Английский язык (стр. 1 )

МИНИСТЕРСТВО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ И НАУКИ РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ

ФЕДЕРАЛЬНОЕ АГЕНТСТВО ПО ОБРАЗОВАНИЮ

ГОУ ВПО «СИБИРСКАЯ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННАЯ ГЕОДЕЗИЧЕСКАЯ АКАДЕМИЯ»

Английский язык

СБОРНИК

ОБЩЕНАУЧНЫХ И ТЕХНИЧЕСКИХ ТЕКСТОВ
НА АНГЛИЙСКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ

для магистрантов, студентов 1-го, 2-го курсов заочного,
дневного и вечернего отделений по специальностям академии

Часть 2

Новосибирск

СГГА

2008

УДК 811.111

Н-651

Рецензенты:

Кандидат технических наук, доцент,

декан Заочного факультета, зам. директора ИДО

Сибирской государственной геодезической академии

Кандидат филологических наук, доцент

Новосибирской государственной академии водного транспорта

Никулина, Л. М.

Н-651 Английский язык. Сборник общенаучных и технических текстов на английском языке: для магистрантов, студентов 1-го, 2-го курсов заочного, дневного и вечернего отделений по специальностям академии [Текст]. Часть 2 / . – Новосибирск: СГГА, 2008. – 69 с.

Сборник контрольных работ и учебных заданий предназначен для студентов-заочников 1-го, 2-го курсов всех специальностей академии. Сборник состоит из двух частей. Первая часть – контрольные работы, задания, охватывающие основной грамматический материал и сводные таблицы. Вторая часть – общенаучные тексты по специальностям академии с комментариями для совершенствования навыков чтения.

Данный сборник может использоваться как для самостоятельной работы, так и в часы аудиторных занятий во время зачетно-экзаменационной сессии. Сборник можно рекомендовать для студентов всех специальностей 1-го курса дневного отделения.

УДК 8

Печатается по решению редакционно-

издательского совета СГГА

© Сибирская государственная геодезическая
академия (СГГА), 2008

Text 1

M. V. LOMONOSOV (1711–1765)

1. M.V. Lomonosov, the great Russian scientist, poet and grammarian was born in a small village situated near the town Kholmogory. Now this village is called Lomonosovka. Lomonosov’s father was a poor fisherman. At an early age Mikhail began to help his father in his work. But he was eager1 to learn and hoped he would go to Moscow some day and study there. His ambition was to educate himself and join the learned men (ученые). In Lomonosov’s work there were ree comparatively well-defined periods. The first period dates from the time he completed his formal education and lasted till the building of the chemical laboratory, that is, till 1748, and was mainly devoted to theoretical investigation in physics. The second period covered the time between 1748–1757. In these years Lomonosov was chiefly engaged in solving various problems of theoretical and experimental chemistry. The third period lasted from 1757 to his death. During this last period Lomonosov, besides continuing his fomer activities, gave much of his time to various applied sciences, and administrative work.

2. In 1730 (he was 19 years old) he left his native village, because the few books he was able to obtain could no longer satisfy his growing thirst of knowledge. His bitter struggle began as soon as he arrived in Moscow. After many difficulties he managed to enter the Slavonic-Greek-Latin Academy. He had to conceal his humble origin. His robust (крепкое здоровье) health and exceptional intelligence enabled him in 5 years to assimilate (здесь: пройти; освоить) the eight-year course of study under very hard conditions; he had scarcely enough money for food and clothes.

3. As, M. Lomonosov was extremely capable, he was one of the twelve best pupils who were sent to Petersburg in 1736 to study mathematics, chemistry, physics and foreign languages at the Gymnasium in the Academy of Sciences. Seven months later he was sent to Germany to study chemistry and metallurgy at the University of Ma rburg. For within three years he had surveyed (изучил) the main achievements of Western philosophy and science. M. Lomonosov studied firsthand the technologies of mining, metallurgy and glassmaking.

4. He came back to Petersburg from Germany in 1741 and began his scientific work. In those days foreigners dominated everywhere; the Academy was directed by the foreigners and incompetent nobles, and M. Lomonosov had to struggle against the reactionary scientists and officials. His enemies despised him for his peasant origin but couldn’t help admiring2 his talent. While in prison he worked out the plan of work that he had already developed in Marburg: «276 Notes on Corpuscular Philosophy and Physics». He would say: «Poetry is my pleasure, physics – my exercise». Lomonosov considered that such properties as colour, smell, specific gravity, etc., are determined by the properties and the type of minute particles, and by their reciprocal arrangement and movement3, and since «corpuscles» (molecules) and «elements» (atoms) represent infinity small bodies, possessing all the properties of an ordinary body, their motion and interaction follow the general laws of mechanics. His works in the field of optics are important. He was an advocate of a wave theory of light. He developed the theory of colours, and the technology of optical glass welding, designed about 10 new optical devices (telescope, reflector, a tube for night vision, and some other devices). He designed and constructed unique optical devices such as a mirror telescope, a reflector, a periscope, a star photometer. He was called by right one of the foremost opticians of the time and without a doubt the first Russian thoughtful and creative optotechnician.

5. In 1745 he was made academician and he was appointed professor of chemistry. He established the first chemical laboratory in Russia and headed it in its work. There began a prodigious amount of activity; he passionately undertook many tasks and in three years made more than 4 000 experiments, the results of which enabled him to set up a coloured glass works and to make mosaics with these glasses. Anxious to train students, he wrote in 1752 an introduction to physical chemistry course that he was to set up in his laboratory. Research into the properties of glasses helped him to establish the laws of ventilation in mines, and develop the technology of producing stained glass. He was the first to discover the presence of an atmosphere on the planet Venus. He demonstrated the law of conservation of matter 41 years before Lavoisier.

6. The last period of Lomonosov’s activity was connected with his scientific investigations in navigation and attempt to find a short route from the West to the East through the Arctic Ocean. Geographic investigations helped him to discover the northern passage to India.

7. There is hardly a single field of science, which doesn’t show the influence of his brilliant talent. A. Pushkin wrote, that «combining extraordinary strength of mind, Lomonosov embraced all the branches of education». A thirst for knowledge was overpowering passion of his passion-filled soul. Historian, rhetorician, mechanic, chemist, physicist, mineralogist, artist and poet he experienced everything and fathomed all.

The combination of science with practice, with problems of everyday life, was an organic feature of Lomonosov’s work «Science shows the way to the industries; industries hasten the development of science». Both work hand and glove4 for the public welfare. M. Lomonosov laid the foundation for the scientific study of the Russian language, created Russian grammar opening up vast horizons to Russian literature. The great Russian critic Belinsky wrote about Lomonosov: «Our literature begins with Lomonosov, he was its father and mentor; he was its Peter the Great».

8. M. Lomonosov may truly be considered the father of Russian Science and at the same time a great educator Lomonosov was the founder of the first Russian University and «He himself was our first University» – Pushkin said. From 1755 he followed very closely the development of Moscow University for which he had drawn up the plans. Appointed a councillor of the Academy in 1757, he undertook reforms to make the university an intellectual centre closely linked with the life of the country.

9. Despite the honours that came to him, he continued to lead a simple and industrious life, surrounded by his family and few friends. He left his house and the laboratory erected (built) in his garden only to go to the Academy. His prestige was considerable in Russia, and his scientific works and his role in the Academy were known abroad. He was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and of that of Bologna. The motive force that guided all his activities, no matter how varied they were, was the desire to serve his motherland.

M. Lomonosov always said: «What joy it is to work for your country’s good».

Notes:

1. was eager	страстно желал
2. couldn’t help admiring	не могли не восхищаться
3. reciprocal arrangement and movement	взаимным расположением и движением
4. hand and glove	вместе; в тесном взаимодействии

PHYSICS AND OPTICS

Text 2

THE PEOPLE OF PHYSICS

1. The people who design and use the kind of equipment you have been reading about are physicists. When their skills are primarily those of designing and performing experiments, they are called experimental physicists. When, on the other hand, they are skilled primarily in the use of mathematics in the problems of physics, they are called theoretical physicists. Benjamin Franklin and Mme Marie Curie were experimental physicists. Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein and many others were theoretical physicists – perhaps the greatest.

2. In the earlier days, the tools, both experimental and mathematical, were so simple that a single man or woman could become skilled in the use of both kinds. Isaac Newton not only made the thrilling (захватывающий) experiment of breaking sunlight into colors with a prism, but actually invented for his own use one of the most useful forms of mathematics, the calculus. Franklin contributed to electrical theory, besides inventing and performing many key experiments. Nowadays some of the tools are so complex that few physicists are versatile (разносторонний) enough to become masters of all of them. But whether theorists or experimenters, the people who build physics are all physicists.

3. However, most of the people who study the fundamentals of physics do not go on to become physicists. Many go into related fields, such as engineering or other sciences, and many will leave science altogether. But whether you go on or not, you can find in the physicists’ story of nature a great deal that will help you in understanding the changing and exciting world in which we live. For physics lies behind the headlines, behind the gadgets (техническая новинка) that create the new jobs, and behind the new problems every citizen has to face. In studying this growing subject, one of the most significant in the history of man, you will have a chance to nourish (лелеять надежду) that curiosity about the world which marks us humans off so sharply from the other animals, that wonderful feeling of wanting to know which can be a deep satisfaction throughout a whole lifetime.

Text 3

FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN ()

1. B. Franklin was an American printer, and publisher, author, inventor and scientist and diplomat. He is probably best remembered for his role in separating the American Colonies from Great Britain. The tenth son of the seventeenth of a soap - and candlemaker, Franklin ended his formal education at the age of 10. At 12 he was apprenticed1 to his brother, a printer and he worked at that trade first in Philadelphia and later in London.

2. In 1753 he served as deputy postmaster general in charge2 of the mails in all the northern colonies. Franklin promoted the establishment of such public services as a fire department3, a lending library and an academy that grew to be the University of the time he began his diplomatic career, Franklin had invented the Franklin stove, bifocal spectacles, and the lightning rod (громоотвод).

3. He contributed to science with his experiments in electricity, and is acknowledged to be the founder of the theory of atmospheric electricity. At the time when theories to explain electricity were neither complete nor well founded the lightning was proved by him to be an electrical phenomenon. He was not the first to think of it but he was the first to prove it. His theory of electricity still appears to hold good (иметь силу). He is acknowledged to have invented a means of protection against the disastrous effects of lightning – the lightning rod. Franklin’s theory at first seemed to be misunderstood both in his country and abroad. He is known to have been severely attacked by the leader of French scientists Abbe Nollet.

4. B. Franklin is recognized to have been a great public figure who did as much as he could for the good of his country. He is known to be the editor of one of the newspapers enjoying a great popularity with his countrymen. He is sure to be one of the broadest as well as one of the most creative minds of his time.

Notes:

1. was apprenticed	был отдан в подмастерье
2. deputy postmaster general in charge	заместитель начальника почтового отделения
3. fire department	пожарное депо

Text 4

EINSTEIN’S RESEARCHES ON THE NATURE OF LIGHT

«For the rest of my life I will
reflect on what light is!»
A. Einstein, 1917

1. The fundamental contributions were made by Albert Einstein toward our present-day understanding of the nature of light. In our time of ever-increasing specialization, there is a tendency to concern ourselves with1 relatively narrow scientific problems. The broad foundations (фундаментальные основы) of our present-day scientific knowledge and its historical development tend to be forgotten too often. This is an unfortunate trend, not only because our horizon becomes rather limited and our perspective somewhat distorted, but also because there are many valuable lessons to be learned in looking back over the years during which the basic concepts and the fundamental laws of a particular scientific discipline were first formulated.

2. To scientists and nonscientists alike, the name Albert Einstein is associated with a theory that has profoundly revolutionized man’s ideas of space and time. His theory of relativity implied as basic a change in our conception of the universe as that which was brought about by Newton’s theory of universal gravitation or Kepler’s theory of the planetary system. For this work alone, Einstein will certainly always be remembered as one of the greatest geniuses of all times. Einstein also made most basic contributions to our understanding of the nature of light and radiation in general.

3. Early theories. In the seventeenth century, two theories were put forward about the nature of light: the wave theory, whose chief proponents (защитник, сторонник) were Robert Hooke and Christian Huygens, and the corpuscular (or emission) theory, put forward by Isaac Newton. According to the wave theory, light consists of rapid vibrations that are propagated in an elastic ether in a somewhat similar manner as a disturbance is propagated on the surface of water. According to the corpuscular theory, on the other hand, light is propagated from a luminous body by minute particles2. The wave theory, as then formulated, appeared to be incapable of explaining the phenomenon of polarization, discovered by Huygens himself in studying the refraction of light by crystals. Newton, on the other hand, was able to account for3 polarization on the basis of his corpuscular theory. It was largely for this reason that the wave theory was rejected for over a century in favor of the corpuscular theory.

In 1801 Thomas Young discovered the principle of interference of light. Seventeen years later Augustin Fresnel showed in a celebrated memoir (научная статья) that, by combining Young’s principle of interference with a basic postulate of Huygens’s theory, one is led to a wave theory of light that explains diffraction of light, a phenomenon that was not comprehensible on the basis of Newton’s corpuscular theory. Within a few years after the publication of Fresnel’s memoir and after experimental demonstrations of certain unsuspected predictions of his theory, Fresnel’s wave theory became generally accepted and Newton’s corpuscular theory fell into oblivion (предана забвению).

The formulation of the wave theory of light culminated in the work of James Clerk Maxwell, who succeeded in 1865 in embodying all the laws of electricity and magnetism then known into a celebrated set of differential equations – now called Maxwell’s equations. One of the consequences of these equations was a prediction that time-dependent electric and magnetic effects are transmitted from one region of space to another by means of waves – known now as electromagnetic waves. The speed of these waves in free space could be calculated from the results of purely electrical measurements, and it turned out to be of the order of magnitude of the speed of light, as then known from other experiments. This led Maxwell to conjecture that light waves are electromagnetic waves. In 1888 Heinrich Hertz demonstrated the existence of electromagnetic waves experimentally. We may thus summarize this part of our brief historical introduction by saying that, toward the end of the nineteenth century, it appeared firmly established that light is an electromagnetic wave phenomenon. Rather independently of the developments just mentioned, investigations were carried out concerning thermal or heat radiation, which eventually also turned out to be of fundamental importance for elucidating (разъяснять; пролить свет на…) the nature of light.

In the period 1814–1817 Joseph Fraunhofer discovered dark lines in the solar spectrum, which have since been named after him. On the basis of experiments by Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff, they were interpreted around 1860 as absorption lines of certain gases in the solar atmosphere. In the course of his investigations of the solar spectrum, Kirchhoff derived from thermodynamics a number of fundamental results relating to radiation in thermal equilibrium with bodies at a fixed temperature. Even under equilibrium conditions, when the system is thermally insulated from its surroundings, the bodies will emit and absorb radiation, or as we say these days, there will be interaction between matter and the radiation field. The capacity of a body to emit and absorb radiation at some fixed frequency may be characterized by certain quantities known as the emission coefficient and the absorption coefficient. One of the laws, which Kirchhoff derived in 1859, asserts that, under equilibrium conditions, the ratio of the emission and the absorption coefficients is independent of the nature of the bodies that interact with the radiation field.

4. Particle aspects of radiation. Even though Planck’s introduction of the concept of an energy quantum led eventually to one of the greatest scientific revolutions of all times, his theory did not at first attract much attention. One of the first scientists who clearly recognized that Planck’s discovery initiated a new era4 in physics was a young man, Albert Einstein, who around that time – in 1902 at the age of 23 was appointed to a post at the Swiss Patent office. His appointment carried the title «Technical Expert, Third Class». His three papers were published, in 1905, having all been submitted within a period of only three and a half months. Einstein’s papers: (1) the particle nature of radiation, (2) the theory of Brownian motion, and (3) the special theory of relativity are acknowledged as masterpieces and the starting point of a new branch of physics.

The first of these papers has, in translation, the title: «On a heuristic point of view concerning the creation and conversion of light». It is this paper that Einstein himself referred to as «very revolutionary». In modern textbooks it is usually referred to as «Einstein’s paper on the photoelectric effect». Actually, this paper contains appreciably more. In fact, Einstein’s whole discussion of the photoelectric effect covers less than four pages; but, as in most of his writing, Einstein was able to get to the root of a problem5 in a few lines, with simple language that was remarkably free of complicated mathematics.

Essentially what Einstein did in this paper was to put forward a great deal of evidence that not only do the processes of emission and absorption of radiation take place in discrete amounts of energy (as appears to have been established by Planck) but that radiation itself behaves under certain circumstances as if it consisted of a collection of particles, which in modern language are called photons. Thus in this paper Einstein reintroduced a corpuscular theory of light – first advocated by Newton in the 17th century. In the introduction to his paper, Einstein discusses the success of the wave theory of light, which deals with continuous functions in space6. Then Einstein goes on to say that nevertheless it is possible that this theory will lead to a contradiction with experience if it is applied to the phenomena of generation and conversion of light. He then continues as follows: «In fact it seems to be that the observations on blackbody radiation, photoluminescence, the production of cathode rays by ultraviolet light, and other phenomena involving the emission or conversion of light, can be better understood on the assumption that the energy of light is distributed discontinuosly7 in space. According to the assumption considered here, when a light ray starting from a point is propagated, the energy is not continuously distributed over an ever-increasing volume8, but it consists of a finite number of energy quanta9, localized in space, which move without being divided and which can be absorbed or emitted only as a whole».

Another example that Einstein gave in this paper in support of his view regarding the corpuscular nature of radiation was, as already mentioned, the photoelectric effect. This is the phenomenon of ejection of electrons from a metal when electromagnetic radiation of short enough wavelength impinges on the metal surface. The effect was discovered in 1887 by Heinrich Hertz in the course of experiments referred to earlier, which played a decisive role in confirming the correctness of Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory of light. In retrospect, there is some irony in this situation, since later, when the photoelectric effect was studied quantitatively, it was not possible to reconcile it with Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory.

In 1909, four years after his «photoelectric paper», «Einstein published a paper» with the title «On the present status of the problem of radiation», which became another milestone in the development of physics. In this publication Einstein showed, again by characteristically simple arguments typical of so much of his work, that Planck’s radiation law itself implies that the radiation field exhibits not only wave features but also corpuscular features. This result was the first clear indication of the so-called wave particle duality that many years later became an accepted feature of modern quantum physics.

5. Elementary processes of interaction between radiation and matter. During the next few years Einstein concentrated his efforts in different directions, and he developed his general theory of relativity. But in 1917 he returned to the radiation problem once again, and he published another fundamental paper in this that time much progress had been made toward the understanding of the spectrum of atomic elements, chiefly as a result of some work by Niels Bohr. Before discussing the 1917 paper of Einstein, it may be useful to review briefly some of the background. In 1911, Ernest Rutherford put forward a model of the atom according to which the atom consists of a small, heavy, charged central nucleus surrounded by a charge distribution of the opposite sign. However, the distribution of the charge was not understood. Bohr, in a well-known paper published in 1913, assumed that the atom can exist permanently only in one of a series of states – known as stationary states – characterized by discrete values of the energy. When the atom emits or absorbs radiation it undergoes a transition from one such stationary state to another.

6. The Bose-Einstein statistics and matter waves. Successful as Einstein’s notion of quanta of radiation field was in elucidating various phenomena involving the interaction of light and matter, many puzzles surrounded it. All the derivations of Planck’s radiation law, including Einstein’s 1917 derivation, appealed at some point to classical electromagnetic theory. Yet the quantum features of the radiation field, which as Einstein showed, are implicit in Planck’s law, are in direct contradiction with the classical theory. Einstein himself was well aware of these difficulties, and he stressed over and over again the need to formulate a basically new theory that would fuse the wave features and the particle features of radiation. Such a theory, namely, modern quantum mechanics, was indeed formulated about eight years after the publication of the paper by Einstein that we have just discussed.

Notes:

1. in our time of ever-increasing specialization, there is a tendency to concern ourselves with	здесь: в наше время рост специализаций – это тенденция к решению нами
2. minute particles	мельчайшие частицы
3. account for	объяснять
4. initiated a new era	открыл новую эру
5. was able to get to the root of a problem	смог вникнуть в суть проблемы
6. continuous functions in space	функции, непрерывные в пространстве
7. is distributed discontinuously	распределяется дискретно (неразрывно)
8. the energy is not continuously distributed over an ever-increasing volume	энергия не распределяется непрерывно в заполняемом светом объеме
9. a finite number of energy quanta	конечное число квантов энергии

Text 5

HISTORY OF THE PRODUCTION OF OPTICAL INSTRUMENTS

1. The word «optics» is of Greek origin, and it relates to what is seen, and optical instruments historically have been aids to vision. Though simple lenses had been in use as magnifiers for over a thousand years, and though eye-glasses had been developed in the 14th century, optical engineering1 began in the 17th century with the development of the first precision optical instrument, the telescope. The microscope was developed almost simultaneously. Because manufacturing problems were little understood, and available glass was poor2 early instruments were primitive. Modern instrument-making industry is equipped with a great variety of optical instruments. It is only by optical methods and by making use of special optical systems that one can make precise measurements.

2. The history of production of fine (точный) optical instruments is connected with the name of Carl Zeiss. The products and the name Zeiss enjoy an outstanding reputation3 all over the world. Carl Zeiss was born in Weimar, 1816. The German industrialist gained a worldwide reputation as a manufacturer of fine optical instruments. In 1846 Zeiss opened a workshop in Jena for producing microscopes and other optical devices. Realizing that improvements in optical instruments depended on advances in optical theory4, he engaged a research worker Ernest Abbe, a physics and mathematics lecturer, professor of the University of Jena. In 1866 he became Zeiss’s partner. Later they engaged Otto Scott, a chemist, who developed about 100 new kinds of optical glass and numerous types of heat-resistant glass.

3. Right from the beginning of his collaboration with Carl Zeiss in the mid-1880s, Ernst Abbe devoted a great deal of attention to optical materials. His detailed studies were focused on not only the optical properties of the types of glass then available, but also on those of liquids and minerals. The interdisciplinary collaboration of the chemist Otto Scott and the industrial physicist Ernst Abbe offered a great opportunity to the then emerging optical industry in Germany. Despite all the good results obtained with the new glass types, Abbe soon realized that he would have to continue to include crystals as optical materials in his studies. He developed the apochromat microscope objectives and used the mineral fluorite. These objectives were indeed one of the most important innovations in the field of microscope design. Fluorite is a mineral which occurs very frequently in nature. From the crystallographic viewpoint, the cubic crystal symmetry of fluorite is of importance for its use as a material in an imaging system.

4. Apochromats are highly corrected optical systems5 providing maximum optical quality and are used in microscopy and astronomy. Ernest Abbe was sure that the availability of optical materials must be safeguarded by synthesis6. In the 1930s, a laboratory for growing crystals was established at the Zeiss plant. However, it was only after Stockbarger in the USA had further developed the method of growing fluorite from vacuum melts7 for industrial use that fluorite was produced at Zeiss in the second half of the 1950s for use in its own instruments, achieving independence from natural deposits.

In 1945 US forces (army) evacuated the board of management and about 100 scientists and technicians of the Carl Zeiss firm (Jena) to West Germany, where it was firmly reestablished; and it was transformed into a powerful industrial enterprise; later the Carl Zeiss firm became a world leader in optics. The history of the company Carl Zeiss is full of examples of extremely successful interaction between experimental science and instrument manufacture.

Notes:

1. optical engineering	оптическая техника
2. available glass was poor	доступное стекло было плохого качества
3. enjoy an outstanding reputation	пользуется выдающейся репутацией
4. advances in optical theory	прогресс в оптической теории
5. highly-corrected optical systems	точно скорректированные оптические системы
6. must be safeguarded by synthesis	должно быть подстраховано производством синтетических материалов
7. vacuum melts	вакуумная плавка

METROLOGY