Education in ukraine
Present day independent Ukraine has a well-developed system of education which matches the standards of the developer countries. Pre-school education is not compulsory and is fee-playing. Most parents take their children to nursery schools or kindergartens at the age of 3. Up to the age of 5 children mostly eat, sleep and play there, but in senior groups they are taught the basics of arithmetic, reading, writing, arts and in some schools foreign languages.
A compulsory secondary education begins at the age of 6-7 and is free in state schools and fee-playing in private ones. Some schools, especially those with language slant, have preparatory classes. Secondary education includes three stages: primary (1th – 3th grades), basic (4th – 9th) and senior (10th – 11th grades). In regular secondary schools children start learning foreign languages from the 5th grade and have fewer lessons of language a week than specialized language schools that start teaching languages from the 1st grade. Recently new types of schools have appeared: gymnasiums and lyceums. In additional, there are schools with technical, computer, mathematical, law, pedagogical and art slant. All the subjects in the secondary schools are obligatory but there are optional courses that students of senior grades can take in additional to the required ones.
Extra-curricular activities usually include a variety of sports and drama clubs, interest groups and various school parties.
Those senior students who want to get qualification alongside the secondary education, can go to vocational training schools. Post-secondary education is provided by technical schools and colleges of t1st and 2nd Level of Accreditation that train young specialists in different trades.
Institutions of higher learning include universities, academies institutes and conservatories. They all hold entrance examinations to select the best applicants to be their students. Among the best known higher educational establishments there are Shevchenko Kyiv National University, Kyiv Polytechnic University, International Independent University “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”, Lviv State Conservatory, Kharkiv National University, Ivano-Frankivsk National Technical University oil and gas and many other.
Post graduate education begins after the last year of studies and usually results in theses on the chosen scientific topic and the degree of the Candidate of Science. Doctorate Degree is awarded for an outstanding scientific research.
Main storage
Main storage plays a vital role in the operation of the central processor. It is wholly electronic and in close proximity to the rest of tin- processor therefore any data within main memory is almost instantly accessible to the processor. For this reason main memory is also called Immediate Access Storage (IAS), but it is also called internal storage or main memory. Its operation is wholly electronic and consequently very fast and reliable. In the most modern computers the electronic memory circuits are also highly miniaturized. Data is almost instantly accessible from main memory because of its electronic operation and close proximity to the processor. Data must be transferred to main storage before it can be processed by the processor. High access speeds then contribute to fast processing.
Main storage holds the program instructions and the data being processed. It will also store the intermediate results of processing awaiting transfer to; the output devices. Ideally, main storage would be used to store all data requiring processing, in order to achieve maximum processing speed. Main storage is relatively expensive. So the practical solution is to limit the size of main storage and supply it with less expensive backing storage.
Main storage in modern computers is constructed from semiconductor memory chips. The most common type of semiconductor memory is called RAM (Random access memory). RAM is volatile (data is lost when the power supply is removed. A non-volatile alternative to RAM is ROM (Read only memory), in which all contents are permanently set during manufacture. ROM usually forms a small proportion of main storage, and is used to store vital data and programs which need to be held within main storage at all times. RAM usually forms the major proportion of main storage and is used to store data and program temporarily during those times when they are needed in main memory. It is constantly being re-used for different data items or programs as required
MASS MEDIA
Mass media or mass communications are the press, radio and television.
Every day we read newspapers and magazines, listen to radio and watch TV. Nowadays there are so many newspapers and magazines, radio stations and TV channels that we have to be very selective and give preference to some of them.
What newspapers and magazines do I prefer to read? I like to read the following newspapers: “Argumenty i Fakty”, “Komsomolska Pravda” and others.
Several periodicals are available in English they are “News from Ukraine” and “Ukraine magazine”. As far as newspapers are concerned they may be daily or weekly. Magazines may be weekly, monthly and quarterly.
The newspapers and magazines I read are the most readable and have a large readership or circulation. For example, “Argumenty i Fakty” has a circulation of more 23 000 000. It is the largest in the world. The newspapers contain and give coverage of local, home and foreign affairs. My parents and I buy some of newspapers and magazines in a kiosk.
I often listen to radio, especially in the morning before I leave to college. I prefer to listen to “Lux FM”, “Nashe Radio”, “Europa Plus” nd others.
As to the TV, we have many channels. I prefer to watch youth programs.
In additional I like to see interesting films. They might be feature, adventure, horror, scientific, historical and other films.
FROM THE HISTORY OF ROBOTS
The word “robot” was invented by the Czech playwriting Karel Chapek. It comes from the Czech word for “work”.
In 1954, the American inventor George Devol began work that led to the industrial robot as we know it today. His company developed flexible industrial machines and began to market them in the early sixties. Since then, many companies have the robotics market.
In 1969 researches at the Stanford Research Institute in the USA developed a robot with wheels named Shakey. Shakey was fitted with bump detectors, a sonar range finder and a TV camera. It was controlled by a separate mainframe computer, which sent its command to the robot though a radio channel.
The important step in the history of robots was the development of robots with legs. In 1967 the General Electric Corporation had developed a four-wheeled robot for the US Department of Defense.
Later devices were more successful – for example, a four-legged robot developed at the Tokyo in 1980.
In 1983 a six-legged robot was developed by Odetics Incorporated. A battery-powered model, Odex I, used a radio channel for leg control and a video link for conveying images. This machine could walk over obstacles and lift loafs several times its own weight. Research continues on machines that rely on one or two legs. In 1984 Mark Raibert developed one-legged robot at the Carnegie-Mellon University in USA.
USA
The USA is the 4 largest country in the world. It occupies the southern part of North America and stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. It also includes Alaska and Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The total are of country is about nine and half million square kilometers. Alaska is the largest of America’s 50 states and it is 400 times the size of Rhode Island which is the smallest. The country borders on Canada in the north and on Mexico on south. The south-eastern coast of the country is washed by the Gulf of Mexico and the US also has coasts of the Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The USA has a sea border with Russia.
The USA is made up of 50 states and the District of Columbia where the capital of country, Washington, is situated. The population of the country is about 250 million people.
The land varies from heavy forests covering 2.104 mln hectares, to barren deserts, from high-peaked mountains to deep canyons. The highest peak is a Mount McKinley in Alaska. The highest mountains in USA are the Cordilleras.
America’s largest rivers are the Mississippi with its tributary Missouri, the Rio Grande, the Ohio and the Columbia. The broad Mississippi River system runs 5.969 kilometers from Canada into the Gulf of Mexico. The USA is famous for its five Great Lakes: Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, Lake Huron, Lake Superior and the Michigan. The first four lakes are on the border with Canada and the largest in USA. There are also a lot of small lakes.
The USA is a rich in mineral resources. It has a major deposits of oil and gas, coal, gold, silver and non-ferrous metals.
The largest cities of the USA are New-York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit and some others.