4. The Photos flight would require 4. to last 14 months, two space vehicles
5. It is believed 5. could reach Photos surface by
2003.
6. The Photos rockets would need 6. than four years earlier that such a
only spacecraft could reach Mars.
7. It can be explained by the fact 7. half of the fuel necessary for a
that Mars flight.
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
problems. Now I study the application of space satellites
for scientific purposes.
A.: I think that the best application of satellites is for
military purposes.
P.: You are absolutely wrong. The most promising field of
application 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(unhook) satellites.
P.: Spy and weather satellites gather data for forecasting.
The Japanese have a satellite studying the ocean;
European and Russian satellites produce a 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 vapor 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 ought novo 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 shouldn't try.
Exercise 5. Conduct a scientific conference on: "The potential of space exploration for peaceful purposes".
Use texts 12 А, В, С, 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").
Exercise 6. Read and smile:
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(rap-
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бить) 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 criticizing 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 neighbors 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 fanner'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 4hree wishes as an experiment.
The farmer and his wife talked a long time over what she would wish for. But the farmer's wife suddenly became a little hungry (голадный) 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 текст и найдите информацию о вкладе России в космическую науку. Объясните, чем отличается космическая станция "Мир" от предшествующих станций. Расскажите о перспективах использования ракеты-носителя "Энергия".
Thirty Years of the Space Age
In the thirty years since Yury Gagarin's flight Russian space science and engineering have come a long way. According to space experts in the US and Europe Russia takes the lead in almost all
space exploration now. It is likely to become the world's dominant power in space by the 21-st century. Russia has launched more than 2,300 space vehicles designed to perform a variety of functions. Unmanned satellites have been of great significance in the exploration and peaceful use of outer space. They help us learn more about the relations between processes occurring on the sun and near the earth and study the structure of the upper atmosphere. These satellites are provided with scientific equipment for space navigation of civil aviation and ships, as well as exploration of the World Ocean, the earth's surface and its natural resources.
Russia is known to carry out many orbital manned flights involving over 62 cosmonauts, many of them having flown several times. It is well known that Russian cosmonauts hold the record for the longest time in space (L.Kizim has worked 375 days)and for continuous stay in space (V.Titov and M.Manarov - 365 days, i.e. a year). The knowledge of Russian doctors and researchers about the medical and psychological consequences of long-term space flight far exceed that of American scientists.
Two permanent space stations, Salyut and a third generation station Mir, are now orbiting the earth. The creation of a new, more sophisticated, efficient space lab aboard the Mir station is a good example of the scientific and technological progress under way in Russia's space industry. New metal alloys, composite materials and more effective means of communication are in use. This space station is equipped with an astronomical observatory module named Kwan. It incorporates all the novelty that could be offered by designers and engineers. To keep productivity high Russian designers pay much attention to the space station livability. The interior of Mir has been painted in two colors to provide the crew with a sense of floor and ceiling. On Mir cosmonauts get two days off each week and have a special radio so that they can talk to their families and with any sportsman, scientist or celebrity they want.
With the twin Vega space probes being successfully launched in 1986, Russian scientists conducted close-range studies of Halley's comet and gathered impressive scientific data about Venus. Vega 1 and Vega 2 carrying more than 30 research instruments passed within 10,000 kilometers of the comet's heart, transmitted high-quality pictures to the Earth and revealed for the first time the dimensions and dynamics of its ten-mile-long nucleus. The relative speed of approaching the comet was equal to ,78 km/sec. It should be pointed out that the study of Halley's comet was conducted on the basis of extensive cooperation of scientists. Scientists from nine countries, including the U.S, joined the Vega project.
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When the 170-million horse power carrier-rocket called "Energies" was successfully tested in 1987, Russia has gone far ahead of the United States in the space race. With the new Energies rocket it is possible to put into orbit a 100-ton payload (One must know that the first satellite carried 83,6 kg). That is enough to carry a shuttled.e.a reusable craft) or to put into orbit components for a space station much larger than Mir which could be a platform for a manned flight to Mars. Russian experts believe "Energies" to be able to take explorers to the Moon or bring back to the Earth satellites that went out of operation. In principle, this makes it possible to assemble and build in orbit large complexes from separate units not tens of meters but kilometers across. Cosmonauts would live there permanently. And from these structures there may be flights to other planets.
In general, the creation of Mir station and Energies rocket is a new major advance in the development not only of Russian, but also world cosmonautics. Whole research laboratories and production shops equipped and prepared on earth by different countries might successfully work with Mir station.
TEXT 12C
Прочитайте текст и опишите жилой и рабочий отсеки Шатала.
Living Aboard the Space Shuttle
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° С
The Shuttle meals are eaten in a small dining area consisting of a table and restraints (ограничители) which function as chairs in zero-gravity. Meals are served in a special tray which separates the
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 tape-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.
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 behavior depends on whether they are being watched.
But pf 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) 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
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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 ТЕКСТЫ (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 not 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,
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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 civilizations 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 civilization dealt major and sometimes fatal blow to natural surroundings. Many investigators now question the idea that environmental problems began only with industrial revolution in the 19-th century.
Long before the appearance of industrial civilization prehistoric societies were destroying (уничтожать) forests, plants, animals and far-land. Such destruction sometimes destroyed them in turn.
The mysterious disappearance of Anastasia 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 forest’s 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 100,000 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 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 almost 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
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needs and Ем(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 jog 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 recognize 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 video codec 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 broad cast 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 Weston 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,
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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.
To be read after Lesson 5:
Harnessing (обуздание) the Speed of Light
When the American scientist Alan Huang revealed his plants 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 1,000 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.
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
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the adiabatic turbo-diesel engine and the ceramic turbine for automotive use. There are some successful prototypes 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 its high hardness and high abrasion resistance.
To be read after Lesson 7:
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 quitter 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 practice 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.
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To be read after Lesson 8:
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 one can still see 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 aero plane 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 burns 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 aero planes 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 9:
Getting into Deep Water
The dark depths of the Gulf of Mexico, once frequented by only the sea creatures, are now alive with human activity. Miniature submarines and robot-like vehicles move around the ocean bottom while divers make their way around incredible underwater structures -taller than New York City skyscrapers but almost totally beneath the surface of the waves. Modern-day explorers are using technology worth of Jules Verne and Jacques Cousteau to find fresh supplies of oil and natural gas.
Until recently, drilling in the Gulf was concentrated close to shore in water as deep as 9 m. But now the scientists are looking to hundreds of meters deep and 160 km and more from land.
The deep water research began in 1984. Since many American companies have built the world's deepest production platforms of more than 100 stories high. Finding gas and oil deposits at large depth is not an easy technological task.
To be read after Lesson 10:
Laser Technology
In the last decade there was outstanding progress in the development of laser technology and it's application in science, industry and commerce. Laser cutting, welding and machining are beginning to be big business. The market for laser systems represents around 2,5 % of the world machine tool market.
Which country is the biggest producer and consumer of lasers? Why, Japan, naturally: Japan produced 46% of world's lasers in 1989, while figures for Europe and the USA are 32% and 22%. Japan is building 1 200 to 2 000 CO2 lasers per year of which some 95% are over 500 W power and 80% of them are used for cutting operations.
Europe is the second largest user and the third largest producer. In 1990 Europe's market for lasers was $ 128 million, of which Germany consumed about $ 51 million, and Italy — $12 million. The Germany met 90% of its demands through domestic producers. Growth rate of the European market is estimated at 10 to 15% per year.
In future the main trend influencing the industry will be laser source prices. The prices are dropping. There appear lasers of modular construction. The complexity of laser machines is rising. Multi-axes systems are in more use now. Recently 7-axis CNC laser machining center has been introduced. In addition to X,Y and Z axes, there are two rotary axes, A and C, and two more linear axes, U and V, to give a trepanning (прорезать большие отверстия) motion to the laser.
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To be read after Lesson 11:
Space Cooling
A new method of cooling that can generate cryogenic temperatures of 200° С below zero without the use of electricity and with almost no moving parts has been tested at the jet propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The refrigerator used for the purpose was recently tested to -253° C, only 20 degrees above absolute zero, the lowest possible temperature.
In space such cooling system could increase the life of future space station refueling ports by cooling the large liquid-hydrogen fuel tanks which are likely to be in service.
In future earth applications it could be used for cooling hydrogen-powered cars and planes, as well as for cooling superconducting motors and computers.
According to JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) experts the key lies in the use of hydrides, materials that interact with hydrogen. These materials absorb tremendous amounts of hydrogen gas at room temperature. The engineers of JPL have taken advantage of this property to build a series of devices that act as compressors and provide a continuous cooling stream of liquid hydrogen.
The system saves weight in space since it can use direct solar heat instead of electricity from heavier, inefficient electric systems. Because it has so few moving parts and uses the same supply of gas in a closed cycle, it could operate for many decades. Because of its long potential lifetime, the system could be used to cool infrared sensors during missions to the other planets, which may take 10 years or more to complete.
To be read after Lesson 12:
Manned Systems for the Exploration of the Solar System
The space station era was opened with the launch of the Soviet Union's Salyut 1. In all, there were five first-generation Salyut space stations and two second-generation ones. Then in 1986, the Soviet Union successfully launched its even more advanced space station, Mir, which is still operational.
The Soviet Union took a slow but steady route to establishing a permanent human presence in space with remarkable results. The Western World, on the other hand, has taken a totally different route.
In 1973, two years after Salyut 1, the United States launched Skylab, the Western World's first space station. It was used for three highly successful missions. The years 1975 to 1981 were spent
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developing the Space Shuttle, a program that, through Spacelab, also brought Europe into the manned spaceflight area. This reusable space laboratory sponsored by the European Space Agency made its first flight in 1983 after ten years of studies and development programs.
In 1984 a formal decision was made to build a space station for the Western World. The European Manned Space Programme is to begin in 1995 with the aim of having the European space station in initial operation by the year 2002. It is supposed that there will be three stages in the implementation of the programme.
During 2002 to 2005 the European space station will operate in a semiautomatic mode. A crew of two to three astronauts are expected to carry out two missions annually to the space station, each mission lasting three to four months. After a year of operation a larger laboratory module will be added. The mission will be increased up to six months for a crew of three.
During 2005 to 2010 the station will be permanently manned, with three person crews exchanged every four to six months.
By the year 2010 and beyond the European space station will have become a multifunctional laboratory for a wide spectrum of scientific studies. It is supposed to be used to improve space technology in such areas as electric power generation, robotics, life support systems, communications and the Earth observation sensors. In addition, it will function as a base for servicing other spacecrafts.
Further, the space station will be a transportation means for flights to and from the Earth as well as to launch lunar and planetary missions. Thus, the space station system that could establish and support both a lunar base and a Mars mission, and eventually could be an element in support of an international, global settlement of mankind in space.
КРАТКИЙ ПОУРОЧНЫЙ ГРАММАТИЧЕСКИЙ СПРАВОЧНИК
LESSON 1
1. ГЛАГОЛ ТО BE
Глагол to be в Present, Past и Future Indefinite имеет следующие формы :
| Present | Past | Future |
| I am {she, he, it} is we are {you, they} are | was were | shall be will be shall be will be |
В вопросительной форме глагол to be ставится перед подлежащим:
Are they students ? Они студенты?
Where were you yesterday? Где вы были вчера?
В отрицательной форме после глагола to be ставится отрицание not :
They are not in the library. Они не в библиотеке.
2. ГЛАГОЛ ТО HAVE
| Future |
| Past |
Глагол to have в Present, Past и Future Indefinite имеет следующие формы:
Present
| shall have will have shall have will have |
| had had had had |
I have
{she, he, it} has
we have
{you, they} have
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Вопросительная форма глагола to have образуется двумя способами:
1)путем постановки глагола to have перед подлежащим:
Have you a dictionary? У Вас есть словарь?
2) с помощью вспомогательного глагола to do:
Do you have a dictionary? У Вас есть словарь?
Отрицательная форма глагола to have также образуется двумя способами:
1) с помощью отрицательного по перед существительным:
I have no dictionary У меня нет словаря.
2) с помощью вспомогательное глагола to do:
I do not have a dictionary У меня нет словаря.
3. ОБОРОТ THERE + BE В INDEFINITE ACTIVE
| Число | Present' | Past | Future |
| Единственное Множественное | there is there are | there was there were | there will be there will be |
Оборот there + be переводится есть, находится, имеется, су ществует. Перевод предложений с оборотом there + be следует начинать с обстоятельства места или со сказуемого, если обстоятельство отсутствует. Слово there - вводная частица - на русский язык не переводится. Например:
There is a large reading room in this В этой библиотеке большой чи-
library. тальный зал.
Trere are many methods of doing it. Существует много способов сде
лать это.
There will be meeting tomorrow. Завтра будет собрание.
4. ВРЕМЕНА ГРУППЫ INDEFINITE ACTIVE
Времена группы Indefinite обозначают факт совершения действия в настоящем, прошедшем и будущем без уточнения, как оно протекает во времени.
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