un­til more important problems of mankind have been solved.

One point of view : Space exploration is very expensive; food production is far more important than Mars studies or Moon walks; it is immoral to spend huge sums of money on space exploration while millions of people suffer hunger (голод); space ex­ploration is useless anyway because we can’t colonize other planets; it would be much better to colonize, for example, the Sahara before trying to colonize the Moon or Mars; mankind must not waste its resources.

A contrary point of view: Space exploration is of great significance for scientific and technological development; space exploration gives man new knowledge that he can use for other purposes; we may find 10,000 things to do on the ISS that nobody has thought of or even imagined.

Exercise 5. Conduct a scientific conference on: «The potential of space exploration for peaceful purposes».

Use texts 12 А, В, C, exercise 3 (Satellites) as a basis for the preparation of oral talks and discussion. Useful words and phrases of scientific communication are given in exercise 5 (see Lesson 10 «Conversation»).

The Farmer and the Apple Tree

A farmer once had a friend who was famous for wonderful apple trees which he grew. One day this friend gave the farmer a fine young tree and told him to take it home and plant it. The farmer was pleased with the gift, but when he got home he did not know how to plant it. If he planted it near the road, people might steal the fruit. If he planted it in his field, his neighbours might come at night and rob (грабить) him. If he planted it near the house, his own children might steal the apples. Finally he planted the tree deep in the woods where no one could see it. But naturally the tree couldn’t grow without sunlight and suitable soil. In time, it withered (засыхать) and died.

Later his friend was criticising him for planting the tree in such a poor place.

«What is the difference», the farmer said. «If I had planted the tree near the road, people would have stolen the fruit. If I had planted it in my field, my neighbours would have come at night and robbed me. If I had planted it near my house, my own children would have stolen the apples».

«Indeed! But at least someone could have enjoyed the fruit», said his friend. «Now you have robbed everyone of the apples, and you have destroyed a fine tree».

A farmer’s wife spent most of her time wishing for things which she did not possess. She wished she were beautiful; she wished she were rich; she wished she had a handsome (красивый) husband. Therefore one day fairies (волшебницы) decided to give her three wishes as an experiment.

The farmer and his wife talked for a long time over what she would wish for. But the farmer’s wife suddenly became a little hun­gry (голодный) and wished she had some sausages to eat. At once her plate was full of sausages. Then a heated argument began, be­cause her husband said his wife had wasted one of the valuable wishes on such a cheap thing as sausages. The argument grew hot­ter, and finally the wife cried that she wished the sausages were hanging from her husband’s nose. At once a row of sausages flew to her husband’s nose and stayed there. Nor could they be removed.

Now there was the only one thing the poor woman could do. She really loved her husband and so she had to spend her third wish in removing the sausages from his nose. Thus, except for the few sausages, she got nothing from her three wishes.

Text 12B

Прочитайте и переведите текст без словаря. Назовите наиболее практичные на ваш взгляд исследования на Международной космической стан­ции.

Benefits of Building the International Space Station

When studying sound, you go into a quiet room. When studying light, you go into a dark room. When studying the effects of gravity, you would like to go into an «anti-gravity» room. Since there is no such thing on Earth, we have the International Space Station.

By flying around Earth at about 17,500 mph the station and ev­erything in it remain in orbit, a continuous free fall around the planet. In orbit, forces are balanced and the effects of gravity are es­sentially removed. The result is microgravity, one of the unique phe­nomena of the ISS environment that promises new discovery. Thus, the ISS allows long-term exposure to a world nearly unexplored.

Gravity affects everything. From our bodies to the materials we use to build cars and buildings, to the flames we use to heat our homes, our world is controlled by gravity. Even flames burn differ­ently without gravity. Reduced gravity reduces convection cur­rents, the currents that cause warm air or fluid to rise and cool air or fluid to descend on Earth. This absence of convection changes the flame shape in orbit and allows studies of the combustion pro­cess that are impossible on Earth. The absence of convection allows molten metals or other materials to be mixed more thoroughly in orbit than on Earth, opening the way to a whole new world of com­posite materials. Scientists plan to study this field, to create better metal alloys and more perfect materials for applications such as computer chips. Investigations that use lasers to cool atoms to near absolute zero may help us understand gravity itself.

While investigating our surroundings, we have been limited, until recently, to accepting gravity as a given factor in all our studies. History shows that changing what once was constant can lead to revolutionary discoveries.

The 19th century saw temperature and pressure become con­trolled in new ways to use steam power and revolutionize the way we live. The 21st century offers the hope of controlling gravity’s ef­fects to understand why things behave the way they do. Observing and understanding this behaviour is key to new discoveries in many scientific disciplines and using that knowledge is key to the im­provement of life on Earth. The station will allow mankind to per­form research that may result in new medicines, materials and industries on Earth and will benefit people all over the world.

The Space Station Mir gave us a platform for long-term micro­gravity research, and important knowledge about how to live and work in space. Like all research, we must proceed one step at a time. As we open one door, answering one question, we are faced with the opportunity of more doors, more questions.

The ISS is the next step in that journey of discovery, and repre­sents a quantum leap (скачок) in our capability to conduct re­search on orbit. In space, electrical power is key to the quantity and quality of research. When completed, the ISS’s enormous solar panels will supply 60 times more power for science than did Mir. This and the large space available for experiments will provide sci­entists with unprecedented access to this unique environment.

Aboard the ISS scientists will explore basic questions in the fields of biotechnology, biomedical research, fluid physics, funda­mental biology, physics, Earth science and space science. Observa­tions of the Earth from orbit are expected to help the study of large-scale, long-term changes in the environment. The effects of air pollution, such as smog over cities; the cutting and burning of forests, and of water pollution are visible from space and can pro­vide a global perspective unavailable from the ground.

Thanks to its research and technology the station is certain to serve as an absolutely essential step in preparation for future human space exploration.

Text 12C

Прочитайте текст и опишите жилые отсеки Шаттла и Международной кос­мической станции.

Living Aboard the Space Shuttle and the ISS

We often see the cosmonauts carry out their complicated work in space, but what do they do in their off-duty hours? What do they eat, where do they sleep?

One of the main features of the Shuttle is the relatively low forces of gravity during launch and reentry. These are about 3 g, that is within the limits that can be withstood by people.

Its living accommodation is relatively comfortable. The crew cabin is 71.5 m. There are two floors inside the cabin. On the top level, the commander and pilot monitor and control sophisticated equipment. Behind their seats is a work area where the crew can carry out experiments.

The bottom level is the living area. It contains facilities for sleeping, eating and waste disposal.

Living in such a kind of cabin requires only ordinary clothing. Air pressure is the same as the Earth’s at sea level. This air is made of 80 % nitrogen and 20 % oxygen. The air is cleaner than the Earth’s. Temperature can be regulated between 16 and 32 °C.

The Shuttle meals are eaten in a small dining area consisting of a table and restraints (ограничители) which function as chairs while eating in zero-gravity. Meals are served in a special tray which separates different food containers and keeps them from floating around in the weightless cabin. Most foods can be eaten with ordinary spoons and forks as long as there are no sudden starts and stops.

Just as on Earth recreation and sleep are important to good health in space. Different games, books and cassette-recorders to listen to music are available.

In zero-gravity there is no «up» position and the cosmonaut is oriented in the sleeping bag as if he or she were sleeping up. Now beds are built into the walls with an individual light, communica­tions, fan, sound suppression, blanket and sheets. They even have pillows.

Experiences on the space shuttle have helped prepare astro­nauts for life aboard the International Space Station. Let’s imagine the life at the station in several years.

Life-support systems on the ISS can supply cleaner air, purer water, better food and more sanitary toilet facilities than on the space shuttle. Life aboard the station may not be easy, but it is sig­nificantly healthier and more pleasant than in the past, allowing astronauts to focus on the scientific research and station mainte­nance that occupy them for about 9 hours a day.

The kitchen on the station, for the first time in space history, has refrigerators and freezers. It may not sound like much, but it is a giant step forward. For the first 30 years in space, all food was kept at room temperature. Only now, in the 21st century, can re­frigerator allow NASA to supply milk to help with bone loss in space flight. A glass of nice cold milk was asked for years. And the refriger­ator proved to be an easier solution than a lot of experiments to make good powdered (порошковое) milk for a number of years.

Later in the day, thanks to another kitchen appliance, cosmo­nauts will eat a frozen dinner just like the ones sold in supermar­kets. The combination convection/microwave oven automatically thaws (размораживать) your food (using heat), than heats it with microwaves (just as they do on Earth).

The refrigerator, freezer, and oven mean that astronauts eat a healthier diet. The shuttle food was low in fiber. «The ISS food can overcome that with salads, fruit, vegetables, apples, oranges, etc.,» a space expert had predicted. Now, with these food delivered by the space shuttle a few times a year, you no longer have to take special tablets.

There is no dishwasher in the kitchen. Instead, you wash your magnetic silverware (столовые приборы) with antiseptic towelet- tes (салфетка). It does not seem very hygienic, but the shuttle as­tronauts just had to lick their silverware clean.

The empty food containers will be either ejected into space to burn up on re-entry to the atmosphere or returned to Earth on the shuttle.

The next step in life support will be a completely closed air- and-food cycle, with plants grown in space. Plants and microor­ganisms could even help remove contaminants from the water sup­ply. It is that sort of research that will be necessary if people are ever to establish settlements far beyond Earth.

Biological approaches to supplying food, water, and air could not only save power aboard the station, but could also reduce the number of resupply trips required.

May be some day astronauts will have fresh bread on the sta­tion. But even with today’s frozen dinners, they already spend 4 hours a day on meals and hygiene. Exercise takes 2 hours more a day. That leaves them just an hour of free time for the simple plea­sures of life in space: The view of Earth through the window. A let­ter e-mailed from their family. Microwave popcorn with a movie. And the friendship of the crew members with whom they share this tiny world.

Text 12D

Прочитайте текст, выскажите свое мнение о его содержании.

Time Travel and New Universes

It is known that for a long time well before Albert Einstein scien­tists were studying the ideas that seemed strange. Consider a few of such ideas now accepted by the scientific community: clocks that tick slower when they are on rockets in outer space, black holes with the mass of a million stars compressed into a volume smaller than that of atom and subatomic particles whose behaviour de­pends on whether they are being watched.

But of all strange ideas in physics, perhaps, the strangest one is the hole in the structure of space and time, a tunnel to a distant
part of the universe. American researchers have determined that it will apparently be possible in principle for mankind to create an entirely new universe by using the idea of wormhole (ход, проры­тый червем; червоточина) connection. Such a universe will auto­matically create its own wormhole, squeeze through it, and then close the hole after it.

Although to many people such an idea may seem useless and fantastic, it can help scientists to develop their imagination and ex­plore how flexible the laws of physics are. It is such an idea that could give answers to some of the fundamental questions of cos­mology: how the universe began, how it works and how it will end.

The idea of wormhole comes directly from the accepted con­cepts of general relativity. In that theory A.Einstein proved that very massive or dense objects distort space and time around them. One possible distortion is in the form of a tube that can lead any­where in the universe — even to a place billions of light years away. The name «wormhole» comes about by analogy: imagine a fly on an apple. The only way the fly can reach the apple’s other side is the long way over the fruit’s surface. But a worm could make a tunnel through the apple and thus shorten the way considerably. A worm­hole in space is the same kind of tunnel; it is a shortcut (кратчай­шее расстояние) from one part of the universe to another that reduces the travel time to about zero.

In fact, instantaneous travel leads to the idea of wormhole as time machine. If it were possible to move one end of a wormhole at nearly the speed of light, then, according to general relativity, time at that end would slow down and that part of the tunnel would be younger than the other end. Anything moving from the faster-aging end of the wormhole to the slower one would essentially go back­ward on time. The type of travel, however, could be nothing like the mechanical time machine described by H. Wells. It is difficult to imagine how a human being could move through a wormhole, since it would theoretically be narrower than an atom and it would tend to disappear the instant it formed.

ДОПОЛНИТЕЛЬНЫЕ ЗАДАНИЯ

Упражнение 1. А. Прочитайте словосочетания из текста 12А и постарай­тесь понять значения выделенных слов.

1. life expectancy

2. risky process

3. key module

4. life-support module

5. the next great adventure

6. merely

В. Подберите к каждому выделенному в А слову соответствующее ему по значению.

a. essential to

b. activity full of risk, danger and excitement

c. full of risk

d. expected period during which smth. is active and useful

e. only, simply

f. equipment providing an envi­ronment astronauts may live in.

Упражнение 2. Найдите в тексте 12А:

A. Прилагательные с суффиксами -al, -ous и -ive, соответствующие словосочетаниям:

1. between different countries

2. connected with one person or part of smth.

3. connected with one country

4. that supplies reliable information

5. of technology

6. of the state, government and politics

7. coming earlier in time

8. important because of possible danger

9. full of strong desire to be or to do smth.

10. broad, extending in various or all directions

11. high priced

B. Словосочетания с этими прилагательными и приведите свои примеры.

Упражнение 3. А. Прочитайте текст и найдите слова, означающие:

height, propelling force, wished, be greater than, pressing, what remains, force di­rected forward, remain in space at one place, spending or using, thrust without losses, braking, small (not serious or important).

Solar Sails

If we are going to open the solar system to rapid economic travel, we need to find advanced space propulsion systems. Solar sails may be among the keys to future interplanetary flights.

Solar sail propulsion uses large, lightweight reflectors attached to spacecraft that react to the light pressure from solar photons to obtain thrust. By tilting (наклонять) the sail to change the force direction, the light pressure can be used to increase the orbital speed of the spacecraft, sending it outward from the Sun, or de­crease its orbital speed, allowing it to fall inward.

A new type of solar sail, called a solar photon thruster, has a large sail that always faces the Sun for maximum light collection. The collector sail has a slight curvature (кривизна) that focuses the sunlight down onto a much smaller sail, which redirects the sunlight to provide the net thrust vector desired. Besides being more efficient than a standard sail, a solar photon thruster can be launched at Shuttle altitudes. Standard sails can only operate above

1,0 km where the light pressure exceeds the atmospheric drag.

Were a solar sail made light enough, it could «hover» without orbiting, the light pressure from the solar photons balancing the gravity attraction of the Sun and/or Earth. Then it would be possi­ble to use solar sails first for communication, broadcast, and weather satellites, second for scientific stations hovering over the Sun and the rest of the solar system, and third for transporting cargo to and from Earth, the planets, and asteroid belt — without an expenditure of fuel.

В

a. study, investigation, research, ex­periment, test

b. speed, thrust, pressure, cost, drag

c. satellite, spacecraft, space sta­tion, rocket

d. cooperation, development, tech-

niool

Упражнение 4. Заполните пропуски словами.

aboard life-support key facilities assembly supply maintenance stays weightless tool

1 systems of the ISS are expected to be the most ad­vanced, they can ... cleaner air, purer water, better food, and more sanitary toilet ... than on the space shuttle. 2. Life ... the station may not be easy, but it is significantly healthier and more pleasant than in the past, allowing astronauts to focus more on the scientific research and station ... that occupy them for about 9 hours a day.

3. Thanks to the long ... on Mir station researchers learned that bone loss did not lessen over time as previously thought. 4. In the ... environment of space, everyday activities present new challenges. 5. The Mobile Servicing System to be supplied by Canada is a four-piece robotic ... that will play a ... role in ... and maintenance of the ISS.

Упражнение 5. А. Назовите 15—20 ключевых слов и словосочетаний на тему «The International Space Station».

В. Speak about:

Solar sail propulsion systems.

REVISION OF LESSONS 10-12

Упражнение 1. Повторите инфинитив, инфинитивные конструкции, со­слагательное наклонение и особенности пассивного залога. Переведите пред­ложения.

1. The Internet is a great place to find and hear hit songs, mov­ies and recorded interviews. 2. It is imperative that the experiment begin at once. 3. If I were you, I should stop the experiment. 4. He wished he were a cosmonaut. 5. A new car model was much spoken about. 6. Nobody saw the professor enter the laboratory. 7. It seems to be an interesting comparison. 8. His experience in the field of materials science can be relied upon. 9. This theory is hard to prove. 10. The new discovery was often referred to. 11. We expect this book to appear in bookshops very soon. 12. Scientists appear to know very little of this phenomenon yet. 13. The main problem is for the report to be published as soon as possible. 14. Materials to be brought back to Earth from space laboratories will have some stable properties. 15. It is unusual for a program to work correctly the first time it is tested. 16. Some experiments on the ISS could re­sult in the development of clocks a thousand times more accurate than today’s atomic clocks. 17. There are all kinds of life-support­ing equipment aboard a spacecraft as it is essential that cosmonauts should feel themselves as comfortable as possible. 18. Lasers are supposed to be able to solve a number of very complicated prob­lems connected with medicine. 19. One of the most important re­quirements for hypersonic craft is a sophisticated cooling system lest extreme temperatures should destroy the craft. 20. Educational system suggested by William Rodgers, the founder of MIT, proved to be very effective and to give a sound command of the basic prin­ciples of science and technology. 21. People always wished that there were a device that could vaporize the hardest and the most heat-resistant material. 22. A number of important innovations such as reducing the weight of airplanes and spacecrafts would have been impossible unless composite materials had been developed. 23. Scientists discovered superconductors to possess thermal, elec­tric and magnetic properties quite different from the non-conduct­ing materials. 24. The cost of electricity generation has been influenced by the development of electromagnets made with super­conductors. 25. To produce the superconductive effect, a Dutch physicist cooled a mercury wire below a temperature of —269 °C. 26. We know optical disks to store much more information than a plastic disk of the same size. 27. Laser was dreamt of by mankind for centuries. 28. The applications of laser in industry and science are known to be numerous and varied. 29. The appearance of laser was followed by the fabrication of ultrathin silicon fibers capable of servicing as lightweight conductors. 30. Some metals and glasses to be cooled down to the point of solidification in space can be brought back to Earth.

Упражнение 2. Прочитайте и переведите текст, обращая внимание на ин­финитивные конструкции.

Programming Languages

The only language computers can understand directly is called machine code. It is known to consist of the Is and Os (binary code) that are processed by the CPU. However, machine code as a means of communication is very difficult to write. That is why it is neces­sary to use symbolic languages that are easier to understand. Then, by using a special program, these languages can be translated into machine code.

Basic languages, in which the program is similar to the machine code version, are known as low-level languages. In these languages, each instruction is equivalent to a single machine code instruction, and the program is converted into machine code by a special pro­gram called an assembler. These languages are considered to be still quite complex and restricted to particular computers.

To make the program easier to write and to overcome the prob­lem of intercommunication between different types of machines, higher-level languages were developed such as BASIC, COBOL, FORTRAN, Pascal, Ada, С and others. A higher-level language is a problem oriented programming language, whereas a low-level language is machine oriented. This means that a high-level lan­guage is a convenient and simple means of describing the informa­tion structures and sequences of actions to be performed for a particular task.

A high-level language is independent of the architecture of the computer which supports it. This has two advantages. Firstly, the person writing the program does not have to know anything about the computer the program will be run on. Secondly, programs are portable, that is, the same program can (in theory) be run on differ­ent types of computer. Programs written in one of these languages should be converted by means of a compiler into a lower-level lan­guage or machine code so that the CPU could understand it.

С, a high-level programming language, seems to be very popu­lar today because it is small, so it is not too hard to learn, it is very efficient and portable so one can use it with all kinds of computers. A lot of software engineers use С to write commercial applications programs for mini, micro and personal computers. There are also various versions of С — C⁺⁺ and Objective C, which represent a new style of programming.

At present there is a tendency towards an even higher level of programming languages, which might be called specification lan­guages, and an increasing use of software development tools.

People communicate instructions to the computer in symbolic languages and the easier this communication can be made, the wider the application of computers will be. Scientists are reported to be already working on Artificial Intelligence and the next gener­ation of computers may be able to understand human languages.

Упражнение 3. А. Прочитайте текст упражнения 2 и заполните пропуски словами.

programming compiler programmed program assembler language programmers portable low-level machine code

1. A computer ... is a set of instructions that tells the computer what to do. 2. Converting an algorithm into a sequence of instruc­tions in a programming language is called ... . 3. Most computer ... make a plan of the program before writing it. 4. Coding is the trans­lation of the logical steps into a programming ... . 5. In the next century computers will be ... in natural languages like English or French. 6. A ... is a special program that converts a program written in a high-level language into a program written in a lower level lan­guage. 7. It is difficult to use ... ... , which is the only language un­derstood by the processor. 8. A special program called ... converts a program written in a low-level language into machine code. 9. If the same program can be used for different computers, it is called ... . 10. In a ... language each instruction has a corresponding ma­chine code equivalent.

B. Speak about:

The new programming language you have heard of or read about.

SUPPLEMENTARY TEXTS

To be read after Lesson 1

Education

Most Americans start to school at the age of five when they en­ter kindergarten. Children do not really study at this time. They only attend for half the day and learn what school is like. Children attend elementary school for next six years. They learn to read and write and work with numbers. They also study the world and its people. After they leave elementary school, children go to junior high school for three years and senior high school for another three years. This is called secondary education. In some places the chil­dren go to elementary school for eight years and high school for four. At any rate, elementary and secondary education together take twelve years to complete excluding kindergarten.

In their secondary schooling children get more advanced knowledge and begin to concentrate on their special interests. They usually study further in history, geography, government and Eng­lish language and literature.

They may choose to study foreign languages, advanced mathe­matics or science, such as physics or chemistry. Students who plan to go on to college or professional training must take some of these courses in order to enter college. Other students who do not intend to go on with school may take classes in accounting or typing or other subjects that will help them in the business world. Some se­nior high schools are vocational. Boys may learn to operate ma­chines or do other work. Girls may learn cooking, sewing or office work. High schools have athletic teams which play against teams from other schools. Many boys enjoy playing football, basketball or baseball. These games take place after school hours. Girls are given physical education too, but they do not usually play teams from an­other schools.

In the most places in the US children must attend school until they are sixteen, or until they finish high school, usually at the age of seventeen or eighteen. Some children who are not good students drop out of school at the age of sixteen. This is a growing problem, for it is harder and harder for people to find work when they have not finished their high school education.

Public schools are free for all boys and girls, but some parents prefer to send their children to private schools. Some private schools are connected with churches and children receive religious instruction as well as their regular studies. Other private schools are not religious, but have small classes and very good teachers so that the parents think their children will get a better education there than in the larger classes of the public schools. The private schools do not receive any tax money, so most of them must charge the stu­dents several hundred dollars a year to pay for the cost of the school. Boys and girls attend the public schools together, but many private schools are for girls only or for boys only.

To be read after Lesson 2

The Trees Fell — So Did the People

Early civilisations may have killed themselves off by plundering (хищнически уничтожать) local plants and animals. New archeo­logical findings suggest that far from living in perfect harmony with nature, prehistoric civilisation dealt major and sometimes fatal blow to natural surroundings. Many investigators now question the idea that environmental problems began only with the industrial revolution in the 19th century.

Long before the appearance of industrial civilization prehistoric societies were destroying (уничтожать) forests, plants, animals and farmland. Such destruction sometimes destroyed them in turn.

The mysterious disappearance of Anasasi Indians may be a dra­matic example of this. In territories that are now New Mexico and Arizona the Indians built a complex of roads, irrigation systems and giant «houses» with 800 rooms and more. All were abruptly left by them around A.D. 1200. Until now, the majority of archeologists have believed that the reason was a prolonged drought (засуха), but by using an electron microscope to analyze the tree rings Amer­ican scientists found that over two centuries or so the Indians were systematically deforesting the canyon where they lived until the forests’ ability to replenish itself was destroyed.

Some Words About Words

With about 200,000 words in current usage English is generally regarded as the richest of the world’s languages. Few other lan­guages can match this word power. Chinese comes close. German has a vocabulary of only 184,000 words, and French has fewer than

100,0 words.

English owes its exceptionally large vocabulary to its ability to borrow and absorb words from outside. Atomic, jeans, khaki, sput­nik, perestroika, glasnost are just a few of the many words that have come into use during this century. They have been taken or adopted from Italian, Hindi, Creek and Russian. The process of borrowing words from other languages has been going on for more than 1,000 years. When the Normans crossed over from France to conquer England in 1066, most of the English spoke old English or Anglo-Saxon — a language of about 30,000 words. The Normans spoke a language which was a mixture of Latin and French. It took about three centuries for the language to become one that is the an­cestor of the English they speak today. The Normans gave us words such as «city», and «palace». The Anglo-Saxon gave us «ring and town».

Latin and Greek have been a fruitful source of vocabulary since the 16th century. The Latin word «mini», its opposite «maxi» and the Greek word «micro» have become popular adjectives to de­scribe everything from bikes to fashion.

To be read after Lesson 3

Nuclear Power? Well, Yes

Although nuclear reactors have generated electricity commer­cially for more than 40 years and nearly 400 now in operation, two major accidents — in the US in 1979 and Chernobyl in the USSR in 1986 — have put the industry under a radioactive cloud. In the popular imagination, reactors are nuclear bombs; even if they don’t explode, they go on accumulating waste that will finally cause a global catastrophe.

As a result, an energy source once considered as the fuel of the future became questionable. But not everywhere. Nuclear power provides nearly a quarter of the electricity generated in the indus­trialized Western world by the 24-member countries of the Organi­zation for Economic Cooperation and Development. In France more than 76 % of electric power is nuclear-generated, in Belgium — 62 %, Sweden — 50 %, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Fin­land come in at one third, Japan — a little less; Britain, the US and Canada — under 20 %. Some countries have no nuclear power plants at all and don’t want any.

Not only the strong emotions of fear have worked against nu­clear power. Energy demand grew more slowly than expected in the past decade. Prices of oil and coal have reduced. However, energy prices can rise. Moreover, supplies of fossil fuel are limited, while

energy needs and tide (прилив) can’t meet the increasing require­ments. Besides, nuclear power doesn’t add to global warming.

All this causes the people to believe that the world can’t live and work without nuclear power.

To be read after Lesson 4

Telecommunication

A group of people enter a room, the lights go down, the screens come... the videoconference is under way.

Tomorrow’s scientific fiction has become today’s new technol­ogy -a daily reality for global companies who recognise the impor­tance of regular communication between groups of people in different locations around the world.

Essentially the videoconference room resembles a usual confer­ence room. Delegates sit along one side of a table facing their col­leagues on screen on the other side. They can see, hear and talk to each other simultaneously and can present slides of diagrams, even pieces of equipment. The technology is relatively simple. A device called videocodec takes the picture, digitalizes it for transmission over a special network and reforms the picture at the other end.

The problem today is to manufacture codec to the new interna­tional standard and to improve picture quality through faster trans­mission speeds. Research and development is also focusing on mobile videoconferencing with broadcast quality pictures which enable to have instant communication with colleagues around the world.

There is no doubt about the effectiveness of videoconferencing, as the videoconference eliminates the working time lost through travel.

The First Travelling Post Office

The first travelling post office in the United States was Abra­ham Lincoln’s hat. That was a strange place, indeed, for mail; but that is where it was kept. Lincoln was appointed postmaster of New Salem, a small Western town, about the year 1833. The postman visited the place once a week and brought the mail — a dozen let­ters, perhaps, and two or three newspapers — in his saddle (седло) bags. He was always met by Postmaster Lincoln who put the letters into his hat for safekeeping. Lincoln was also the clerk in the coun­try store, so he had a good opportunity to distribute the mail. But if people did not come for it, he put on his hat and delivered it. So New Salem was the first town in the US to have rural free delivery, even though the postmaster received very small pay for his work. At that time, stamps and envelopes were not used. When the sender of a letter paid the postal charges, the postmaster wrote PAID in the large letters on the face of the letter. But the postal rates were so high that the sender seldom paid them. Thus, the mailing charges were usually collected from the person who received the mail. The postmaster always held his postal receipts until a government rep­resentative came for them.

The Internet

The Internet is a magnificent global network with millions and millions of computers and people connected to one another where each day people worldwide exchange an immeasurable amount of information, electronic mail, news, resources and, more impor­tant, ideas.

It has grown at a surprising rate. Almost everyone has heard about it and an increasing number of people use it regularly. The current estimate is that over 70 million people are connected, in some way, to the Internet — whether they know it or not.

With a few touches at a keyboard a person can get access to ma­terials in almost everywhere. One can have access to full-text news­papers, magazines, journals, reference works, and even books. The Web is one of the best resources for up-to-date information. It is a hypertext-based system by which you can navigate through the Internet. Hypertext is the text that contains links to other docu­ments. A special program known as «browser» can help you find news, pictures, virtual museums, electronic magazines, etc. and print Web pages. You can also click on keywords or buttons that take you to other pages or other Web sites. This is possible because browsers understand hypertext markup language or code, a set of commands to indicate how a Web page is formatted and displayed.

Internet Video conferencing programs enable users to talk to and see each other, exchange textual and graphical information, and collaborate.

Internet TV sets allow you to surf the Web and have e-mail while you are watching TV, or vice versa. Imagine watching a film on TV and simultaneously accessing a Web site where you get in­formation on the actors of the film. The next generation of Internet-enabled televisions will incorporate a smart-card for

home shopping, banking and other interactive services. Internet- enabled TV means a TV set used as an Internet device.

The Internet is a good example of a wide area network (WAN). For long-distance or worldwide communications, computers are usually connected into a wide area network to form a single inte­grated network. Networks can be linked together by telephone lines or fibre-optic cables. Modern telecommunication systems use fi­bre-optic cables because they offer considerable advantages. The cables require little physical space, they are safe as they don’t carry electricity, and they avoid electromagnetic interference.

Networks on different continents can also be connected via sat­ellites. Computers are connected by means of a modem to ordinary telephone lines or fibre-optic cables, which are linked to a dish ae­rial. Communication satellites receive and send signals on a trans­continental scale.

To be read after Lesson 5

Harnessing (обуздание) the Speed of Light

When American engineer Alan Huang revealed his plans to build an optical computer, most scientists considered this idea as hopeless. It was impractical, if not possible, they said, to create a general-purpose computer that could use pulses of light rather than electrical signals to process data. During one of the scientist’s lec­tures on the subject, a third of the audience walked out. At another one, some of the scientists laughed, calling the researcher a dreamer.

That was several years ago. Now the scientist demonstrated his experimental computing machine based on optics. It took him five years to develop it. The device — a collection of lasers, lenses and prisms — can serve as the basis for future optical computers 100 to

1,0 times as powerful as today’s most advanced supercomputers. The potential applications are remarkable: robots that can see, computers that can design aircraft, processors that can convert spoken words into written text and vice versa. Such practical opti­cal computers are still years away — some would say light-years.

Yet many scientists are predicting that the device will have an impact similar to that of the integrated circuit which made small personal computers possible.

Photons, the basic unit of light beams, can in theory be much better than electrons for moving signals through a computer. First of all, photons can travel about the times as fast as electrons. And

while electrons react with one another, beams of photons, which have no mass or charge, can cross through one another without in­terference. Thus, photons can move in free space. This could open the door to radically new and different computer designs, including so-called parallel processors that could work on more than one problem at a time instead of one after another, as today’s new gen­eration computers do.

How Transistors Work

Microprocessors are essential to many of the products we use every day such as TVs, cars, radios, home appliances and of course, computers. Transistors are the main components of microproces­sors. At their most basic level, transistors may seem simple. But their development actually required many years of thorough research. Be­fore transistors, computers relied on slow, inefficient vacuum tubes and mechanical switches to process information. In 1958, engineers put two transistors onto a silicon crystal and created the first inte­grated circuit that led to the microprocessor. Here on a tiny silicon chip there are millions of switches and pathways that help computers make important decisions and perform helpful tasks.

Transistors are miniature electronic switches. They are the building blocks of the microprocessor which is the brain of the computer. Similar to a basic light switch, transistors have two oper­ating positions, on and off. This on/off function enables the pro­cessing of information in a computer.

The only information computers understand are electrical sig­nals that are switched on and off. To understand how transistors work, it is necessary to have an understanding of how a switched electronic circuit works. Switched electronic circuits consist of sev­eral parts. One is the circuit pathway where the electrical current flows — typically through a wire. Another is the switch, a device that starts and stops the flow of electrical current by either com­pleting or breaking the circuit’s pathway. Transistors have no mov­ing parts and are turned on and off by electrical signals. The on/off switching of transistors facilitates the work performed by micropro­cessors.

Something that has only two states, like a transistor, can be re­ferred to as binary. The transistor’s «on» state is represented by a 1 and the «off» state is represented by a 0. Specific sequences and patterns of 1 ’s and 0’s generated by multiple transistors can repre­sent letters, numbers, colours and graphics. This is known as binary notation.

More complex information can be created such as graphics, au­dio and video using the binary, or on/off action of transistors.

Many materials, such as most metals, allow electrical current to flow through them. These are known as conductors. Materials that do not allow electrical current to flow through them are called in­sulators. Pure silicon, the base material of most transistors, is con­sidered a semiconductor because its conductivity can be modulated by the introduction of impurities.

Adding certain types of impurities (примесь) to the silicon in a transistor changes its crystalline structure and improves its ability to conduct electricity.

The binary function of transistors gives microprocessors the ability to perform many tasks; from simple word processing to video editing. Microprocessors have developed to a point where transistors can carry out hundreds of millions of instructions per second on a single chip. Automobiles, medical devices, televisions, computers and even the Space Shuttle use microprocessors. They all rely on the flow of binary information made possible by the tran­sistor.

To be read after Lesson 6

Ceramic Application

The application which has captured the imagination of engi­neers, as well as the general public, is certainly the ceramic engine, that is the adiabatic turbo-diesel engine and the ceramic turbine for automotive use. There are some successful phototypes on the road, however, applications on a large scale have been held back by prob­lems of cost and reliability. Steady progress is being made in the in­crease of the reliability of ceramics. But the cost factor is likely to remain a problem for some time.

One should mention here that the long-term reliability in ser­vice still needs to be defined for those applications where the mate­rial must withstand very high temperatures and dynamically changing mechanical and thermal loads in a chemically aggressive environment.

Ceramic engines and turbines are but the top of the pyramid with respect to applications. At lower levels of performance there are numerous other applications, in which the operating conditions are less severe, for example, ceramic heat exchangers for chemical plants. Ceramics finds application in bearings and engine parts be­cause of its high hardness and high abrasion resistance.

There are three main materials used in making pipes: metal, rubber and plastic.

Metal is stronger than rubber and plastic. It is also heavier and more rigid than rubber and plastic. Metal is the strongest material, but it is also the heaviest, and the most rigid. It is also the most ex­pensive of the three materials.

Rubber is weaker than metal or plastic. It is also more flexible than the other two materials. Rubber is the most flexible of the three materials, but it is the weakest.

Plastic is lighter than metal. It is also less expensive than steel or rubber. Plastic is the lightest material. It is also the least expen­sive of the three materials.

Glass is used for making windows because you can see through it, and it is very hard and therefore cannot be cut easily. But at the same time it is very brittle and therefore it can break easily.

Wood is soft and therefore it can be cut easily. It can be used in fires because it is combustible.

Car tyres are made of rubber because rubber is flexible.

A car panel is made by three methods. First, sheet steel is made. This is done by pushing a piece of steel between two rollers, which squeeze the metal and make it longer and thinner. This method is called rolling. Not all metals can be rolled. For example, iron can­not be rolled because it is too brittle. But steel can be rolled because it is tough and malleable (ковкий) enough.

Next, the steel is cut into a flat shape. This is done by placing the sheet onto a die, and then cutting a hole in it with a punch. The method is called punching. The steel can be cut easily because it is now very thin.

Finally, the sheet steel is bent and pressed into a rounded shape. This is done by putting the sheet onto a die and then bend­ing the sheet around the die with a press. This method is called pressing. It is not difficult to press sheet steel because it is thin and malleable.

To be read after Lesson 7

Electric Car

The electric car is not a new idea. It had success with American women in the early 1900s. Women liked electric cars because they were quiet and, what was more important, they did not pollute the air. Electric cars were also easier to start than gasoline-powered ones. But the latter was faster, and in the 1920s they became much more popular.

The electric car was not used until the 1970s, when there were serious problems with the availability of oil. The General Motors Co. had plans to develop an electric car by 1980. However, soon oil became available again, and this car was never produced.

Today there is a new interest in the electric car. The Toyota Co. recently decided to spend $800 million a year on the development of new car technology. Many engineers believe that the electric car will lead to other forms of technology being used for transportation.

Car companies are working at developing a supercar. A super­efficient car will have an electric motor. Four possible power sources are being investigated. The simple one is batteries. Another possibility is fuel cells, which combine oxygen from air with hydro­gen to make electricity. Yet another approach would be a flywheel (маховик), an electric generator consisting of free-spinning wheels with magnets in the rims that can produce a current. A fourth pos­sible power source for the super-car would be a small turbine en­gine, running on a clean fuel like natural gas. It would run at a constant speed, generating electricity for driving vehicles or for feeding a bank of batteries, storing energy for later use.

Engines

Do you know what the first engine was like? It was called the «water wheel». This was an ordinary wheel with blades fixed to it, and the current of a river turned it. These first engines were used for irrigating fields.

Then a wind-powered engine was invented. This was a wheel, but a very small one. Long wide wooden blades were attached to it. The new engine was driven by the wind. Some of these ones can still be seen in the country.

Both of these, the water- and wind-operated engines are very economical. They do not need fuel in order to function. But they are dependent on the weather.

Many years passed and people invented a new engine, one op­erated by steam. In a steam engine, there is a furnace and a boiler. The furnace is filled with wood or coal and then lit. The fire heats the water in the boiler and when it boils, it turns into steam which does some useful work.

The more coal is put in the furnace, the stronger the fire is burning. The more steam there is, the faster a train or a boat is moving.

The steam engine drove all sorts of machines, for example, steam ships and steam locomotives. Indeed, the very first aeroplane built by A.F. Mozhaisky also had a steam engine. However, the steam engine had its disadvantages. It was too large and heavy, and needed too much fuel.

The imperfections of the steam engine led to the design of a new type. It was called the internal combustion engine, because its fuel ignites and bums inside the engine itself and not in a furnace. It is smaller and lighter than a steam engine because it does not have a boiler. It is also more powerful, as it uses better-quality fuel: petrol or kerosene.

The internal combustion engine is now used in cars, diesel lo­comotives and motor ships. But to enable aeroplanes to fly faster than the speed of sound another, more powerful engine was needed. Eventually, one was invented and it was given the name «jet en­gine». The gases in it reach the temperature of over a thousand de­grees. It is made of a very resistant metal so that it will not melt.

To be read after Lesson 8

The Driving Lesson

Miss Green: Good afternoon. My name is Miss Green and I’m your driving instructor. Is this your first lesson?

Simon: It is my first lesson at this driving school.

M. G.: Oh, you’ve been to another one?

S.: Yes. The Greenwich school of driving. But I stopped

going there.

M. G.: Why? Weren’t the lessons good enough?

S.: They were good but my instructor left.

M. G.: Really? Well, let’s see what you can do. I want you to

drive down this road and turn left at the end.

S.: Yes, all right.

M. G.: You drive very well! I’m sure you’ll pass your test. All

my pupils pass their tests. Oh, look out! That lorry!

S.: You said turn left at the end.

M. G.: When you want to turn a corner, slow down and look

first. You nearly hit that lorry. Please, be careful. Now turn right at the traffic lights... Right, not left!

S.: Sorry it was too late. I’ve turned left now.

M. G.: Didn’t you see the No Entry sign? This is a one-way

street.

S.: Why are those drivers shouting?

M. G.: Because you’re driving the wrong way down a one-way

street. Stop the car, please, and turn it round.

S.: I’m not very good at that.

M. G.: Mind that red car!

S.: Madman! He nearly hit me!

M. G.: He was right and you were wrong. Why didn’t you

wait? Now you are blocking the road. You want re­verse gear. Turn the wheel... more ... more ... Not too fast! Oh, what have you done now?

S.: It is all right. I went into the lamp-post but it is still

standing. I didn’t knock it down.

M.G.: Oh, but look at the back of the car.

S.: Sorry, but you said «reverse».

M.G.: I didn’t say «drive into the lamp-post». Well, you’ve

turned the car round now, so drive back to the traffic

lights and go straight across.

S.: Are we going to the park?

M.G.: The roads are quiter near the park. Oh, not too fast!

S.: The lights are green.

M.G.: Slow down! The lights are changing!

S.: I can’t slow down. There! We are across.

M.G.: The lights were red!

S.: It’s all right. There were no policemen.

M.G.: I know why your last instructor left. He wanted to stay

alive.

S.: That’s not a very nice thing to say. And it’s not true.

He left because he wasn’t very well.

M.G.: Stop the car, please. Oh, gently!

S.: Sorry. Did you hit your head on the roof?

M.G.: No. Luckily I was wearing the seat belt. Now I want

you to practise driving backwards. Reverse the park gates. Look first, than reverse in.

S.: Right.

M.G.: Oh, you’ve hit the gate!... Now you are driving on the

grass!

S.: I’m going backwards down the hill and I can’t stop!

Help me!

M.G.: Use the brakes! Don’t drive into the lake!

S.: Too late.

M.G.: Look what you’ve done. You reversed into a lamp

post. You hit the park gate. Now you’ve driven into the lake. Oh, why didn’t you stay with the other driv­ing school?

S.: They had no more cars left.

Heavy-Lift Dirigible

Unlike other new dirigible projects the giant CargoLifter CL 160 (Germany) is aimed at heavy-lift cargo applications, not at tourism or advertising. It will be the beginning of a new era in freight transport.

The 260-meter-long, 65-meter-diameter semi-rigid airship will be capable of transporting 160 ton loads-equivalent to 36 standard 40-ft containers — to out-of-the-way (remote) construction sites

10,0 km away. With a cruise speed of just 80—120 km/hr the CL 160 would not get the load to its destination nearby as fast as a heavier-than-air craft such as Antonov An-124, but it would also not require the landing facilities needed for the unusually large air­craft.

Moored (причаливать) above the delivery site, the airship will lower loads using an onboard crane without actually having to touch down. A crew of five, including navigator and two cargo- masters (высококвалифицированные рабочие) would man the ship.

In fact, the CargoLifter project was bom of a logistics need ex­pressed by manufacturers of electric generators, turbines and other outsized (i.e., larger than the usual size) machinery.

Rolls-Royce-Turbomeca turboshaft engines are to be used for maneuvering the big airship, cruise being provided by diesel power- plants.

What Is GPS?

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navi­gation system made up of a network of 24 satellites. GPS was origi­nally intended for military applications, but now the systems is available for civilian use. GPS works in any weather conditions, anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day.

GPS satellites circle the earth twice a day in a very precise orbit and transmit signal information to Earth. GPS receivers take this information and use triangulation to calculate the user’s exact lo­cation. Essentially, the GPS receiver compares the time a signal was transmitted by a satellite with the time it was received. The time difference tells the GPS receiver how far away the satellite is. Now, with distance measurements from a few more satellites, the receiver can determine the user’s position and display it on the unit’s electronic map.

A GPS receiver must be locked on to the signal of at least three satellites to calculate a 2D position (latitude and longitude) and track (прослеживать) movement. With four or more satellites in view, the receiver can determine the user’s 3D position (latitude, longitude and altitude). Once the user’s position has been deter­mined, the GPS unit can calculate other information, such as speed, bearing (пеленг), track, trip distance, distance to destina­tion, sunrise and sunset time and more.

Today’s GPS receivers are extremely accurate within an aver­age of three to five meters thanks to their parallel multi-channel design.

The 24 satellites that make up the GPS space segment are orbit­ing the earth about 12,000 miles above us. They are constantly moving, making two complete orbits in less than 24 hours. These satellites are travelling at speeds of roughly 7,000 miles an hour.

GPS satellites are powered by solar energy. They have backup batteries onboard to keep them running in the event of a solar eclipse (затмение), when there’s no solar power. Small rocket boosters on each satellite keep them flying in the correct path.

Here are some other interesting facts about the GPS satellites:

1. The first GPS satellite was launched in 1978.