Discuss in your groups the main advantages and disadvantages of television, write them in two columns on your paper and express your own opinion.

1. Television is one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century. It is the most popular part of mass media. Television is the easiest and the cheapest source of information. It is an advantage.

2. One of the positive features about TV is that it educates us. There are programmes devoted to specialized subjects such as life of animals or plants, science, politics and many others. Watching such programmes we learn a lot of useful and interesting information.

3. TV gives us opportunity to travel around the world without getting up from the sofa. We can learn about life of people in different countries, their customs and traditions and we don’t pay for it.

4. There are very exciting, funny and humorous programmes, concerts full of wonderful music and songs especially on holidays. So, television entertains us and we like it because it makes us forget our everyday problems.

5. One of the disadvantages is that television sometimes substitutes our nearest and dearest. It prevents us from communicating with our friends and relatives.

6. Today you can see many films on TV which are filled with cruel and violent scenes that is very bad especially for children and teenagers.

7. Watching TV too much may be dangerous for your eyesight. It is a disadvantage.

 

 

Text 2. Inventors and their inventions

 

Active vocabulary to remember

achievement experimenter perspiration electromagnetic device inspiration theoretician revolving barrel bullet internal combustion engine fuel lorry dot-and-dash alphabet chemist rubber solution raincoat to penetrate comfortable reliable ghost independent stockholder difficulty

– достижение – экспериментатор – испарина, пот – электромагнитное (пусковое) устройство – вдохновение – теоретик – вращающийся барабан – пуля – двигатель внутреннего сгорания – топливо – грузовик – алфавит точка – тире – химик – раствор каучука, латекс – плащ – проникать, проходить сквозь – удобный, комфортный – надежный – привидение, призрак – независимый – акционер, пайщик – трудность, затруднение

 

Edison is known as one of the greatest inventors of his time. He invented so much that it is difficult to say which of his achievements is the greatest. He was an experimenter and a practical man more than a theoretician. In 1868 Edison built his first patented invention - an electromagnetic device. All his inventions were the result of hard work. He sometimes made thousands of experiments. According to his words the idea that a genius works only by inspiration was absurd. “Genius is 2 per cent inspiration and 98 per cent perspiration,” he often said.

Samuel Colt was an American. He lived in the 19th century. In 1836 he designed and patented a pistol. It was a pistol with a revolving barrel that could fire 6 bullets one after the other. It was the first pistol of its kind. Later there came many other pistols with 6 bullets.

Rudolf Diesel was a German engineer. He was born in 1858 and died in 1913. In 1897 he invented a new internal combustion engine. This engine is known as a diesel and it began a transport revolution in cars, lorries, trains and ships. The main advantage of diesels is that they run on rather cheap fuel.

Samuel Finley Morse was born in 1791. He died in 1872. He was a portrait painter. Then he became the inventor. For 12 years he tried to perfect the telegraph and he was a success. Later he invented the telegraphic dot-and-dash alphabet. Now it is known as Morse code. Morse code was not only one in America of that time. There were some others. But now we use Morse code all over the world.

Charles Makintosh lived from 1766 to 1843. He lived in Scotland and was a chemist by profession. He worked in a textile industry. In 1823 he developed a rubber solution. This rubber solution was used for raincoat production. Raincoats with this rubber solution didn’t allow water to penetrate. These raincoats were called makintoshes. Now people all over the world use them in spring and in autumn.

Charles Rolls was born in 1881 in Great Britain. He died in 1910. He was an aristocrat and businessman. He was especially interested in cars. Once he met another enthusiast of cars Henry Royce. Henry Royce was a famous car engineer. They decided to design the most comfortable and reliable car. At the beginning of the 20th century it seemed to be a fantasy. But they worked hard and at last in 1907 they created the world-famous Rolls-Royce car. It was so comfortable and reliable that one of the models of Rolls-Royce cars “Silver Ghost” hadn’t changed greatly for 20 years since 1907.

Gotlif Daimler and Charles Benz were two inventors. They lived in Germany. They were both interested in car production. At the end of the 19^th century each of them designed a car. At the same time they organized two independent firms to produce them. All the cars produced by the firm of Daimler were called “Mercedes”. Mercedes was a daughter’s name of one of the stockholders of the firm. This man saved the firm of Daimler from the financial crisis at the beginning of the 20th century. But after the World War I the firm of Daimler met financial difficulties again. This time it had to join the firm of Benz. Since that time all the cars produced by the firm “Daimler-Benz” have been called “Mercedes-Benz”.

 

Practice:

 

Find the names of the inventors who gave their names to the things they created using different sources of information. Put them down in the table.

Inventor	Invention	Year of invention	Country

Find in the text the famous words of Edison proving his idea of a genius. Do you agree with him?

 

What inventions, electronic and other devices would you call the most sophisticated ones that were invented in the 20th century? Try to find the information about the inventors. Suggest your own variants.

Radar: It is an electronic device for locating objects by means of shoft-wave radio echoes. It is very useful at war-time to know the position of aircrafts or ships engaged by enemy.

Radio: It is an instrument for wireless communication. It was invented in 1895 by Mr. Marcony, an Italian scientist.

Television: It is a kind of wireless machine on which we can see the distant objects with the help of its radio-action.

Transistor: It is an instrument which is fitted to radio-sets to make them workable.

X-Ray machine: It is quite useful for medical and surgical purposes. Because it can photograph the inside of the body.

Chloroform: It is kind of anesthetic. It is used in surgery for conducting painless operation. It is a thing which puts a person into a kind of sleep so that he feels nothing at the time of the surgical operation going on.

Rocket: It is the engine of the space-craft. The first rocket could travel round the earth at a speed of 18000 miles per hour.

Atomic power: Atomic power was used in making bombs for large-scale destruction in the world war II. Atomic power is now experimented to be used for peaceful purposes.

Use the plan below:

1) the invention you consider to be one of the greatest in the world; 2) the name of the person it was designed by; 3) the country this invention was made in; 4) what this thing was made for; 5) how it is used now; 6) how it influenced our life.

 

Make a list of the Seven Wonders of the 20th century. Write them in the order of their importance.

Name the spheres of our everyday life and human activities where the progress of science and technology is most keenly felt.

Science can be neither good nor evil. Are you of the same opinion? Give your reasons.

 

 

UNIT 8. YOUTH AND EMPLOYMENT

Text 1. The career ladder

 

Active vocabulary to remember

 

to apply for a job trainee to earn prospects to pay rise to promote in charge of /responsible for employee to resign to quit to give the sack to dismiss unemployed a part-time job stall to retire

– подавать заявление о приеме на работу – практикант, стажер – зарабатывать, получать доход – перспектива; виды, планы на будущее – повышение заработной платы – выдвигать; продвигать; повышать в чине/звании – ответственный, отвечающий (за ч-л.) – служащий; работающий по найму – уходить в отставку, подавать в отставку; – оставлять пост, увольняться – уволить кого-л. – увольнять (for; from); освобождать от обязанностей – безработный – неполная занятость, неполный рабочий день – ларек, палатка, прилавок – оставлять, увольнять(ся); уходить в отставку

 

Getting a job

When Paul left school he applied for (wrote an official request for) a job in the accounts department of a local engineering company. They gave him a job as a trainee (a very junior person in a company). He didn't earn very much but they gave him a lot of training (organized help and advice with learning the job), and sent him on training courses.

Moving up

Paul worked hard at the company and his prospects (future possibilities in the job) looked good. After his first year he got a good pay rise (more money), and after two years he was promoted (given a higher position with more money and responsibility). After six years he was in charge of (responsible for/the boss of) the accounts department with five other em­ployees (workers in the company) under him (under his responsibility).

Leaving the company

By the time Paul was 30, however, he decided he wanted a fresh chal­lenge (a new exciting situation). He was keen to work abroad, so he re­signed from his company (quitted the company) and started looking for a new job with a bigger company. After a couple of months he managed to find a job with an international company which involved (included) a lot of foreign travel. He was very excited about the new job and at first he really enjoyed the travelling, but...

Hard times

After about six months, Paul started to dislike the constant moving around, and after a year he hated it; he hated living in hotels, and he never really made any friends in the new company. Unfortunately his work was not satisfactory either and finally he was sacked (dismissed/given the sack) a year later.

After that, Paul found things much more difficult. He was unemployed (out of work/without a job) for over a year. He had to sell his car and move out of his new house. Things were looking bad and in the end Paul had to accept a part-time job (working only some or the day or some of the week) on a fruit and vegetable stall in a market.

Happier times

To his surprise, Paul loved the market. He made lots of friends and en­joyed working out in the open air. After two years, he took over (took con­trol of) the stall. Two years later he opened a second stall, and after ten years he had fifteen stalls. Last year Paul retired (stopped working completely) at the age of 55, a very rich man.

Practice: