The Past Perfect Continuous Tense

Прошедшее совершенное длительное время образуется с по­мощью вспомогательного глагола «to be» в форме Past Perfect (had been) и причастия 1 смыслового глагола. Past Perfect Continuous употребляется:

1) для выражения прошедшего действия, которое продолжа­лось в прошлом некоторый период времени, выраженный или под­разумеваемый, и закончилось (или могло еще продолжаться) при наступлении второго, более позднего прошедшего действия. Это второе, более позднее прошедшее действие выражается в Past Indefinite. Переводится на русский язык глаголом в прошедшем времени, обычно несовершенного вида: When my friend came, I had been writing an exercise for an hour. Когда пришел мой друг, я уже писал упражнение в течение часа. I had been waiting for my friend for two hours before he came. До того, как пришел мой друг, я прождал его два часа.

2) для выражения дей­ствия, которое продолжалось некоторый период времени в прош­лом и закончилось (или еще продолжается) к данному моменту в прошлом. При указании данного момента в прошлом употребля­ется предлог «by»: By 6 o'clock I had been working for 8 hours. К шести часам я уже работал восемь часов.

При употреблении Past Perfect Continuous указы­вается или подразумевается, сколько времени прошедшее дей­ствие продолжалось до другого прошедшего действия или момен­та в прошлом. Поэтому Past Perfect Continuous употребляется с такими обозначениями времени, как: for... hours (days, weeks, months и т. д.) или since... o'clock, since 1975, for a long time и т.д: He had been trying to get her on the phone for 15 minutes before he heard her voice. It was 6 o'clock and he was tired because he had been working since dawn.

При согласовании времен Past Perfect Continuous (или Past Perfect для глаголов, не имеющих формы Continuous) в прида­точном предложении не видоизменяется: Не said he had been working here for 2 hours. When he came, I had been living in London for a week.

The Future Perfect Continuous Tense

Будущее совершенное длительное время образуется с помощью вспомогательного глагола «to be» в Future Perfect (will have been) и причастия 1 смыслового глагола.

Future Perfect Continuous употребляется для выражения буду­щего действия, которое, начавшись в будущем, будет продолжать­ся в течение некоторого периода времени до наступления другого, более позднего будущего времени или момента: When you return home, I shall have been working for seven hours. Когда вы вернетесь домой, я буду уже работать семь часов. By 1975 he will have been working at the factory for ten years. К 1975 году он будет работать на фабрике уже 10 лет.

Future Perfect Continuous употребляется очень редко. В его значении обычно используются формы Future Perfect или Future Indefinite.

Text 16 Developing оf Telecommunications

We can not deny the role of telecommunications in our life. The Internet, phones, telegraph, cell phones, radio, television are all the means of communication or telecommunication. Nowadays we live in information era, when information is the key and engine of progress. Our society needs perfect means of information exchange that is why all types of telecommuni­cation are under the permanent developing.

Currently hundreds of millions of people use wireless com­munication means. Cell phone is no longer a symbol of pres­tige but a tool, which lets to use working time more effective­ly. Considering that the main service of a mobile connection operator is providing high quality connection, much attention in the telecommunication market is paid to the spectrum of services that cell network subscriber may receive. Today we can easily connect to the Internet using our cell phone or to take a picture or to take a short movie, using our video cell phone.

Late in the nineteenth century, communication facilities were augmented by a new invention — telephone. In the USA its use expanded slowly and by 1900 the American Telephone and Telegraph Company controlled 855,000 telephones. After 1900, telephone installations extended much more rapidly in all the wealthier countries. The number of telephones in use in the world grew at almost 100 per cent per decade. But long­distance telephone services gradually developed and began to compete with telegraphic business. A greater contribution to long-range communication came with the development of wire­less technology. Before the outbreak of the First World War wireless telegraphy was established as a means of regular com­munication with ships at sea and provided a valuable supple­ment to existing telegraph lines. In the next few years the tele­phone systems of all the chief countries were connected with each other by radio. Far more immediate was the influence that radio had through broadcasting and by television, which fol­lowed it at an interval of about twenty-five years.

Telephones are as much a part of infrastructure of our so­ciety as roads or electricity, and competition will make them cheaper. Losses from lower prices will be countered by higher usage. Most important of all, by cutting out the need to install costly cables and microwave transmitters, the new telephones could be a boon to the remote and poor regions of the earth. Even today, half the world's population lives more than two hours away from a telephone.

Satellite phones are not going to deliver all their benefits at once. Lots of other new communication services — on-line film libraries, personal computers that can send video-clips and sound-bites as easily as they can be used for writing letters, terrestrial mobile-telephone systems cheap enough to replace old sets — are already technically possible.