Notes on the text

customs - звичаї; shake hands - тиснути руки; for inviting me - що запросили мене; quiet - спокійний; so are the theatres - також і театри; get a little tired - трохи втомлюються; cooking-кухня; a number of - ряд; as to - що стосується; safe to use - безпечніше використовувати: as a sign - як ознака; to pay respect - виявити повагу; relaxed - вільнi; according to - згідно; a little more difficult - трохи складніше; it seems at first glance - може здатися з першого погляду.

Завдання до тексту:

1. Дайте відповіді:

What can you say about servants’ wages in England?

Why is Sunday a quiet day in London?

What are the main factors which you must pay attention to addressing the English people?

2. Знайдіть в абзацах 1-3 дієслово to be, вкажіть, в якому значенні воно вживається.

3. Випишiть з абзацу 9 слова, утворені за допомогою суфіксів або способом словоскладання.

4. Знайдіть усі прикметники в абзацах 6 тa 8 i визначіть, в яких ступенях порівняння вони використовуються.

5. Прокоментуйте випадки вживання закінчення ' s ' у 1 та 2 абзацах.

From the history of space flight

April 12,1961, will forever remain a landmark in human history as the date on which began the exciting story of Man’s conquest of the cosmos.

But this story did not start on the morning of April 12 – it started many thousand years ago and those who participated in it were not only those scientists, engineers and technicians who directly contributed to the success of this flight. Behind the army of engineers and workers who built and tested the rockets, the spaceship, the thousand and one mechanical and electronic devices, that would ensure the cosmonaut’s safety, was also an invisible line of comrades from the past, the dreamers whose dreams were now to be fulfilled, who had laid the scientific foundations for a flight into space.

While all other experts suggested only gun-powder rockets Tsiolkovsky believed that liquid-fuel rockets alone could reach the extraordinary heights necessary for space travel. He suggested “rocket-trains”, “step-rockets” or, as they are called today multi-staged rockets to attain a speed which would put the spaceship into orbit. He calculated the amount of fuel a rocket needs to break through the resistance of the earth’s atmosphere. He even calculated the angle at which the rocket must take off and laid down that its guidance and control must be fully automatic. The cosmic velocity, required to neutralize gravity and send a spaceship into orbit, he computed, is 8 kilometers per second – the exact speed at which the Vostok I orbited the Earth!

Fifteen minutes after the launching of the Vostok I, radar stations in the Aleutian islands picked up its radio signals and before long the world learned that a man was in space.

Everything worked according to schedule. At a command from the Earth the spaceship began to slow down. This was the supreme test for the thermal-control system, and though the ship was descending in a ball of fire, the temperature in the cabin remained steady at about 20° C. The spaceship was rapidly losing height and, as the atmospheric pressure became bearable, Yuri Gagarin prepared for the landing, his eyes fixed on the altitude meter. Gagarin’s flight has become a demonstration of the scientific advance and industrial power of the country that sent the first man into space.