34 Chapter 2

Exercise 7. Match the two columns:

1. to coexist 2. to postpone 3. overpopulation 4. illogical 5. miscalculation 6. to underpay 7. trilingual 8. to rewrite 9. unfair 10. ambiguous. 11. bilingual 12. atypically 13. decade 14. to outperform 15. malfunction 16. demigod

A. speaking two languages B. a period of ten years C. not logical D. having two meanings E. to make later F. not typically G. to exist together at the same time H. wrong calculation I. too many people J. speaking three languages K. not fair L. to write again in a better way M. to perform better than somebody N. to pay too little O. someone greater than a human but less than God P. a fault in operation

Exercise 8. Try to guess the meaning of the following words. If necessary, consult the dictionary.

contradict, uniform, combine, decade, antecedent, byproduct, international, foresee, impossible, ambivalent, unknown, collaborate, transportation, disorder, monologue, unilateral, bimonthly, semiannual, microscope, subterranean, cooperate, unusual, monopoly, synthesis, bicycle, antipathy, polyglot, reaffirm, demigod, triangle, intermediate, predict, dislike, overestimate, multimillionaire, illegal, infinity, misinform, bilateral, retrospect, preview, hemisphere, outplay, undervalue.

Exercise 9. Read the. text concentrating on «quantity» words. Render it into Ukrainian.

Although the beginning of «electronics» is usually dated around the 1920s, this represents a myopic view of technology. We can now see that the telegraph and the telephone are the first two landmarks of the electronic age. After Alexander Graham Bell had sent his voice from one room to another in 1876, society could never be the same again.

Electron, this invisible, ubiquitous, weightless object has given us power over nature of which our ancestors never dreamed. Until the closing years of the nineteenth century, people used electricity without knowing what it was. One of the most dramatic events was the invention of the X-ray tube — the ancestor of vacuum ubiquitous — existing tubes which followed. X-rays were discovered in 1895 — the electron or being everywhere itself just one year later. It was then realized that an electric current consists of myriads of these submicroscopic particles, each carrying a minute negative charge. Until 1948, electronics was almost synonymous with the vacuum tube. By the late 1940's, the vacuum tube had shrunk from the object as large as an electric bulb, to a cylinder not much

Chapter 1 35

bigger than a man's thumb. Then three scientists at the Bell Telephone Laboratories invented the transistor and we moved from the Paleoelectronic to the Neoelectronic Age. But a really efficient, reliable and universal communications system can be achieved only with the aid of satellites. With the improvement of communications the role of cities as meeting places and centers of social interaction will become obsolete, as people will be able to meet face to face (individually or in groups) without even leaving their homes.

Exercise 10. Choose the correct word and fill in the blanks.

(to) improve improvement

1. Your work shows considerable __ .

2. I want to __ my German.

3. Your English if getting better, but there is still room for __ .

(to) benefit beneficial

4. He had the of a first-class education.

5. The fall in prices will be :__ to our business.

6. He is most likely __ .

technology technological technologist

7. The system uses advanced computer and satellite __ .

8. We witness the rapid pace change.

9. A specialist in technology is called ____.

10. We use the latest ____.

Exercise 11. Read the passage and answer the questions about it.

When colonists from Europe first arrived in America, they had to decide what to preserve of their cultural heritage, and what to discard. They also had to decide upon a means to preserve and build upon their legacy. Their answer was the town school. Within 30' years of the founding of the first settlement in Massachusetts (1620), all towns were required to hire a schoolmaster to teach reading, writing and arithmetic, as well as religion; larger towns were required to establish grammar schools to prepare children for the university. In 1787 the Continental Congress required every new township in the Northwest Territory to preserve one plot and land for public schools.

At the university level, Harvard (Massachusetts) was founded in 1636, and William and Mary (Virginia) in 1693. By 1776, on the eve of its revolution, America had 14 colleges in the new country and another score were founded by 1800. By that time schooling meant not only preserving parts of the classical education, but also teaching skills necessary to build a new North American Nation. Americans freely borrowed from English, French and German precedents.

1. Which of the following is the best title for this passage?

a. European colonists in America

b. American educational system

c. Grammar schools and universities

d. The first steps of American education