Tsiolkovsky's dream nears realization

The young man spent hours over ideas he had put down in a schoolboy's notebook. In a home-made machine he made lots of experiments to see how living things withstood the effects of gravity and acceleration. The date was 1879, in the small Russian village near Ryazan. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was 22, waiting for a post of a schoolmaster.

The problem at which he worked was interplanetary travel. Though Tsiolkovsky soon began a long career as a teacher of mathematics, man's penetration into space remained his life-long study.

In 1883 he noted that the rocket would be the only man-made instrument able to reach space. The prediction was published only in 1954, when his collected works were printed by the Soviet Academy of Sciences.

The mathematical terms of space travel were worked out by Tsiolkovsky as early as 1895 in a manuscript "The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Reaction-Propelled Apparatus". When it was published in 1903, Tsiolkovsky won immediate international recognition, especially among the pioneers of aviation science.

In order to get money for his researches Tsiolkovsky tried to publish his book "Outside the Earth" in 1916, in which he described the imaginary flight of a manned rocket ship in orbit about the earth.

It was only in 1920 that the book was published and it fired the imagination of other scientists in our country as well as abroad. In 1929 when Tsiolkovsky was 72, Professor Herman Obert, a German scientist, wrote to him: "You kindled this fire. We shall not let it die. It is necessary that man's greatest dream should be realized."

In the book "Outside the Earth" Tsiolkovsky assembled a group of famous scientists in an imaginary mountain laboratory: Galileo, Newton, Laplace, Helmholz, Franklin and a modest Russian named Ivanov. At their disposal is an army of the world's best engineers and technicians.

The year is 2017. Together the scientists work out the theories of cosmic flight. They test rockets and fuels, discuss ways of living aboard a rocket, and design a 300-ton spaceship. The voyage that follows is described very vividly. Some of the details of this imaginary flight you have seen in reality on your own TV screen – weightless objects floating around a cosmonaut, the black sky of space, the blast-off of a man-carrying rocket.

In.1935 Tsiolkovsky wrote "All who are occupied with writing science fiction are doing good work; they excite interest, promote the working of the brain and bring into being people who will work on grand projects in the future."

 

2 Переведите на русский язык следующие английские словосочетания:

1) hard edge for swords; 6) interplanetary travel;

2) new classes of material appeared; 7) a number of other devices;

3) advances in mathematics and 8) theories of cosmic flight;

computing; 9) some international experts;

4) rules of quantum mechanics; 10) wave-power generators.

5) schoolboy's notebook;

 

3 Найдите в тексте английские эквиваленты следующих словосочетаний:

1) изменило цивилизацию; 6) международные эксперты;

2) недавнее развитие; 7) должность школьного директора;

3) поведение материалов; 8) проникновение человека в

4) свойства материалов; космос;

5) мечта использовать 9) предсказание было опубликовано;

энергию; 10) международное признание.

 

4 Найдите в тексте слова, имеющие общий корень с данными словами. Определите, к какой части речи они относятся, и переведите их на русский язык:

Man, quick, impress, develop, research, point, generate, school, book, recognize.

 

5 Задайте к выделенному в тексте предложению все типы вопросов: общий, альтернативный, разделительный, два специальных: а) к подлежащему, б) к любому члену предложения.

6 Выполните анализ данных предложений, обратив внимание на следующие грамматические явления: числительные; времена группы Continuous (Present, Past, Future Active & Passive); усилительная конструкция; времена группы Perfect (Present, Past, Future Active & Passive); функции глаголов to be, to have; согласование времен; неопределенные местоимения some, any, no и их производные:

1) Recent advances in mathematics and computing are making it possible to simulate the properties of materials.

2) At least 15 wave-power generators are planned across the globe: nine in Europe, four in the Far East, one in the US and one in India, eight of them should be producing energy by 2000.

3) But the dream of using wave power to generate endless "clean" electricity hasn't faded.

4) It was only in 1920 that the book was published and it fired the imagination of other scientists in our country as well as abroad.

5) They said, that the voyage that followed was described very vividly.

 

7 Ответьте на вопросы по тексту:

1) What happened when bronze arrived?

2) How were most new materials discovered?

3) How many wave-power generators are planned across the globe?

4) What was the problem at which Tsiolkovsky worked?

5) Why did Tsiolkovsky try to publish his book "Outside the Earth" in 1916?

6) What did Professor Herman Obert, write to him?

7) What did the scientists work out and test in 2017?