1. In step with — зд. Одновременно

2. To be in progress — sd. Происходить

ASTRONOMY AND RADIO (to be read after Lesson 14)

The science of radio astronomy has become the most efficient of all methods of probing the universe. It was the intense development of radio and radar techniques that stimulated the development of radio astronomy and gave astronomy a new and enormously powerful tool for the exploration of space.

The huge parabolic dishes of giant radio telescopes listening to the voices of distant stars majestically domi­nate the landscape for many kilometres around.

Radio telescope is an instrument so penetrating that it can receive radio waves from distances of thousands of millions of light years away. With ordinary telescopes it is possible to work only when the sky is not covered with clouds, whereas clouds are no obstacle to radio tele­scopes.

Radio telescopes are supplied with a precise control system. It takes 15-20 minutes to make a full rotation of the huge reflector.

With the help of a young science—radio astronomy— the astronomers have made great achievements which were undreamt of¹ only a few decades ago.

Radio telescope can measure the temperature of plan­ets, can probe the structure of the planets and provides the astronomers with the data which could not have been received without this wonderful device. In order to achieve better results, highly sensitive reception devices were made for radio telescopes.

Soviet astronomers use radio waves to study celestial bodies on behalf of science,² peace and progress, for the benefit of mankind. Astronomers hope that radio waves will continue helping them to reveal the mysteries of the universe.

Notes

1. Which were undreamt of —- о которых и не мечтали

2. On behalf of science — во имя науки

ELECTRONICS AND TECHNICAL PROGRESS

Large-scale application of electronic technique is a trend of technical progress capable of revolutionizing many branches of industry.

Electronics as a science studies the properties of elec­trons, the laws of their motion, the laws of the transfor­mation of various kinds of energy through the media of electrons.

Electronics and radio electronics in our country have developed from the country's only radio laboratory in Nizhni Novgorod into hundreds of research institutes, design offices and laboratories employing tens of thou­sands of people.

At present it is difficult to enumerate all branches of science and technology which are based on electronic technique. Without radio electronics we would not have cybernetics, cosmonautics and nuclear physics. It is no mis­take, therefore, to compare the birth of electronics to such great achievements of mankind as the discovery of fire, the use of the wheel, and the penetration into the secrets of the atom.

. Electronics makes it possible to raise industrial auto­mation to a higher level, to prepare conditions for the future technical equipping of the national economy. It is expected to revolutionize the system of control over mechanism and production processes. The use of electronic and cybernetic machines led to radical changes in the man­agement of big economic organizations, large plants, and .so on. Electronics greatly helps to conduct fundamental research in nuclear physics, in the study of the nature of matter, and in the realization of controlled thermonuclear reactions. Electronic telescopes are used by astronomers to penetrate far into the unknown regions of the universe.

An even greater role is being played by electronics in the development of the chemical industry.

Electronics includes many independent branches. The main among them are vacuum, semiconductor, molecular and quantum electronics.

LAND OF ELECTRICITY (to be read after Lesson 15)

In the early days of Soviet power, when Russia was ruined after World War I and the Civil War, V. I. Lenin already dreamed of electrifying the country.

In 1920-1921, our country installed 12,000 kw of gen­erating capacities. "12,000 kw," said Lenin, "are a very modest beginning. A foreigner knowing American, Ger man or Swedish electrification may laugh at this, but he laughs best who laughs last." ¹

In October 1920 Lenin and H. G. Wells met in Moscow. When the British science-fiction writer ² expressed doubt about Lenin's plan of electrification, Lenin told him: "Come again in ten years' time and see what will have been done in Russia over that period."

The Soviet Union today has powerful energy systems with the world's largest hydro and thermal power sta­tions, and is building high-capacity nuclear generating plants. In power output, our country leads Europe ⁸ and is second in the world after the United States. Our power engineering develops much faster than that of the other developed countries, including the USA.

The men who drafted the GOELRO Plan hoped to be able to transmit electric power at the maximum 400 kilo­metres away. Today electricity is transmitted to 1,000 km away, and the total length of high-voltage powerlines is more than 400,000 km.

High-voltage transmission lines link up our power stations into eleven grids, six of which form the 90,000,000-kw Integrated Power Grid ⁴ of the European part of the USSR. A gigantic power system will then stretch from the Pacific Ocean to the western frontiers.

Linking up the power system of European member-countries 5 with the grids of the western regions of the So­viet Union began in May 1959. This is known as the Peace network. In July 1962, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Poland, Ruma­nia and the USSR signed an agreement to set up a Central Board of Interconnected power systems.

The Peace network has brilliantly justified the hopes of its organizers. Operation of the Peace network has enabled the socialist countries to make power production more reliable and economical.

The Peace network provides for really peaceful and fruitful co-operation.

Notes

1. he laughs best who laughs last — смеется тот, кто смеется по­следний

2. science-fiction writer — пнсатель-фантаст

3. leads Europe — занимает первое место в Европе

4. Integrated Power Grid — единая энергетическая сеть

5. member-countries — страны — члены СЭВ

VOLTAGE AND CURRENT

Electric power is generated at power stations, but it is usually needed for far-off places.¹ How is the current taken to these far-off places?

• Thick wires usually carry it across the country, and steel pylons hold the wires above the ground. The pylons are so high that nobody can touch the wires at the top. The wires are not usually copper wires; they are made of aluminium, and thirty wires together form one thick fable. Aluminium is so light that the pylons can easily hold the cables up.

It would not be cheap to drive very large currents through these cables. Large currents need very thick wires. If thin wires are used, they get hot or melt, and so the currents ought to be as small as possible. Can we send a lot of power if we use a small current? We can do so if the voltage is high. We need a small current and a high voltage; or a large current with a low voltage. The small current is cheaper because the wires need not be thick.

The result is that the voltage has to be very high. The pressure in the aluminium cables may be 132,000 volts, and this is terribly high. The voltage of a small battery which we carry in our pockets is usually between 1 and 9 volts. A car battery has a voltage of 6 or 12 volts. In a house the pressure in the wires may be 230 volts, or something like that.² Even 230 volts is high enough to kill a person, so what would happen if we touched one of the aluminium cables? The high voltage would drive a heavy current through our bodies to the earth.

. When the wires lead down to a house or a railway, the voltage is made lower. It can be changed easily; but if the voltage is lower, the current must be higher. If it is not, we shall lose power. So the wires have to be thicker.

The wires must never touch steel pylons. If they did that, the current would escape to the earth through steel. Steel is a good conductor of electricity, so are most met­als.⁸ We have to separate the wires from the pylon, and we do this with insulators.

Notes