By learning the prefixes you will understand the meaning of words.

 

Prefix	Meaning
a -, ab -	not having
ambi -	Both
anti -	Against
bi -	having or involving two, coming or occurring twice
mono -, uni -	single, one
tri -	having or involving three, coming or occurring three times
by-	Secondary
co -, corn -, col -, con -, cor -	together with
dis -, mis -, mal -	not, bad, wrong,
ex-	out, from
extra -	beyond, outside
fore -	before (in time or order)
pre -, ante -	before, prior
contra -,	Against
in -, im -, ir -, il -, un -	Not
inter -	Between
micro -	Small
multi -, poly -	more than one or two, many
octo -, octa -	Eight
out -	to do better than
post -	After
pseudo -	not real, false
quadra -	four, one-fourth
retro -	Backward
semi -, hemi -, demi -	Half
sept-	Seven
sub -	under, below, beneath, underneath, lower
syn -	same, together
trans -	Across
over -	too much
under -	too little

 

Chapter 2

Exercise 7. Match the two columns:

 

1. to coexist   2. to postpone   3. overpopulation   4. illogical   5. miscalculation   6. to underpay   7. trilingual   8. to rewrite   9. unfair   10. ambiguous.   11. bilingual   12. atypically   13. decade   14. to outperform   15. malfunction   16. demigod

A. speaking two languages   B. a period of ten years   C. not logical   D. having two meanings   E. to make later   F. not typically   G. to exist together at the same time   H. wrong calculation   I. too many people   J. speaking three languages   K. not fair   L. to write again in a better way   M. to perform better than somebody   N. to pay too little   O. someone greater than a human but less than God   P. a fault in operation

 

Exercise 8. Try to guess the meaning of the following words. If necessary, consult the dictionary.

 

contradict, uniform, combine, decade, antecedent, byproduct, international, foresee, impossible, ambivalent, unknown, collaborate, transportation, disorder, monologue, unilateral, bimonthly, semiannual, microscope, subterranean, cooperate, unusual, monopoly, synthesis, bicycle, antipathy, polyglot, reaffirm, demigod, triangle, intermediate, predict, dislike, overestimate, multimillionaire, illegal, infinity, misinform, bilateral, retrospect, preview, hemisphere, outplay, undervalue.

 

Exercise 9. Read the. text concentrating on «quantity» words. Render it into Ukrainian.

 

Although the beginning of «electronics» is usually dated around the 1920s, this represents a myopic view of technology. We can now see that the telegraph and the telephone are the first two landmarks of the electronic age. After Alexander Graham Bell had sent his voice from one room to another in 1876, society could never be the same again.

Electron, this invisible, ubiquitous, weightless object has given us power over nature of which our ancestors never dreamed. Until the closing years of the nineteenth century, people used electricity without knowing what it was. One of the most dramatic events was the invention of the X-ray tube — the ancestor of vacuum ubiquitous — existing tubes which followed. X-rays were discovered in 1895 — the electron or being everywhere itself just one year later. It was then realized that an electric current consists of myriads of these submicroscopic particles, each carrying a minute negative charge. Until 1948, electronics was almost synonymous with the vacuum tube. By the late 1940's, the vacuum tube had shrunk from the object as large as an electric bulb, to a cylinder not much

 

Chapter 1 35

bigger than a man's thumb. Then three scientists at the Bell Telephone Laboratories invented the transistor and we moved from the Paleoelectronic to the Neoelectronic Age. But a really efficient, reliable and universal communications system can be achieved only with the aid of satellites. With the improvement of communications the role of cities as meeting places and centers of social interaction will become obsolete, as people will be able to meet face to face (individually or in groups) without even leaving their homes.