Английский язык для студентов радиотехнических специальностей вузов (стр. 28 )

Communications media may be differentiated on the basis of the functions they perform. Thus, Books, Magazines, Newspapers and Letters supply capsules of information which are of use over a limited time. For instance: many books will be of interest to someone for several years; on the average6, magazines evoke interest7 over a shorter period of time; and newspapers and letters hold the interest8 of the majority of readers for a matter of days, or less. Insofar as9 they all store information which can be retrieved10 as many times as the user desires, they can be called record media11.

In contrast, Telephone, Radio and Television deliver a continous stream of information12, as it is produced. They can be called real-time media. So can Data Communications, the medium which permits the exchange of information between machines. As for Telegraph it exhibits both real-time and record features.

Notes

l. a wide range of communications media – широкий набор средств связи

2. a wire connection carrying low speed data – проводная связь, передающая несрочную информацию

3. serving commercial and industrial establishments – обслуживающую торговые и промышленные учреждения

4. data communication — передача данных

5. electronic mail — электронная почта

6. on the average — в среднем

7. evoke interest — вызывают интерес

8.hold the interest — удерживают интерес
9. insofar as – поскольку

10. which can be retrieved — которую можно восстанавливать

11. record media — записывающие средства

12. a continuous stream of information – непрерывный поток информации

13 real-time media – средства передачи данных (или информации) в реальном масштабе времени

III. Answer the following questions to the text:

1. What kinds of communications media have been evolved over a time? 2. Has telephone undergone any change? 3. What is the basis for differentiating communications media? 4. What are record– and real-time media?

IV. Speak about the basis for differentiating communications media.

V. Give a short summary of text B.

LESSON FOUR

I. Look through the list of words facilitating reading text C:

forerunner — предшественник; ancestor — предок, прародитель; impulse — импульс, толчок; to detect — обнаруживать; click - щелканье, щелчок; to coin — создавать новые слова; wireless — беспроводной; to succeed in — добиваться успеха; particle — частица; amateur — любитель; broadcasting — передача радио– и телевизионных программ; service — служба.

II. Read the following text carefully. While reading it look for the
answers to the questions:

1. Who was the discoverer of electric telegraph? 2. Who made the telephone a practical instrument? 3. Who laid the foundations of electronics?

Text С

The Magnitude of Invention

1.  The electric telegraph was the beginning of the whole vast telecommunications industry, the forerunner of the telephone, radio, television, communications satellites1 — in fact, a direct ancestor of everything now united under the convenient heading of "electronics".

2.  But as with most other great inventions, the idea had been around for a long time. As early as 1747 electrical impulses had been transmitted along a wire laid across Westminster Bridge2, and detected at the other end by the crude but effective method of having someone hold on to the wire.

3.  Strangely enough, the man who put most effort3 into developing the telegraph was a successful American painter and sculptor, Samuel Morse. On April 1, 1845, the world's first telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington has been opened for public use4, and after that the telegraph spread rapidly across Europe and America.

4. Joining the continents proved a much more difficult job5, but in 1856 the Atlantic Telegraph Company was organized to attempt the most demanding technical feat of the age and, in 1859, the Atlantic cable was completed.

5.  But the inventors were already striving to transmit something more than the clicks of a Morse key. Wheatstone had coined the word" telephone in 1821, when he was only 19. Many others contributed ideas, but it was the energy and persistence of Alexander Graham Bell which made the telephone a practical instrument. Bell first realized how a telephone could be made to work in June 1875. After that progress was very rapid. The first permanent telephone line was opened in April 1876 in Boston.

6. Twenty years later, the invention of the wireless telegraph was to follow a very similar pattern. Guglielmo Marconi was only 21 years old when he succeeded in transmitting signals' by radio waves for nearly a mile.

7. A much more effective way of producing radio waves, and a more sensitive means of detecting them, were essential for progress, and were soon discovered. The invention of Edison, Fleming, and Lee de Forest were the beginning of electronics, exploiting the newly-made discovery that the electric current was actually a stream of particles, or electrons. They made wireless telephony8 possible, as distinct from 1919 there were a large number of amateur wireless enthusiasts and conditions were ripe for the beginning of broadcasting services.

Notes

munications satellites – спутники связи

2. Westminster Bridge – Вестминстерский мост

3. who put most effort — который внес наибольший вклад

4. for public use — для общественного пользования

5. proved a much more difficult job — оказалась намного более трудной задачей

6.had coined the word — создал (придумал) слово

cceeded in transmitting signals — добился успеха в передаче сигналов

8. wireless telephony — беспроводная телефонная связь

9. amateur wireless enthusiasts — радиолюбители

III. Find answers to the following questions:

1. When were electrical impulses transmitted? 2. Who put most effort into developing telegraph? 3. What did Guglielmo Marconi succceed in?

IV. Say what the forerunner of the whole telecommunications industry was.

V. Find the information about the person who contributed greatly into making the telephone a practical instrument.

VI. Say at what age Guglielmo Marconi succeeded in transmitting signals by radio waves.

VII.Which paragraph contains the information that the inventions of Edison, Fleming and Lee de Forest were the beginning of electronics.

VIII.Summarize the general ideas developed in texts А, В and C.

IX. Imagine that you are to make a report about the means of communication at a scientific conference. While preparing the report use the information of texts А, В, С and the following plan:

1.  Communication is a process by which information is exchanged between individuals.

2. Modern means of communication rest upon a foundation laid by such scientists as Samuel Morse, Wheatstone, Graham Bell, Edison, Fleming and others.

3.  New electronic media have been evolved to support human activities.

4. Telephone, radio, television and data communications are realtime media.

5.  Books, magazines, newspapers, letters are record media.

UNIT FURTEEN

•  Grammar: Noun as an Attribute (§ 19).

•  Word-Formation: adj + n + - ed = adj.

n + - al = adj.

• Individual Work: Lab Work "Conditional Clauses".

LESSON ONE

Pre-text Exercises

I. Practise the reading of the following words:

efficient [I'fɪʃənt], capacityy [kə'pæsɪtɪ], fiber ['faɪbə], speed [spi:d], digital ['dIGItəl], voice ['vɔɪs], conversation [ˏkɔnvə'seɪʃn].

II. Check up if you can read the words correctly and say what words in the Russian language help you to guess their meaning:

decade, concept, second, system, type, telephone, cable, communication, electron, copper, diameter, interference, regeneration, resistance.

III. State to what parts of speech the following words belong:

information, install, speed, impressive, digital, television, conversation, conventional, protection, carrier, typically, inexpensive, versatility, data, travels, signals.

IV. Find the roots of the following words:

using, electrical, relatively, pulsing, easily, digital, alternately, conduction, construction, addition, equipment, operating, interference, carrier, resistance, regenerator.

V. Give the Russian equivalents of the following English compound adjectives with the suffix

-ed:

a fair-sized vessel, a great-faced clock, yellow-coloured walls, thick-lensed spectacles, high-priced equipment, light-flooded sky, good-humoured sarcasm, an ice-coated sign, a narrow-sheeted newspaper, a grey-roofed house, an oval-shaped vase, solid-headed lines.

VI. Form compound adjectives with the suffix -ed, corresponding to the following word combinations:

Example: a building of red brick – a red-bricked building

a machine-tool of medium size, an alphabet of Greek letters, a cover of soft leather, zigzags of a red pencil, mixture of thick oil, a box with thin walls, a house of small size, a clock with a dark face, a figure with sharp angles, a person of high culture, a man with narrow mind.

VII. Form adjectives by adding the suffix -al to the following nouns, making changes where necessary:

Example: form – форма

formal – формальный

optics, theory, electricity, digit, nation, idea, music, conversation, principle, structure, practice, notion, logics, vocation, profession.

VIII. Check up if you know the meaning of the following verbs. Consult a dictionary if necessary:

to transmit, to cost, to consider, to abridge, to undermine, to accommodate, to handle, to install, to compare, to eliminate, to require, to allow, to encounter, to travel, to carry.

IX. Read and translate the following word combinations paying attention to nouns as attributes: