Lesson 1

I. Memorize the following words:

B. C. (before Christ – до нашей эры Carrier – носитель

To mean (meant – meant) – значить, означать Certain – определённый

Amber –янтарь Wire – провод

People – люди Through – через, сквозь

The yellow fossil resin – окаменелая Tiny – крошечный

смола жёлтого цвета Thales – Фалес

To notice – замечать To compare – сравнивать

To attract – притягивать Comparison – сравнение

To rub – тереть, натирать To describe – описывать

Piece – кусочек Amount – количество, величина

Point – точка, сечение, пункт, суть дела Behaviour – поведение, режим,

Under the same conditions – в тех самых условиях Science – наука

Scientist – учёный At the heart of – в основе

To discover – открывать Per second – в секунду

6x10¹⁸ (six multiplied by ten to eighteenth power) – Weight – вес

6 умноженное на 10 в 18-й степени

Century – век, столетие Flight – полёт

Fast – быстрый Stream – поток, течение, течь

Job – работа, функция Round – круглый

For the benefit of – на благо Ago – тому назад

Lightning-like – молниеносный Figure – рисунок, частица

Text 1

The electron

There is a word “electron” which means “amber” in Greek. It is the yellow fossil resin. People think that the Greek philosopher Thales who lived about 600 B.C. noticed the effect of attraction.

There is a very interesting phenomenon, indeed: if to rub a piece of amber it will attract small light object. As this is an effect of electron (amber) the whole subject is called electricity. But in our century the term “electron” has a very special meaning.

Electron is a carrier of a certain amount of electricity. An electron is a very small figure. There is a flow of about 6x10¹⁸ electrons per second in one ampere electric current at the point of the wire. If there is an electric current in a wire, it means an electron stream that moves through the electrical system (batteries, generators).

Scientists discovered electron more than half of a century ago. Nobody saw it, although science knows its weight, size, electrical character, how fast it travels and when it moves.

Science goes so far as to speak about the radius and mass of an electron. Scientists think that an electron is a round tiny ball. If we compare an electron with a ping-pong ball the electron is as small in comparison with this ball as the ball in comparison with the orbit of the Earth which is 299,274,000,000 meters in diameter.

Today we know how to make it do many jobs that we want.

There are very many jobs the electron does but one of the most important of there job for the benefit of hundreds of millions of people is its lightning-like flight in a device known as a vacuum tube.

When we describe the behaviour of one electron it is the description of the behaviour of all the electrons under the same conditions. All the electrons are the same, each identical to one another even when there are billions upon billions of them.

There are many different electron tubes and the electron is at the heart of all of them. Diodes, triodes, pentodes, etc. are the electron tubes that operate on the stream of electrons.