Electricity

It is impossible to imagine our civilization without electricity: economic and social progress would be turned to the past and our daily lives completely transformed.

Electrical power has become universal. Thousands of applications of electricity such as lighting, electrochemistry and electrometallurgy are longstanding and unquestionable.

With the appearance of the electrical motor, power cables replaced transmission shafts, gear wheels, belts and pulleys in the 19^th century workshops. And in the home, a whole range of various time- and laboursaving appliances have become a part of our everyday lives.

Other devices are based on specific properties of electricity, electrostatics, in the case of radar and television. These applications have made electricity most widely used.

The first industrial application was in the silver workshops in Paris. The generator – a new compact source of electricity – was also developed there. The generator replaced the batteries and other devices that had been used before.

Electric lighting came into wide use at the end of the last century with the development of the electric lamp by Thomas Edison. Then the transformer was invented, the first electric lines and networks were set up, dynamos and industrial motors were designed.

Since the beginning of the 20^th century, the successful development of electricity has begun throughout the industrial world. The consumption of electricity has doubled every ten years.

Today, consumption of electricity per capita is an indicator of the state of development and the economic health of a nation. Electricity has replaced other sources of energy as it offers improved service and reduced cost.

One of the greatest advantages of electricity is that it is clean, easily-regulated and generates no by-products. Applications of electricity now cover all fields of human activity from household washing machines to the latest laser devices. Electricity is the efficient source of some of the most recent technological advances such as the laser and electron beams. Truly electricity provides mankind with the energy of the future.

 

V. Ответьте на вопросы:

 

1. Where was the generator developed?

2. What is one of the greatest advantages of electricity?

3. When did electric lighting come into wide use?

 

III вариант

I. Перепишите следующие предложения; подчеркните в каждом из них

глагол-сказуемое и определите его видо-временную форму и залог.

Переведите предложения на русский язык.

 

1. Today the changes in the global climate and water balance are making the

environment worse.

2. The engineers have not finished the construction of the new device yet.

3. They were discussing this problem the whole evening yesterday.

4. The use of the new equipment is minimizing the number of workers.

 

II. Перепишите следующие предложения; подчеркните в каждом из них

модальный глагол или его эквивалент. Переведите предложения на

русский язык.

 

1. Everyone should know a foreign language.

2. The designing engineers had to solve many problems in the process of

constructing this machine.

3. Atoms combine into molecules and molecules may contain one, two, three or

more atoms.

4. A number of TV stations are to be linked up into a network.

5. We shall be able to analyse the results only next week.

 

III. Перепишите следующие предложения с определительными и

дополнительными придаточными предложениями. Обратите внимание

на бессоюзные придаточные предложения, переведите предложения на

русский язык.

 

1. The weather-man reported over the radio that it would be cold in the

following weekend.

2. The engineer was told he might test the device in the afternoon.

3. The experiments Oersted carried out attracted Ampere’s attention.

4. The armature and the electromagnet are the principle parts the generator

consists of.

 

IV. Перепишите и письменно переведите текст на русский язык.