9. Read and translate the text “History of botany in brief”, find in the text:

a) sentences in the Past Simple Active;

b) sentences in the Past Simple Passive.

History of botany in brief

When two days ago Kate came home very tired after a long day at the university her mother was standing at the entrance and smiling. Kate understood that something pleasant happened. But what was it? The mother was holding a little parcel in her hand. It was a letter! The letter she was waiting for! It was the letter from Kate’s girlfriend Helen who studied botany at a college in the USA But what a wonderful news! She got a letter from her girlfriend Helen who studies botany at college in the USA. Kate was waiting for her letter for a long time.

“Dear Kate,

Don’t be angry with me for my long silence, but really I was too busy to write. You, know, I left school in June and began to prepare for my entrance exams to the University.

I had to take 4 exams and passed all of them with excellent marks. So I am glad to tell you that now I am a first year student at the Ohio State College.

I should like to show you the main building of our college. I can’t help admiring this fine building. You can see it on the photos which were enclosed in the envelope. I like everything here in this college: good libraries and reading rooms, gymnasiums and a stadium. Many well - known professors teach at our college. At present we have a lot of work. My favorite subject is botany of course. At the moment we are studying the history of development of botany. It is so gripping. There are a lot of cognitive facts that I don’t know. I want to tell some words about the history of botany. I hope this knowledge will be useful for you.

You know that in ancient times plants were valued for their utility and their medicinal properties, and besides they were worshipped as a gift from the gods. It` s very surprising that amongst the ancient civilized peoples the Egyptians had a strong liking for flowers and shrubs, although they grew their plants under a cloudless sky on artificially watered lands. Many centuries before the Greeks they produced their flower pictures; the names of the herbs with healing properties were recorded on a long papyrus.

In Ancient Greece Aristotle noticed that classification of nature was possible and that a continuous transition from inanimate to living animals existed¹. One of Aristotle’s pupils Theophrastus undertook the comparison of plants, so he went beyond the sphere of medicinal and practical questions.

The Romans were a practical people. Agriculture and horticulture were developed and well-tended. To get through cold periods without damage, for example, plants were grown under glass in patches that were enriched in manure. They also covered upper parts of plants in order to protect them against frost². M. Porcius Cato mentions six different varieties of pears, several varieties of apples and quinces and some varieties of grapevine of different origins in his work on agriculture, three varieties of cabbage were known.

In the Middle Ages voyages of discovery revealed to the naturalists a great abundance of plants and animals hitherto unknown and brought new plant species to Europe.

It` s amazing that much knowledge was gathered by the numerous travelers. In the second half of the 13th century, the Venetian Marco Polo traveled through large parts of Central Asia and China and thus increased the knowledge of plants, countries, people and animals: bamboo, clove, ginger, cotton, sugar, cane, indigo, rhubarb, camphor, pepper and nutmeg. During the 14th century, monks and merchants traveled often to the Orient.

In the Renaissance, the ideas of antiquity became popular again. The first universities were founded in Upper Italy, later in other parts of Europe (Leiden, Montpellier, Heidelberg, etc.). Botanical research was still mostly done in the service of medicine. After the invention of letterpress, scientific literature became accessible to a broader public. The 16th century saw thus a new spreading of botanical knowledge including the publications of a number of floras of different countries.

Beginning with the 16th century physiology became a topic of botany. The circulation of saps in plants (C.Perrault), the transformation of soil compounds into plant-specific components (E. Marriote) , the connection of water uptake, sap pressure and evaporation and single plant substances (J. Woodward, S. Hales, C. W. Scheele, A.S. Markgraf, S. F. Hermstaedt, J.J. Berzelius, J. Liebig) became subjects of interest. During this time, too, botanical research began to employ physical and chemical methods.

By the end of the 18 th century, scientists had gradually, in a series of achievements, come to discover why the blossom emits color, the purpose of the leaf and the structure of the fruit. About 1855 the scientist M. G. Schleiden scoffed at those botanists “whose entire wisdom is spent in determining and classifying”. This comment came at that time when botanists had trodden the road of deeper understanding of plant life.

Then there arose for the second time botany of the unexplored, when in the 19 th century researchers with improved microscopes penetrated into the invisible world, from plants without blossoms right down to unicellular bacteria, into the marvels of tissues, the growth of new substance and the operation of heredity.

Since the middle of the 19th century research especially that performed under the aspects of use and commercial interest was supported in ever increasing degrees. Independent research stations were founded, at first often privately, later, towards the end of the 19th century and in the beginning of the 20th century also by state and industry³.

You know, Kate, it is not so easy for me to write in English, because still I have some problems. I have a lot of work with English practice, Grammar and phonetics. There is English – speaking club for those who speak English as a second language. I am working hard at my English. It gives me a good opportunity to master the language, to find out my mistakes and to get rid of them in the shortest possible time. Do you remember our dream to become professional selectionists and to cultivate plants resistant to temperature drops? I remember it and do everything to realize my dream.

So that’s the latest news about me. Please write to me about your life and studies.

My best regards to your parents.

Yours, Helen.”