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Phrases & word combinations to the text
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PHRASES & WORD COMBINATIONS TO THE TEXT
1. especially that of high-precision engineering – особенно проблемы, связанные с созданием устройств высокой точности
2. most would-be turbine inventors – большинство мечтавших изобрести турбину
3. a local hospital decided to raise funds – местная больница решила извлечь выгоду
EXERCISES
TASK 1. Answer the questions:
1. What is the steam turbine? ______________________________________
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2. Were engineering methods developed highly enough for that time? __________
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3. Who undertook it simultaneously? _____________________________________
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4. Who made the steam from the boiler emerge from four stationary nozzles arranged around the rim of a wheel with a great number of small inch? __________
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5. Did De Laval gear an electric generator to his turbine? Was it succesful? ______
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6. Who forsaw a wide range of applications on the idea of a steam-turbine? ______
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7. Whose steam turbines were there to convert the heat from the reactor into mechanical energy for the generators? ___________________________________
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8. Were there any interests in the manufacture of reciprocating steam-engines? ___
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9. Did the organizers of the Newcastle Exhibition of 1887 ask Parsons to supply the current for its display of electric lighting? ______________________________
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10. When the first nuclear power station in the world started up? ______________
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TASK 2. Translate the passage from “ Two men undertook …” to“… a rigid shaft in no time ” in the written form.
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TASK 3. Fill in the blanks with words and word combinations from the text:
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As he studied the ______________ he understood that the point where most would be _________________ had been stumped was the __________________ of steam. Even steam at a _________________ escaping into the atmosphere may easily travel at speeds of more than twice the ________________________ — and high-pressure ___________________ may travel twice as fast again, at about 5, 000 feet per second. Parsons had the ___________________ the steam pressure and speed, without ____________________, by causing the whole expansion of the steam ____________________ in stages so that only moderate _________________ would have to be reached by the _________________. This principle still forms the basis of all ____________ today.
TASK 4. Translate into English:
У Парсона возникла идея, уменьшить давление и скорости, не уменьшая эффективности и экономичности, путем полного расширение пара, чтобы колесами турбины были достигнуты умеренные скорости.
Эти формы составляли основу эффективности паровых турбин и были выпущены Парсоном на практику впервые в 1884.
Небольшая турбина объединялась с электрическим генератором, не уменьшая вращения. Турбина состояла из цилиндрического ротора, приложенного к корпусу с кольцами небольших лопастей, установленных в корпусе.
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TASK 5. What invention does the text tell about?
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TASK 6. Give annotation of the text.
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TASK 7. Give a short summary of the text.
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TEXT 3
EARLY DAYS OF ELECTRICITY
Small winder, then, that man lived for ages on this earth without knowing anything about electricity. He tried to explain the phenomenon of the thunderstorm to himself by imagining that some gods or other supernatural creatures were giving vent to their heavenly anger, 
or were fighting battles in the sky. Thunderstorms frightened our primitive ancestors; they should have been grateful to them instead because lightning gave them their first fires, and thus opened to them the road to civilization. It is a fascinating question how differently life on earth would have developed if we had an organ for electricity. 
Perhaps the Israelites did know something 
about electricity; this theory is supported by the fact that the Temple at Jerusalem had metal rods on the roof which must have acted as lightning-conductors.
More than two thousand years passed after Thales's discovery without any research work being done in this field. It was Dr. William Gilbert, Queen Elizabeth the First's physician-in-ordinary, who set the ball rolling. 
He experimented with amber and lodestone and found the essential difference between electric and magnetic attraction. In his famous work De magnete, published in 1600, he gave an account of his studies. Although some sources credit him with the invention 
of the first electric machine, this was a later achievement by Otto von Guericke, inventor of the air pump.
Here was at last a plausible theory of the nature of electricity, namely, that it was some kind of 'fluid'. It dawned on him 
that thunderstorms were merely a discharge of electricity between two objects with different electrical potentials, such as the clouds and the earth. He saw that the discharging spark, the lightning, tended to strike high buildings and trees, which gave him the idea of trying to attract the electrical 'fluid' deliberately to the earth in a way that the discharge would do no harm.
Aloisio Galvani, professor of medicine at Bologna, was lecturing to his students at his home while his wife was skinning frogs, the professor's favourite dish, for dinner with his scalpel in the adjoining kitchen.
Galvani made numerous and unsystematic experiments with frogs' thighs, most of which failed to prove anything at all; in fact, the professor did not know what to look for except his 'animal electricity'. These experiments became all the rage 
in Italian society, and everybody talked about 'galvanic electricity' and 'galvanic currents' — terms which are still in use although Professor Galvani certainly did not deserve the honour.
A greater scientist than he, Alessandro Volta of Pavia, solved the mystery and found the right explanation for the jerking frogs. Professor Volta went one step further — a most important step, because he invented the first electrical battery, the 'Voltaic pile'. 
A 'pile' of these elements produced usable electric current, and for many decades this remained the only practical source of electricity. From 1800, when Volta announced his invention, electrical research became widespread among the world's scientists in innumerable laboratories.
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