Учебник английского языка для технических университетов и вузов Издание шестое, стереотипное
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Exercise 1. Answer the questions.
used to build the ISS? (the same methodology as for Mir but on a larger scale) 7. What is the purpose of the ISS? (to promote inter national cooperation and create peacetime jobs for highly skilled workers and engineers) Exercise 2. Make a sentence out of the two parts.
Exercise 3. Read and learn. Satellites Peter: Hello, Ann. How did you happen to come to California? Ann.: Hello, Peter. How are you? My father got a job here. It is so exciting to meet you here. I’ve not seen you since you gradu ated from the University. P.: I’m working on a newspaper. I cover the space research prob lems. Now I study the application of space satellites for scien tific purposes. A.: I think that the best application of satellites is for military pur poses. P.: You are absolutely wrong. The most promising field of appli cation of satellites is the scientific one. A.: Oh, Yes, I know satellites look down on everything: the clouds, forests and oceans, the winds, ice on the sea. But don’t forget spy (шпион) satellites. P.: Spy and weather satellites gather data for forecasting. The Japanese have a satellite studying the ocean; European and Russian satellites produce radar images of the ground; an American satellite is studying the upper atmosphere. A.: It seems to me that the era of satellites has passed. You see, the Japanese have already delayed the launch of their earth observing mission. P.: Yes, they did, because of cost. The most effective way to gather data is not always with a big satellite. A.: Have you met my elder brother Mike? P.: Of course, I have. We played in the same football team at the college, though he is about three years older than me. A.: He is five years older than you. He takes part in the research programme at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies. They are developing now a small cheap satellite. It would carry three simple instruments to measure clouds, water vapour and surface temperature. P.: Oh, really. I think, that such researches make sense, and help develop a single Global Climate Observing System. A.: Such a system could change the world or at least see the world changing. Exercise 4. Comment on the following statement. Space exploration ought to be abandoned (откладываться) un til more important problems of mankind have been solved. One point of view : Space exploration is very expensive; food production is far more important than Mars studies or Moon walks; it is immoral to spend huge sums of money on space exploration while millions of people suffer hunger (голод); space ex ploration is useless anyway because we can’t colonize other planets; it would be much better to colonize, for example, the Sahara before trying to colonize the Moon or Mars; mankind must not waste its resources. A contrary point of view: Space exploration is of great significance for scientific and technological development; space exploration gives man new knowledge that he can use for other purposes; we may find 10,000 things to do on the ISS that nobody has thought of or even imagined. Exercise 5. Conduct a scientific conference on: «The potential of space exploration for peaceful purposes». Use texts 12 А, В, C, exercise 3 (Satellites) as a basis for the preparation of oral talks and discussion. Useful words and phrases of scientific communication are given in exercise 5 (see Lesson 10 «Conversation»). The Farmer and the Apple Tree A farmer once had a friend who was famous for wonderful apple trees which he grew. One day this friend gave the farmer a fine young tree and told him to take it home and plant it. The farmer was pleased with the gift, but when he got home he did not know how to plant it. If he planted it near the road, people might steal the fruit. If he planted it in his field, his neighbours might come at night and rob (грабить) him. If he planted it near the house, his own children might steal the apples. Finally he planted the tree deep in the woods where no one could see it. But naturally the tree couldn’t grow without sunlight and suitable soil. In time, it withered (засыхать) and died. Later his friend was criticising him for planting the tree in such a poor place. «What is the difference», the farmer said. «If I had planted the tree near the road, people would have stolen the fruit. If I had planted it in my field, my neighbours would have come at night and robbed me. If I had planted it near my house, my own children would have stolen the apples». «Indeed! But at least someone could have enjoyed the fruit», said his friend. «Now you have robbed everyone of the apples, and you have destroyed a fine tree». A farmer’s wife spent most of her time wishing for things which she did not possess. She wished she were beautiful; she wished she were rich; she wished she had a handsome (красивый) husband. Therefore one day fairies (волшебницы) decided to give her three wishes as an experiment. The farmer and his wife talked for a long time over what she would wish for. But the farmer’s wife suddenly became a little hun gry (голодный) and wished she had some sausages to eat. At once her plate was full of sausages. Then a heated argument began, be cause her husband said his wife had wasted one of the valuable wishes on such a cheap thing as sausages. The argument grew hot ter, and finally the wife cried that she wished the sausages were hanging from her husband’s nose. At once a row of sausages flew to her husband’s nose and stayed there. Nor could they be removed. Now there was the only one thing the poor woman could do. She really loved her husband and so she had to spend her third wish in removing the sausages from his nose. Thus, except for the few sausages, she got nothing from her three wishes. Text 12B Прочитайте и переведите текст без словаря. Назовите наиболее практичные на ваш взгляд исследования на Международной космической стан ции. Benefits of Building the International Space Station When studying sound, you go into a quiet room. When studying light, you go into a dark room. When studying the effects of gravity, you would like to go into an «anti-gravity» room. Since there is no such thing on Earth, we have the International Space Station. By flying around Earth at about 17,500 mph the station and ev erything in it remain in orbit, a continuous free fall around the planet. In orbit, forces are balanced and the effects of gravity are es sentially removed. The result is microgravity, one of the unique phe nomena of the ISS environment that promises new discovery. Thus, the ISS allows long-term exposure to a world nearly unexplored. Gravity affects everything. From our bodies to the materials we use to build cars and buildings, to the flames we use to heat our homes, our world is controlled by gravity. Even flames burn differ ently without gravity. Reduced gravity reduces convection cur rents, the currents that cause warm air or fluid to rise and cool air or fluid to descend on Earth. This absence of convection changes the flame shape in orbit and allows studies of the combustion pro cess that are impossible on Earth. The absence of convection allows molten metals or other materials to be mixed more thoroughly in orbit than on Earth, opening the way to a whole new world of com posite materials. Scientists plan to study this field, to create better metal alloys and more perfect materials for applications such as computer chips. Investigations that use lasers to cool atoms to near absolute zero may help us understand gravity itself. While investigating our surroundings, we have been limited, until recently, to accepting gravity as a given factor in all our studies. History shows that changing what once was constant can lead to revolutionary discoveries. The 19th century saw temperature and pressure become con trolled in new ways to use steam power and revolutionize the way we live. The 21st century offers the hope of controlling gravity’s ef fects to understand why things behave the way they do. Observing and understanding this behaviour is key to new discoveries in many scientific disciplines and using that knowledge is key to the im provement of life on Earth. The station will allow mankind to per form research that may result in new medicines, materials and industries on Earth and will benefit people all over the world. The Space Station Mir gave us a platform for long-term micro gravity research, and important knowledge about how to live and work in space. Like all research, we must proceed one step at a time. As we open one door, answering one question, we are faced with the opportunity of more doors, more questions. The ISS is the next step in that journey of discovery, and repre sents a quantum leap (скачок) in our capability to conduct re search on orbit. In space, electrical power is key to the quantity and quality of research. When completed, the ISS’s enormous solar panels will supply 60 times more power for science than did Mir. This and the large space available for experiments will provide sci entists with unprecedented access to this unique environment. Aboard the ISS scientists will explore basic questions in the fields of biotechnology, biomedical research, fluid physics, funda mental biology, physics, Earth science and space science. Observa tions of the Earth from orbit are expected to help the study of large-scale, long-term changes in the environment. The effects of air pollution, such as smog over cities; the cutting and burning of forests, and of water pollution are visible from space and can pro vide a global perspective unavailable from the ground. Thanks to its research and technology the station is certain to serve as an absolutely essential step in preparation for future human space exploration. Text 12C |