Vocabulary:

1. spectacular breakthroughs - захватывающие открытия.

2. well above - намного выше

Exercise 1. General understanding:

1. What is this text about?

2. What is the phenomenon of superconductivity?

3. Who was the first to discover the phenomenon?

4. What scientists do you know who have worked in the field of superconductivity?

5. What materials are the best superconductors?

6. Is it possible to return superconducting materials to the normal state?

7. How can it be done?

8. In what fields of science and technology can the phenomenon of superconductivity be used?

Exercise 2. Are the sentences true or false? Correct the wrong sentences according to the text.

1. The latest achievements in superconductivity mean a revolution in technology and industry.

2. Superconductors were once thought to be physically impossible. 3. The achievements in superconductivity cannot be compared with the discoveries that led to electronics and nuclear power. 4. The electrical resistivity of a mercury wire disappears when cooled below 4 K.

5. A superconductivity material cannot be returned to the normal state. 6. Landau and Ginzburg introduced a model which was useful in understanding electromagnetic properties of superconductors. 7. Scientists from IBM found a ceramic material that became a superconductor at a temperature of 23 K. 8. Potential technical uses of high temperature superconductivity are unlikely to be possible and practical.

Exercise 3. Make a sentence out of the two parts:

1. Recent achievements in 1. fundamental theory to explain this unexpected

superconductivity research are phenomenon.

2. they may be compared with 2. found the electrical resistivity of mercury to

disappear when cooled to the temperature of 4

Kelvin.

3. Superconductivity is known to 3. to the development of superconductivity theory.

4. While carrying out his low 4. have been discovered by a Dutch physicist.

temperature research he

5. For 50 years after the discovery 5. of great importance for science and technology.

there was no

6. In the 1950s Russia and American 6. since the discovery of a superconductive metallic

physicists made a great contribution ceramics

7. Research in the field of 7. physics discoveries that led to the development

superconductivity became especially of electronics and nuclear power.

active

Exercise 4. Найдите в тексте инфинитивные конструкции.

Exercise 5. Найдите предложения со сложным подлежащим при глаголе-сказуемом в действительном залоге, переведите:

1. The phenomenon of superconductivity appears to have been discovered as early as 1911. 2. Before 1911 superconductivity was assumed to be impossible. 3. Recent discoveries in superconductivity made scientists look for new conducting materials and for practical applications of the phenomenon. 4. The latest achievements in the field of superconductivity are certain to make a revolution in technology and industry. 5. Recommendations from physicists will allow the necessary measures to be taken to protect the air from pollute 6. Lasers are sure to do some jobs better and more economically than other devices. 7. M. Faraday supposed a light beam to reverse its polarization as it passed through a magnetised crystal. 8. Superconductors are likely to find applications we don't even think of at present. 9. A Dutch physicist found a superconducting material to return to normal state when a strong magnetic field was applied. 10. Properties of materials obtained in space prove to be much better than tin produced on Earth. 11. There are prospects for lasers to be used in long distance communication and for transmission of energy to space stations. 12. The electrical resistivity of a mercury wire was found to disappear when cooled to -269 °C. 13. Additional radio transmitters let the pilot make his approach to an airport by watching his flight instruments. 14. There seems to be a lot of alloys and compounds that become superconductors under certain conditions.