Tasks and exercises

1. Answer the questions:

a) In what capacity is Arthur C. Clarke known? Have you read any of his novels?

b) When did he come up with the idea of geostationary satellites?

c) Why was it difficult to provide reception across an entire country?

d) What did Clarke derive from the Germans’ experience in developing rockets during the Second World War?

e) What did Clarke’s suggestion consist in?

2. In the text find words that have the following meanings:

a) “to form an idea, plan in your mind”;

b) “very large, heavy and solid”;

c) “the use of energy, materials, time, etc.”;

d) “to combine 2 or more things to form a single whole”;

e) “actually”;

f) “the quality of radio and television signals that are broadcast”;

g) “to move in a circle”;

h) “introducing or using new ideas”;

i) “the opposite of natural”;

j) “to control the direction in which smth moves”.

3. Study the collocations in which some of the general scientific words from the text are used:

a) existence: establish/prove the existence of, reveal/discover, be in/come into existence;

b) innovation: introduce/design/develop, encourage/stimulate, innovation in engineering;

c) to involve (make smth necessary): typically/usually;

d) nature: nature of a problem, to clarify/explain/provide an insight into the nature of smth;

e) speed: the speed of light/sound, at full speed, to move with a certain speed.

4. Fill in the gaps:

Mathematical astronomy was a great ____ by the Greeks of the 5th century BC. Inventions typically ____ minor improvements in technology. How do you explain the existence of closely related species in widely separated locations? The book provides an insight into the ____ of particle physics.

5. Make up 10 sentences with the collocations from ex.3.

6. Translate into English:

a) Его инновационные идеи в начале 1940-х привели к предсказанию того, что электронная коммуникация однажды начнет осуществляться при помощи спутников, неподвижно установленных над Землей.

b) Поддержка сети, позволяющей посылать сигналы и программы через океаны, была практически невозможной.

c) Телевидение, в особенности, представляло проблему: сложная природа сигнала подразумевала, что его было сложнее передать, чем радиоволны.

d) Кларк понял, что, если установить спутник на расстоянии примерно 42,164 км от центра Земли (другими словами, 35,787 км над уровнем моря), то скорость его падения была бы равна скорости вращения Земли.

e) Эта идея лежит в основе геостационарных спутников, существование которых было блестяще предсказано Артуром Кларком.

7. Dr. Michio Kaku is a Japanese-born American theoretical physicist, futurist and ‘populariser’ of science. Two of his New York Times best sellers include “Physics of the Impossible” (2008) and “Physics of the Future” (2011). Have you read any of his books or articles? Translate the following extract about science fiction in physics, from one of his books, into English:

“Многие успешные ученые признавались, что первым шагом для них стало увлечение научной фантастикой. К примеру, великий астроном Эдвард Хаббл был еще в детстве очарован книгами Жюля Верна (Jules Verne). Начитавшись французского фантаста, он отказался от многообещающей юридической карьеры и вопреки желанию отца начал заниматься наукой. Со временем Хаббл cтал величайшим астрономом XX в. Воображение Карла Сагана (Carl Sagan), выдающегося астронома и автора бестселлеров, воспламенили романы Эдгара Райса Берроуза (Edgar Rice Burroughs) про марсианские приключения Джона Картера (John Carter). Подобно герою этих романов, Саган мечтал когда-нибудь исследовать красные пески Марса” (“Physics of the Impossible”).

7. Make a written resume of the text about Arthur C. Clarke (10–15 sentences) and retell the text orally relying on what you have written.

Stephen Hawking ['stɪːv(ə)n 'hɔːkɪŋ]

Many people question whether humans will ever understand something as vast as the universe. Best-selling author and astrophysicist, Stephen Hawking has gone further than most in developing theories that make sense of current data.

Born: 1942, Oxford, England.

Education: University College, Oxford.

Major achievement: developed a complex understanding of the nature of the universe.

Before reading the text, study the words in the right column (practise pronouncing those which are transcribed):

While Stephen Hawking was born in Oxford, most of his academic life has been spent at the University of Cambridge, first in the Institute of Astronomy and then at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. He has spent much of his career developing Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which had introduced the concept of space-time. In special relativity and general relativity, time and three-dimensional space are treated together as a single four-dimensional concept called space-time. A point in space-time is called an event, and an event must have four reference points: length, breadth, height and time. Between 1965 and 1970 and working in collaboration with Roger Penrose (born 1931), Hawking devised new mathematical techniques to study space-time and then went on to apply this to the study of black holes. These features appear to have been formed by stars collapsing in on themselves and becoming so dense, and their gravitational fields so strong, that amongst other things, light can not escape their pull. In 1970 Hawking showed that combining quantum theory and general relativity indicated that black holes can emit radiation. From then on he started working to try and roll quantum theory and general relativity into what people hoped would become a ‘grand unified theory’. A sign that this may be possible came when Hawking investigated predictions about the creation of the universe that flow from these two theories. He started by calculating that following the Big Bang many objects the size of a proton would be created. While a proton is incredibly small, these particles might have a mass of as much as ten billion tons. The large mass of these mini black holes would give then huge gravitational attraction and therefore they would be governed by general relativity, but their small size would make them also governed by laws of quantum mechanics. Hawking’s mathematics also shows how it is theoretically possible that the universe can be finite, but at the same time have no boundaries or edge. One implication of this is a confirmation that it is possible to formulate laws of science that completely describe the way the universe began. In 1979 Hawking was appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge. The man born on the 300th anniversary of Galileo Galilei’s (1564–642) death now held Isaac Newton’s (1643–1727) chair at Cambridge. He rose to fame with the publication, in 1988, of his book A Brief History of Time, which spent over 200 weeks on the Sunday Times best-seller list.

To be treated as – рассматриваться как In collaboration with – сотрудничая с To devise – изобрести, разработать Dense – плотный Pull – притяжение To emit – испускать From then on – с этого момента Finite ['faɪnaɪt] – конечный, ограниченный Boundary – граница Edge – предел Implication [ˌɪmplɪ'keɪʃ(ə)n] подтекст; следствие Confirmation – подтверждение To be appointed – быть назначенным Chair – должность заведующего кафедрой; кафедра