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Phrases & word combinations to the text
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PHRASES & WORD COMBINATIONS TO THE TEXT
1. which owes nothing to – который не зависит от…
2. …made the whole theory of the indivisible atom crumble – разрушили теорию неделимости атома
3. around the turn of the century – на грани двух веков
4. which have next to no mass and weight – которые почти не имеют ни массы, ни веса
5. on the other hand – с другой стороны
6. in no time at all – мгновенно
EXERCISES
TASK 1. Answer the questions:
1. What is one of the numerous sources of energy that owes nothing to the heat and light of the sun? _____________________________________________________
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2. What is the story of research into the nature of atom? _____________________
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3. Who found that the radiation was able to penetrate thin matter like wood and human flesh? _______________________________________________________
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4. What have you known about Special Theory of Relativity? _________________
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5. What is the atom? Is it a miniature solar system? _________________________
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6. What does the atom consist of? _______________________________________
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7. What is an ion? ___________________________________________________
8. Do the atoms of all the elements contain the same kind of particles? __________
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9. What is of particular importance in the utilization of atomic energy? _________
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10. What did Curies discover in radium? __________________________________
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TASK 2. Match the equivalents:
Protons, electrons, solar system, Theory of Relativity, phenomena, particles, discovery, unchangeable, atomic nucleus, source of energy.
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электроны
неизменный
теория относительности
атомное ядро
феномен
источник энергии
солнечная система
протоны
открытие
частицы
TASK 3. Fill in the blanks with words and word combinations from the text:
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The atoms of all the _______ contain the _______ of particles; what distinguishes them from each other is merely the ________ — of protons in the _______ and of _______ revolving around it. Hydrogen, for instance, being the lightest; and _________, has only one of each; uranium, the _______- occurring in Nature, has ________. So all you have to do to change one ________ into another is either to knock some _______ and a corresponding number of ________ off each atom, or add them; in fact, this _______ is going on in Nature all the time.
TASK 4. Continue the sentenses according to the text:
1. Today we know that atoms are_______________________________________
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2. Marie and Pierre Curie, by their discovery of radium, in 1898, made the whole theory___________________________________________________________
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3. Using a cathode-ray tube, he found____________________________________
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4. These and other phenomena and discoveries around______________________
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5. Danish assistant, Niels Bohr, developed________________________________
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6. The atoms of all the elements contain__________________________________
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7. Most elements are_________________________________________________
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8. Curies discovered in radium_________________________________________
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9. Frederic Joliot-Curie_______________________________________________
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10. This was the theory that led_________________________________________
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TASK 5. Translate into English:
Атомы всех элементов содержат одни и те же частицы; что отличает их друг от друга - количество частиц - протонов в ядре и электронов, вращающихся вокруг него. Теоретически, мы могли бы превратить свинец в золото, как мечтали алхимики с помощью удаления трех протонов и электронов из нескольких миллиардов атомов свинца, мы получим атомы золота с 79 протонами и электронами в каждом.
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TASK 6. Give annotation of the text.
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TASK 7. Give your own opinion on the text.
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TASK 8. Give a short summary of the text.
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TEXT 6
PEACEFUL ATOM
Many problems had to be solved; the main one was that of 'braking' the released neutrons efficiently 
so that the chain reaction would not get out of hand.
But the scientists and technicians have since developed a great many different types of reactors — some already in everyday use, others running experimentally in atomic research establishments or being built for special jobs and purposes of all kinds, from producing nuclear explosives for weapons to 'cooking' stable elements 
so that they become unstable isotopes for use in medicine, industry, agriculture, and research.
Some experts predicted that in Britain, for instance, an acute shortage of cheaply mined coal would set in after 1980. Oil is still to be found in plenty, but consumption has been increasing in leaps and bounds 
all over the world.
It is not generated by the chemical process of combustion. It is released when nuclei undergo fission, and although here, too, matter is used up, the amounts are small compared with the energy produced. And there is good reason to hope that before long 
we shall be able to produce energy from ordinary sea-water by another nuclear reaction called 'fusion'.
Britain's first two nuclear power stations were Calder Hall (opened in 1956) and Chapelcross (1959), 
both of the same type. The reactor 'vessel' 
a giant steel cylinder, contains a pile of pure graphite, the material from which pencil leads are made.
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Fig. 3. An Atomic Pile
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The coolant gas, after leaving the 'core' 
of the reactor, is conducted to the heat exchangers. 
They are basically ordinary boilers in which water is turned into steam. The water is contained in steel pipes around which the hot coolant gas is blown. The resulting steam is directed into the turbines which rotate the electric generators. Calder Hall and Chapelcross have eight of them each, generating 180, 000 and 140, 000 kW respectively of electricity, which is fed into the national grid. 
The theory of nuclear fusion was discovered in the early 1930's — years before that of fission — by John Cockeroft at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, where he worked under Lord Rutherford. Here they built a simple machine, which looked more like a couple of stove-pipes than an atom-smashing tool, for shooting electrically speed-up protons at the nuclei of light elements, such as lithium. The result was that the lithium nuclei turned into nuclei of helium. It was only later that it dawned on the physicists10 that some such process is responsible for the way in which the stars, including our own sun, produce their tremendous energy.
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As these lines are being written many scientists in at least half a dozen countries are busy trying to find a system to tame the energy of the H-bomb for peaceful use, but no decisive 'break-through' has been achieved. 
One, called the 'thermionic converter', 
uses the principle of the cathode-ray tube in which electrons, particles of negative electricity, are given off by a hot strip of metal, the cathode, in a vacuum.
Atomic as well as conventional power stations may be made much more efficient by the gas-blast system 
of generating electricity. It is based on the fact that a blast of very hot gas (at least 2, 000° Centigrade), which could be produced by a fission or fusion reactor, becomes an electrical conductor and generates current when moving through the poles of a powerful magnet.
One of the major problems connected with nuclear power stations is the safe disposal of radio-active waste; burying it, or dumping it into the sea, is not everywhere the best means of getting rid of it14.
But there is a vital tool in our nuclear age, the Geiger counter 
in its manifold forms, which measures radio-activity accurately.
The Geiger counter consists of a metal cylinder filled with gas at low pressure; two electrodes — one being the cylinder itself, the other a fine wire stretched along its centre — are maintained at a large potential difference, usually about 1, 000 — 1, 500 volts, but no spark is allowed to pass between them.
Geiger counters are being made and adapted for all kinds of purposes — light ones for uranium prospecting; built-in types for atomic power stations and research establishments; counters with warning signals for factory workers who have to handle radio-active matter and whose hands and clothes have to be checked.
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