Activities:

Exercise 1: Answer the questions:

1. What inventions came from antiquity?

2. How did people keep the time?

3. How did the knowledge disseminate in the past?

4. What do you know about Johannes Gutenberg?

5. What did he invent?

6. Who invented a microscope?

7. Were there any refinements after invention of the first machine, which convert burning fuel into mechanical energy?

8. When did Michael Faraday discover the dynamo machine?

9. What is the principle of the telegraph?

10. Can you agree that the discovering of penicillin had a more profound effect on the health of humanity than any other in medical history?

11. What future inventions can you predict?

Exercise 2: Choose the answers to the following questions:

1. What is sundial?

1. the use of conventional typesetting machines;

2. the special tool for timekeeping;

3. the quality;

4. the completeness and correct location.

1. What was invented by Johannes Gutenberg?

1. the designed blocks of text;

2. press proofing process;

3. the way the films are used;

4. a method of printing.

2. What country was a hotbed of optic development?

1. Germany;

2. Holland;

3. Hungary;

4. Denmark.

3. Is the dynamo based on a discovery made by the British scientist Michael Faraday?

1. Yes, it is;

2. No, it isn’t;

3. I don’t know;

4. I am not sure.

4. What was called the penicillin?

1. a bacteria;

2. an infection;

3. a mould;

4. a disease.

Exercise 3: Match the two halves of the phrases:

1	magnetic	a	type
2	electric	b	bulb
3	movable	c	flight
4	method of	d	phone
5	light	e	robot
6	Petri	f	current
7	battlefield	g	field
8	space	h	printing
9	mobile	i	dish
10	programmable	j	death

Exercise 4: Find the statement true or false:

1. Sundials were used by the ancient Greek.

2. Today, an increasingly industrialized world is highly structured by time.

3. It was the invention of movable type that proved the major breakthrough of knowledge.

4. The invention of the first machine to convert burning fuel into mechanical energy didn’t liberate people from the limitations of their own muscles.

5. The innovation that made electricity available in large quantities for human use was the dynamo.

6. Pulses of electrical current are sent through the air by manually taping on a key to operate a simple switch.

7. During the World War I physicians had very many weapons to combat cholera, pneumonia, meningitis, scarlet fever, gonorrhea, tuberculosis, or any of dozens of other diseases.

8. The space flights caused a sensation in the science by using special conditions of the weightlessness and industrial production of various materials that can start in space.

Exercise 5: Complete the sentences with correct endings:

1. The achievement of artificial timekeeping has reverberated throughout:

a) cultivation;

b) civilization;

c) curriculum.

2. For thousands of years the dissemination of knowledge was limited to:

a) text input;

b) magnetic field procedures;

c) word of mouth and extremely costly manuscripts.

3. Michael Faraday found that moving a coil of wire through a magnetic field produces:

a) magnetic field.

b) electric current;

c) weightlessness.

4. Alexander Fleming noticed identified mould as coming from:

a) the penicillium family;

b) the antibacterial family;

c) the infection family.

5. It is possible to implant different microchips directly:

a) in the muscle;

b) in the nerve;

c) in the brain.

Exercise 6: Find the equivalents to the Russian words and phrases in the text:

1. прорыв;

2. в огромных количествах;

3. слышимый щелчок;

4. распространение знаний;

5. библия;

6. микроскоп;

7. самолёт;

8. тысячелетие;

9. ограничения;

10. лекарства.

Exercise 7: Find the English equivalent to the Russian word:

1. конструктор

a) design;

b) designer;

c) to design

2. стабилизировать

a) stabilizer;

b) stability;

c) to stabilize

3. самый последний

1. latest;

2. late;

3. later

4. эффективный

a) efficient;

b) efficiency;

c) efficiently

5. исполнение, работа

1. perform;

2. performing;

3. performance

6. надежно

1. reliable;

2. reliability

3. reliably

7. немыслимый

1. thinking;

2. thinkable

3. unthinkable

8. невесомость

1. weightlessness;

2. weightless;

3. weight

Exercise 8: Determine the meaning of the prefixes.

Prefixes can sometimes be added to the words to change their meaning. Match the following prefixes with their corresponding definitions.

1 inter- 2 post- 3 bi- 4 pre- 5 multi- 6 ex- 7 un-

a more than one; many

b later than; after

c before; in preparation

d former and still living

e between; among a group

f two; twice; double

g contrary action

Are there any prefixes in the following words? What is their meaning?

Inadequate, innovation, to rearrange, refinement, to improve, telecommunication, telegraph, television, telephone, impossible.

Give your own examples.

Exercise 9: Match the definition with the term

1	A method of communicating by sending electric signals through wires or by radio waves.	A	television
2	A substance that you take to treat a disease or medical problem	B	sundial
3	A machine used for printing newspapers, books or magazines	C	microchip
4	An object that doctors put into someone’s body during a medical operation	D	implant
5	An object that measures time by the position of a shadow made in sunny weather, consisting of a pointed metal piece on top of a flat piece of stone	E	drug
6	A very small piece of silicon that contains the electronic connections for making a computer work	F	telegraph
7	A piece of electrical equipment with a screen, used for watching programmes	G	press

Exercise 10: Reading

The basis for modern telecommunications was created in the 19^th century. The telecommunication, which was invented in 1837, meant that messages could be sent round the world. Then in 1876 the telephone followed. 1 [ ] It was only with the invention of the radio in 1901 that people were capable of sending messages through the air over long distances.

The idea of sending images along with sound seemed to be impossible. Although cinema had been invented in 1895, there seemed no way to get moving pictures to fly through the air. John Logie Baird in Britain worked on mechanical systems. This used spinning discs inside the television which allowed light through small holes. 2 [ ] The story of electronic television goes back to 1922.

American student Philo Farnsworth from Rigby, Idaho read an article in a magazine that described mechanical television. He was fascinated by electricity and built electrical machines for his parents’ farm. 3 [ ] Gradually, an idea that magnets could be used to control to make a picture formed in his mind.

Studying at Brigham Young University Farnsworth continued to develop his ideas about electronic television. All the time he was looking out for the chance to raise money to develop his world-changing invention. 4 [ ] One day Farnsworth found people who agreed to provide some of the money. He finally registered the patents for his idea in 1927. He managed to see the first images on his system. It was still many years before television became the force it is today, but it was on its way. Shortly after the end of the World War II, TV pictures were being broadcast into homes across America and, soon across Europe and the rest of the world.

5 [ ] Billions of people every day stay up to date with the news, follow sports competitions or laugh at a comedy show.

Exercise 11: Choose from the sentences A-F the one which fits each gap [1-5] in the Ex.10. There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.

A Television became a part of everyday life, as it still is.

B It finally came when he got a job with two rich investors.

C However, wires were needed to connect people who wanted to communicate.

D Nobody understood how it worked, but it was very impressive.

E Although the images were sent, they were very basic.

F As he worked in the fields, his brain played with the idea of television.

Exercise 12: Match these dates to what happened.

1. 1837

2. 1876

3. 1895

4. 1901

5. 1922

6. 1927

A Electronic TV was first explained.

B The telephone was invented.

C The radio was invented.

D The telegraph was invented.

E The first pictures were seen on electronic TV.

F The cinema was invented.

Exercise 13: Prepare a report or presentation on the topic “The greatest developments”.