X. Read and translate the text into Russian and then back into English, compare

your version with the original:

The phenomena of life are associated with a particular substance called protoplasm, which has definite and specific characteristics. Physically, protoplasm js a grayish jelly-like substance. Its consistency varies with different internal and external conditions from a fluid to a firm jelly. Protoplasm is found within the cells of living organisms. They are the smallest microscopic structural units of fife. Chemically it is a complex mixture of many different combinations of elements. Analysis of the protoplasm of different kinds of organisms show that thirty-four elements may enter into its composition.

V. Listen to the recording of the following text and reproduce it in Russian:

The living substance of plants and animals is organized into protoplasm. Protoplasm is the basic material of all Hvirig systems and its general properties are fundamentally the same in each system, plant or animal. It does, however, differ somehow from one phnt species to another, from one animal species to another. Protoplasm has a complex physicochemical structure. Common anayltical procedures cause the death of protoplasm and thus bring about instantaneous changes in its structure. Nevertheless, a reasonably informative, picture of protoplasm is now available.

VI. Translate the text without a dictionary and guess the meaning of the unfamiliar words:

Cell components. Extensive knowledge of the cell and its parts has been gained from the highly developed techniques of microscopy and cell chemistry. The cell is bounded by a cell membrane and may also be bounded by a cell wall. All living components within this cell membrane are often referred to as the protoplasm. The protoplasm includes a nucleus and a mass of substance surrounding it, the cytoplasm. The cytoplasm may contain small differentiated areas or small organs known as organelles and non-living material, such as excretory products or reserve food. The cell, these organelles, and the nucleus are membrane bound. The membranes are usually composed of associated layers of lipid and protein. They are important not only as boundaries of the cell and cell components but also as surfaces on which metabolic reactions take place.

XIV. Reproduce in your own words:

Изучение составных частей клеток и протоплазмы было начато после открытия микроскопа. Под микроскопом ученые увидели маленькие ячейки, которые были названы клетками. Позднее обнаружили протоплазму. Все основные жизненные функции организма заключены в протоплазме. Она состоит из ядра, окруженного веществом, названным цитоплазмой. Химический состав протоплазмы сложный, ученые долго не могли ее изучить. Когда ученые начинают исследовать ее, она меняет свою структуру и умирает. Но исследования продолжаются, и в настоящее время очень много уже известно о свойствах, структуре и составе протоплазмы.

FOOD FACTORS

In the Dutch East Indies in 1897 men on the plantations were falling sick with a strange nerve disease. They were unable to eat or hold their food. Their arms and legs became paralysed and shrunken. So many were sick, that the hospitals had no more room for the victims of this disease known as beriberi. The Dutch physician Dr. Christian Eijkman was sent from Holland to try to find out how to prevent and cure this disease. Eijkman was immersed in germ theory. He was sure that beriberi was a bacterial disease. He brought chickens with him and hoped to cultivate the germ in them. But he failed. However during the course of 1896 these chickens came down spontaneously with a disease very much like beriberi. Before Eijkman could do much about it, the disease vanished. Searching for causes, he found out that a certain period of time the chicken had been fed on polished rice from the hospital stores and it was after that they sickened. Put back on commercial chicken food, they recovered.

Dr. Eijkman also learnt that the favourite food of the people was white polished rice. This was prepared by rubbing off the brown outer coating off the rice grains. Dr. Eijkman decided to try an experiment. He fed a number of hens with polished rice until they became paralysed. The hens were then divided into two groups. One group, the control, was kept on the usual polished diet. The other group was given not only, polished rice, but the outer brown rice skins as well. In a short time, the group which ate nothing but white rice died. The test group that received the brown rice was cured.

This was the first carefully controlled experiment showing that there was something in a food that could prevent a dangerous disease. Eijkman did not appreciate the true meaning of this at first. He thought then “ There was a toxin of some sort in rice grains and that was neutralized by something in the hulls. The hulls were removed when rice was polished, leaving the toxin in the polished rice unneutralized.

However, why assume the presence of two different unknown substances, a

toxin and an antitoxin, it was only necessary to assume one: some food factor required in traces. The oustanding exponents of this latter view were Hopkins and a Polish-born biochemist Casimir Funk. Each suggested that not only beriberi, but also such diseases as curvy, rickets were caused by the absence of trace of food factors.

Under the impression that these food factors belonged to the class of compounds known as "amines” Funk suggested these factors be named vitamines and ever since the name was adopted.

Notes to the text:

to fall ill — заболеть

to catch cold — простудиться

to have no room — не иметь места , f t 4

before he could do much — до того, как он что-либо сделал

prevention of accidents—.техника безопасности

mean—1) середина; the golden mean — Золотая середина

means 2) средство, by means of this - посредством этого

способ; by all means — во что бы то ни стало ,

by no means — никоим образом

3) средства; private -means —личные средства

4) значить; It means that — Это значит что... думать; I mean — Я имею в

виду, думаю

5) плохой; a mean man —подлый человек