Прочтите и устно переведите тексты. Переведите письменно четвертый абзац текста Thomas Alva Edison.

Anders Celsius

Anders Celsius, a founder of Swedish astronomy who was from a family of noted scholars, possessed a variety of other scientific interests and skills. He was born on November 27, 1701, in the old Swedish city of Uppsala, 40 miles northwest of Stockholm. His interests in the earth, sea, and sky developed early. Before he was 20, he was making definite observations of the northern lights. At 29 he became professor of astronomy at the University of Uppsala where his grandfather and father had taught.

Celsius inspired and carried out construction of an astronomical observatory, of which he became director, at the University. Then, in 1740, he began his work of greatest scientific value: systematic measurement of the brightness of various stars by use of photonutric devices which had been recently developed.

Never content to concentrate his energy on a single effort, he made, in 1742, the announcement for which he is now remembered.

As early as 1585 the Dutch mathematician Simon Stevinus had proposed that all nations use the decimal system which he had devised. Almost a century later Gabriel Mouton of France urged adoption of a system of weights and measures with a decimal bаsе. It was not unitl 1791 that the French National Аssembly took the first official step, but the idea was germinating in mid-century and Celsius investigated the desirability of applying decimals to the measurement of heat.

In 1701 Newton had suggested that the basic scale should range from the freezing point of water to the temperature of the human body. Then a German who had spent many years in Holland, Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit, mixed salt with ice to lower Newton's zero.

A few years later, a Frenchman, Rene Antoine de Reaumur, called for a scale with 80 degrees between the freezing and boiling points of water.

When it appeared that the measurement of heat was rapidly getting out of hand, Celsius prepared a paper " On the Measurement of Heat" which he read to the Swedish Academy of Science. Celsius's monograph proposed a thermometer scale based on decimals Instead of de Reaumur's 80 or Fahrenheit's 180 degrees.

Thomas Alva Edison

He was born February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio, and worked as newsboy and " candy butcher" on a train when he was 12. When he was 15 he rescued a child from the path of a speeding train. The father, in gratitude, taught him how to be a telegraph operator. He landed in New York at 22, penniless.

We think of him as the inventor of the electric light, but how much more he Improved and made possible!

The catalogue of his inventions still strains belief. He was granted 1, 093 patents in the USA alone and two to three thousand more in foreign countries. Foundations and government agencies spent little or nothing on research, so Edison thought four or five hours of sleep, enough for anyone and often worked 40 to 50 hours, napping in his laboratory.

His deafness (" I have not heard a bird sing since I was 12" ) intensified an astounding capacity for concentration. His wife said that when absorbed in a problem, he lived " in the highest state of exhilaration, seeing nothing and thinking nothing... except what was a vital bearing of his task." He filled 2, 500 notebooks with research ideas and records.

He loved Shakespeare and Tom Paine and had over 10, 000 volumes in his home. He seemed incapable of despair. Searching for a domestic source of rubber he tested 17, 000 different plants in four years. After 8, 000 unsuccessful trials on a storage battery, he remarked: " Well, at least we know 8, 000 things that don't work."

His passion for experiments, his imaginative conception of novel combinations, his ability to find fresh ways of solving old problems, to follow intuition - these are surely part of scientific endeavour, though he always used to say: " I am not a scientist, I am an inventor."

Perhaps one of the greatest of Edison's inventions was organized research itself. His laboratory in Menlo Park, N.Y-(1876) was the first to put researchers of different skills to work as a team on new problems.

Thomas Alva Edison died in 1931, at 84, leaving cities around the globe diademed by light.

10. Ответьте письменно на следующие вопросы:

1. When was Celsius born?

2. Was he director of an astro­nomical observatory?

3. When and where was Edison born?

4. What jobs did he have?

5. Who was his favourite writer?

вариант №5

Перепишите следующие предложения; подчеркните в них Причастие I и Причастие II, установите функцию каждого причастия, т.е. укажите, является ли оно определением, обстоятельством или частью глагола-сказуемого.

1. She looked at the boys playing in the yard.

2. The discovery made by him is of great importance.

3. When changed, the article was published.

 

Перепишите следующие предложения; подчеркните в каждом из них зависимый или независимый причастный оборот. Переведите предложения на русский язык.

1. Being a foreigner she couldn't get accustomed to it.

2. It being Sunday, the shops were closed.

3. The conference being over, he returned to the office.

 

Перепишите следующие предложения; подчеркните в каждом из них герундий или герундиальный оборот, установите его функцию, т.е. укажите, является ли он подлежащим, частью сказуемого, дополнением, определением или обстоятельством. Переведите предложения на русский язык.

1. She hurried home on hearing the news of his arrival.

2. We were against Mr. Bond's going to London.

3. We were told of Mr. Taylor arriving next week.

Перепишите следующие предложения; подчеркните в каждом из них инфинитив, установите его функцию, т.е. укажите, является ли он подлежащим, частью сказуемого, дополнением, определением или обстоятельством. Переведите предложения на русский язык.

1. I have never learnt to dance.

2. He is too young to understand it.

3. The first thing to do is to let them know.

 

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