Speech and composition

Ex 44 Answer the following questions, using the vocabulary of the lesson. Sum up your answers (orally, or in writing).

ON GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES

1. What is a discovery? 2. What great discoveries do you know? 3. When were most of the great discoveries made? 4. What is the 15th century famous for? 5. Who discovered America? 6. Did Columbus know that he had discovered a new continent? 7. Whom is the new continent named after? 8. What great discoveries have been made by Russian scientists?

ON SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES

1. What great scientific discoveries were made by Lomonosov (Pavlov Curie, etc)? 2. In what year did Mendeleyev discover the Periodic Law? 3. Why did the discovery of the Periodic Law make a revolution in science? 4. How did the scientific world take it? 5. Was there much discussion and argument before it was generally accepted? 6. Are there any new theories on the question now? 7. What else is Mendeleyev famous for?

ELECTRICITY AND ITS USES

1. Who discovered electricity? 2. How was it discovered? 3. What did the discovery of electricity mean to mankind? 4. How is electricity used? 5. When was the first Soviet power station built? 6. What electric power stations have been built since then? 7. Do you remember what V. I. Lenin said about the role of electricity in the life of our country?

ON INVENTIONS

1. What is an inventor? 2. By whom and when was radio invented? 3. Why is this an important invention? 4. How is it used? 5. What inventions were made by Kulibin, Yablochkov, Edison, Alexander Bell, James Watt, etc?

WHAT'S YOUR WAY OF WORKING?

1. What's the best place where you can work undisturbed? 2. Why don't you work at home? Why do you go to the library (reading-room)? 3. What is your favourite library? Why do you like it better than any other library in Moscow? 4. Do you make notes when reading something? 5. Do you make (take) notes during lectures? Are they a great help when you prepare for a seminar or an exam?

AN INVITATION

1. What were you doing last Sunday? 2. Was it an invitation to a birthday party, a house-warming party or just a get-together of old friends? 3. Was it an invitation you had been expecting or did it come quite unexpectedly? 4. Are they old friends of yours? How long have you known them? 5. Do they still live at the old place or have they moved to one of the new districts since you visited them last? 6. Was it any trouble finding the house? 7. Was the party fun? Did you enjoy yourself?

Ex 45 Read and discuss the following story. Speak on some other scientist.

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleyev was born on February 7, 1834 in Tobolsk. He came of a family of heroic pioneers. His grandfather was known as the publisher of the first newspaper in Siberia, the Irtish. His father was director of the local high school.

When Dmitri was still a boy his father died and his mother, who had made up her mind that Dmitri must get a good scientific education, moved first to Moscow, then to St. Petersburg where Mendeleyev entered the Pedagogical Institute. He worked hard and graduated at the head of the class. He was made professor of the University of St. Petersburg before he was 32. He wrote: "We need a double number of Newtons to discover the secrets of nature and to bring life into harmony with its laws."

Mendeleyev had spent twenty years studying the chemical elements. Before the end of the 19th century he surprised the world with his Periodic Law. He placed all the elements in order, starting with the lightest, hydrogen, and finishing his Table with uranium, the heaviest. In his Table he made places for more than 63 elements. But there were places in his Table which were still empty. Were they always to remain empty? Mendeleyev predicted several undiscovered elements.

The whole scientific world was thrilled.

At the time Mendeleyev died (1907) there were already 86 elements in the Periodic Table.

Mendeleyev was not only a scientist, he was also a social reformer. He hated the tyranny and oppression of Czarist Russia; he thought women to be equal to men in their struggle for work and education.

(After "The Greatest Discovery of the Century" by Bernard Jaffe)

Ex 46 Read the passage. Answer the questions. Retell the passage in English.

КАК БЫЛА ОТКРЫТА АНТАРКТИДА

16 июля 1819 года шлюпы «Мирный» и «Восток» вышли из Кронштадта. Они уходили в Антарктику на поиски неведомой Южной Земли, о которой знаменитый английский мореплаватель Джеймс Кук писал в своем дневнике, что такой земли нет.

Командиром шлюпа «Восток», а также начальником экспедиции был Ф. Ф Беллинсгаузен. Шлюпом «Мирный» командовал М. П. Лазарев.

Шлюпы шли по Атлантике* вниз. Далеко позади остались Лондон, Тенериф^*, Рио-де-Жанейро, Южные острова^*.

27 января 1820 года экспедиция пересекла Южный полярный круг. На следующий день продвижение экспедиции было остановлено стеной из льда. Так экспедицией Беллинсгаузена была открыта Антарктида. Было сделано одно из величайших географических открытий.

Семьсот пятьдесят один день длилась экспедиция. Было пройдено около ста тысяч километров. Всего было открыто, описано и нанесено на карту двадцать девять больших и малых островов.

Спустя год «Восток» и «Мирный» вышли из антарктических вод. Вышли там же, где и вошли, — в районе острова Южная Георгия^*.