higher education in the usa

there is no national system of higher education in the united states. Higher education is given in colleges and universities. there are over 2100 various higher educational institutiona, including colleges, technological institutes and universities. the average college course of study is 4 years. the academic year is usually 9 month or 2 terms of four and half months each. Classes usually begin in september and end in june. the first-year students are called freshmen.

students choose a major subject and take many courses in this subject. after four years, they get a traditional bachelor's degree. then the students may go on to graduate school and with a year or two of further study get a master's degree.

After another year or two of study and research, they may get a still higher degree as Doctor of philosophy. the student's progress isevaluated by means of tests, them works and final examinations in each corse. The student's work is given a mark, usually on a five poin scale. letters indicate the level of achievement. "A" is the highest mark. "F" denotes a failure.

Most american colleges and universities charge for tuition. the methods of instruction in the universities are lectures, discussions, laboratory and course works and seminars.

Most cities have colleges or universities that hold classes at night as well as in daytime. in this way people may work for a degree or just take a course in the subject that interests them.

высшее образование в США

не существует национальной системы высшего образования в Соединенных Штатах. Высшее образование в колледжах и университетах. Есть более чем 2100 различных высших учебных institutiona, в том числе колледжи, технологические институты и университеты. Средний колледжа курс обучения составляет 4 года. учебный год, как правило, 9 месяцев или 2 круга четыре с половиной месяца каждый. Занятия обычно начинаются в сентябре и заканчивается в июне. первый год студенты называют freshmen.

студенты выбирают основные темы и принимать различные курсы по этой теме. после четырех лет, они получают традиционные бакалавра. Затем студенты могут выходить на выпускников школ и с год или два дополнительных исследования, получить степень магистра.

Еще через год или два исследования, и исследования, они могут получить еще более высокие степени, как доктор философии. студент прогресс isevaluated с помощью тестов, их работ и выпускных экзаменов в каждом Corse. Студенческих работ с учетом знака, как правило, по пятибалльной шкале Очки. письма указать степень достижения результатов. "А" является высшим знаком. "F" означает провал.

Большинство американских колледжей и университетов, плата за обучение. Методы обучения в университетах лекции, дискуссии, лабораторных и курсовых работ и семинаров.

Большинство городов имеют колледжи или университеты, которые проводят занятия в ночное время, а также в дневное время. Таким образом, люди могут работать на степень или просто принять курс по вопросу о том, что их интересы.

a great citizen of the world
every day many people visited thomas a. edison's laboratories in orange, new jersey. some of them were young inventors who went to study, but many more of them were tourists. they came from all parts of the US and from other countries as well.

one day a very important citizen from england visited edison's factories, taking with him his young son, eight years old. they spent many hours in great workshops, looking at hundreds of useful inventions.

before leaving the laboratories the man went to the office of the main building. giving his card to the person in charge, he asked: "may i speak to mr. edison, please?". the man looked at the card and then answered: "wait a minute, i'll see". soon he returned and said: "come this way, plese. mr. edison will see you".

the father and his son went into the great inventor's workroom. "mr. edison", said the englishman, "i brought my young son here to see what the world's greatest citizen has done. i want this day to help him all his life. will you please shake hands with him and say something that he will remember?".

mr. edison took the boy's hand. he laid his other hand on the child's shoulder and looked into his eyes. "my boy", he said, "don't watch the clock".

in 1928 mr. edison was eighty-one years old, but he still worked sixteen hours a day.

величайший человек мира
Каждый день много людей посетили Томас А. Эдисон лаборатории в Орандже, Нью-Джерси. некоторые из них были молодыми изобретателями, которые пошли учиться, но большинство из них были туристами. Они приехали со всех концов США и из других стран.

один день очень важный гражданин из Англии посетил Эдисона заводы, принимая с ним его маленьким сыном, восемь лет. они провели много часов в большой рабочие, глядя на сотни полезных изобретений.

перед выездом из лабораторий человек пошли в офис главного здания. предоставление ему карточку на лицо, он спросил: "Могу ли я поговорить с г. Эдисона, пожалуйста?". мужчина посмотрел на карту, а затем ответил: "Подождите минуту, я посмотрю". Вскоре он вернулся и сказал: "Прошу, пожалуйста. MR. Edison будет рад вас видеть".

отец и сын отправились в большую мастерскую изобретателя. "MR. Эдисон", сказал, англичанин ", я привел своего сына, чтобы узнать, что в мире гражданин сделал. Я хочу чтобы этот день, помогал ему всю его жизнь. Вы, пожалуйста, пожали друг другу руки и поговорили с ним , чтобы он помнил? ".

MR. Эдисон взял мальчика за руку. Он положил свою руку на другого ребенка плечо и посмотрел ему в глаза. "Мой мальчик", сказал он, "не смотри на часы".

В 1928 г. Эдисон было восемьдесят один год назад, но он по-прежнему работал шестнадцать часов в день.

non-traditional renewable sources of energy

it is known that much is being done in the world today for the development of non-traditional sources of energy. without them the earth cannot support its present population of 5 billion people and probably 8 billion people in the 21st century.

now we are using traditional power sources, that is, oil, natural gas, coal, and water power with the consumption of more than 50 billion barrels per year. it is evident that these sources are not unlimited.

that is why it is so important to use such renewable sources of energy as the sun, wind, geothermal energy and others. research is being carried out in these fields.

one of the most promising research is the development of power stations with direct transformation of solar energy into elecricity on the basis of photo-effect. it was russia that was the first in the world to develop and test a photoelectric battery of 32000 volts and effective area of only 0.5 sq. m., which made it possible to concentrate solar radiation. this idea is now being intensively developed in many countries.

however, the efficiency of a solar power station is considerably reduced because of the limited time of its work during the year. but it is possible to improve the efficiency of solar power stations by developing different combinations of solar power stations and traditional ones - thermal, atomic and hydraulic. today someengineers are working at the problem of developing electric power stations with the use of a thermal-chemical cycle. it will operate on products of the transformation of solar energy, whereas the "solar" chemical reactor uses CO2 and water steam of the thermal power station. the result is that we have a closed cycle.

in kamchatka there are geothermal power stations operating on hot water-steam mixture from the depths of about a kilometre. in some projects water will be heated by the warmth of mountains at a depth of four-five km.

it is planned that plants working on the energy of the solar heat provided by the sun will be built on a larger scale.

that different wind energy plants are being developed is also well-known. these energy plants can be small (of several kilowatts) and large powerful systems.

it is important that all these advances in developing new sources of energy and improving the old to solve the energy problem as a whole and they do not have negative effects on the enviroment.

нетрадиционные возобновляемые источники энергии

Известно, что многое, что делается в мире для развития нетрадиционных источников энергии. без них на земле не может поддержать его нынешней численности населения 5 млрд. человек и, вероятно, 8 млрд. человек в 21 веке.

Сейчас мы с использованием традиционных источников энергии, то есть нефти, природного газа, угля, воды и энергии при потреблении более 50 млрд. баррелей в год. Совершенно очевидно, что эти источники не являются неограниченными.

Вот почему так важно использовать такие возобновляемые источники энергии, как солнце, ветер, геотермальная энергия и другие. Исследования проводятся в таких областях.

одним из наиболее перспективных научных исследований является разработка мощность станции с прямым преобразованием солнечной энергии в elecricity на основе фото-эффект. было, что Россия была первой в мире по разработке и испытанию на фотоэлектрические батареи 32000 вольт и эффективной площадью 0,5 кв.м., что позволило сосредоточить солнечной радиации. эта идея в настоящее время интенсивно развивается во многих странах.

Вместе с тем, эффективность солнечной электростанции значительно сократилась из-за ограниченного времени его работы в течение года. но можно повысить эффективность солнечных электростанций путем разработки различных комбинаций солнечных электростанций и традиционными - тепловых, атомных и гидравлических. Сегодня someengineers работают над этой проблемой развивающихся электростанций с использованием тепловой-химическим циклом. Она будет функционировать на продукты преобразования солнечной энергии, в то время как "солнечные" химического реактора используется СО2 и водяного пара из ТЭЦ. В результате этого мы имеем замкнутый цикл.

на Камчатке Есть геотермальных электростанций, работающих на горячей воды паровых смеси с глубины около километра. В некоторых проектах вода будет нагреваться в теплом горы на глубине четырех-пяти километров.

Предполагается, что заводы работают над энергией солнечного тепла, представленная солнце будет строиться на более широком масштабе.

что различные ветроэнергетических установок в настоящее время разрабатываются также хорошо известны. этих энергетических установок может быть небольшой (несколько киловатт) и большой мощных систем.

Важно, что все эти успехи в разработке новых источников энергии и улучшение старых решать энергетические проблемы в целом, и они не имеют негативного воздействия на окружающую среду.

telegraph

benjamin franklin, an american who is famous for his interesting and useful inventions, published his ideas about electricity in 1752. scientists in many countries became interested in this wonderful form of energy. they wanted to find the answer to a very important question: could the electricity be usedto develop a fast, efficient system of long-distance communication? experiments proved that electricity could travel instantly over a very long piece of wire. but a note that was written on a pice of paper couldn't be put into a wire. how could elecricity be used to send a message? a danish scientist discovered that electricity could move a needle from left to right and that the needle could be pointed at letters on a piece of paper. then a german goverment worker made up a code system that could be used with an electric needle. in 1837 two english scintists sent amessage by electric telegraph for a distance of more than 1.6 km.

samuel morse, an american portrait painted, was experimenting with an electric telegraph too. at first he connected a pencil to an electric wire. when the electricity came through the wire the pencil made wavy lines. then morse invented a code that used dots and dashes for the letters of the alphabet. finally, he discovered that telegraph messages did not have to be written, they could be sent in sound.

on may 24, 1844, the first long-distance message was sent by telegraph for 64 km.

telegraph companies were formed in many cities. by 1861 telegraph wires stretched from the atlantic to the pacific. in europe too, samuel morse's system became popular.

but telegraph wires couldn't be hung over an ocean. messages to and from europe had to be sent by ship - a journey of two or three weeks. a new method was needed.

the atlantic telegraph company which was organized in 1856 wanted to try to lay a cable on the floor of the atlantic ocean. the 4000 km cable broke three times. each time a new cable had to be made. finally, on july 27, 1866, the first transatlantic message was sent from newfoundland to ireland.

later cabels were laid to central an south america. after 1900 transpacific cabels were laid to asia and australia. at last news and business information could be sent instantly to almost every country in the world.

Телеграф
Бенджамин Франклин, американский, который славится своей интересной и полезной изобретений, опубликовал свои идеи по поводу электроэнергии в 1752. ученые во многих странах стал интересоваться этой прекрасной форме энергии. они хотят, чтобы найти ответ на очень важный вопрос: может ли быть электричество usedto создать быструю, эффективную систему дальней связи? Эксперименты доказали, что электричество может мгновенно поездок в течение очень долгого кусок проволоки. но отмечают, что было написано на ПИКЕ бумаги не могут быть введены в провода. elecricity, каким мог бы быть использован для отправки сообщения? датский ученый обнаружил, что электричество может двигаться стрелки слева направо, и о том, что игла может быть наведен на буквами на листе бумаги. то правительство Германии работника составила код системы, которые могут быть использованы с электрической иглой. В 1837 два английских scintists направил amessage электрического телеграфа на расстоянии более 1,6 км.

Самуэль Морзе, американский портрет краской, было экспериментировать с электрическим телеграф тоже. Сначала он подключен карандашом в электрический провод. когда электроэнергия пришла через проволоку карандаш выступил волнистые линии. Затем Морзе изобрел код, который используется точек и тире в буквы алфавита. Наконец, он обнаружил, что телеграфных сообщений не должно быть написано, они могут быть отправлены в звуке.

24 мая 1844 года первая дальняя сообщение было отправлено по телеграфу в 64 км.

телеграфных компаний были созданы во многих городах. в 1861 телеграфных проводов простиралась от Атлантики до Тихого океана. В Европе тоже Самуэль Морзе система стала популярной.

телеграфных проводов, но не может быть висела над океаном. сообщений и из Европы, который будет направлен на корабль - путешествие из двух или трех недель. новый метод необходим.

Атлантический океан телеграфной компании, которая была организована в 1856 году хотели, чтобы попытаться заложить кабель на полу в Атлантический океан. 4000 км кабеля сломал три раза. Каждый раз новую кабеля должна быть осуществлена. Наконец, 27 июля 1866 года первый трансатлантический сообщение было отправлено из Ньюфаундленда в Ирландию.

Позднее кабели были заложены в центральном в Южной Америке. после 1900 года пересекающий Тихий кабели были заложены в Азию и Австралию. на последние новости и бизнес-информации может быть направлен мгновенно почти в каждой стране мира.

telephone

alexander graham bell never planned to be an inventor, he wanted to be a musician or a teacher of deaf people. the subjects that he studied at school incuded music, art, literature, latin and greek. they did not include german which all scientists used in their books. alexander's mother was a painter and musician. his father was a wel-known teacher of deaf people.

when alexander was only sixteen, he became a teacher in boy's school in scotland. he liked teaching there, but he still wanted to become a teacher of deaf people as his father.

he read all the books about sound that he could find and started to work on some of his own experiments.

at twenty five alexander became interested in finding a way to send human voice through an electric wire. the parents of his pupils contributed money for the equipment. he found an assistant, tom watson, who worked in an electrical shop. for two years tom and alexander were working together to build a machine that people could use to talk to one another over long distances. after two years, the two young men were becoming discouraged. then, one day, when they were working on a new transmitter alexander spilled some acid on himself. tom watson, who was alone in another room, heard a voice. the voice was coming through a wire to a receiver on the table! the voice was alexander bell's!!! it was saying: "come here, mr. watson. i need you!"

the first telephone line was built in germany in 1877. by 1915 a telephone line was opened in the united states - 5440 km. from new york to san francisco.

now design bureaus all over the world are conducting experiments to develop video-phone or picture phone. a young man in moscow wants to speak to his friend in vladivostok. he lifts his telephone receiver, dials a number. after a very short time his friend answers. as he pick up his receiver, his picture appears on the screen. they can speak to each other face to face because they are using a new kind of telephone which may be called "a video-phone". in addition to the usual telephone, the equipment includes a small television camera. the camera tube will allow the user to switch from a wide view of the room to the face of the person speaking. the focus can be changed to give clear pictures of objects 0.3, 0.9 and 6.0 meters away from the camera. there is also a mirror attachment, which allows the camera to scan documents which may be lying on the table. the camera adjusts itself automatically to different lighting conditions.

телефон

Александр Грэм Белл никогда не запланировано изобретателя, он хотел быть музыкантом или учитель глухих людей. субъектов, что он учился в школе incuded музыка, искусство, литература, латинский и греческий. они не включают все немецкие ученые, которые использовали в своих книгах. Мать Александра была художником и музыкантом. его отец был известным wel учитель глухих людей.

, когда Александру было только шестнадцать, он стал учителем в школе мальчика в Шотландии. Он любил преподавание там, но он по-прежнему хотят, чтобы стать учителем глухих, как его отец.

он прочел все книги о звук, что он может найти и приступили к работе над некоторыми из своих собственных экспериментов.

на двадцать пять Александр стал заинтересованы в нахождении пути для передачи человеческого голоса с помощью электрических проводов. родители его учеников способствовали деньги на оборудование. он нашел ассистент, Том Уотсон, который работал в магазине электрооборудования. в течение двух лет Том и Александр работают вместе, чтобы построить машины, которые люди могут использовать для разговора друг с другом на больших расстояниях. После двух лет, двух молодых людей становятся поощряется. Затем в один прекрасный день, когда они работают над новым передатчиком Александр разлито около кислоты на себя. Том Уотсон, который был один в другой комнате, услышал голос. голос идет через один провод к ресиверу на стол! голос был Александр Белла!!! он сказал: "сюда, мистер. Уотсона. Мне нужно тебе!"

первая телефонная линия была построена в Германии в 1877 году. в 1915 телефонная линия была открыта в США - 5440 км. из Нью-Йорка в Сан-Франциско.

Сейчас конструкторских бюро во всем мире проводят эксперименты по разработке видео-телефон или изображение телефона. молодой человек в Москве, хочет поговорить со своим другом во Владивостоке. Он поднимает его телефона трубку, набирает номер. через очень короткое время своего друга ответов. он выберет в качестве своего приемника, то его изображение появляется на экране. они могут говорить друг с другом с глазу на глаз, поскольку они используют новый вид телефона, которая может быть названа "видео-телефон". В дополнение к обычному телефону, оборудование включает в себя небольшой телевизионной камерой. камеры трубка позволит пользователю переключаться с широким видом на комнату в лице лицо выступая. фокус может быть изменен давать четкие изображения объектов, 0,3, 0,9 и 6,0 метров от камеры. Имеется также зеркало вложений, который позволяет камере для сканирования документов, которые могут лежать на столе. камера автоматически настраивает себя на различных условиях освещения.

London, its history and development.

it is known that area around london was inhabited by the celts. later the romans founded a military camp there. the camp developed into a port. the area of about 1 square mile where the romans built their fortifications corresponds approximately to today present city of london. london was the capital of one of the roman provinces of britian. after the romans left britian, london became less important and suffered greatly from the danes and vikings. it was under henry the first in the 12th century that london finally became the capital of england. in the 16th century london, with its 500000 inhabitants, was the largest city in england. under queen elizabeth the first in the 17 th century england dominated the oceans and became the empire. it is in the elizabeth age that art, culture and literature flowered, especially in london. over the centuries london became the center of a constantly growing empire. the empire reached its apex under queen victoria. industrialization and the expansion of international trade brought london power, growth and cultural and economic development. in the first and second world wars london was ruines considerably.

some 9 million people now live in london and its suburds, and the city covers an area of 620 square miles, making it one of the largest of the world's capitals. one reason for its size is that the english people like to live in small houses and have small gardens. as a result, less than 5000 people live in the city of london, while more than half a million come here to work in the daytime. today london is the capital of great britian and also the seat of the royal family, the parlament, the major administrative bodies and scientific institutions.

the houses of parlament stand on the bank of the thames at westminseter abbey. actually it is one building but it is called "houses" as it consists of two chambers: the house of lords and the house of commons. it was set up in the 13th century. at one end of the houses of parlament there is a tower with a large clock. the largest bell, known as big ben, chimes in the hour.

westminster abbey was a monastery built in the 18 century. it is one of the best examples of the early english architecture. the kings and queens of england are buried there. many great states-men, writers and poets are also buried there.

in the centre of london there is one of the most beautiful squares - trafalgar squre which was named so to commemorate nelson's victory in the battle of trafalgar. there is the monument in its centre known as nelson's column.

in the vicinity of trafalgar square is whitehall which is now a street of government officies. not far from whitehall is downing street. number 10 downing street is the residece of the prime minister of england. the cabinet meets there. one must mention the british museum. it is one of the most extensive and valuable museum in west europe, it was founded in 1753. it also compries the national library. there are other numerous museums and galleries displaying interesting finds from all parts of the world and from all stages in the development of nature, man and art. there are also two large opera houses, the national theatre and 50 other theatres. monuments of past greatness are very where in london.

2D

Лондон, его историю и развитие.

Известно, что область вокруг Лондона была населена кельтов. Позднее римляне основали военный лагерь там. лагерь превратился в порт. на площади около 1 квадратная миля, где римляне построили свою укреплению приблизительно соответствует сегодня Лондон. Лондон стал столицей одной из римских провинций britian. после того, римляне оставили britian, Лондон стал менее важным и в значительной степени пострадала от датчан и викингов. Именно под Генри первым в 12-м веке, наконец, что Лондон стал столицей Англии. В 16 веке Лондон, с 500000 жителей, является крупнейшим городом в Англии. Королевы Елизаветы в рамках первой в 17-м веке в Англии преобладали океан и стала империей. именно в том, что Элизабет возраста искусству, культуре и литературе цветами, особенно в Лондоне. на протяжении веков Лондон стал центром постоянно растущей империи. империя достигла своего пика в соответствии королева Виктория. индустриализации и расширения международной торговли доведено Лондон питания, роста и культурное и экономическое развитие. в первой и второй мировых войн, Лондон был ruines значительно.

примерно 9 млн. человек в настоящее время проживает в Лондоне и его suburds и город занимает площадь в 620 квадратных миль, что делает его одним из крупнейших в мире столиц. Одна из причин, по его размеру, что английский народ хотел жить в небольших домах и имеют небольшие сады. В результате, менее чем 5000 человек живут в Лондон, в то время как более чем на полмиллиона человек приезжают сюда на работу в дневное время. Сегодня Лондон является столицей великой britian, а также местом пребывания королевской семьи, парламента, крупные административные органы и научные учреждения.

дома Parlament стоять на берегу Темзы в westminseter аббатство. на самом деле это одно здание, но его называют "дом", как он состоит из двух палат: палаты лордов и палаты общин. он был создан в 13 веке. в один конец дома Парламента находится башня с большим часам. крупнейший колокол, известный как Биг Бен, курантами в час.

Вестминстерское аббатство монастырь был построен в 18 веке. Это один из лучших образцов ранней английской архитектуры. королей и королев Англии похоронены там. множество великих государств-мужчин, писателей и поэтов, также похоронены там.

в самом центре Лондона находится один из самых красивых площадей - Трафальгарскую squre которого был назван так в память победы Нельсона на Трафальгарской битве. есть памятник в центре известного как Нельсон столб.

в непосредственной близости от Трафальгарской площади Уайтхолла который в настоящее время на улице правительства officies. не далеко от Whitehall является Даунинг-стрит. Номер 10 Даунинг-стрит является residece из премьер-министра Англии. Кабинету встречает там. надо отметить, Британский музей. Она является одним из наиболее обширные и ценные музея в Западной Европе, она была основана в 1753 году. Он также compries национальной библиотеки. Существуют и многие другие музеи и галереи отображения интересные находки из всех частей мира, и из всех этапах развития природы, человека и искусство. Есть также два больших оперных театров, Национального театра, и 50 других театров. памятники прошлого величия очень где в Лондоне.

a lot of — много;
to be able to — мочь, быть в состоянии

Text 4A (страница 67)
Прочитайте текст и найдите абзацы, содержащие информацию о разви¬тии различных видов телевизионных систем в хронологической последова¬тельности. Переведите.
Television
The television set is evidently the most important and popular electronic product of all lime. All homes in developed countries have one or more TV sets and in many countries there are consider¬ably more TV sets than telephones.
But in 1939 at the World's Fair in New York a tiny nine-by-twelve inch box was the centre of attention for hundreds of people. They were the first to see a television set in action. Compared to to¬day's TV shows of underwater and outer-space research, those first black-white pictures were not very good. The pictures were only transmitted from one side of the Fair territory to the other. But in 1939 they were of historical importance.
Within a few days the news of television spread throughout the world. A lot of people wanted to have a look1 at the new invention. Everyone was interested in it. But only few people owned television sets in the next few years. When World War II broke out2 electronic factories that began the TV production stopped making them and started making war materials instead. When the war was over, TV sets began coming off factory assembly lines. By 1958 there were millions of them.
In a surprisingly short time people watched fewer films and turned from newspapers and magazines to TV. In its short history television has had great influence on people's life and way of think¬ing. Rocket-launching, concerts and football and tennis matches can be seen direct as they occur. The boundaries of time and space have disappeared.
At present TV communication is provided with the help of a system of artificial earth satellites so that people living in different parts of the country and all over the world and in different time zones are able to watch the central TV programs at the most conve¬nient hours.
Nowadays many countries also have cable TV, a system using wires for the transmission of television programs (like telephone calls). Cable television first appeared in 1949 as a means of trans¬mitting TV signals to rural and mountain areas far from big cities. Cable television's next big step forward was made by the mid — 1980s. Scientists announced that many technical problems had been solved and in the future it would be possible via satellite and cable TV to use more channels on a TV set at every home in the world.
Then we saw how a new technical invention, colour television, was rapidly replacing black-and-white television. Recently it was reported that the first pocket-size3 colour television set had been developed. It was stated that a liquid-crystal display4 was used sim¬ilar to those on calculators and watches and that it weighed less than a pound.
A few years ago it became evident that the next major advance for TV would be digital television. In a digital system the usual con¬tinuous signal is replaced by a digital code containing detailed in¬formation on brightness, colour, etc. A digital TV set hangs on the wall like a picture. Essentially, it is a minicomputer with a visual display. Once a week5 you put the programs you like into the memory, and the TV set will automatically switch on the desired channel at the right time. You can watch several programs simulta¬neously on miniscreens and then produce one of them in full for¬mat. Also, the TV set can automatically video-record the programs when you are absent or occupied.
By the end of 1980s television has moved to a new and the most important stage in its development since the appearance of colour television. Technically it is called high-definition television (HDTV)6 or Hi-Vision. This is the much higher resolution tele¬vision7 of the 21st century. This revolution was started by Japanese manufacturers when they developed a new video system with a pic¬ture resembling a wide-screen film more than traditional television. The new system increases the screen's width-to-height ratio8 (16:9). The result is a picture several limes sharper than in the exist¬ing TV sets. Besides, recent developments in plasma display panel technology9 make HDTV commercially practicable. The plasma display makes it possible to produce a large, bright, colour, flat TV screen so thin and light that it can also be hung on a wall like a framed picture. The engineering problem that has existed almost since the first days of television may be solved now.
Notes to the Text
1. to have a look — взглянуть, посмотреть
2. to break out — начаться, разразиться
3. pocket-size — карманный
4. liquid-crystal display — устройство изображения на жид¬ких кристаллах
5. once a week — раз в неделю
6. high-definition television (HDTV) — телевидение высокой четкости
7. high resolution television — телевидение с большим разре¬шением
8. width-to-height ratio — отношение ширины к высоте
9. plasma display panel technology — производство плазмен¬ных панелей
Text 4B (страница 76)
Прочитайте текст и найдите информацию о том, в каких странах ученые работали над созданием телеграфной связи, какие трудности встретились при этом. Перескажите.
Telegraph
Benjamin Franklin, an American who is famous for his inter¬esting and useful inventions, published his ideas about electricity in 1752. Scientists in many countries became interested in this won¬derful form of energy. They wanted to find the answer to a very im¬portant question: could the electricity be used to develop a fast, efficient system of long-distance communication? Experiments proved that electricity could travel instantly over a very long piece of wire. But a note that was written on a piece of paper couldn't be put into a wire. How could electricity be used to send a message? A Danish scientist discovered that electricity could move a needle from left to right and that the needle could be pointed at letters on a piece of paper. Then a German government worker made up a code system that could be used with an electric needle. In 1837 two English scientists sent a message by electric telegraph for a distance of more than 1,6 kilometers.
Samuel Morse, an American portrait painter, was experiment¬ing with an electric telegraph too. At first he connected a pencil to an electric wire. When the electricity came through the wire the pencil made wavy lines. Then Morse invented a code that used dots and dashes for the letters of the alphabet. Finally, he discovered thaе telegraph messages did not have to be written, they could be sent in sound.
On May 24, 1844, the first long-distance message was sent by telegraph for 64 kilometers.
Telegraph companies were formed in many cities. By 1861 tele¬graph wires stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In Europe too. Samuel Morse's system became popular.
But telegraph wires couldn't be hung over an ocean. Messages to and from Europe had to be sent by ship — a journey of two or three weeks. A new method was needed.
The Atlantic Telegraph Company which was organized in 1856 wanted to try to lay a cable on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. The 4,000-kilometer cable broke three times. Each time a new cable had to be made. Finally, on July 27, 1866, the first transatlantic message was sent from Newfoundland to Ireland.
Later cables were laid to Central and South America. After 1900 transpacific cables were laid to Asia and Australia. At last news and business information could be sent instantly to almost every country in the world.
Text 4C (страница 77)
Прочитайте текст и ответьте на следующие вопросы:
1. Какие биографические факты из жизни изобретателя телефона приве¬дены в тексте?
2. Какие другие факты, кроме приведенных, вы знаете об изобретателе телефона?
3. Что нового вы узнали из текста? Соотнесите факты, относящиеся к истории развития телефонной связи, со следующими датами: 1877 г. и 1915 г.
Telephone
Alexander Graham Bell never planned to be an inventor, he wanted to be a musician or a teacher of deaf people (глухих). The subjects that he studied at school included music, art, literature, Latin and Greek. They did not include German which all scientists used in their books. Alexander's mother was a painter and a musi¬cian. His father was a well-known teacher of deaf people.
When Alexander was only sixteen, he became a teacher in boy's school in Scotland. He liked teaching there, but he still wanted to become a teacher of deaf people as his father.
He read all the books about sound that he could find and started to work on some of his own experiments.
At twenty five Alexander became interested in finding a way to send human voice through an electric wire. The parents of his pu¬pils contributed money for the equipment. He found an assistant, Tom Watson, who worked in an electrical shop. For two years Tom and Alexander were working together to build a machine that peo¬ple could use to talk to one another over long distances. After two years, the two young men were becoming discouraged (опустились руки). Then, one day, when they were working on a new transmit¬ter Alexander spilled some acid (пролить кислоту) on himself. Tom Watson, who was alone in another room, heard a voice. The voice was coming through a wire to a receiver on the table! The voice was Alexander Bell's! It was saying: «Come here, Mr. Wat¬son. I need you!»
The first telephone line was built in Germany in 1877. By 1915 a telephone line was opened in the United States — 5,440 kilome¬ters from New York to San Francisco.
Now design bureaus all over the world are conducting experi¬ments to develop video-phone or picture phone. A young man in Moscow wants to speak to his friend in Vladivostok. He lifts his telephone receiver, dials a number. After a very short time his friend answers. As he picks up his receiver, his picture appears on the screen. They can speak to each other face to face because they are using a new kind of telephone which may be called «a video-phone». In addition to the usual telephone, the equipment includes a small television screen (14 cm by 13 cm) and, combined with the screen, a television camera. The camera tube will allow the user to switch from a wide view of the room to the face of the per¬son speaking. The focus can be changed to give clear pictures of objects 0.3,0.9 and 6.0 meters away from the camera. There is also a mirror attachment, which allows the camera to scan documents which may be lying on the table. The camera adjusts itself auto¬matically to different lighting conditions.
Text 4D (страница 78)
Прочитайте и перескажите текст.
Talking via Space
Communication has come a long way from the time when an In¬dian beat a drum (барабан) in the forest to the lime when a scientist receives messages from a satellite. In this space age communication has become a highly developed field. The system of communication in large countries is unthinkable today without space satellites. Besides large distances, there is a great time difference: the territo¬ries of some countries comprise up to 11 zones. Satellites help to minimize all the difficulties that may appear. They rapidly transmit TV and radio programs to different towns, cities, and distant areas.
Space systems and electronic technology have made it possible to set up an automatic system of communication designed for rapid transmission of all kinds of information.
People write letters and send telegrams. But at the same time people living in various cities like to exchange (обмениваться) news on the telephone. Statistics reports that the number of long¬distance telephone calls is about 2, 000 million per year. A person in Moscow talking on the phone with Vladivostok must know that this conversation is carried on through a satellite.
Trains and cars can use mobile radio telephones to make calls. Businessmen can use fax machines which provide electronic trans¬mission of documents and messages over telephone lines. Even photographs can be sent and received over telephone wires.
Practically all the population in large countries can watch TV via satellites. The orbital communication systems make it possible for people from different continents to sec and hear one another.
The importance of space means of communication is increasing every year. The communication satellites of the international orga¬nization «INTERSAT» enable people to keep reliable telephone, telegraph, telex and fax communication in any weather with ships practically in every part of the World Ocean.

battery-operated p.p. — работающий на батареях
Text 9A (страница 175)
Прочитайте и переведите текст. Ответьте на следующие вопросы:
В каких странах ведутся работы по созданию погружаемых аппаратов?
Каковы особенности погружаемых аппаратов нового типа?
Descending to New Ocean Depths
We know little about the ocean yet. The dream of exploring un¬der the waves is almost as old as seagoing. Legend says that Alexan¬der the Great submerged himself in a round glass container, and Leonardo da Vinci designed a submersible vehicle in his notebooks centuries before Jules Verne wrote «Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea». If their dreams had been realized and such a craft had been constructed, mankind would have known about the secrets of Ocean much earlier. However, already during the Swiss National Fair in 1964 a submersible vehicle took thousands of people deep into Lake Geneva.
Not long ago, the crafts that penetrated the ocean depths were almost as primitive as the marine life they watched around them. However, non-military deep sea ships, so-called submersibles, were progressing rapidly. Russian, French, Japanese and American scientists are developing crafts that can submerge deeper, stay lon¬ger and find out more than earlier apparatuses.
Soon, one of the most advanced crafts, a one passenger sub¬merging ship, will be tested. It may be able to take explorers and technicians deeper than ever before (up to 3,300 feet) and perform difficult underwater tasks with extreme precision.
This new submersible is essentially a spherical transparent plastic hull1 mounted on a metal platform. It looks like an underwater heli¬copter and can manoeuvre itself in its water environment with some of the versatility2 of a helicopter due to the use of a cycloid rotor3 instead of conventional marine-propeller screws4. It is expected that this apparatus will move around the ocean like a sports car.
However, the breakthrough5 that will make this particular с quite different from other manned submersibles is a mechanical hand called the sensory manipulator system6. Miniature video cameras on the «wrist» of the manipulator provide it with vision and microphones enable the submersible to «hear». This manipula¬tor system is designed to lift up to 120 pounds and will also be able to perform such accurate scientific work as collecting samples of ocean-floor minerals and marine life. When demonstrated, it lifted crystal glasses, drew pictures and wrote with a pen.
Some scientists are trying to develop the world's deepest manned submersible. When completed, it will be capable of sub¬merging to the depths of 21,000 feet. Its crew will be in a pres¬sure-resistant titanium-alloy cabin. This craft will be driven by a battery-operated electric motor and will work for up to nine hours. It will record images with colour television and stereo cameras and will collect samples by manipulating two robotic arms.
If such crafts are constructed on a large scale, we shall be able not only to spend our holidays enjoying the underwater life, but also grow and cultivate sea plants, fish and pearls. It will be possible provided scientists, designers and politicians from all over the world join their efforts and solve the most important problems in this field.
Notes to the Text
1. transparent plastic hull — прозрачный пластмассовый
корпус
2. versatility — свобода передвижения
3. cycloid rotor — несущий винт циклоидного типа
4. marine-propeller screw — судовой гребной винт
5. breakthrough — радикальное решение
6. sensory manipulator system — сенсорная система манипу¬лятора
Text 9B (страница 186)
Прочитайте текст и озаглавьте его. Ответьте на следующие вопросы: Какую новую информацию вы нашли в тексте?
За счет чего можно устранить недостатки в существующих погружаемых аппаратах?

Now most submersibles are connected with a support ship on the surface. This connection is an armoured cable measuring an inch or two in diameter and weighing up to 10 tons and it transmits power and navigational commands to the submersible, as well as sends sensor data and television images back to the support ship. Cables allow submersibles to transmit data at a great speed, but they limit the range of territory studied and have many disadvan¬tages in operation.
Autonomous underwater submersibles can move freely. Con¬trolled by on-board microprocessors or by acoustic signals trans¬mitted by a ship on the surface, battery-operated submersibles can cover much greater areas. They can operate under ice and in very deep water. Such three-ton unmanned crafts can submerge to the depth of almost 20,000 feet and stay there for up to seven hours. High quality images of the ocean bottom can be transmitted to the support ship in three to four seconds (because of the slow speed — about 5,000 feet per second through water — acoustic data trans¬mission is much less quick than signals sent via cable which travel at the speed of light).
But even these most advanced submersibles have definite disad¬vantages: batteries are heavy, data transmission is slow and com¬puter programs are primitive. Future submersibles may overcome those difficulties. Some may be propelled by nuclear power or by fuel cells (топливные элементы) that use oxygen from the sea water. Many of them will rely on signal-compression techniques to speed up acoustic data links. Computerized systems will enable some submersibles to repair damaged telephone cables or oil plat¬forms. If research work in this field continues to expand at its present rate, the number of radically different kind of more effi¬cient crafts will appear very soon.
Text 9C (страница 186)
Прочитайте текст. Назовите особенности современного спасательного средства на воде и принцип его действия.
Lifeboats
Even though we now have ships of a kind unknown in earlier centuries, we are still very far from mastering the sea. The Greek sailor who was shipwrecked (терпеть кораблекрушение) on his way home from Troy and the sailor of tomorrow whose nuclear-powered cargo ship might be on fire both face the same dangers. They may drown (тонуть), and so they need to keep afloat. They may die, and so they need to keep themselves covered and dry. Rescuers (спасатель) may never find them, and so they need to send signals.
The Greek sailor at the time of the Trojan war had only a small chance of survival (спасение). The sailor of tomorrow has a greater chance, especially if the ship has one of the new rescue crafts on board.
One such lifeboat looks more like a flying saucer (тарелка) than a boat. Sailors on board a ship which is in trouble can get into the capsule, close the water-tight doors and operate the controls which drop the capsule automatically into the sea. Made of glass fibre (стекловолокно) the capsule will float on the sea and will not be dragged down by the sinking ship. It will protect the men inside from explosions, fire and extreme cold. It has a thirty-kilowatt diesel engine and so can carry survivors to the coast. To help rescue ship and aircraft to find it, the upper part of the capsule is covered with a special orange paint which can be detected by radar. Each capsule is large enough for twenty eight men.
Text 9D (страница 187)
Прочитайте текст. Расскажите по-английски, что вы узнали об истории Гринвича и его сегодняшнем дне.
Greenwich
Greenwich is on the river Thames, five miles from the middle of London, and its story is 2,000 years old. The first English people — the Saxons — were fishermen there and they gave Greenwich its name — «the green village».
You can still walk along the old Roman road in Greenwich park. But the river was the true road to the outside world for the Romans and for English kings and queens who later lived in Greenwich.
The King Henry VIII loved this place. He knew that England must be strong at sea. So two big shipyards were started at Greenwich and for 350 years the ships made there were the best in the world.
Many ships were lost at sea — their sailors did not know how to tell exactly where they were.
In the 17th century astronomer Flamstead tried to find the an¬swer. He worked in an Observatory on the high ground in Green¬wich park. The walls of its big light-sided (непрочной) room shook when the weather was bad. But from it, with a telescope made by himself, Flamstead could look all round the sky. And he did look night after night for twenty years. Carrying on Flamstead's work a hundred years later, an astronomer called Harrison finally made a clock which told the time at sea and helped sailors to know where they were. You can see Harrison's clock, still working in Green¬wich museum of the sea. Because of Flamstead's work every coun¬try in the world now tells its time by Greenwich time.
Every year a million people come to Greenwich to see its mu¬seums and palaces and its two famous ships: one old, one new. Both the big CUTTY SARK and the little GYPSY MOTH sailed through dangerous waters before they came safely back to their Greenwich home. At the end of the 1800's the CUTTY SARK was the fastest ship of its size. Carrying more than a million kilos of tea, she travelled the 25,000 kilometeres from China to England in only hundred days.
Next to the CUTTY SARK is the GYPSY MOTH - only 16.5 metres long, but full of newest equipment. Her captain Sir F. Chichester wanted his ship to sail as far and as fast as the CUTTY SARK. When he sailed round the world by himself in CYPSY MOTH in 1966 - the first man ever to do this - he took a flag from the CUTTY SARK with him.

to meet the demands, the requirements — удовлетво¬рять требованиям
in order to — для того чтобы
power plant — силовая установка, электростанция

Text 10A (страница 198)
Прочитайте текст и найдите абзацы, где говорится о применении лазеров. Переведите.
Laser
In the «War of Worlds» written before the turn of the last cen¬tury H. Wells told a fantastic story of how Martians almost invaded our Earth. Their weapon was a mysterious «sword of heat». Today Wells' sword of heat has come to reality in the laser. The name stands for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.
Laser, one of the most sophisticated inventions of man, pro¬duces an intensive beam of light of a very pure single colour. It rep¬resents the fulfilment of one of the mankind's oldest dreams of technology to provide1 a light beam intensive enough to vaporize the hardest and most heat-resistant materials. It can indeed make lead run like water, or, when focused, it can vaporize any substance on the earth. There is no material unamenable2 to laser treatment and laser will become one of the main technological tools quite soon.
The applications of laser in industry and science are so many and so varied as to suggest magic3. Scientists in many countries are working at a very interesting problem: combining the two big tech¬nological discoveries of the second half of the 20th century — laser and thermonuclear reaction — to produce a practically limitless source of energy. Physicists of this country have developed large la¬ser installations to conduct physical experiments in heating ther¬monuclear fuel with laser beams. There also exists an idea to use laser for solving the problem of controlled thermonuclear reaction. The laser beam must heat the fuel to the required temperature so quickly that the plasma does not have time to disintegrate. Accord¬ing to current estimates, the duration of the pulse has to be approx¬imately a billionth of a second. The light capacity of this pulse would be dozens of times greater than the capacity of all the world's power plants. To meet such demands in practice, scientists and engineers must work hard as it is clear that a lot of difficulties are to be encountered on route4.
The laser's most important potential may be its use in commu¬nications. The intensity of a laser can be rapidly changed to encode very complex signals. In principle, one laser beam, vibrating a bil¬lion times faster than ordinary radio waves, could carry the radio, TV and telephone messages of the world simultaneously. In just a fraction of a second, for example, one laser beam could transmit the entire text of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Besides, there are projects to use lasers for long distance com¬munication and for transmission of energy to space stations, to the surface of the Moon or to planets in the Solar system. Projects have also been suggested to place lasers aboard Earth satellites nearer to the Sun in order to transform the solar radiation into laser beams, with this transformed energy subsequently transmitted to the Earth or to other space bodies. These projects have not yet been put into effect5, because of the great technological difficulties to be over¬come and, therefore, the great cost involved. But there is no doubt that in time6 these projects will be realized and the laser beam will begin operating in outer space as well.
Notes to the Text
1. to provide — получать
2. unamenable — неподдающийся
3. «is to suggest magic — можно принять за чудо
4. on route — на пути
5. put into effect — осуществлять
6. in time — со временем
Text 10B (страница 207)
Прочитайте текст и найдите информацию о преимуществах применения оптических волокон в технике связи; о том. что послужило основой разра¬ботки систем оптической связи, а также о практическом применении опти¬ческой технологии Соотнесите отмеченные в тексте факты со следующими датами; I960, 1970, 1982 гг. Изложите эту информацию по-английски.
Optical Technology
One of the most interesting developments in telecommunica¬tion is the rapid progress of optical communication where optical fibers are replacing conventional telephone wires and cables. Just as digital technologies greatly improved the telephone system, opti¬cal communication promises a considerable increase in capacity, quality, performance and reliability of the global telecommunica¬tion network. New technologies such as optical fibers will increase the speed of telecommunication and provide new, specialized in-information service. Voice, computer data, even video images, will be increasingly integrated into a single digital communication network capable of processing and transmitting virtually any kind of information.
It is a result of combining two technologies: the laser, first dem¬onstrated in 1960, and the fabrication 10 years later of ultra-thin silicon fibres which can serve as lightwave conductors. With the further development of very efficient lasers plus continually im¬proved techniques to produce thin silica fibres of incredible trans¬parency, optical systems can transmit pulses of light as far as 135 kilometers without the need for amplification or regeneration.
At present high-capacity optical transmission systems are being installed between many major US cities at a rapid rate. The system most widely used now operates at 147 megabits (thousand bits) per second and accommodates 6,000 circuits over a single pair of glass fibres (one for each direction of transmission). This system will soon be improved to operate at 1.7 gigabits (thousand million bits) per second and handle 24,000 telephone channels simultaneously.
A revolution in information storage is underway with optical disk technology.
The first digital optical disks were produced in 1982 as compact disks for music. They were further developed as a storage medium for computers. The disks are made of plastics coated with alu¬minium. The information is recorded by using a powerful laser to imprint bubbles on the surface of the disk. A less powerful laser reads back the pictures, sound or information. An optical disk is al¬most indestructible and can store about 1000 times more informa¬tion than a plastic disk of the same size.
One CD-ROM disk (650 MB) can replace 300,000 pages of text (about 500 floppies), which represents a lot of savings in databases.
The future of optical storage is called DVD (digital versatile disk). A DVD-ROM can hold up to 17 GB, about 25 times an ordi¬nary CD-ROM. For this reason, it can store a large amount of mul¬timedia software and complete full-screen Hollywood movies in different languages. However, DVD-ROMs are «read-only» de¬vices. To avoid this limitation, companies also produce DVD rewritable drives.
Besides, it is reported that an optical equivalent of a transistor has been produced and intensive research on optical electronic computers is underway at a number of US companies as well as in countries around the world.
It is found that optical technology is cost-effective and versa¬tile. It finds new applications every day — from connecting com¬munication equipment or computers within the same building or room to long-distance transcontinental, transoceanic and space communications.
Text 10C (страница 209)
Прочитайте текст и расскажите о практическом применении лазеров.
An Encyclopedia on a Tiny Crystal
Scientists have discovered that a laser beam can be effectively used to record alphanumeric data and sound on crystals. According to Russian researchers a method for recording information on crys¬tals by means of a laser has already been developed, but advanced technologies are needed to make it commercially applicable.
At present researchers are looking for the most suitable chemi¬cal compounds to be used as data storages and trying to determine optimum recording conditions. Theoretically, the entire «Great Soviet Encyclopedia» can be recorded on a single tiny crystal.
As far back as 1845, Michael Faradey discovered that a light beam reverses its polarization as it passes through a magnetized crystal. Scientists of our day have used this phenomenon to identify crystalline materials capable of storing information. Lasers have been successfully employed to record information on and read it off.
No ideal data storage crystal has yet been found, but it is obvi¬ous now that the future of computer engineering lies in lasers and optoelectronics.
Text 10D (страница 209)
Прочитайте текст и найдите примеры все возрастающей тенденции к более тесному международному сотрудничеству. Почему такое сотрудничество необ¬ходимо? Назовите страны-участницы такого сотрудничества. Запомните произ¬ношение названий стран.
Science and International Cooperation
One of the most striking features of modern science is the in¬creasing tendency towards closer cooperation between scientists and scientific organizations (institutions) all over the world. In fact, it is becoming more and more evident that many of the prob¬lems that affect the world today cannot be solved without joining scientific efforts and material resources on a world-wide scale. The exploration of space, world finance, global environment protection problems and the development of new sources of power are the ex¬amples of areas of scientific research which are so costly and com¬plicated that it is difficult for a single country to solve them efficiently and in a short period of time. The renewal of interna¬tional scientific cooperation was demonstrated in the sharing of data which were obtained by Russian, Japanese and European space probes in 1986 on Halley's comet.
Many countries were successfully cooperating on a programme called lntercosmos in launching a large number of vertical geo¬physical rockets and satellites. Space exploration programmes were being conducted between Russia and Austria, India, France, Swe¬den and other countries. Joint manned flights by Russian and for¬eign cosmonauts included citizens from numerous countries. Many international crews have worked on orbit and carried out a lot of scientific experiments.
Russian and the U.S. engineers are now working side by side on the International Space Station, the largest peacetime engineering project in history.
Launched from opposite sides of the world, the first Interna¬tional Space Station components Zarya and Unity have begun a new era of exploration as 16 nations joined their scientific and technological resources in the first truly international space pro¬gram to improve life on Earth. Even before its launch, the Interna¬tional Space Station has opened new spheres of research on Earth by overcoming barriers of language, culture and technological dif¬ferences worldwide.
Indeed, it represents unprecedented (беспрецедентный, бес¬примерный) global cooperation and trust. There is no doubt that it is the first step towards a unified «planetary civilization» that will explore space as citizens of Earth, not of individual nations.

at once — сразу, немедленно
Text 11A (страница 218)
Прочитайте текст. Расскажите об основных этапах развития сверхпроводимости и о тех ученых, которые внесли свой вклад в исследование сверхпроводимости.
Superconductivity
According to the prominent scientist in this country V.L. Ginz-burg the latest world achievements in the field of superconductivity mean a revolution in technology and industry; Recent spectacular breakthroughs1 in superconductors may be compared with the physics discoveries that led to electronics and nuclear power. They are likely to bring the mankind to the threshold of a new technolog¬ical age. Prestige, economic and military benefits could well come to the nation that first will master this new field of physics. Super- conductors were once thought to be physically impossible. But in. 1911 superconductivity was discovered by a Dutch physicist K. Onnes. who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1913 for his low-temperature research. He found the electrical resistivity of a mer¬cury wire to disappear suddenly when cooled below a temperature of 4 Kelvin (-269 °C). Absolute zero is known to be 0 K. This dis¬covery was a completely unexpected phenomenon. He also discov¬ered that a superconducting material can be returned to the normal state either by passing a sufficiently large current through it or by applying a sufficiently strong magnetic field to it. But at that time there was no theory to explain this.
For almost 50 years after K. Onnes' discovery theorists were unable to develop a fundamental theory of superconductivity. In 1950 physicists Landau and Ginzburg made a great contribution to the development of superconductivity theory. They introduced a model which proved to be useful in understanding electromagnetic properties of superconductors. Finally, in 1957 a satisfactory the¬ory was presented by American physicists, which won for them in 1972 the Nobel Prize in physics. Research in superconductors be¬came especially active since a discovery made in 1986 by IBM2 sci¬entists in Zurich. They found a metallic ceramic compound to become a superconductor at a temperature well above3 the previ¬ously achieved record of 23 K.
It was difficult to believe it. However, in 1987 American physi¬cist Paul Chu informed about a much more sensational discovery: he and his colleagues produced superconductivity at an unbeliev¬able before temperature 98 К in a special ceramic material. At once in all leading laboratories throughout the world superconductors of critical temperature 100 К and higher (that is, above the boiling temperature of liquid nitrogen) were obtained. Thus, potential technical uses of high temperature superconductivity seemed to be possible and practical. Scientists have found a ceramic material that works at room temperature. But getting superconductors from the laboratory into production will be no easy task. While the new superconductors are easily made, their quality is often uneven. Some tend to break when produced, others lose their superconduc¬tivity within minutes or hours. All are extremely difficult to fabri¬cate into wires. Moreover, scientists lack a full understanding of how ceramics become superconductors. This fact makes developing new substances largely a random process. This is likely to continue until theorists give a fuller explanation of how supercon¬ductivity is produced in new materials.
Notes to the Text
1. spectacular breakthroughs — захватывающие открытия, достижения (переворот)
2. IBM — компания Ай Би Эм
3. well above — намного выше
Text 11B (страница 227)
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Superconductivity is a state of matter that chemical elements, compounds and alloys assume on being cooled to temperatures near to absolute zero. Hence, a superconductor is a solid material that abruptly loses all resistance to the flow of electric current when cooled below a characteristic temperature. This temperature differs for different materials but generally is within the absolute zero (-273 °C). Superconductors have thermal, electric and magnetic properties that differ from their properties at higher temperatures and from properties of nonsuperconductive materials.
Now hundreds of materials are known to become superconduc¬tors at low temperature. Approximately 26 of the chemical ele¬ments are superconductors. Among these are commonly known metals such as aluminium, tin, lead and mercury and several less common ones.
Most of the known superconductors are alloys or compounds. It is possible for a compound to be superconducting even if the chemical elements constituting it are not.
Text 11C (страница 228)
Прочитайте текст и найдите информацию о применении сверхпроводни¬ков в будущем. Изложите кратко содержание текста по-английски.
New Hope for Energy
Recently some ceramic materials have been found to be super¬conductors. Superconducting ceramics are substances which can transmit electric currents with no loss of energy at temperatures much higher than conventional superconductors (that is, at the temperature of liquid nitrogen).
One use for the new superconductors would be to replace those that need the extreme cold of liquid helium — huge superconduct¬ing electromagnets used in nuclear magnetic resonance research, atomic particle acceleration and research reactors.
Other types of electromagnets made with superconductors could be used to lower the cost of electric generation and storage. Such uses may take 10 years of research, a quicker use will probably be in electronics.
Researchers now estimate that tiny but immensely powerful highspeed computers using superconductors may be three to five years away. Further off are 300 m.p.h. trains that float on magnetic cushions which now exist as prototypes but may take at least a de¬cade to perfect. Power lines that can meet a city's electric needs with superconductor cables may be even further in the future.
Meanwhile, scientists around the world are trying to turn the new materials into useful products. Among the most notable is a micron-thin film to transmit useful amounts of electric current without losing superconductivity. The film could be used in the mi¬croscopic circuitry of advanced computers as high-speed pathway (маршрут, соединение) between computer chips.
Several nations are known to be very active in superconductor research. For example, the United States is spending millions of dollars on such research, much of it for military uses: projectile ac¬celerators, lasers, ship and submarine propulsion.
Text 11D (страница 229)
Прочитайте текст и расскажите по-английски о Массачусетском Техно¬логическом Институте.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIT is an independent university located in Boston area. It was founded in 1861 by William Barton Rogers, a distinguished natural scientist, who believed professional competence to be best fostered (воспитывать) by the combining of teaching, research, and the ap¬plication of knowledge to real-world problems. MIT held its first classes in 1865 after having delayed opening because of the Civil War. There were approximately 15 students enroled at that time.
Today MIT has about 9,700 students, a faculty (профессор¬ско-преподавательский состав) of approximately 1,000 and sev¬eral thousand research staff. The total teaching staff numbers more that 1,800. The institute is broadly organized into five academic Schools — Architecture and Planning, Engineering, Humanities and Social Science, Management and Science — and a large num¬ber of interdisciplinary programs, laboratories, and centers, includ¬ing the Whitaker College of Health Science, Technology and Management. A unique feature of MIT is that undergraduates join with graduate students, faculty, and staff to work on research pro¬jects throughout the institute.
Most academic activities take place in a group of intercon¬nected buildings designed to permit easy communication among the Schools and their 22 departments. Across the street from this set of buildings there are athletic fields, the student center, and many of the dormitories.
The main purpose of the academic program at MIT is to give students a sound command (прочное усвоение) of basic principles, the habit of continued learning and the confidence that comes from a thorough and systematic approach to learning. This results in continued professional and personal growth, especially in today's rapidly changing world.
The two essential parts of all MIT educational programs are teaching and research. Both of these activities carried on together have greater potential than either performed alone. They provide experience in theory and experiment for both students and teaching staff.
Each student pursues a degree (стремиться получить степень) in one of the departments. Undergraduate courses at MIT lead to the degree of Bachelor of Science (S.B.). The academic programs require four years of full-time study for the Bachelor of Science. De¬grees are awarded on the basis of satisfactory completion of general institute and departmental requirements (общеинститутские и ка¬федральные требования) in each program.
There is enough flexibility (гибкость), however, to allow each student, in collaboration with the adviser, to develop an individual program in accordance with his or her own interests and preparation.