How Stuff Works. Пособие по развитию аудирования и навыков устной речи

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HOW TV WORKS

Слова и выражения по тексту:

1.to poll – проводить опрос

2.to be embarrassed – быть сконфуженным, сбитым с толку

3.to shoot – стрелять, зд. фотографировать

4.to take a picture of smb – фотографировать кого-то

5.to chop up – крошить, измельчать

6.tiny dots – крошечные точки

7.to turn smth into smth (=to convert) – превращать что-то во что-то

8.pixel – пиксел, минимальный элемент изображения

9.animation – анимация. Здесь: пояснительная графика на экране

10.to beam up into – направлять поток частиц

11.to sit in space – находиться в космосе

12.a bunch of dots – множество точек

13.either.. .or – либо … либо

14.to spread to – распространяться

15.a cable jack – разъём, штекер

16.to plug in – включать в сеть

17.an electron gun – электронная пушка

Oprah Winfrey: We polled our audience with special hi-tech i-Pads and 77% of you said they had no idea how TV works. I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t know either, I’m just glad it does.

So, how do I end up in millions of living rooms around the world? First, a camera right there shoots me, like this camera. Then what?

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Marshall Brain: The camera takes the beautiful picture of you and chops it up to about a quarter of millions of little dots that we call pixels.

O.W.: like we’re seeing right there.

M.B.: Yes. Now, let’s just stop the animation. Each one of these ¼ of a million dots has a color and a place on the screen. So the picture of you has been chopped at all these dots and we want to send them to millions of homes in America.

O.W.: I’m a series of dots.

M.B.: At this point…

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O.W.: Ok.

M.B.: Let’s start the animation. So that all happens inside the camera and the camera turns them into an electrical signal.

O.W.: Camera turn dots into electrical signal.

M.B.: Exactly! And sends them to a satellite. In your case the satellite is about 3 miles from here and the satellite is going to convert that signal into the radio waves and beam them up in to space to the satellite. It’s sitting in space about 22 thousand miles away.

O.W.: So, I left here. I’m a bunch of dots. I went through a cable thing then I went to the satellite and then beam up 22 thousand miles out in space.

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M.B.: This satellite is being used because it can see the whole planet. So the signal from the satellite comes down and either arrives at all the cable companies across America or if you have a little dish on the side of your house, it can land on your own little dish. And this antenna turns it back into an electrical signal and this signal is going to go through this cable it as it goes through this cable it finally spreads to a million houses in the neighborhood.

O.W.: I’m still dots?

M.B.: Yeah. Good! And it arrives to your house; you have a little cable jack in the wall. You plug your TV in and now the TV is going to put all these dots together to make a picture of you. So, inside the TV there is a little part called an electron-gun

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that sprays all these dots exactly on the screen and what shows up on your screen is the same thing that camera saw. All put back together. And that whole process happens 30 times a second.

O.W.: 30 times a second. That’s amazing!

Лексико-грамматические задания

1.Переведите сложные наречия и числительные:

1.one forth of a million dots

2.a three-hour walk

3.a fifty-thousand pound house

4.a two-storey house

5.a four-star hotel

6.a ninety-minute cassette

2.Переведите предложения на английский язык, используя времена:

Present or Past Progressive, Passive Voice

Пример:

Используется этот спутник, поскольку он может видеть всю планету/

This satellite is being used because it can see the whole planet.

1.У меня сейчас нет машины. Она ремонтируется.

2.Из-за мирового экономического кризиса налоги увеличиваются, тогда как социальные пособия снижаются.

3.Когда я приехал в больницу, Тома осматривал доктор.

4.Я не мог пользоваться своим кабинетом вчера, т.к. его красили.

5.Новую программу тестировали на ошибки вчера в три часа.

6.О встрече много говорят.

Ответьте на вопросы по тексту:

1.Did the TV audience know how TV worked?

2.What is the first step in TV operation?

3.What does a TV camera do with one forth of a million of dots?

4.What is the function of a satellite that receives an electrical signal?

5.What does the satellite sitting in space about 22 thousand miles do?

6.What is the function of a house antenna?

7.Which part of the TV sprays all electric dots on the screen?

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HOW TELEPHONE WORKS

Слова и выражения по тексту:

1.to work off – функционировать (о каком-либо техническом устройстве)

2.to pick up the phone – поднять телефонную трубку

3.the hook – рычаг телефонного аппарата

4.switch – переключаться

5.to make a call – позвонить

6.a dial tone – длинный, низкий гудок (сигнал того, что линия свободна) to dial a number – набирать номер

7.to route – прокладывать маршрут, направлять (по определенному маршруту)

8.to figure out – распознавать

9.to roll – вернуться назад

10.switching equipment – коммутационное оборудование

11.fiber optic cables – оптико-волоконные кабели 12.exploit – использование

13.a speaker – громкоговоритель

14.used to – часто выполняемые действия в прошлом

15.to plug up wires – соединять провода

Oprah Winfrey: Most of people could not tell me diddly about how the phone really works. OK, take little hi-tech keypads, padget communications and tell me if you really know how the phone works. “Yes”, if you do; ”No” if you don’t; Tell the truth, really. Start!

OK! Do you know how the telephone really works? My vote would be – NO.

11% say YES. Who is the “Yeser” lady up there, how is it works?

Some lady: It transmits your voice into electrical impulses and it goes through electrical cable, I think. Sounds good!

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O.W.: Sounded good . It’s OK I will call my friend Gale? See what happens, Marshall is gonna tell how she can hear me . Hello, ring 1, ring 2 …

Gale: Hello!

O.W.: Gale, we’re on TV. Say nothing you don’t want to hear on TV.

Gale: Why are you calling? Why are you calling me right there? What do you want?

I’m a very busy person!

O. W.: Listen, forget about it. I’m just calling. Gale: What do you want? I’m a very busy person! O. W.: I’m calling, I’m calling…

Gale: Why are you calling? Really, I don’t know.

O.W.: I’m calling. Didn’t they tell you why I was calling?

Gale: The only I’ve got, is that “Oprah is calling, she wants to talk about how to work the telephone”. I e-mailed back – “Oprah doesn’t know the work of the telephone?!”

I said – how did it become complicated that I don’t know it too. Seriously, I really don’t know why you’re calling me.

Started grumbling

O. W.: Well, I think you need to eat a biscuit!

Gale: Now that it up and I have it and I extremely hungry!

O.W.: Ok, I can tell that you should taste any sugar. I’m sending you with Marshal Brain who wrote the book about how things work. How is it called Marshall? Marshal Brain: How stuff works.

O.W.: How stuff! Close to me Gale! It called how stuff works! You know remember that time when I was in South Africa.

Gale: Yeah, we have BLACKBERRYs and can get messages instantaneously. How do you do that?

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