Текст № 2

MIKHAIL LOMONOSOV

“Lomonosov was a great man.

He founded our first university.

To be more exact, he himself

was our first university”.

A. S. Pushkin

The great scientist and poet, M. Lomonosov, began his working life when he was still a boy The son of a fisherman, he often went with his father to the White Sea and to the Arctic Ocean and learned much about nature and about the life of his country. He did not go to school, but he learned to read at an early age and soon knew by heart¹ the few books that he had.

At the age of 19 he left his home and went on foot² to Moscow, where he entered the Slavonic-Greek-Latin Academy. There was no other higher school in Moscow at that time. His first years of study were difficult, but he worked hard³ and made great progress. He continued his studies in Petersburg and later on in foreign countries.

When Lomonosov came back, he taught chemistry and other subjects at the Academy of Sciences. He founded the first chemical laboratory in Russia, and made in it over 4,000 (four thousand) experiments on the production of stained glass He formulated the main principles of one of the basic laws of physics ‑ the law of conservation of matter and motion. He also made a number of⁴ experiments with atmospheric electricity and gave much time to⁵ the study of the natural resources of the earth and ocean.

Lomonosov wrote poetry that had a great effect on the development of the Russian literary language He also wrote the first Russian grammar He translated a course in physics from German into Russian and introduced into the Russia scientific language such terms as thermometer, formula atmosphere and some others.

He devoted his whole life to the development of Russia science, and all that he did, he did for his people and for his country.

Notes

1. to know by heart ‑ знать на память

2. to go on foot ‑ идти пешком

3. to work hard ‑ упорно работать

4. a number of ‑ ряд

5. to give much time to ‑ уделять много времени

Текст № 3

THE HISTORY OF GEOMETRY

Engineers, architects and people of many other professions use lines and figures in their daily work. The study of lines and closed figures made by lines is called geometry. Geometry is the branch of mathematics which investigates the relations, properties, and measurement of solids, surfaces, lines and angles.

Geometry is the Greek name for the science which the early Egyptians began and developed about 5000 years ago. The word geometry is derived from two Greek words: geo meaning earth and metron meaning measure.

For erecting pyramids the early Egyptians needed professional geometers who were able to locate a line running north and south.

The geometry known to the Egyptians consisted principally of rules and formulas for finding areas and volumes. The Egyptians were principally interested in the practical application of their rules.

After a time Greek philosophers and teachers developed and perfected the proofs of the Egyptians. The most important of the early Greek teachers was Pythagoras¹ who was born about 569 before our era. He founded a school in Italy. The students were divided into two classes ‑ beginners and Pythagorians.

Plato², who lived more than a hundred years later than Pythagoras, was primarily a philosopher. His interest in geometry was not because of its practical use, but because of the logic contained in the proofs.

The best known name in connection with geometry is Euclid³. Euclid was a teacher of geometry in Alexandria. He used to say that geometry trained the habits of expressing thoughts accurately. One of his most important textbooks is called The Elements. The Elements of Euclid has been used as a basis for all textbooks on geometry since his time.

Another famous scientist of ancient times was Archimedes who lived in Sicily⁴. Archimedes discovered many laws of mathematics.

For over twenty centuries Euclidean geometry was the ruling theory. In the I9th century the Russian mathematician Lobatchevsky founded non-Euclidean geometry of two dimensions. Such kind of geometry is called hyperbolic. It is based on the assumption⁵ that the axiom on parallels⁶ is not true, and through a point any number of straight lines can be drawn parallel to a given straight line.

The third system of geometry was developed by Riemann and is called elliptic geometry. Riemann assumes that no straight line can be drawn which will not meet any other straight line.

Thus we have three systems of geometry.

Notes

1. Pythagoras – Пифагор

2. Plato – Платон

3. Euclid – Евклид

4. Silicy – Сицилия

5. assumption – предположение

6. axiom parallels – аксиома параллелей.