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 musician. His father was a well-known teacher of deaf people.

When Alexander was only sixteen, he became a teacher in a 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 (опустились руки). Then, one day, when they were working on a new transmitter, 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. 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 – 5, 440 kilometers from New York to San Francisco.

Now design bureaus all over the world are conducting experiments to develop video-phones 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 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.

 

V. Ответьте на вопросы:

 

1. How many years did it take Watson and Bell to build a machine that

people could use to talk over long distances?

2. Where and when was the first telephone line built?

3. What experiments are design bureaus conducting now?

 

Контрольная работа № 3

 

Изучите следующие разделы грамматики по учебнику:

Видо-временные формы глагола. Пассивный залог (The Passive Voice)– формы Indefinite (Present, Past, Future); Continuous (Present, Past); Perfect (Present, Past, Future). Особенности перевода пассивных конструкций на русский язык.

Функции глаголов to be, to have, to do.

Неопределенная форма глагола (The Infinitive): простые и сложные формы (Passive, Perfect). Функции в предложении: а) подлежащего, б) части сказуемого, в) дополнения, г) определения, д) обстоятельства.

Обороты, равнозначные придаточным предложениям: объектный инфинитивный оборот, субъектный инфинитивный оборот.

Грамматические функции и значения слов that, one, it.

Различные значения слов: as, because, because of, due to, for, since, both … and, either … or, neither … nor.

Вариант I

I. Перепишите предложения, подчеркните глагол-сказуемое в Passive

Voice. Переведите на русский язык.

Mathematics, strength of materials, mechanics, elements of machines as well as engineering physics are studied at technological institutes.

New courses of education such as management are being organized in many institutes.

The generator – a new compact source of electricity – was developed in the silver workshops in Paris.

Our power stations have been connected by high voltage transmission lines into several networks.

 

II. Определите функции глаголов to be, to have, to do. Предложения

переведите на русский язык.

 

Electricity has many useful properties: it is clean and generates no by - products.

Computers are being used more and more extensively in the world today for the simple reason that they are far more efficient than human beings.

No man alive can do 500 000 sums in one second, but a modern computer can.

They had to make this experiment once more and use a computer to make calculations.

 

III. Перепишите предложения. Переведите на русский язык, обращая

внимание на функцию инфинитива (подлежащее, часть сказуемого,

дополнение, определение, обстоятельство).

 

This is the device to be used in our experiment.

Automation makes it possible to obtain and develop new sources of energy.

To conduct physical experiments with laser beams, Russian physicists have developed large laser installations.

Our task is to obtain a new mixture with new properties.

To study this phenomenon requires much knowledge.

 

IV. Переведите предложения на русский язык, обращая внимание на

инфинитивные конструкции (Complex Subject, Complex Object).

 

Lightning proved to be a discharge of electricity.

We know the electrons to flow from the negative terminal of the battery to the positive one.

The phenomenon of superconductivity appears to have been discovered as early as 1911.

The induced voltage causes the current to flow and the rotor to revolve.

 

V. Переведите на русский язык, обращая внимание на значения слов:

as, because, because of, due to, for, since, either... or, neither... nor,

both... and.

 

The energy of the atom is used for peaceful purposes in our country.

Among conductors and insulators there are many materials which are neither good conductors nor good insulators.

In many cases heat plays an important role, either starting or accelerating a chemical reaction.

There is no doubt that both magnetic and electrostatic forces play a part in the formation of all molecules.

The gas cools as it flows through the generator.

The physical properties of plasma have been a problem since the discovery of that state of matter.

Franklin was the first to prove that unlike charges are produced due to rubbing dissimilar objects.

Galvani thought that electricity was generated because of the contact of the two dissimilar metals used.

 

VI. Прочитайте текст, перепишите, письменно переведите на русский

язык.