Mikhail Lomonosov

Mikhail Lomonosov was born in 1711 in the family of a fisherman in the northern coastal village of Denisovka not far from Archangelsk. When he was ten years of age his farther began to take him sea fishing. The dangerous life of a fisherman taught him to observe the natural phenomena more closely. During the long winter nights young Lomonosov studied his letters, grammar and arithmetic diligently.

Being the son of a peasant, he was refused admission to the local school. After some years, through concealing his peasant origin, he gained admission to the Slavonic-Greek-Latin Academy and for five years lived a hand-to-mouth existence on three kopecks a day. The noblemen’s sons studying with him made fun of the twenty-year-old giant who, in spite of the jeers and his own poverty, made rapid progress.

After five years came the chance of entering the Academy of Sciences, as there were not enough noble-born students to fill the quota. His ability and diligence attracted the attention of the professors and as one of three best students he was sent abroad. He spent all the time there studying the works of leading European scientists in chemistry, metallurgy, mining and mathematics. On his return to Russia in 1745 he was made a professor and was the first Russian scientist to become a member of the Academy of Sciences.

For versatility Lomonosov has no equal in Russian science. Many of his ideas and discoveries only won recognition in the nineteenth century. He was the first to discover the vegetable origin of coal, for instance, and as a poet and scientist he played a great role in the formation of the Russian literary language, eliminating distortions and unnecessary foreign words. He died in 1765. His living memorial is the Moscow University, which he founded in 1755.

Answer the questions:

1. What kind of family was Lomonosov born in?

2. What kind of childhood had he?

3. How did he gain admission to the Slavonic-Greek-Latin Academy?

4. What kind of existence did he live during his studies?

5. Why was he able to enter the Academy of Sciences?

6. What part did Lomonosov play in science?

Translate into English:

1. Когда десятилетний Ломоносов стал выходить в море ловить рыбу, он научился наблюдать явления природы.

2. Ломоносову отказали в приеме в городскую школу.

3. В течение пяти лет ему пришлось вести нищенское существование.

4. Несмотря на возраст и бедность, Ломоносов делал быстрые успехи.

5. Для заполнения вакансий в Академии наук было недостаточно знатных молодых людей, и Ломоносов поступил в Академию.

6. За старательность и прекрасные способности Ломоносова послали за границу, где он изучал химию, металлургию, горное дело и математику.

7. Ломоносову нет равных по количеству сделанных им открытий.

8. Многие его открытия получили признание только в XX веке.

9. Ломоносов сыграл большую роль в формировании русского литературного языка.

X-Rays

Have you ever thought about the time when there was no radio, when flying was a dream, and cinema was only one year old? It was the time when the first motor-cars had just appeared. It was in a world such as this that in 1895 a German professor Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen discovered a new kind of invisible rays. These rays could pass through clothes, skin and flesh - and cast the shadow of the bones themselves on a photographic plate. You can imagine the impression this announcement produced at that time.

Let us see how Roentgen came to discover these all-penetrating rays. One day Roentgen was working in his laboratory with a Crookes tube. Crookes had discovered that if he put two electric wires in a glass tube, pumped air out of it and connected the wires to opposite electic poles, a stream of electric particle would emerge out of the cathode (that is, the negative electric pole)

Roentgen was interested in the fact that these cathode rays made certain chemicals glow in the dark. On this particular day Roentgen was working in his darkened laboratory. He put his Crookes tube in a box made of thin black cardboard and switched on the current to the tube. The black box was lightproof, but Roentgen noticed a strange glow at the far corner of his laboratory bench. He drew back the curtains of his laboratory window and found that the glow had come from a small screen which was lying at the far end of the bench.

Roentgen knew that the cathode rays could make the screen glow. But he also knew that cathode rays could not penetrate the box. If the effect was not due to the cathode rays, what mysterious new rays were causing it? He did not know, so he called them X-rays.

Roentgen placed all sorts of opaque materials between the source of his X-rays and the screen. He found that these rays passed through wood, thin sheets of aluminium, the flesh of his own hand; but they were completely stopped by thin lead plates and partially stopped by the bones of his hand. Testing their effect on photographic plate he found that they were darkened on exposure to X-rays.

Roentgen was sure that this discovery would contribute much for the benefit of science. Indeed, medicine was quick to realize the importance of Roentgen’s discovery. The X-rays are increasingly used in industry as well.

Answer the questions:

1. How can the time of Roentgen’s discovery be described?

2. What experiment was Roentgen making when he discovered a new type of rays?

3. How did he discover the rays?

4. What qualities do the X-rays possess?

5. In what ways are the X-rays used at present?

Translate into English:

1. В 1855 году Вильгельм Рентген открыл новый тип невидимых лучей, которые проникали через различные материалы.

2. Он поместил трубку Крукса в светонепроницаемый ящик и увидел странное свечение в углу лаборатории.

3. Поскольку известные ему лучи не могли проникать сквозь ящик, данный эффект вызывали неизвестные ему лучи; он назвал их «икс - лучи».

4. Рентген обнаружил, что «икс – лучи» проходят через многие непрозрачные материалы – дерево, алюминий и т.д., но лишь частично проникают сквозь кости человеческого тела и задерживаются свинцовыми пластинами.

5. Открытие Рентгена внесло большой вклад в развитие науки и все шире используется в промышленности.