I. Identify the modal verbs and emphatic constructions in the following text and translate it in written form.

The strage similarity of the coastlines on each side of the Atlantic Ocean must have been noticed as soon as the first reliable maps of the New World were prepared. It was as early as 1620 that Francis Bacon called attention to their striking resemblance. He did not go on, however, to suggest that the continents might once have formed a unified land mass. In the succeeding centuries suggestions to this effect were made, but they were far from being well-grounded hypotheses, as it was mainly to some postulated catastrophe, such as the sinking of the mythical Atlantis or the Great Flood that the similarity of the coastlines was ascribed.

The hypothesis of the Continental Drift which is generally accep­ted nowadays was first presented to scientific community in 1912, but it was not until 50 years later that it gained general currency. When this view of the earth did replace earlier ideas (in the 1960's) it was only because of conclusive evidence derived from discoveries in geophysics and oceanography.

II. Translate the following texts in written form, paying attention to modal verbs and conditiional sentences.

1. There are two other precautions which should be ob­served in the care of batteries. First, the top of the battery must be kept clean and the terminals should be greased lightly. As the acid is extremely corrosive it will damage metal parts quickly and will cause burns on hands and cloth­ing Wool is not rapidly attacked by the acid so battery handlers often wear woolen clothing. The second precaution is to fill the battery up to the proper point with pure dis­tilled water only. If tap water were used the battery would fail prematurely. In the aircraft non-spillable batteries the level in the cells should be up to the bottom of the filler neck and no higher. In all batteries the water level should cover the plates and will usually be about a quarter to a half inch over the plates.

2. Until quite recently man had no way of looking into space except through optical telescope. Optical astronomy enriched science with profound knowledge of the Universe. But for radio-astronomy, however, we should have never made such new remarkable discoveries in the Universe as pulsars, radio galaxies, etc. It should be emphasized that thanks to radio-astronomy, astro­nomers have detected several dozen chemical compounds in the gas and dust clouds of interstellar space. It is desirable that theorists and experimenters should try to figure out how these compounds were made. It is believed that when gas atoms collide with the dust, they would stick. The dust seems to act as if it were a collector of atoms and facilitated their combination. Further progress in radio-astronomy will demand that scientists should take more and more advantage of instrumented satellites and should set up observatories on the Moon and on planets so that they could carry out continuous observation of space. In general, with longer observing times and with the help of cosmic laboratories, the sensitivity of detecting far-away bodies and chemical compounds would increase. More cosmic information would be obtained. If use were made of such facilities as these, the next decade or so would reveal the richest rewards of space science.