II. Résumé making (text compression).

Listen to the recorded text, make notes and write a résumé in Russian /Ukrainian/English (reduce the text to the core, then develop it back without consulting the text).

Translate into English using text compression (omit redundant words, convert nominative structure into verbal, use noun clusters etc.)

First, do it in writing; then orally, observe transformations in translation.

III. Text development.

Develop a text from the given core (first do it in one language in writing, then with interpretation orally).

IV. Sight translation practice.

Pay attention to precision information (proper names, geographical names, dates) and correct word order. Suggest background information required for a proper translation of the text.

V. Check yourself (your translation) against the pattern translation version.

VI. Listen to the recorded text and practise consecutive interpreting.

Thales of Miletus

(625–547 B. C.)

аn Ancient Greek Philosopher

May, 28, 585 B. C. The residents of the town of Miletus in Asia Minor were terror – stricken. The sun seemed to disappear unexpectedly in broad daylight. And only one person, a wise man Thales by the name, remained calm. He didn’t see anything supernatural in it – it was he who managed to calculate accurately the time of the sun eclipse.

Having encyclopedic knowledge Thales considered himself neither the sun»s ruler nor the prophet or divinity – he was simply competent in astronomy and also in metaphysics and mathematics. The contemporaries paid homage to Thales as one of the «Seven Sages of antiquity».

Little information about Thales has remained. Probably, he was born into the world around the year of 625 B. C. Some sources say he was born in Miletus, Asia Minor; according to others, Thales is a Phoenician. It is known for sure that he comes from a noble family. He traveled a lot since his youth, lived in Egypt for some time where he became familiar with knowledge of priests.

Thales returned home to Miletus at an old age. Pragmatic Greeks first treated Thales with contempt finding little use in his knowledge. That is why when Thales who had never been engaged in commerce or agriculture suddenly started buying oil presses he was simply thought of as being mad. The town’s folks realized their mistake after harvesting the unprecedented rich yield of olives. But it was too late – all the oil presses belonged to Thales. Using his ability to forecast the weather he could foresee the course of events and received a big profit having sold the inhabitants of Miletus their presses. The townspeople had nothing to do but call Thales «the first sage».

Thales’ interest towards trade faded, philosophy attracted him. «Isolate yourself in your inner world and reflect on the system of the Universe – this is an occupation worthy of a true sage!»

Immersed in his thoughts Thales took no notice of what was happening around him. There were many stories about the philosopher’s absent-mindedness. Once while walking he was lost in the stars and fell into a pit. The servant girl who was walking by his side exclaimed: «Oh, Thales! You are not able to see something at your feet, and think about perceiving the things in the sky».

However, Thales was not indifferent to the life of his native country. He called the Greek colonies for unification into a single mighty state to fight for their independence. He gave a wise piece of advice to his fellow-citizens to refrain from a doubtful alliance with Croese, the King of Lydia. Thales feared that in case of the king’s defeat, the enemy could destroy the town. Fortunately, the citizens of Miletus followed the sage’s advice and the town remained intact.

Thales is justly called the founder of ancient philosophy. As early as the end of the 7^th century B.C. ancient Greek scientists reflected on the Basic principles of existence, which they called «arche». Thales came to the conclusion that the basis of life is water. It is water (i.e. matter), not the divine source, that gave birth to the surrounding world. Thanks to Aristotle Thales was classified as an elemental materialist. There is an opinion that Thales was not the author of this idea. He borrowed his theory from the religious teachings of Babylonians, Phoenicians and Egyptians who drew the origin of the world out the watery Chaos.

The contemporaries were impressed not only with the philosophical views of Thales. The scientist was unrivalled in his knowledge of geometry, meteorology, agriculture. He assisted King Croese to build the engineering structures in the war against Persians. Thales advised the seamen to orient at the Dog’s Tail to determine the north. He also established that the year’s length equals to 365 days. The creation of two works on astronomy written in verse in acc ordance with the epoch»s tradition is attributed to Thales.

Mathematics was a favorite pastime of Thales. He transferred geometry from the descriptive sciences to the category of exact ones and taught Greeks to apply mathematical methods to different fields of knowledge. The scientist measured the height of one of the Egyptian pyramids comparing the length of its shadow with that of his walking stick. Thales is considered to have formulated some theorems in geometry. One of them bears his name.

At present there is no doubt about the fact that all geometric «discoveries» ascribed to Thales were borrowed by him from the Egyptians.

Not a single work ascribed to Thales came to us. Their content is known in the form of retelling by later authors, Aristotle in the first place.

Thales, whose name became common for the sage, lived a long live: 77 years. According to his contemporary, Thales died «looking at gymnastics competition, of heat, thirst and senile weakness».

One of the most famous aphorisms of Thales is as follows: «I am grateful to my destiny for three things: for being born a human, for being born a male, not female; for being born a Hellenic, not a barbarian».