Albert Einstein

1. Albert Einstein is known all over the world as a brilliant theoretical physicist and the founder of the theory of relativity. He is perhaps the greatest scientist of the 20th century. Some of his ideas made possible the atomic bomb, as well as television and other inventions.

2. He was born in 1879 in a small German town. The Einstein family soon moved to Munich, where Albert went to school. Neither family nor his school teachers thought much of his mental abilities. His uncle often joked: “Not everybody is born to become a professor”.

3. In 1895 Albert failed the entrance examination to a technical college in Zurich. A year later, however, he managed to pass the exam and entered the college.

4. After graduating from the college, Einstein started to work at the Swiss Patent office in Bern. In 1905 he wrote a short article in a science magazine. This was his “Special Theory of Relativity”, which gave the world the most famous equation relating mass and energy, the basis of atomic energy.

5. Later he became a professor in several European universities and in 1914 moved to Berlin as a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. After ten years of hard work he created his “General Theory of Relativity”.

6. In 1921 Einstein received the Nobel Prize for Physics.

7. When Hitler came to the power he was attacked by the Nazis, and in 1933 he decided to settle in the United States.

8. In 1939 Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Roosevelt at the request of several prominent physicists, outlining the military potential of nuclear energy and the danger of the Nazi lead in this field. His letter greatly influenced the decision to build an atomic bomb, though he took no part in the Manhattan Project. After the war he spoke out passionately against nuclear weapons and repression.

9. Einstein died in 1955. The artificial element einsteinium has been named in his honor.

Vocabulary

theoretical physicist – физик теоретик

theory of relativity – теория относительности

patent office – патентное бюро

nazi – нацист

einsteinium – эйнштейний

Question

Why is Einstein thought to be the greatest scientist of the 20^th century?

ВАРИАНТ 4

I. Перепишите следующие предложения; подчеркните в каждом из них глагол-сказуемое и определите его видовременную форму и залог. Переведите предложения на русский язык. В разделе (б) обратите внимание на перевод пассивных конструкций.

а) 1. Quantum mechanics has greatly influenced the nuclear theory.

2. The problem of structure of matter is constantly occupying the minds of many scientists.

б) 1. Today many polymeric materials are produced on a massive scale.

2. Many compounds can be decomposed when they are acted upon by different forms of energy.

II. Перепишите следующие предложения; подчеркните Participle I и Participle II и установите функции каждого из них, т.е. укажите, является ли оно определением, обстоятельством или частью глагола-сказуемого. Переведите предложения на русский язык.

1. Natural rubber is a thermoplastic material that becomes soft when heated and hard when cooled.

2. Matter composed of any chemical combination of elements is called a compound.

3. The smallest particle having all the characteristics of an element is called an atom.

4. While bombarding the upper layers of the atmosphere, cosmic rays reach the surface of the earth.

III. Перепишите следующие предложения; подчеркните в каждом из них модальный глагол или его эквивалент. Переведите предложения на русский язык.

1. Heat can be divided into three different types.

2. A great number of plastics should find their application in the electrical industry.

3. Chemical means had to be used for the seperation of compounds into their elements.

4. The existence of an X-ray laser in the future may be possible.

IV. Прочитайте и устно переведите на русский язык с 1-го по 7-ой абзацы текста. Перепишите и письменно переведите 1, 2, 4 и 6-ой абзацы. Письменно ответьте на вопрос после текста.