The greatest developments of mankind

 

Discussion:

· What do you think about scientific progress?

· Would you like to stop it?

· Would you like to invent anything new?

· What were the most ingenious inventions of the mankind?

· Can you compare the life of people 100 years ago and nowadays?

 

KEY VOCABULARY

 

1. the greatest development – величайшее развитие, достижение
2. antiquity -древность
3. sundials – солнечные часы
4. achievement - достижение
5. accurate measurements– точные измерения
6. timekeeping – хронометраж
7. fertility - плодородие
8. dissemination - распространение
9. manuscripts – манускрипт, рукописная книга
10. movable type – наборный шрифт
11. goldsmith - ювелир
12. letter of the alphabet – буква алфавита
13. hotbed - очаг
14. a sole credit – единичное значение
15. refinement - усовершенствование
16. to convert -преобразовать
17. burning fuel – горючее топливо
18. on a large scale –в больших объёмах
19. high-speed - высокоскоростной
20. in large quantities – в больших количествах
21. mechanical motion – механическое движение
22. wire - провод
23. magnetic field – магнитное поле
24. electric current – электрический ток
25. light bulb - лампочка
26. manually taping – выстукивание вручную
27. to punch - пробивать
28. a coded fashion - кодировка
29. battlefield – полученные на поле боя
30. weapon - оружие
31. to combat – сражаться, бороться
32. mobile phone – мобильный телефон
33. palmtop computers – компьютеры размером с ладонь
34. to implant - имплантировать
35. disability - неспособность

 

Text: The greatest developments of mankind

Methods for keeping time and date came from antiquity. Sundials, for example, were used by the ancient Egyptians. However, in the cloudier climates of Europe sundials proved inadequate. The achievement of timekeeping has developed throughout civilization. The Aztec calendar was a system of measuring time used in central and southern Mexico. It was a complex system of religious beliefs and ceremonies. The Aztecs believed that such system guaranteed the continuity of natural cycles that affected the fertility of their fields, the daily reappearance of the sun and the annual return of summer rains. Time became an important part of navigation, as sailors relied on accurate time measurement to calculate their position or longitude. The development of science often required accurate measurements of time. Today our industrialized world is highly structured by time: timekeeping governs when we work, play, eat and sleep.

Until the 15^th century few people knew how to read and write. For thousands of years the dissemination of knowledge was limited to word of mouth and extremely costly manuscripts. It was the invention of movable type that proved the major breakthrough. Around 1440, a German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg combined several key printing technologies and invented the first printing press. The most important was a method of creating uniformly shaped pieces of metal, each with different letter of the alphabet on its face that could be endlessly rearranged to print the first book - the Bible.

In 17^th century Holland was a hotbed of optics development. Here the microscope was invented. It was also during the 1600s that Dutch naturalist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek built his own microscope and discovered what he called animalcules, which are now known as bacteria. Much of our knowledge of diseases and how to fight them, including the concept of immunization, has flowed from the use of the microscope.

It is tempting to think of a car or the airplane as among the most important inventions of the millennium. But these were merely evolutionary refinements of the first machine to convert burning fuel into mechanical energy on a large scale. This invention liberated people from the limitations of their own muscles and of their domestic animals. It made possible to build the factories that drove to the Industrial revolution. And it was at the heart of the first form of high-speed mechanized transportation: the locomotive.

The innovation that made electricity available in large quantities for human use was the dynamo, a machine that converted mechanical motion into electric power. The dynamo is based on a discovery made by the British scientist Michael Faraday in 1831. He found that moving a coil of wire through a magnetic field produces an electric current in the wire. This allowed a straightforward conversion of steam, used to spin a rotor, into electricity. Once created, the electricity needed only a system of cables and transformers to carry it to the houses, factories, and office buildings that used it to power light bulbs and other electric appliances.

Telegraph is the long-distance transmission of messages. It appeared in Europe in 1792 in a form of semaphore line, or optical telegraph that sent messages to a distant observer trough line-of-sight signals. Later in 1837 American inventor Samuel Morse conducted the first experiments with electrical telegraph. The principle of the telegraph is simple: pulses of electrical current are sent through a wire by manually taping on a key to operate a simple switch. At the receiving end, the pulses create a magnetic field that causes a needle to punch holes on a strip of paper or that creates an audible click as a contact closes. When relayed in a coded fashion, these pulses can transmit a message, potentially over great distances.

For most of human history, infectious diseases have killed people with brutal regularity. As recently as World War I more battlefield deaths came from infection than from the direct trauma or gunshot. Physicians had very few weapons to combat cholera, pneumonia, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, or any of dozens of other diseases. In 1928, Scottish researcher Alexander Fleming noticed that the presence of a certain mould in Petri dishes stopped the growth of bacteria. He identified the mould as coming from the penicillium family and called it penicillin. The development of penicillin and the huge range of similar drugs that followed that invention had a more profound effect on the health of humanity than any other in medical history.

In the list of the greatest inventions and achievements of mankind we may include 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. We are accustomed to mobile phone, the Internet, TV games consoles, palmtop computers, fully programmable housework robots, voice operated cars and so on. It is possible to implant different microchips directly in the brain of a human and restore or improve any disability or function of the body. What will be next?

 

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?

 

a. the use of conventional typesetting machines;

b. the special tool for timekeeping;

c. the quality;

d. the completeness and correct location.

 

 

1. What was invented by Johannes Gutenberg?

 

a. the designed blocks of text;

b. press proofing process;

c. the way the films are used;

d. a method of printing.

 

2. What country was a hotbed of optic development?

 

a. Germany;

b. Holland;

c. Hungary;

d. Denmark.

 

 

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

 

a. Yes, it is;

b. No, it isn’t;

c. I don’t know;

d. I am not sure.

 

 

4. What was called the penicillin?

 

a. a bacteria;

b. an infection;

c. a mould;

d. a disease.

 

Exercise 3: Match the two halves of the phrases:

	magnetic	a	type
	electric	b	bulb
	movable	c	flight
	method of	d	phone
	light	e	robot
	Petri	f	current
	battlefield	g	field
	space	h	printing
	mobile	i	dish
	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

a) latest;

b) late;

c) later

 

4) эффективный

a) efficient;

b) efficiency;

c) efficiently

 

5) исполнение, работа

a) perform;

b) performing;

c) performance

 

6) надежно

a) reliable;

b) reliability

c) reliably

 

7) немыслимый

a) thinking;

b) thinkable

c) unthinkable

 

8) невесомость

a) weightlessness;

b) weightless;

c) weight

 

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