Exercise 3. Translate the following sentences paying attention to the Participle.

1) Working at his new device, the inventor made numerous experiments. 2) We have been speaking about the peaceful use of atomic energy. 3) In future the nuclear reactor must be one of the most reliable “furnaces” producing atomic energy. 4) The construction of power-stations operating on atomic fuel generating electric current is quite necessary. 5) Being a source of heat and electrical energy, atomic energy can also serve us in medicine. 6) The energy sources of the world decreasing, it is necessary to turn to atomic energy. 7) Water falling from its raised position changes potential energy into kinetic energy.

 

III. Reading.

Exercise 1. Read and translate Text A.

Text A.

ATOMIC ENERGY

A man trying to see a single atom is like a man trying to see a single drop of water in the sea while he is flying high above it. He will see the sea made up of a great many sing drop. By the way, there are so many atoms in the drop of water that if one could count one atom a second, day and night, it would take one hundred milliard years. But that is cer­tainly impossible.

Man has, however, learned the secret of the atom. He has learned to split atoms in order to get great quantities of energy. At present, coal is one of the most important fuel and our basic source of energy. It is quite possible that some day coal and other fuel may be replaced by atomic energy.

The nuclear reactor is one of the most reliable “furnaces” producing atomic energy. Being used to produce energy, the reactor produces it in the form of heat. In other words, atoms splitting in the reactor, heat is developed. Gas, water, melted metals, and some other liquids circulating through the reactor carry that heat away. The heat may be carried to pipes of the steam drives a turbine, the turbine in its turn driving an electric generator. So we see that nuclear power-station is like any other power-station but the familiar coal-burning furnace is replaced by a nuclear one, that is the reactor supplies energy to the tur­bines. The amount of nuclear fuel which the nuclear power-plant consumes is negligible while the world’s uranium and thorium resources will last for hundreds of the years.

The construction of the world’s first nuclear power-plant in Obninsk near Moscow is a great historical event and the beginning of atomic energetic.

The nuclear power-stations are mostly designed for generation of electricity. If a sta­tion generates only electric energy, it is equipped with condensing turbines and the station is known as a condensing one. At present the nuclear power-stations manly operate as con­densing plants. The nuclear power-stations designed to produce not only electrical energy but also heat are called nuclear heat- and power-plants. By the end of the present century half of all the world’s electricity will come from nuclear power-plants.

 

IV. Language.

Exercise 1. Find correspondence:

1) to split atoms

2) great quantities

3) quit possible

4) to be replaced

5) basic source

6) reliable furnaces

7) in other words

8) to drive a turbine

9) to consume fuel

10) condensing turbine

11) to have significance

 

 

1) цілком можливо

2) бути заміненим

3) розчепити атоми

4) надійні печі

5) великі кількості

6) приводити в рух турбіну

7) конденсуючи турбіни

8) мати значення

9) основне джерело

10) споживати пальне

11) іншими словами

Exercise 2. Translate the following sentences paying attention to the underlined words.

1) Modern civilization needs more and more electricity. 2) You needn’t go to the labora­tory. 3) The energy needs in industry are increasing day by day. 4) What do we need elec­tric energy for? 5) Cold turns water into ice. 6) The sun in its turnturns ice into water. 7) The turbines are turned by steam, gas and water. 8) The teacher says, “It’s your turn to read”. 9) It is possible to turn solar energy into electric energy owing to semiconductors. 10) When you enter a dark room turn the light on, and leaving it turn the light off.

 

Exercise 3. Define the following words according to the model given below.

Model: The motor is a device transforming electric energy into mechanical energy.

Energy, battery, kinetic energy, nuclear reactor, potential energy.

 

 

V. Comprehension.

Exercise 1. Ask groupmate the following questions. Let him (her) answer them.

1) if it is possible to see a single drop of water in the see; 2) if the steam generator of a nu­clear reactor contains water; 3) if man has learned to split atoms; 4) if atomic energy finds any new application in industry; 5) if the Soviet Union constructed the first nuclear power-plant in the world.

Exercise 2. Answer the following questions.

1). What is the difference between potential energy and kinetic energy?

2). What sources of energy do you know?

3). What form of energy can be changed into another form?

4). What are the industrial uses of electricity?

5). Can you name the device which changes chemical energy into electrical energy?

6). What is the difference between a battery and a generator?

7). What may coal be replaced by in future?

8). When was the first industrial nuclear power-station put into operation?

9). What electrical devices do you use at home?

10). What forms of energy do you know?

 

VI. Practice.

Exercise 1. Speak on:

1) the operation of nuclear reactor;

2) the nuclear power station;

3) the peaceful uses of atomic energy.

 

Exercise 2. Retell the Text A using the phrases:

1). This text deal with...

2). Much attention is given to…

3). It is spoken in detail about…

4). It is stressed that…

5). …are given (are enumerated).

6). The fact that … is underlined.

 

VII. Reading and Practice.

Exercise 1. Read text B “Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough” and find the difference be­tween nuclear fission and nuclear fusion.

Notes: breakthrough – прорив, велике відкриття

science fiction – опанувати, загнуздати

fusion – синтез, злиття

fission – розпад, розчеплення

conventional – традиційний, широковживаний

sustain – підтримувати, тривати

commercial – комерційний, торговельний

 

Text B.

FUSION BREAKTHROUGH

The science fiction dream of clean, cheap, unlimited power is on its way to becom­ing reali­ty. For first time anywhere in the world, scientists at the joint European Tours (JET) experimental fusion reactor at Culham in Oxfordshire (England) have achieved con­trolled nuclear fusion – harnessing the reaction which powers the stars.

The success came when they put “real” fuel inside the reactor for the first time. Pre­viously only deuterium (a type of hydrogen) had been used in fusion experiments, but by adding tritium, they achieved the major breakthrough in the amount of energy which could be generated.

Fusion research has been going on for more then 40 years, and although bombs in­volving fusion power have been built, it is the first time that anyone has produced any sub­stantial amount of fusion power in a controlled fusion experiment as opposed to a bomb.

The key difference between nuclear fission and nuclear fusion is that fission involves splitting atoms apart, while fusion happens after atoms have been heated to an extremely high temperature and have violently struck each other and come together – or fused. Both normal nuclear fission and nuclear fusion create enormous amounts of energy, but the problem with conventional nuclear reactors is that they use heavy, unstable radioactive uranium atoms, splitting them apart and creating lighter more unstable and dangerous ele­ments such as plutonium, as well as vast amounts of heat.

By contrast, fusion relies on super-heating simpler “clean” atoms, making them strike each other with such force that they fuse together. The heat has to be around 200 million degrees – 20 times the heat of the sun. With current technology the reaction can only be sustained for several seconds, producing in that time the equivalent of one million watts of electricity.

Another important advantage of nuclear fusion is that the fuels needed for this type of reaction are plentiful. Deuterium is extracted from water, while tritium can be made in­side the reactor. Just 10 grams of deuterium and 15 grams of tritium would be enough to provide the lifetime electricity needs of an average person in an industrialized country.

It is supposed that the first commercial fusion-powered reactor could be produced by 2020.