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Text 12A

Что вам известно о проекте создания Международной космической стан­ ции? Как осуществляется проект на данный момент? Прочитайте текст, про­ верьте ваши ответы, переведите.

The International Space Station

The International Space Station (ISS), the most complex and expensive structure that has ever been launched and built in space, is expected to be a permanent off-planet extension^ of human civi­ lization. When completed, it will be a multi-room hotel and re­ search facility orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes. By that time, resupply and assembly flight by shuttles or rockets will have be­ come routine.

The Russians and Americans are partners in this international enterprise. The three-person multi-national crews will be alter­ nately composed of two Americans and one Russian followed by a Russian majority. Later a six or seven-person crew will occupy the station. Some astronauts may stay on the ISS up to 187 days, but there are no plans yet for longer missions. The official life expec­ tancy of the station itself is 10 years, but it should last much longer.

Five times the size of the Russian space station Mir, the ISS will be one of the biggest objects in the night sky, looking like a supersize Lego set^, almost as long as a football field. Only the Moon and Venus will be bigger and more visible.

The fifth-generation station's complexity is as awesome^ as its size. Built by a partnership of 16 nations, the ISS will consist of 36 modules and hundreds of individual elements that come from all over the world. The station involves the most technologically ad­ vanced nations — Russia, the United States, Canada, Japan, Brazil, and 11 European nations. There will be many intercon­ nected parts from so many countries that it would be impossible to predict how they would interact.

Hence, it is very important that all of these elements made by different suppliers should fit together properly and work exactly as planned. But even if all the parts fitted perfectly, the assembly pro­ cess itself in orbit would be risky. The space station is flown while it is being constructed and each new building block added might change the way the station behaves in flight, which could result in serious trouble.

The ISS may be the world's most ambitious engineering project in history, but it could not have been realized without previous ex­ tensive experience in operating the Russian Mir space station. Mir

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was a great achievement. Russia learned how to build and maintain complex structures in space. Mir also gave citizens of more than a dozen countries their first opportunity to explore space. It should be noted that Mir has proved to be the perfect training ground for the ISS. For more than a decade, at least two humans were always in low Earth orbit. That is why it was planned that Russia would supply and deliver 12 modules for the future station, each being a key module among its 36 ones. They are: the basic power module, the control, the life support, the service modules and others.

What is the puфose of the ISS? It is a political program as well as a science program. This program is no longer only about con­ ducting scientific investigations in the absence of gravity, or about learning how to build a massive project weighing 400 tons in orbit, or about establishing the base for a future trip to Mars. The ISS is more than merely the next great adventure of the space age. It is also about promoting international cooperation and creating thou­ sands of peacetime jobs for highly skilled workers and engineers.

The implementation of the broad international program would require more than $40 billion. Some space experts would like to at­ tract commercial users such as, e.g., biotechnology companies in order that the cost of the station should be lowered. And some spe­ cialists have even suggested that the station be used for advertising and Hollywood filmmaking.

Notes to the Text

1.off-planet extension — внепланетное продолжение

2.Lego set — конструктор Лего

3.is awesome — поражает, внушает благоговение, трепет

УПРАЖНЕНИЯ

Упражнение 8. Определите различные функции глагола should, переведите.

1. It should be said that the importance of Mars studies is ac­ knowledged by all. 2. Reliability of every vehicle should be paid great attention to during the production process. 3. It is required that an airplane should be well balanced dynamically. 4. Should there be even a small deviation (отклонение) in the velocity, the space vehicle would pass the planet. 5. K.E. Tsiolkovsky suggested that man-made rockets for the future space flights should use liquid-propellant engines. 6. We were told that we should take part in the discussion. 7. One should not forget that electricity is the most important source of energy at present.

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Упражнение 9. Определите различные функции глагола would, переведите.

1. Halley predicted that the comet would appear at regular in­ tervals of 75 years. 2. If you were on the first manned space station your task would be to study the stars and planets including Earth. 3. Some materials cooled to proper temperature would conduct electricity practically without any resistance. 4. In the future it may be possible to build a dirigible with a metal hull that would carry hundreds of passengers round the world. 5. In 1883 Tsiolkovsky wrote that rocket would be the only means able to reach outer space. 6. Popov would make his experiments with radio although the government was not interested in the work. 7. We tried to start the car, but it would not go. 8. We know that a body in motion would continue to travel in a straight line unless some force were applied. 9. Without gravity we would not be able to walk in an up­ right position. 10. Non-equatorial regions of Mars would be diffi­ cult and expensive to reach and explore.

Упражнение 10. Найдите предложения, где should является модальным глаголом и где глаголы would, could и might выражают сослагательное накло­ нение.

1. It is essential that international cooperation should be as pro­ ductive as possible. 2. Research and technology should provide the basis for a better life. 3. Military uses of a space station could com­ plicate international cooperation since there are several neutral countries among the participants. 4. It is desirable that interna­ tional space cooperation should give significant economic advan­ tage for the countries involved. 5. NASA agreed that Canada would develop a remote manipulation system for the space Shuttle. 6. It should be pointed out that Japan space programmes are based on close government-industry cooperation. 7. The craft to be launched would essentially be used as a service module for space stations. 8. Typical missions of a new system might include the as­ sembly of space structures. 9. Exploring Phobos would be a difficult problem because of its small gravity field. If an astronaut threw a stone right ahead, it would orbit the entire moon and hit him in the back of the head. 10. Such a vehicle could be operational by the be­ ginning of the next century. 11. One should know that the broader the basis for utilizing a space station is, the better the prospects for economic efficiency of developing it are. 12. After the Challenger tragedy the military experts insisted that a new Shuttle should be built. 13. It was reported that the appearance of photon computers could be expected.

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Упражнение 11. Переведите предложения, обращая внимание на особен­ ности страдательного залога.

1. In mechanics the study of kinematics is followed by the study of dynamics. 2. A gas may be looked upon as the vapour of a liquid with a very low boiling point or very great vapour pressure. 3. Lead is very slightly acted upon by the oxygen of the air. 4. The works of Tsiolkovsky were followed by a number of very important works in the field of astronautics. 5. The production of special metallurgi­ cal alloys is seldom influenced by gravity. 6. This article describes design characteristics which are followed by the description of the results of the experiments. This description is followed by a discus­ sion of nontechnical aspects of the lunar programme proposed.

Упражнение 12, Переведите предложения с глаголом to resw//с различны­ ми предлогами.

1. It is well known that automation results in higher labour pro­ ductivity. 2. The first manned space flight has resulted from the great achievements in Russian science. 3. This experiment resulted in the discovery of several new properties of the composite mate­ rial, 4. A release of atomic energy results from a very complex pro­ cess. 5. World War II resulted in the victory of the USSR, the US and Great Britain. 6. Such experiments usually result in obtaining new information. 7. The motion of an electron results from a force acting upon it. 8. The growing intensity of air traffic has resulted in the automation of its control. 9. Newton's famous work «Principia» resulted from 40 years of experimental work.

УПРАЖНЕНИЯ ДЛЯ САМОСТОЯТЕЛЬНОЙ РАБОТЫ

Упражнение 13. Определите, к каким частям речи относятся слова.

gravity, peaceful, permanent, consequence, subatomic, domi­ nant, relative, relativity, flexible, apparently, celebrity, novelty, connection, complicate, desirable, significant, utilize, pressure, fa­ mous, involvement, significance, weightlessness, eaten, recorder, supression, useless, dense, density, depth, damage, shorten.

Упражнение 14. Образуйте существительные от слов.

appear, explore, prepare, prior, important, implement, transit, propose, create, lighten, encode, structural, useful, discuss, grow, store, differ, electronic.

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Упражнение 15. Найдите:

а) синонимы

spacecraft, to call, artificial, significance, area, man-made, satellite, purpose, complicated, importance, space vehicle, ex­ plorer, aim, to guide, to offer, researcher, investigation, to incor­ porate, sophisticated, to propose, to determine, exploration, to define, to gather, to control, to collect, to name, to include, dis­ trict, moon;

б) антонимы

special, upper, unmanned, natural, last, manned, unequal, conventional, distant, first, lower, civil, equal, inefficient, military, near, efficient, artificial.

Упражнение 16. Переведите предложения с глаголом to involve и его про­ изводными.

1. NASA began looking for the way to involve other countries in its post-Apollo space programme. 2. International involvement in the space programme raises a number of questions. 3. The interna­ tional programme has involved Russia, Canada, Japan and some de­ veloping countries, as well as both individual European countries and various European space organizations. 4. There exists a clear trend towards increased international involvement in those uses of space which could be economically beneficial. 5. The aim of the experiment involving dogs, monkeys and other animals aboard Kosmos satellite was to study the way zero gravitation affects the living organisms. 6. An efficient radiator is capable of warming a large room, the process involved is called convection. 7. Work with computers and other sophisticated electronic devices involves two different types of construction: hardware and software.

Упражнение 17. Переведите предложения, обращая внимание на функ­ ции слова only.

1. You are the only person who could help us in solving this problem. 2. The International Academy of Astronautics including nearly one thousand scientists and engineers from 50 countries is the only organization which can plan technical efforts on an inter­ national scale. 3. Only through cooperation on a world-wide scale could space technology be improved. 4. Effective communication across national borders appeared to be the only way for space sci­ ence to develop successfully.

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Упражнение 18. Найдите глаголы-сказуемые в страдательном залоге, пе­ реведите.

Dolly Madison was born in South Carolina while her parents were visiting there. She was soon taken to Virginia where she was educated. She was taught by her Quaker parents to say «thee» and «thou» for «you». Dolly was married to John Payne who died a short time afterwards from yellow fever. Several years later she was married to James Madison, a brilliant lawyer. When Thomas Jef­ ferson was elected President of the US, James Madison became Secretary of State. Mr. Jefferson was a widower, so Dolly was often invited to preside at the White House. When James Madison was elected president, Mrs. Madison was the hostess of the White House on all occasions. People from everywhere were impressed with her sincerity and her love for humanity.

Упражнение 19. Дайте недостающие формы глаголов, запомните их. beaten, steal, carrying out, learnt, ate, slept, fly.

Упражнение 20. Прочитайте и переведите текст без словаря.

Exploration experts suggest that the tiny moon Phobos should be used as a perfect place for gas refilling station. Some scientists think Phobos rocks to contain crystalline ice. If one heats them, it will be possible to produce water. The latter could be divided into hydrogen and oxygen which are necessary components for rocket propulsion. Such a fuel supply would greatly reduce the amount of weight that must be delivered from the Earth for manned missions to Mars. Thus, it might be possible for spacecrafts to leave the Earth for Mars carrying no return fuel. To get home, they should simply fill up at Phobos.

CONVERSATION

Exercise 1. Answer the questions.

1. What is the ISS? (the most complex and expensive structure in space and research facility orbiting the Earth) 2. What will it look like when completed? (a supersize Lego set, almost as long as a football field) 3. What is its size compared with Russian-built Mir space station? (five times the Mir station size) 4. What modules is it expected to consist of? (36 modules) 5. How many countries are in­ volved in the project? (16 countries) 6. What methodology is being

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used to build the ISS? (the same methodology as for Mir but on a larger scale) 7. What is the purpose of the ISS? (to promote inter­ national cooperation and create peacetime jobs for highly skilled workers and engineers)

Exercise 2. Make a sentence out of the two parts.

400 tons.

Exercise 3. Read and learn.

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Exercise 4. Comment on the following statement.

Space exploration ought to be abandoned (откладываться) un­ til more important problems of mankind have been solved.

One point of view : Space exploration is very expensive; food production is far more important than Mars studies or Moon walks; it is immoral to spend huge sums of money on space exploration while millions of people suffer hunger (голод); space ex­ ploration is useless anyway because we can't colonize other planets; it would be much better to colonize, for example, the Sahara before trying to colonize the Moon or Mars; mankind must not waste its resources.

A contrary point of view: Space exploration is of great significance for scientific and technological development; space exploration gives man new knowledge that he can use for other purposes; we may find 10,000 things to do on the ISS that nobody has thought of or even imagined.

Exercise 5. Conduct a scientific conference on: «The potential of space exploration for peaceful purposes».

Use texts 12 A, B, C, exercise 3 (Satellites) as a basis for the preparation of oral talks and discussion. Useful words and phrases of scientific communication are given in exercise 5 (see Lesson 10 «Conversation»).

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