Методические указания разработаны старшим преподавателем кафедры английского языка естественных факультетов Резниковой С. Ю., преподавателем Гафаровой Ю. Ю. Рецензент (стр. 3 из 7)
Marconi moved to Rome in 1935, never to leave Italy again. He died in the early hours of 20 July 1937 aged 63 and his body was laid to rest in the mausoleum in the grounds of Villa Griffone. In a fitting tribute3, wireless stations throughout the world fell silent for 2 minutes and the ether4 was as silent as it had been before Marconi. (10)
He left behind him a world that even before his death had come to regard radio as a commodity2, not a miracle. Britain even had an infant television service, broadcast via Marconi equipment. He also left behind a legion of detractors5 who correctly pointed out that others, such as Lodge and the Russian Alexander Popov, had sent wireless messages before Marconi got his patent. It does not really matter. What Marconi doubtless did invent was an entirely new science-based industry. We are used to being told that some new technology will change the world. Marconi's is one of the few that
did. (11)
(Adapted from the Internet sites)
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-1обрывочный, незаконченный
- 2 предмет потребления
- 3 дань уважения
-4 эфир
-5 клеветники
3 Read the text again and choose the correct option.
a) Guglielmo Marconi was the first who
1) assembled radio .
2) invented radio.
3) transmitted the first radio signal.
b) As a boy he liked to spend his free time
1) carrying out laboratory experiments.
2) studying with the help of a private tutor.
3) reading the works of famous scientists.
c) He received higher education
1) with the help of a private physics tutor.
2) on his own but it was very hard.
3) He never had any kind of a university degree.
d) He was granted his first patent for
1) magnetic detector.
2) a system of wireless telegraphy.
3) horizontal directional aerial.
e) A lot of people didn’t think he was a great scientist because
1) he was not the only person who sent wireless messages.
2) he was not the first person who sent wireless messages.
3) he never sent any wireless messages.
f) During his life Marconi considered himself to be
1) a successful industrialist and businessman.
2) a famous inventor.
3) an outstanding physicist.
4 Answer the following questions:
a) What was Marconi’s family background?
b) What kind of education did he get?
c) What sciences was he interested in as a boy?
d) What famous physicists influenced him greatly?
e) What was his first patent invention?
f) What important discovery did he make in 1900?
g) What were his main inventions and patents?
h) What was his attitude to his own Nobel Prize?
Vocabulary
1 Use the affixes in the table to form adjectives from the words below:
history, success, commerce, intensity, continue, practice, direction, nation, physics, electricity, ridicule, vary, remark, continent, expense, structure, response, fame, danger, stress, charity, create, event, break, believe, explosion, magnet
| -able/-ible | -al | -ic | -ful | -ive | -ous |
| unstoppable | historical | public | successful | intensive | continuous |
3 Match the words in column A with the words in column B to make compounds which you come across in the text.
| A 1) day 2) science 3) wireless 4) long 5) radio 6) high | B a) based b) powered c) light d) telephone e) distance f) communication |
Use the words below to make word combinations with the compounds:
effect family telegraphy industry(x2) link
4 Cross out an odd word in each line:
a) to conduct: an experiment, a baby, an interview, an orchestra
b) to erect: a station, a leg, a tent, an institution.
c) short: waves, building, man, speech.
d) fundamental: mistake, distinction, discovery, hotel.
e) to assemble: a car, an army, forces, flowers.
5 Look at the following words that often come together and add at least 3 words of your own to each group. Consult the dictionary if necessary.
a) to attend: a university, a meeting, ...
b) to launch: a campaign, a satellite, ...
c) to send: a telegram, a volunteer, ...
d) to decorate: a dress, a room, …
e) to establish: a company, contacts, …
5 Complete the sentences with prepositions if necessary
a) He tried to qualify … higher education with the help of a private tutor.
b) Marconi was granted his first patent … a system of wireless communication.
c) From an early childhood he took a keen interest … physical and electrical science
d) First he succeeded … sending wireless signals over a distance of one mile.
e) Marconi was decorated … many international honors and awards.
f) His tests culminated … the opening of the first transatlantic commercial service.
6 Give English equivalents to the following words and word combinations:
непрекращающееся желание преуспеть; передать радио сигнал; обучался частным образом; проявлял острый интерес к; система беспроводного телеграфа; основал постоянную станцию; возможности беспроводной коммуникации; был оснащен ; антенна; сотрудники; радиомаяк; получатель почетных международных наград; был награжден; фундаментальное открытие; преследовать цель; создать новую отрасль промышленности, опирающаяся на научных знаниях
Grammar
1 Divide the following sentences into two parts according to the model. Translate the original sentence.
Model: Lodge and Alexander Popov had sent wireless messages before Marconi got
his patent. - First Lodge and Alexander Popov sent wireless messages. Then
Marconi got his patent. – Лодж и Александр Попов отправляли
беспроводные сообщения до того, как Маркони получил свой патент.
a) The opening of the first transatlantic commercial service between Glace Bay and Ireland took place after the first shorter-distance public service of wireless telegraphy had been established between Italy and Montenegro.
b) The military understood the usefulness of remote-controlled vehicles after Tesla’s patents had expired.
c) He gave a practical demonstration of the principles of radar, the coming of which he had first foretold in New York in 1922.
d) It was widely discussed that Nikola Tesla refused the Nobel Prize because Marconi had already received his.
e) He left behind him a world that even before his death had come to regard radio as a commodity, not a miracle.
f) In 1877 Edison made a recording on a little machine which he had invented.
2 Translate paragraphs 10-11 into Russian.
Speaking
1 Sum up the text using the following key-points:
a) Family background
b) Education (degrees)
c) Areas of scientific and research activity
d) Major achievements
2 Comment on the statements:
a) Guglielmo Marconi is one of the most prominent inventors of the 20th century.
b) Guglielmo Marconi made radio happen.
c) Guglielmo Marconi is just a successful industrialist and businessman.
3 Do you agree with the following quotations on Marconi’s work?
a) “… the emission and reception of signals by Marconi by means of electric
oscillations is nothing new. In America, the famous engineer Nikola Tesla carried the same experiments in 1893.” Alexander Popov
b) “In a few days time, Marconi won't just hit the ground running; it'll take off as Europe's brightest technology company.” George Simpson
4 Work in groups of 3-4. Make a list of things you would like to know about Guglielmo Marconi. Choose one, find information and make a poster presentation. (Read instruction on page 33 task 2)
Points for reflection
1 Have you learnt anything new about Marconi from the text?
2 Has anything impressed you?
3 What facts were the most amazing?
4 Did you like the text? Why? /Why not?
Unit 3 Nikola Tesla (1856 – 1943)
 Рис. 4 Induction motor |
Before you start
1 You are going to read about life and work of the American inventor, Nikola Tesla. Before you read the text answer the following questions.
a) What field of science did he work in?
b) What is he famous for?
Reading
1 Pay attention to the correct pronunciation of the following words.
| Croatia | [ krɔu´eI∫Iə ] | coil | [ kɔIl ] |
| Serbian | [´sə:bIən ] | magnetic | [ mæg´netIk ] |
| Roentgen | [´rɔntgən ] | induction | [ In´dʌk∫n ] |
| Niagara | [ naI´ægərə ] | turbine | [´tз:baIn] |
| Austria | [´ɔstrIə ] | remote | [ rI´məut ] |
| direct | [ də´rəkt ] | robotics | [ rəu´bɔtIks] |
| alternating | [´ɔltəneItIŋ ] | X-ray | [´eks reI ] |
| polyphase | [ pəlI´feIz ] | terrestrial | [ tə´restrəIl ] |
| control | [ kən´trəul] | hypothesis | [ haI´pθəsIs] |
2 Read the text and comment on the title.
The Genius Who Lit the World
 Рис. 5 Nikola Tesla |
Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856 in Smiljan, Croatia, which was then part of the Austo-Hungarian Empire. His father was a Serbian Orthodox Priest and his mother was an inventor in her own right of household appliances. Tesla studied at the Realschule, the Polytechnic Institute in Graz, Austria and the University of Prague. At first, he intended to specialize in physics and mathematics, but soon he became fascinated with electricity. (1)
He began his career as an electrical engineer with a walking with a friend through the city park after seeing a telephone company in Budapest in 1881. Once when Tesla was demonstration of the "Gramme dynamo" (a machine that when operated in one direction is a generator, and when reversed is an electric motor), he visualized a rotating magnetic field. With a stick, he drew a diagram in the sand explaining to his friend the principle of the induction motor. Before going to America, Tesla joined Continental Edison Company in Paris where he designed dynamos. While in Strasbourg in 1883, he privately built a prototype of the induction motor and ran it successfully. Unable to interest anyone in Europe in promoting this radical device, Tesla accepted an offer to work for Thomas Edison in New York. His childhood dream was to come to America to harness the power of Niagara Falls. (2)
Nikola Tesla came to the United States in 1884 with an introduction letter from Charles Batchelor to Thomas Edison: “I know two great men,” wrote Batchelor, “one is you and the other is this young man.” Tesla spent the next 59 years of his productive life living in New York. Tesla set about improving Edison’s line of dynamos while working in Edison’s lab in New Jersey. It was here that his disagreement with Edison over direct current versus alternating current began and soon led to the war of the currents as Edison fought a losing battle to protect his investment in direct current equipment and facilities. Tesla pointed out the inefficiency of Edison’s direct current electrical powerhouses that have been built up and down the Atlantic seaboard. The secret, he felt, lay in the use of alternating current, because to him all energies were cyclic. Why not build generators that would send electrical energy along distribution lines first one way, than another, in multiple waves using the polyphase principle? (3)
Edison’s lamps were weak and inefficient when supplied by direct current. This
system had a severe disadvantage in that it could not be transported more than two miles due to its inability to step up to high voltage levels necessary for long distance transmission. Consequently, a direct current power station was required at two mile intervals. Direct current flows continuously in one direction; alternating current changes direction 50 or 60 times per second and can be stepped up to vary high voltage levels, minimizing power loss across great distances. He was convinced that the future belonged to alternating current. Nikola Tesla developed polyphase alternating current system of generators, motors and transformers and held 40 basic U.S. patents on the system. He introduced his motors and systems in a classic paper, “A New System of Alternating Current Motors and Transformers” which he delivered before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1888. One of the most impressed was the industrialist and inventor George Westinghouse. One day he visited Tesla’s laboratory and was amazed at what he saw. Tesla had constructed a model polyphase system consisting of an alternating current dynamo, step-up and step-down transformers and A.C. motor at the other end. The perfect partnership between Tesla and Westinghouse for the nationwide use of electricity in America had begun. (4)
Later Tesla discovered the principle that drives almost every practical use of electricity today, the rotating magnetic field. The field is what powers generators and all forms of electrical motors. Although the generator had already been discovered, it was
Tesla who figured out why it worked. (5)
Tesla was a pioneer in many fields. The Tesla coil, which he invented in 1891, is widely used today in radio and television sets and other electronic equipment. That year also marked the date of Tesla's United States citizenship. His alternating current induction motor is considered one of the ten greatest discoveries of all time. Among his discoveries are the fluorescent light, laser beam, wireless communications, wireless transmission of electrical energy, remote control, robotics, Tesla’s turbines and vertical take off aircraft1. Tesla is the father of the radio and the modern electrical transmissions systems. He registered over 700 patents worldwide. His vision included exploration of solar energy and the power of the sea. He foresaw interplanetary communications and satellites. (6)
The Electrical Review in 1896 published X-rays of a man, made by Tesla, with X-ray tubes of his own design. They appeared at the same time as when Roentgen announced his discovery of X-rays. Tesla never attempted to proclaim priority. Roentgen congratulated Tesla on his sophisticated X-ray pictures, and Tesla even wrote Roentgen's name on one of his films. He published schematic diagrams describing all the basic elements of the radio transmitter which was later used by Marconi. In 1896 Tesla constructed an instrument to receive radio waves. He experimented with this device and transmitted radio waves from his laboratory on South 5th Avenue to the Gerlach Hotel at 27th Street in Manhattan. The device had a magnet which gave off intense magnetic fields up to 20,000 lines per centimeter. The radio device clearly establishes his priority in the discovery of radio. And in 1943 the United States Supreme Court, held Marconi's most important patent invalid, recognizing Tesla's more significant contribution as the inventor of radio technology. (7)