Иностранный язык (английский язык). Перевод и разговорная речь. Учебное пособие

Man people want to buy small cars because they save fuel. That means saving money on petrol plus being able to find parking spaces more easily in crowded cities.

Carmakers are also spending money on research to make alternative-fuel cars. Maybe one day, most of us will drive biodiesel, hydrogen, or solar-powered cars.

Hybrids are cars that are already on the market today. Toyota and GM already produce hybrid cars, trucks and SUV’s that run on petrol and electricity. Other companies, like BMW, have made cars that use hydrogen and electricity. Although such cars are still too expensive to produce in great numbers carmakers are continuing to improve them and make them cheaper.

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Baidu Plans Self-Driving Car

Chinese internet search engine giant Baidu is planning on building a selfdriving car. The first test has been successful. A modified BMW -3 car made a 30 km test drive around the Chinese capital Beijing.

The car was able to make turns, detect and overtake cars that were too slow as well as change lanes. The new self-driving car can travel at speeds of up to 100 km an hour.

Baidu has implemented a special Baidu software, called AutoBrain, into the new car. It uses its own maps, locates positions and turns and makes decisions.

The search engine company plans to use the cars as shuttles in public transport to bring people to and from certain destinations. It will not take part in individual city traffic but only drive on specific routes.

With this new development Baidu is joining Google, Apple and Tesla on the self-driving car market. While the new vehicle is Baidu’s first car, Google has produced over 50 prototypes. The Californian internet company has already driven a million test miles on public roads.

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The New Robot Revolution

Robots entered everyday lives a long time ago. They are already used in many industries like car production, packaging and especially in jobs, in which humans would be in danger. Robots that can do chores like cleaning the floor or mowing lawns are already available in stores. In medicine, robots are used to replace limbs and other parts of the body.

Researchers claim that a new generation of robots will be able to do things that were unthinkable in the past. This new generation of machines will do

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household chores, educate children and even look after elderly people. Some say that the new robot revolution will be similar to the invention of the PC in the 1970s and 80s.

A new generation of robots designed to help the elderly is currently being developed in Japan. Japanese scientists are programming robots to work with people who have suffered a stroke; others will serve as personal gymnastic trainers. New robots can help out people who normally care for others and prevent them from burnouts.

The key to this is making robots more like humans. Scientists are currently working on new technology that will change the way humans and robots communicate. While elderly people have problems working with a computer they have fewer difficulties communicating with machines that can talk and react to their wishes.

Population researchers claim that as people get older, there will not be as many as needed to take care of the elderly, so why not have machines do this.

Before this new generation of robots can enter our lives we must be able to trust them. That means making communication between robots and humans routine. As robots become more perfect people will trust them, partly because they don’t have moods and perform tasks perfectly. A robot can also be trained to give motivation if something is done the right away. Robots could also be helpful in areas where social contact is necessary, like educating autistic children.

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Pepper – The First Human-Like Robot

A Japanese company has just introduced Pepper, a human-like robot. He has arms and hands but not legs. Pepper can speak 17 languages and has a display on his chest in which you can type in commands. The revolutionary robot’s artificial intelligence system can read recognize different kinds of human emotions. It can also read, answer questions and react to the feelings of people.

Pepper gets its information from a series of cameras, as well as facial and voice recognition software. It is connected to the internet from where it gets information from a gigantic database. Special safety features makes it almost impossible for the software to crash. Pepper is a learning robot that constantly becomes better and better in recognizing human behavior.

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The company that created Pepper, Softbank, envisions a world in which robots will play an ever-increasing role in doing daily chores in the household. According to the company, they will play a major part in caring for old people.

According to market experts, the demand for robots is growing and because of its rapidly ageing population, Japan is one of the largest markets in the world. Businesses are also interested in robots like Pepper, which can help firms cut costs by taking over tasks that humans are currently doing.

While many companies have been developing robots for industrial work and military purposes, very little has been done to get robots to work on the emotional scale. Pepper is the first machine that can do just that. The new robot will be on sale in Japan for about 2,000 dollars.

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Living without Energy

Everyone says that we must use less energy! But how? That is the big question. In this article, you can read about the house of the future, which uses hardly any energy at all...

Most houses use energy – lots of it. We use energy for heating, lighting, for running our household appliances – TV’s, washing machines, fridges, and so on. In winter time, most houses use dozens of kilowatts of electricity every day, or the equivalent in gas.

The house in the photo, on the other hand, uses virtually nothing: most of the energy that it uses comes straight from the sun, the wind or the ground. This is an experimental house at the University of Nottingham, and it could be the kind of house that most people are living in fifty years from now.

During the daytime, it is rarely necessary to turn on an electric light, even in rooms without windows. Sunlight, or daylight, is “piped” through the house, into each room, through special high-reflection aluminum tubes. You can see how well they reflect light, by looking at the reflections of the faces in the picture!

At night, of course, energy is necessary – but most of this comes from the sun or the wind. The house is fitted with photovoltaic solar panels that generate electricity during the daytime, and a wind turbine power generator too; electricity from these can be used directly, or else stored in batteries, and used when it is needed.

For heating, the house uses direct solar energy (sunshine heating water that circulates through a radiator system), or geothermal energy. This takes low-level

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heat out of the ground, and uses a heat-pump to convert it into high-level heat for use in radiators – the same principle as a refrigerator, but in reverse.

As for water, most daily needs are provided for by the house’s own supply; rainwater is collected on the roof, filtered, and used for all toilets, baths and showers.

If, one day, most people in developed countries live in houses like this one, most of today’s pollution will have disappeared, and global warming may be a problem of the past.

Copyright © Linguapress Copying permitted for personal study or by teachers for use with their students

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The Wind-Farm controversy

Plans to upgrade a “wind farm” for generating electricity, on a hilltop half a mile from the Lake District National park, have caused a big argument among British conservationists

Since 1993, twelve big wind turbines have stood on Kirkby Moor, a windy hilltop in the north of England. Now, the company that operates the site, RWE Energy, wants to replace the existing turbines, which are 45 metres high, with six new ones, 115 metres high.

These turbines will produce more clean renewable energy, but some people do not want them. The wind farm is less than a kilometre from the edge of the Lake District National Park, and is visible for miles around. The site is also classified as a SSSI, or Site of Special Scientific Interest, on account of its wildlife.

When the first wind farm was planned, an official inspector was appointed to study the controversy: he decided that the wind farm would not have any major ecological consequences, but “the visual impact of the scheme would be sufficiently harmful”. The new 115-metre wind turbines will be even more visible.

Almost everyone agrees that we must produce clean renewable energy; but wind-farms have always been controversial. Some people love them; others do not want them on aesthetic grounds. Do we need massive wind power generators in beautiful parts of the countryside?

In favour of wind-farms

Britain is a windy country, and it ought to make use of its wind. If that means putting wind farms on top of every windy hill in Britain, then that’s what

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we ought to be doing. It’s just ridiculous to say “Stop, you can’t put a wind farm there because this is a National Park, or near a National Park, and wind farms don’t look pretty!” It just happens that most of the windy mountains in England and Wales are in National Parks, or on National Trust land near the coast.

Some people say wind farms are ugly; but this is rather hypocritical; they just don’t want to see any signs of the times on their favourite bits of pretty countryside. It’s like the people who complain about new high-speed railways. Half of them commute into London every day, and use roads and railway lines; yet they complain as soon as someone suggests building something near them. It’s the NIMBY syndrome; Not In My Back Yard. You can build your wind farms and high speed lines and prisons and factories and rubbish dumps wherever you like, as long as it’s not near me. These people say they’re conservationists, but if you ask me they’re just jumping on the green bandwaggon to defend their own interests.

Questions of aesthetics are not really all that important; what is important is that we move over to clean energy sources as fast as possible, and get rid of pollution and the nuclear risk. That’s the real issue. After all, if we don’t, we’ll end up destroying the environment that National Parks are meant to protect, through pollution and climate change.”

Against wind-farms

We’ve already lost most of our natural environment in England, and thousands of kinds of plants and insects and animals have disappeared. It’s absolutely essential that we conserve what is still left. The answer isn’t to build more power stations, whatever sort of energy they use; it’s to use less energy — make people use more public transport and less fuel.

O.K., we should be using more renewable energy, but we’ve got to find a balance between energy and the environment. Some places have got to be protected from development, and National Parks more than any other areas. That’s what they exist for! Of course Kirkby Moor is just outside a park, but it’s close enough to affect the park.

There are plenty of other places where wind farms could be built. Besides, wind power isn’t the only form of renewable energy. There’s wave power too; that’s what we really ought to be developing. Floating wave power generators could produce all the electricity Britain needs, and they wouldn’t cause any problems.

We don’t need renewable energy. Nuclear power is the answer; it’s clean and safe, as long as it is properly looked after. Nuclear waste’s a problem

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today, admittedly, but scientists are sure to come up with a way of treating it effectively, one of these days.

The government inspector said that the project should not go ahead, and he should know what he’s talking about. Kirkby Moor is a beautiful part of Britain, and it shouldn’t be disfigured. If you build a wind farm, that means putting up buildings too, and overhead power lines; there’ll be people working there to run the place too. Another bit of unspoilt countryside will be disfigured.

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Technology in the Packaging Innovation & Manufacturing Process

By Thomas Reissig, Managing Director VerDeSoft

German packaging design and technology company VerDeSoft is a service company developing packaging innovations in a variety of industries.

What makes a packaging design successful?

The best packaging designs are the ones that transport the story of the product directly to the customer–ideally through a range of mediums; including graphics, shape, material and functionality.

What are the top three emerging trends in the packaging value chain?

−Shorter life cycle of products, meaning smaller quantities are being produced but with greater design variety and functionality.

−Individualization and personalization of packaging.

−“Natural looking” and sustainable packaging solutions.

−What is the end-user increasingly looking for in packaging design?

As a general rule, the end-user isn’t overly concerned about new trends in packaging design. Rather, consumers are more concerned about buying products with attractive, functional and easy-to recycle packaging. Consumers are drawn to packaging which looks “natural” and “sustainable” when they have the choice. Two such examples include packaging that is matte or looks like paper. Perhaps the appeal of paper packaging comes from a growing public awareness among consumers of plastic pollution such as marine litter in the ocean. However, many consumers are also unaware of how sustainable other packaging types–such as plastic–can be.

What is the producer’s role in the design and production process? VerDeSoft is able to guide the new packaging concept through the long and

complex development chain. There are so many innovative and creative ideas developed by design agencies and brands, but unfortunately, many of these never end up on the shelf as they are unable to meet production, technology, consumer and functionality requirements and are too costly. Packaging tends

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to stick to the tried and tested models, namely pouches, folding boxes or blister packs. However, because of our creativity and packaging technology knowhow, VerDeSoft has the ability to think from both sides and develop the packaging material, the structural design, as well as utilize the necessary technology to produce innovative products.

How does the process work throughout the value chain?

The majority of the projects come directly from brand owners but a proportion also come from converters, raw material suppliers and machine manufacturers. Over the last few years, we have seen a surge in the number of projects coming directly from material and machine suppliers–as opposed to converters and brand owners–who are increasingly interested in development trends and new packaging concepts that incorporate new materials and machinery.

What are the benefits for the brand owner of collaborating with a company? We have a holistic packaging development process – not only are we able to provide an innovative design, but we also have the capability to run the whole process until the product is on the shelf. It’s extremely useful to collaborate with a company that has both the creative capabilities as well as access to a packaging lab with different processing technology and tools for sampling and the ability to mock-up packaging from original materials. Working with an independent agency also ensures that the outcome is not limited to the product range available from the supplier and to protect the developed intellectual

property, based on the contracts signed before the process.

The recent project example was with start-up “Frizle” who developed the idea to create a new chilled product. They were looking for a convenient packaging solution for their “Spätzle”- dough which would allow the consumer to squeeze the dough directly into boiling water, creating fresh “Spätzle”-pasta. This was the perfect briefing for us, and in fact, the design won both a German packaging design award followed by a gold medal at DuPont’s International Packaging Awards.

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Innovation

The term innovation derives from the Latin word innovatus (to renew or change). Although the term is broadly used, innovation generally refers to the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society. Innovation differs

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from invention or renovation in that innovation generally signifies a substantial positive change compared to incremental changes.

Inter-Disciplinary Views

Due to its widespread effect, innovation is an important topic in the study of economics, business, entrepreneurship, design, technology, sociology, and engineering. In society, innovation aids in comfort, convenience, and efficiency in everyday life. For instance, the benchmarks in railroad equipment and infrastructure added to greater safety, maintenance, speed, and weight capacity for passenger services. These innovations included changing from wood to steel cars, from iron to steel rails, stove-heated to steam-heated cars, gas lighting to electric lighting, diesel-powered to electric-diesel locomotives. By mid-20th century, trains were making longer, more comfortable, and faster trips at lower costs for passengers. Other areas that add to everyday quality of life include: the innovations to the light bulb from incandescent to compact fluorescent and LEDs which offer longer-lasting, less energy-intensive, brighter technology; adoption of modems to cellular phones, paving the way to smart phones which meets anyone’s internet needs at any time or place; cathode-ray tube to flatscreen LCD televisions and others.

Business and Economics

In business and economics, innovation is the catalyst to growth. With rapid advancements in transportation and communications over the past few decades, the old world concepts of factor endowments and comparative advantage which focused on an area’s unique inputs are outmoded for today’s global economy. Now, as Harvard economist Michael Porter points out competitive advantage, or the productive use of any inputs, which requires continual innovation, is paramount for any specialized firm to succeed. Economist Joseph Schumpeter, who contributed greatly to the study of innovation, argued that industries must incessantly revolutionize the economic structure from within, that is innovate with better or more effective processes and products, such as the shift from the craft shop to factory. In addition, entrepreneurs continuously look for better ways to satisfy their consumer base with improved quality, durability, service, and price which come to fruition in innovation with advanced technologies and organizational strategies.

One prime example is the explosive boom of Silicon start-ups out of the Stanford Industrial Park. In 1957, dissatisfied employees of Shockley Semiconductor, the company of Nobel laureate and co-inventor of the transistor William Shockley, left to form an independent firm, Fairchild Semiconductor. After several years, Fairchild developed into a formidable presence in the sector.

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Eventually, these founders left to start their own companies based on their own, unique, latest ideas, and then leading employees started their own firms. Over the next 20 years, this snowball process launched the momentous start-up company explosion of information technology firms. Essentially, Silicon Valley began as 65 new enterprises born out of Shockley’s eight former employees.

Organizations

In the organizational context, innovation may be linked to positive changes in efficiency, productivity, quality, competitiveness, market share, and others. All organizations can innovate, including for example hospitals, universities, and local governments. For instance, former Mayor Martin O’Malley pushed the City of Baltimore to use CitiStat, a performance-measurement data and management system that allows city officials to maintain statistics on crime trends to condition of potholes. This system aids in better evaluation of policies and procedures with accountability and efficiency in terms of time and money. In its first year, CitiStat saved the city $13.2 million. Even mass transit systems have innovated with hybrid bus fleets to real-time tracking at bus stands. In addition, the growing use of mobile data terminals in vehicles that serves as communication hubs between vehicles and control centre automatically send data on location, passenger counts, engine performance, mileage and other information. This tool helps to deliver and manage transportation systems. ·

Sources of Innovation

There are several sources of innovation. General sources of innovations are different changes in industry structure, in market structure, in local and global demographics, in human perception, mood and meaning, in the amount of already available scientific knowledge, etc. These also include internet research, developing of people skills, language development, cultural background, Skype, Facebook, etc. In the simplest linear model of innovation the traditionally recognized source is manufacturer innovation. This is where an agent (person or business) innovates in order to sell the innovation. Another source of innovation, only now becoming widely recognized, is end-user innovation. This is where an agent (person or company) develops an innovation for their own (personal or in-house) use because existing products do not meet their needs. End-user innovation is, by far, the most important and critical source of innovation. In addition, the famous robotics engineer Joseph F. Engelberger asserts that innovations require only three things: 1) a recognized need; 2) competent people with relevant technology; and 3) financial support.

Innovation by businesses is achieved in many ways, with much attention now given to formal research and development (R&D) for “breakthrough

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innovations.” R&D help spur on patents and other scientific innovations that leads to productive growth in such areas as industry, medicine, engineering, and government. Yet, innovations can be developed by less formal on-the-job modifications of practice, through exchange and combination of professional experience and by many other routes. The more radical and revolutionary innovations tend to emerge from R&D, while more incremental innovations may emerge from practice – but there are many exceptions to each of these trends.

An important innovation factor includes customers buying products or using services. As a result, firms may incorporate users in focus groups (user centred approach), work closely with so called lead users (lead user approach) or users might adapt their products themselves. Regarding this user innovation, a great deal of innovation is done by those actually implementing and using technologies and products as part of their normal activities. In most of the times user innovators have some personal record motivating them. Sometimes user-innovators may become entrepreneurs, selling their product, they may choose to trade their innovation in exchange for other innovations, or they may be adopted by their suppliers. Nowadays, they may also choose to freely reveal their innovations, using methods like open source. In such networks of innovation the users or communities of users can further develop technologies and reinvent their social meaning.

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Equipment needed for a print shop

By Matt McKay

Printing is a very diverse field and can a very expensive proposition. It is important to investigate the various types of work and perform market research in your area before making a buying decision. Printers love to talk shop and show off equipment and are usually happy to show you around. Read trade magazines, talk to suppliers, and educate yourself in all aspects of this fascinating trade. There are some basic equipment needs for a small commercial print shop to help get you going.

Computer and Software

A computer, scanner and graphic arts software is necessary in the modern print shop for basic design and typesetting. Although graphic design in printing is highly specialized, you should offer basic typesetting and design work inhouse to save you and the customer time and money. Complex work can be jobbed out to professional designers. Scanners are used to scan customer artwork into the computer to make changes or output to a computer platemaker.

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