Solar energy

Our Sun, although it is not the largest star in our universe, is a gigantic body. If we make a non-stop flight around it in an airplane at a speed of about 300 km per hour, it will require 565 days to go around it at the equator. The diameter of the Sun is 1,391,000 km, that is, 19 times that of the Earth. The Sun has a surface temperature of about 6,000 °C.

Modern research into the atom indicated that under certain conditions the matter itself may be transformed into energy. It is now thought that the sources of the sun’s energy result from nuclear fissions and is practically unlimited.

Man has used and is still using solar energy through photo­synthesis as one of his sources of heat and power. Another way to use solar energy is in the solar, machines; still another is the use of solar heat for cooking and house heating. The future will undoubtedly bring us a lot of new applications of solar energy.

LEXICAL EXERCISES

IX. Translate into Russian, pay attention to the attribute word combinations.

1. The coal mining industry is one of leading branches of the national economy in the country. 2. Underground hydraulic mining is used at some mines. 3. The conventional longwall method is applicable to the seams of all inclinations. 4. Longwall advancing and longwall retreating workings are the two main mining methods employed at our coal mine. 5. Room-and-pillar working is greatly favoured in the United States of America.

X. State the attribute word combinations and translate the sentences into Russian.

1. Accepted air conditioning practice is expressed this in term of the amount of water vapor per pound of dry air. 2. An automatic batching and mixing plant was used at the site. 3. Where local aggregates are poor a great deal of preliminary test-cube making may be necessary before a final choice of mixture is made. 4. The design of combined waste-water disposal systems was allied to the growth of capital cities.

XI. Form the Nouns using the following suffixes and translate them.

-ment: to arrange, to improve, to move, to achieve, to require, to measure

-ance: to appear, to assist, to resist, to acquaint

-ence: to exist, to depend, to differ, to insist

-ing: to mean, to begin, to broadcast, to build, to draw, to coat

-ness: tough, bright, thick, cold, exact, hard, effective

-ity: intens(e), activ(e), resistiv(e), equal, elastic, electric

-age: to break, to pass, to use, volt

-er: to view, to listen, to fight, to dream, to found, to driv(e), to boil, to burn, to contain, to convert, to condens(e)

-or: to direct, to act, to creat(e), to inspect, to investigat(e), to resist, to conduct, to compress, to react, to accelerate, to ventilat(e)

-ion: to attract, to reflect, to dicuss, to express, to indicat(e), to insulat(e)

-ation: to inform, to consider, to found, to combin(e), to examin(e), to continu(e)

-sion: to conver(t), to divi(de), to explod(e), to deci(de), to conclud(e)

XII. Translate into Russian.

celestial, million, cosmic, fragment of rock, centre of gravity, special shape, a constant, telescope, lecture, astrobiology, ammonia gas, optical instruments, the famous Martian Canals, brilliant, scientific forum, visit, meteorites, comet, idea, fantasy, civilized communities, absolute, climate, climatic, conditions

XIII. Find synonyms of the following words.

Pattern: a shape — a form

1. a terminal	1. real
2. permanent	2. quickly
3. to make smb. do	З. а rау
4. a beam	4. to break
5. to guide	5. a contact
6. rapidly	6. constant
7. a shape	7. to force smb. do
8. to hold	8. a form
9. actual.	9. to keep
10. to disturb	10. to direct

GRAMMAR REFERENCES