Ex 38 Insert the article where necessary.

1. — worker Ivanov is — deputy to — Supreme Soviet. 2. Fomin, — scientist, is known for his Arctic expeditions. 3. I'd like to speak to Matveyev, — engineer at your plant. 4. — Professor Mikhailov hopes he will get your paper before — conference starts. 5. I can recommend' — very good doctor, — Doctor Vetrova. — doctor called on me every day when I was down with pneumonia. 6. — composer Petrov is well-known to — cinema-goers for his music to many films. 7. Meet —Captain Trent, he is our new colleague. 8. — writer Gardner will always remember — day he walked into — publishing house with his first manuscript under his arm.

(b) the use and omission of the article before nouns used predісatіve1у

Ex 39 Study the chart.

She waschairman at the meeting. Ivanov wasa president of this Association. He waspresident since 1980 to 1982.

Ex 40 Insert the article where necessary.

1. George Washington was — president of the USA; he was — president from 1789 to 1797. 2. He studied nights to become — algebra teacher and finally rose to be — headmaster of a high school. 3. She is — head librarian at our local public library. 4. — Doctor Smith is — president of — Medical Association. 5. "Who will be — chairman of Monday's conference?" "— student Stepanov agreed to be — chairman."

Ex 41 Translate the following.

1. О. Ю. Шмидт был руководителем экспедиции на легендарном «Челюскине». 2. И. Д. Папанин был начальником первой советской экспедиции на Северный полюс. 3. Отец Д. И. Менделеева был директором гимназии в Тобольске. 4. Авраам Линкольн был президентом США с 1861 по 1865 год. 5. Вы когда-нибудь слышали о новом методе профессора Николаева? 6. Смирнов, староста нашего факультета, просил передать вам, что конференция состоится в среду. 7. Вам может помочь мой друг Кузьмин, студент института иностранных языков. 8. Где я могу найти инженера Петрова? 9. Форд, капитан корабля, был на мостике, когда пароход входил в порт. 10. За доктором Крюковым уже послали, он будет через полчаса.

READING

Ex 42 Read the text, and do the assignments coming after it.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE X-RAY

Scientists working on a problem do not know and sometimes can't even guess what the final result will be. Professor Röntgen* was a physicist at the University of Würzburg in Germany. Late on Friday, 8 November, 1895, he was doing an experiment in his laboratory when he noticed something extraordinary. He had covered an electric bulb with black cardboard, and when he switched on the current he saw little dancing lights on his table. Now the bulb was completely covered; how then could any ray penetrate? On the table there were some pieces of paper which had been covered with metal salts. It was on this paper that the lights were shining. Professor Röntgen took a piece of this paper and held it at a distance from the lamp. Between it and the lamp he placed a number of objects, a book, a pack of cards, a piece of wood and a doorkey. The ray penetrated every one of them except the key. This mysterious ray could shine through everything except the metal. He called his wife into the laboratory and asked her to hold her hand between the lamp and the photographic plate. She was very surprised by this request, but she obediently held up her hand for a quarter of an hour, and when the plate was developed there was a picture of the bones of her hand and of the ring on one finger. The ray could pass through the flesh and not through the bone or the ring.

At a scientific meeting where he described what happened. Professor Röntgen called this new ray "the Unknown", the X-ray. Doctors quickly saw how this could be used, and soon there were X-ray machines in all the big hospitals. At first the doctors did not understand how powerful the rays were and many of them were injured, losing a finger or an arm through exposure to X-rays when they were using the machines. The most obvious use for this discovery was to make it possible for doctors and surgeons to see exactly how a bone was fractured. Other uses came later. It was found that these rays could be used to destroy cancer cells, just as they destroyed the healthy cells of the doctors who first used the machine. Methods were found later by which "ulcers in the stomach could be located, and the lungs could be X-rayed to show if there was any tuberculosis present. "Mass X-ray" units are sent round to factories and detect early signs of trouble in the lungs.

Unfortunately for Professor Röntgen, whose discovery did so much for medical science, envious colleagues spread the story that he had stolen his discovery from a laboratory assistant who worked for him. He died, poor and forgotten, in 1923.

(After "Britain in the Modern World, The Twentieth Century" by E. N. Nash and A. M. Newth)

Assignments

(a) Explain the meaning of the following words. (Look for clues in the text.)

1. current, 2. penetrate, 3. plate, 4. request, 5. injured, 6. cell, 7. detect.

(b) Quickly look through the list and mark the lettered phrase nearest in meaning to the word or phrase tested.

1.Guess: (i) know for sure; (ii) be in two minds; (iii) suppose.

2. At a distance: (i) not very near; (ii) very close; (iii) a long way off.

3.Mysterious: (i) hard to explain; (ii) unexplainable; (iii) easy to explain.

4.Obediently: (і) unthinkingly; (ii) unwillingly; (iii) willingly.

5.Through in "through exposure to X-rays": (i) with the help of; (ii) in spite of; (iii) as a result of.

6.Destroy: (i) kill; (ii) make useless; (iii) break to pieces.

(c) Briefly describe the experiment made by Professor Röntgen.

(d) Say whether, in your opinion. Professor Röntgen knew he was going to discover the X-ray, or he discovered it by chance. Quote facts from the text.

(e) Look through the text once again, and select the statement which best expresses its main idea. Explain your choice.

(f) Sum up what the text has to say on each of the following points.

1. How the X-ray got its name. 2. How it happened that many doctors were injured through exposure to X-rays. 3. The most important uses of the X-ray at the present time.

(g) Write a précis of the text.

Ex 43 Read the text carefully, consulting the dictionary, if necessary. During the second reading note the key sentence in each paragraph. Write five questions covering the main points, answer each question in one complete sentence in your own words as far as possible; then, using your answers as guides, write a summary of the text.

In the intricate complex of historical processes in the second half of the 20th century, one of the most crucial is the scientific-technological revolution. It is going on in socialist and capitalist countries and is beginning to take hold in the countries of the Third World; it is thus acquiring a global character. The scientific-technological revolution itself is a profound, qualitative revolution in the forces of production — in this lies its importance. It offers possibilities for a radical transformation of the methods of production, creating advanced instruments of production, incorporating new principles, advanced materials, it brings new industries to life and makes possible a previously unheard of increase in efficiency in all aspects of production.

The current revolution in technology signifies a profound transformation both in the instruments and other technical means of labour and in the methods of managing and organising the process of production and even in the objects of labour. Consequently, it is necessary to think of the technological revolution in the broadest sense of the term — as a revolution in the very elements of the productive forces.

The revolution in science is a dialectical negation of all the previous and essentially mechanistic views of the world. The process of revolutionary transformation encompasses almost all the natural sciences. Their paradigms, i.e., the established, basic premises, canons and conceptions that yesterday seemed certain today reveal their shortcomings and limitations and are being rapidly replaced with new paradigms.

One of the most important results of Marxist research on the problem of the technological revolution is the conclusion that it is impossible to restrict the modern technological revolution to scientific or technological progress. To the extent that science becomes a productive force, the universal education of people, the development of the creative forces of every man, becomes a crucial parameter in the development of the material base of civilisation and all the more becomes an inseparable component and an independent factor in the growth of the forces of production.

SPEECH AND COMPOSITION

Ex 44 Answer the following questions, using the vocabulary of the lesson. Sum up your answers (orally, or in writing).

ON GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES

1. What is a discovery? 2. What great discoveries do you know? 3. When were most of the great discoveries made? 4. What is the 15th century famous for? 5. Who discovered America? 6. Did Columbus know that he had discovered a new continent? 7. Whom is the new continent named after? 8. What great discoveries have been made by Russian scientists?

ON SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES

1. What great scientific discoveries were made by Lomonosov (Pavlov Curie, etc)? 2. In what year did Mendeleyev discover the Periodic Law? 3. Why did the discovery of the Periodic Law make a revolution in science? 4. How did the scientific world take it? 5. Was there much discussion and argument before it was generally accepted? 6. Are there any new theories on the question now? 7. What else is Mendeleyev famous for?

ELECTRICITY AND ITS USES

1. Who discovered electricity? 2. How was it discovered? 3. What did the discovery of electricity mean to mankind? 4. How is electricity used? 5. When was the first Soviet power station built? 6. What electric power stations have been built since then? 7. Do you remember what V. I. Lenin said about the role of electricity in the life of our country?

ON INVENTIONS

1. What is an inventor? 2. By whom and when was radio invented? 3. Why is this an important invention? 4. How is it used? 5. What inventions were made by Kulibin, Yablochkov, Edison, Alexander Bell, James Watt, etc?

WHAT'S YOUR WAY OF WORKING?

1. What's the best place where you can work undisturbed? 2. Why don't you work at home? Why do you go to the library (reading-room)? 3. What is your favourite library? Why do you like it better than any other library in Moscow? 4. Do you make notes when reading something? 5. Do you make (take) notes during lectures? Are they a great help when you prepare for a seminar or an exam?

AN INVITATION

1. What were you doing last Sunday? 2. Was it an invitation to a birthday party, a house-warming party or just a get-together of old friends? 3. Was it an invitation you had been expecting or did it come quite unexpectedly? 4. Are they old friends of yours? How long have you known them? 5. Do they still live at the old place or have they moved to one of the new districts since you visited them last? 6. Was it any trouble finding the house? 7. Was the party fun? Did you enjoy yourself?

Ex 45 Read and discuss the following story. Speak on some other scientist.

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleyev was born on February 7, 1834 in Tobolsk. He came of a family of heroic pioneers. His grandfather was known as the publisher of the first newspaper in Siberia, the Irtish. His father was director of the local high school.

When Dmitri was still a boy his father died and his mother, who had made up her mind that Dmitri must get a good scientific education, moved first to Moscow, then to St. Petersburg where Mendeleyev entered the Pedagogical Institute. He worked hard and graduated at the head of the class. He was made professor of the University of St. Petersburg before he was 32. He wrote: "We need a double number of Newtons to discover the secrets of nature and to bring life into harmony with its laws."

Mendeleyev had spent twenty years studying the chemical elements. Before the end of the 19th century he surprised the world with his Periodic Law. He placed all the elements in order, starting with the lightest, hydrogen, and finishing his Table with uranium, the heaviest. In his Table he made places for more than 63 elements. But there were places in his Table which were still empty. Were they always to remain empty? Mendeleyev predicted several undiscovered elements.

The whole scientific world was thrilled.

At the time Mendeleyev died (1907) there were already 86 elements in the Periodic Table.

Mendeleyev was not only a scientist, he was also a social reformer. He hated the tyranny and oppression of Czarist Russia; he thought women to be equal to men in their struggle for work and education.

(After "The Greatest Discovery of the Century" by Bernard Jaffe)

Ex 46 Read the passage. Answer the questions. Retell the passage in English.

КАК БЫЛА ОТКРЫТА АНТАРКТИДА

16 июля 1819 года шлюпы «Мирный» и «Восток» вышли из Кронштадта. Они уходили в Антарктику на поиски неведомой Южной Земли, о которой знаменитый английский мореплаватель Джеймс Кук писал в своем дневнике, что такой земли нет.

Командиром шлюпа «Восток», а также начальником экспедиции был Ф. Ф Беллинсгаузен. Шлюпом «Мирный» командовал М. П. Лазарев.

Шлюпы шли по Атлантике* вниз. Далеко позади остались Лондон, Тенериф*, Рио-де-Жанейро, Южные острова*.

27 января 1820 года экспедиция пересекла Южный полярный круг. На следующий день продвижение экспедиции было остановлено стеной из льда. Так экспедицией Беллинсгаузена была открыта Антарктида. Было сделано одно из величайших географических открытий.

Семьсот пятьдесят один день длилась экспедиция. Было пройдено около ста тысяч километров. Всего было открыто, описано и нанесено на карту двадцать девять больших и малых островов.

Спустя год «Восток» и «Мирный» вышли из антарктических вод. Вышли там же, где и вошли, — в районе острова Южная Георгия*.

Questions

1. When did the sloops the Mirni and the Vostok leave Kronstadt? 2. Where were they going? 3. What were the seafarers hoping to find in the Antarctic? 4. What did the famous English seafarer James Cook write in his diary about the Unknown Southern Land? 5. What sloop was under the command of F. F. Bellingshausen? 6. Who headed the Russian scientific expedition to the Antarctic? 7. What sloop was under the command of М. P. Lazaryev? 8. What course did the sloops follow? 9. What places did they pass on their way to the Antarctic? 10. When did the expedition cross the Antarctic Circle? 11. What appeared before them the next day? 12. What stopped the movement of the boats? 13. What was in their way? 14. Why didn't the seafarers know that they had made one of the greatest geographical discoveries of the century? 15. How long did the expedition last? 16. How many kilometres were covered? 17. How many islands were discovered, described and mapped? 18. In what place did the sloops leave the Antarctic waters?

Ex 47 Act as interpreter. Sum up the dialogue.

A: How is freedom of scientific, technical, and artistic work guaranteed in the USSR?

В: Государство создает необходимые материальные условия для развития научного, технического и художественного творчества. Академия Наук СССР стоит во главе научной мысли в нашей стране.

A: What questions does the Academy of Sciences deal with at its sessions?

В: По установленной традиции ежегодно весной советские ученые созываются на сессию, чтобы подвести итоги проделанной за год работы (review their last year's work) и наметить задачи на будущее.

A: What scientific discoveries can you mention?

В: Это открытия в области физики, химии и биологии. Они имеют большое практическое значение для различных отраслей экономики страны.

A: How do Soviet scientists look upon science?

В: Наука сегодня не является больше вещью в себе. Это активный инструмент в планировании, прогнозировании и развитии научного, технического и социального прогресса.

A: What can you say about the educational importance of scientific discoveries?

В: Они дают человеку новые сведения об окружающем нас материальном мире.

Ех 48 Use the following words and expressions in situations of your own.

Modern Science

the age of great (wonderful, etc) discoveries in physics, chemistry and other sciences; a scientific and technological revolution; Soviet science; make great (important) progress; hold first place in the world in many spheres of research; change the face of the earth; be meant for the good of man; bring changes into our way of life; Soviet scientist; be famous for; do important scientific work; work out new methods; be widely used in industry and agriculture.

An Experiment in Physics

be interested in physics; take part in the work of a Students' Scientific Society; a marvellous idea; come to one's mind; talk things over with one's Professor; follow the Professor's advice; spend a lot of time in the laboratory; make experiments; have a lot of trouble at first; remain in the laboratory for days; not disturb sb in his work; get interesting results; work sth out at last; be invited to speak at a scientific conference; be thrilled; accept the invitation; be proud of sth; write an article; appear (be published) in a scientific magazine.