Пособия / Techical English Basics. Основы технического английского

6.She wrote poems. 14. She teaches languages.

7.She has written poems. 15. He was building the house.

III. Дайте два варианта предложений в страдательномзалоге. e.g. They offered me a cup of tea.

·I was offered a cup of tea.

·A cup of tea was offered to me.

1. They gave me a form to fill in. 3. We’ll offer him help by all means.

2. They granted me a visa. 4. He has just told us a very amusing story.

IV. Ответьте на вопросы, используя сказуемое в страдательном залоге.

1. Where do the people speak French and Dutch? – French and

Dutch are spoken in ......

2.Which country grows coffee? – Coffee is ......

3.Where do people eat pasta?

4.Which country produces lots of oil?

5.Which country makes famous perfumes?

6.Where do people wear kimonos?

7.Which country manufactures paper?

8.Which country sells pints of milk?

9.Which country grows tobacco?

10. Which country manufactures watches?

11. Which country makes champagne?

12. In what country do they find gold?

13. In what country do they drink tea?

14. In what country do they grow cotton?

V. Выберите правильный вариант глагола в следующих предложениях.

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1. Nylon invented/was invented in the 1930s.

2.Walt Disney created/was created the character of Mickey Mouse seventy years ago.

3.Mickey calls/is called ‘Topolino’ in Italian and ‘Mi Lo Shu’ in Chinese.

4.At first he called/was called Mortimer Mouse.

5.He gave/was given the name Mickey by Walt Disney’s wife,

Lilian.

6.Disney made/was made the first full-length cartoon, Snow White, in 1937.

7.Mickey Mouse cartoons have translated/have been translated into sixty languages.

8.Since 1928, 120 cartoons have made/have been made.

P A R T I I

UNIT 16

Grammar Review: 1. Passive Voice

Texts: 1. ‘Electromagnetic Relay’

2. ‘The Northern Lights’

Text 1. Electromagnetic Relay

Electromagnetic devices called relays are widely used in various branches of industry. The main parts of a relay are an electromagnet, a spring and an armature. When a current starts flowing in the electromagnet winding, the armature moves and the spring closes the contacts. The primary circuit of a relay is its electromagnet circuit and the secondary circuit is the one closed by the contacts. When there is no current in the relay’s primary circuit, the spring pulls the armature and the contacts open.

The relay is used to control the work of an electric motor. The relay is placed close to the motor which is connected to its secondary circuit. The armature closes the contacts of the secondary circuit, and the motor starts operating; it will stop when the relay opens.

Without a relay, conductors with a large cross-section would have to be brought to the motor. This would be very uneconomical. The current in a relay is tens and even thousands of times smaller than that used to power the motor. Therefore, the connecting wires can have small crosssections.

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In many systems the relay primary circuit operates automatically. Every evening and morning street lights are switched on and off from the main control panel by means of a great number of relays.

Words and expressions to be remembered:

Text 2. The Northern Lights

In reports from Alaska and areas in the north, some people mention the beauty of the Northern Lights. The Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis as they are scientifically known, are huge light shows that nature creates in our atmosphere.

Because of the Earth’s magnetic fields, these beautiful lights can only be seen in the extreme regions of the northern and southern hemispheres. And the conditions have to be just right.

The Northern Lights can be seen when the sun’s high-energy particles are thrown toward Earth by solar winds. These solar winds have great speed, so when the particles hit the atmosphere of Earth, their energy is turned into light and the Northern Lights are created.

When you see the lights, they are very high in the atmosphere. The Northern Lights can reach as high as 600 miles above the Earth! To give you an idea of how high that is, the space shuttle orbits the Earth at about 190 miles. No two Northern Lights are the same. They are different sizes and different colors. They can vary from night to night and even within the same night! This is determined by the sun’s activity and the atmospheric conditions around Earth.

The colors are determined by what type of molecule strikes the atmosphere and where. If the lights occur at 200 miles up, high-level oxygen makes the lights glow red. This is very rare. If the lights occur at lower levels, say around 60 miles up, the oxygen glows a very bright yellowish-green. This is the brightest and most common of the Northern Lights. But if the particles hit some nitrogen molecules in the atmosphere, the lights will glow blue or purplish.

The northern lights are always moving, like giant curtains of light weaving and swaying across the sky. This is caused by the constantly changing interaction between the solar wind and the earth’s magnetic field.

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Words and expressions to be remembered:

Vocabulary and Comprehension Exercises

I. (Text 1) Read the words and put down their Russian equivalents:

relay, electromagnet, armature, contact, system, automatic, panel.

II. (Text 1) Put down the Russian for:

to start flowing, to start moving, to start operating, to start powering the motor, various branches of industry, small cross-section, relay’s primary circuit.

III. (Text 1) Find English equivalents.

Электромагнитные приборы; главные детали реле; пружина замыкает контакты; контролировать работу электрического мотора; двигатель с большим поперечным сечением; соединительные провода; в десятки раз меньше; действует автоматически; уличное освещение.

IV. (Text 1) Complete the sentences using the correct variant:

1. The main parts of a relay are .....

a)an electromagnet, a capacitor, and a spring.

b)An electromagnet, an armature, and a spring.

2.When current starts flowing .....

a)the spring opens the contacts.

b)the spring closes the contacts.

3.The spring pulls the armature .....

a)when there is current in the primary circuit.

b)when there is no current in the primary circuit.

4.The wires connecting the panel with the relay .....

a)have a large cross-section.

b)have a small cross-section.

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5.Street lights are switched on and off .....

a)by means of relays.

b)by means of electric motors.

V. (Text 1) Answer the following questions:

1. What are the main parts of a relay?

2.How is a relay put into operation?

3.When does the spring pull the armature?

4.What wires connect the panel with the relay?

5.By what means are street lights switched on and off?

VI. (Text 1) Match the questions and the answers.

Ask the questions and let your groupmate answer them.

1. In what position does the switch have high (low) resistance?

2.What are the functions of the switch?

3.In what position is the switch open? closed?

4.In what way is the switch connected to the circuit?

___________________

a) Switches are used to open and close the circuits. b) Closed is the on-position; open is the off-position c) The switch is connected in series with the load.

d) In the on-position the closed switch has a very low resistance, which results in maximum current in the load with zero voltage loss across the switch. When the switch is off it has a very high. When the switch is off it has a very high resistance and no current flows through the circuit.

VII. (Text 2) Answer the following questions.

1. What are the Northern Lights?

2.Where can these beautiful lights be seen?

3.When can the Northern Lights be seen?

4.What happens when the particles, thrown from the sun, hit the atmosphere of Earth?

5.How high are the Northern Lights in the atmosphere?

6.Are the Northern Lights always the same?

7.What are the colours determined by?

8.What is the source of the auroras?

9.Why are the Northern Lights always moving?

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IV. Переведите следующие предложения, обращая внимание на сказуемое в страдательном залоге.

1. The books were borrowed from the central library.

2.An interesting problem was discussed at the lecture.

3.The newspapers are usually brought in the morning.

4.When was Grodno University founded?

5.All the work will be done by automatic machinery.

6.The lectures on mathematics were attended by all the students.

7.The academic year is divided into two terms.

8.This road was built last year.

V. Переведите следующие предложения, обращая внимание на глаголы, требующие после себя определенных предлогов.

to look at – смотреть на

to wait for – ждать кого-либо

to pay attention to – обращать внимание на to listen to – слушать что-либо

to send for – посылать за кем-либо, чем-либо to speak about – говорить о чем-либо, ком-либо

1. He was listened to with great attention.

2.The documents were sent for a week ago.

3.This poet is much spoken about.

4.You are always waited for.

5.The picture was looked at with interest.

6.The work of this student was paid attention to.

UNIT 17

Grammar Review: 1. Participle I, II. Forms and functions. Texts: 1. ‘Fuses’

2. ‘Do Great Minds Think Alike?’

Text 1. Fuses

Fuses are widely used nowadays as protection devices. They are utilized in various circuits, electrical equipment and installations. Fuses serve to protect them against overcurrents and short-circuits.

There are different types of fuses in use nowadays. Of them, quartzsand fuses serve for voltages up to 500 volts; fuses of this kind are

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produced with current ratings of 15 to 60 amp and of 100 to 350 amp. Fuses are commonly used in low-voltage industrial installations rated up to 1,000 V.

Fuse protection is based on a very simple principle: in case of a short-circuit or overcurrent, when the maximum value of current has been exceeded, the fusible link of a fuse is heated to its melting point. This opens the circuit and disconnects the circuit from the power source. In case of a fault, one should replace the faulty fusible element by a new one. Fuses are used both in direct current (d.c.) and alternating current (a.c.) circuits.

Words and expressions to be remembered:

Text 2. Do Great Minds Think Alike?

What makes a person so brilliant that they change the course of history? Is there a recipe for genius – a list of ingredients that all geniuses share? Perhaps not, but geniuses really seem to have quite a lot in common. For example, geniuses often come from an unhappy background and many are orphans. One study of important creators found that twenty per cent of them lost one or both parents in childhood. Tolstoy, Michelangelo, Bach, Raphael, Wagner and Charlie Chaplin all lost parents before they were ten years old. Seventy-five per cent of the geniuses in another study came from families affected by poverty, divorce, abuse, alcoholism and mental illness.

What is the connection? Perhaps stress made the children escape into their own private worlds – they felt different from other children and so decided to become even more different.

Geniuses are also incredibly productive. Picasso is responsible for 20,000 works. Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb, patented 1093 inventions. Freud produced 330 publications. Of course, high productivity will include failures, but what makes geniuses different is that they do not give up when they fail. Freud had his breakthrough about the importance of dreams after spending years on another project, which finally came to nothing. He was already over forty – but according to one study, most great work is done between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five. Whenever their great creations come, however, one thing

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