Text 7. What do we know about the surface of Mars?

Ever since the first successful flyby over Mars in 1964, scientists have been striving to gather more and more information about our rusty-red planetary neighbor. What we know already, based on soil and rock samples, as well as our observation of the planet, is that Mars is dusty, dry and cold. Its surface is heavily dotted with deep craters in some areas, while other areas have volcanic mountains even higher than Earth’s highest volcano. Mars also has low-lying plains where scientists have discovered evidence of wind streaks, dunes and basins that resemble riverbeds. There are canyons on Mars, far deeper than our canyons on Earth, as well as polar regions – icy caps made up mostly of frozen carbon dioxide. Evidence suggests that liquid water once flowed over the surface of Mars. But as far as we know today, Mars remains a dry, rocky planet pummeled by dust storms and pocked with crater cavities.

Speech Patterns

	I know		я знаю
As far as	I understand	Наскільки	я розумію
	I can judge		я можу судити

Choose one of the options.

1. The first successful flight over Mars was performed ___.

a) in the late 1960s b) last year c) at the beginning of 20^th century

2. Observations proved that Mars is ___.

a) cold b) warm c) hot

3. Ice on Mars is made of ___.

a) water b) carbon monoxide c) carbon dioxide

Text 8. What Is An Electric Car?

Active Vocabulary:

gasoline	бензин	exclusively	виключно
amount	обсяг	to adopt	приймати
accelerator	акселератор	commitment	зацікавленість
vehicle	транспортний засіб	simultaneously	одночасно
rechargeable	такий, що можна перезаряджати	tailpipe	вихлопна труба
unlike	на відміну від	utility company	комунальна компанія
to improve	удосконалювати	smokestack	димар

An electric car is powered by an electric motor instead of a gasoline engine. The electric motor gets energy from a controller, which regulates the amount of power based on the driver’s use of an accelerator pedal. The electric car (also known as electric vehicle or EV) uses energy stored in its rechargeable batteries, which are recharged by common household electricity.

Unlike a hybrid car – which is fueled by gasoline and uses a battery and motor to improve efficiency – an electric car is powered exclusively by electricity. Historically, EVs have not been widely adopted because of limited driving range before needing to be recharged, long recharging times, and a lack of commitment by automakers to produce and market electric cars that have all the creature comforts of gas-powered cars. That’s changing. As battery technology improves – simultaneously increasing energy storage and reducing cost – major automakers are expected to begin introducing a new generation of electric cars.

Electric cars produce no tailpipe emissions, reduce our dependency on oil, and are cheaper to operate. Of course, the process of producing the electricity moves the emissions further upstream to the utility company’s smokestack – but even dirty electricity used in electric cars usually reduces our collective carbon footprint.

Speech patterns

He	is expected	to arrive tonight.	Очікується, що він приїде сьогодні ввечері.
	is known	to be a good driver.	Відомо, що він добрий водій.
	is sure	to pass the exam.	Він напевно складе екзамен.

Choose one of the options.

1. An electric car is powered by ___.

a) an electric motor b) a diesel engine c) an internal combustion engine

2. Batteries are recharged ___.

a) only at service stations b) from another car c) from household electric grid

3. Recharging a battery now takes ___.

a) little time b) much time c) much work of many people