И. В. Богословская, О. В. Волошенюк

И. В. БОГОСЛОВСКАЯ, О.В.ВОЛОШЕНЮК

TRAVELLING AROUND ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES

Уфа 2018

Министерство образования и науки Российской Федерации

Федеральное государственное образовательное

учреждение высшего образования

«Уфимский государственный авиационный технический университет»

 

И. В. БОГОСЛОВСКАЯ, О.В.ВОЛОШЕНЮК

 

TRAVELLING AROUND ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES

 

Допущено Редакционно-издательским советом УГАТУ

в качестве учебного пособия для студентов очной и заочной форм обучения, обучающихся по направлению подготовки
бакалавров и   магистрантов всех направлений и специальностей

 

 

Уфа 2018

УДК

ББК

И00

Рецензенты:

доц. кафедры иностранных языков БАГСУ, канд. филол. наук Габдуллина В.Р.;

доцент кафедры языковой коммуникации и психолингвистики УГАТУ

Дьяконова Г.Р.

 

 

Богословская И.В., Волошенюк О.В.

   Travelling around English-speaking countries: учебное пособие / Уфимск. гос. авиац. техн. ун-т. – Уфа: РИК УГАТУ, 2018. – … с.

ISBN

 

 Настоящая книга является пособием по страноведению для студентов 1-2 курсов неязыковых вузов. Пособие позволит не только улучшить знания по иностранному языку, обогатить словарный запас, но и расширить кругозор читателей. Каждый раздел включает основной текст, упражнения по развитию языковой и коммуникативной компетенции и дополнительные тексты с интересными фактами о каждой стране.

 

УДК

ББК

 

ISBN                                                                        © Корректура и верстка. РИК УГАТУ, 2018

CONTENTS

 

UNIT 1. The United Kingdom of Great Britain

and Northern Ireland …………………………………………………5

UNIT 2. United States of America …………………………………..22

UNIT 3. Canada …………………………………………………….44

UNIT 4. Australia …………………………………………………….70

UNIT 5. New Zealand ……………………..…………………………83

Keys……………………………………………………………………96

References……………………………………………………………..101

ПРЕДИСЛОВИЕ

Пособие «Travelling around English-speaking countries» представляет собой подборку аутентичных текстов, содержащих страноведческий материал об англоговорящих странах, а также комплекс упражнений, разработанный таким образом, чтобы учащиеся могли расширить свой вокабуляр и впоследствии  использовать его в уже известных грамматических конструкциях.

Пособие состоит из пяти разделов, построенных по единому принципу. Каждый раздел начинается с основного текста, в котором содержится информация о географическом положении изучаемой страны, политическом строе, экономических особенностях развития

 страны. Упражнения к тексту позволяют студентам продемонстрировать не только свои страноведческие знания, но и лингвистические навыки и умения. Для удобства самостоятельной работы авторы предусмотрели ключи к наиболее сложным упражнениям.

В каждом разделе есть тексты для дополнительного чтения, в которых содержится информация о выдающихся людях, интересных изобретениях, научных открытиях и достижениях, сделанных учеными страны.

Пособие предназначено для студентов всех факультетов, направлений и специальностей.

 

Желаем Вам успехов!

                                                             Авторы

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Useful vocabulary

to comprise – включать/ охватывать

an island – остров

to surround –окружать

populous – населенный

to estimate – оценивать

current – нынешний, современный

power – сила, мощь

a permanent member – постоянный член

the Commonwealth of Nations – Содружество Наций

a wave of immigration – волна эмиграции

literal – грамотный

universal state education – всеобщее государственное образование

obligatory – обязательный

significant – значительный

an annual turnover – годовой оборот

R&D expenditures – расходы/затраты на исследования

labor force – рабочая сила/работоспособное население

livestock – скот

arable lands – пахотные земли

a tourist destination – популярное место отдыха

natural resources – природные ископаемые

a temperate climate – умеренный климат

to fall – падать/снижаться

to rise – вставать/подниматься

 

 

Task II. Passage work

1. Which passage contains the information about the geographical position of the UK?

2. Give the general title to passage 5.

3. How many times the constituent countries are mentioned in the text? Name the passage/passages.

4. Is there any information about financial sector of Great Britain?If yes, point to it.

 

Grammar Focus

Supplementary reading

The Politics of the UK

Useful vocabulary

the executive power – исполнительная власть

the legislative power – законодательная власть

the judiciary – судебная власть

to exercise – исполнять/осуществлять

a head of government – глава правительства

theoretical powers – теоретические полномочия

to reign –править

to rule – управлять

to appoint – назначать

to carry out functions – выполнять функции

to ensure – гарантировать/обеспечивать

the House of Commons – Палата Общин

the House of Lords – Палата Лордов

to elect – избирать

written sources – письменные источники

criminal cases – уголовные дела

the Supreme Court – Верховный Суд

 

   Task I. Read the text and translate it

      The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy. Queen Elizabeth II is the head of state of the UK as well as monarch of fifteen other independent Commonwealth countries.

      The executive power is exercised by the monarch, the Prime Minister and cabinet ministers. The monarch has extensive theoretical powers, the Queen reigns, but doesn’t rule. However, Queen Elizabeth II is the commander-in-chief of the British Armed Forces (officially the Armed Forces of the Crown). She also appoints a head of government – Prime Minister.

      The position of prime minister, the UK's head of government, is very important. The prime minister chooses a cabinet to form Her Majesty's Government. For more than 250 years 10 Downing Street has been the centre of the UK government. The office is staffed by special advisers and employees who support Prime Minister and ensure he can carry out his wide range of functions from policy making to international diplomacy.

      The parliament of the United Kingdom exercises the legislative power. Its members meet in the Palace of Westminster and it has two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed House of Lords. The monarch is an integral part of Parliament and theoretically gives the power to create legislation. All bills must be signed by the Queen to become a law.

      There are also three unicameral parliaments - the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and Northern Ireland Assembly – led by a First Minister, who control separate law making. England has no national parliament or government, it is ruled directly from Westminster.

      The Constitution of the United Kingdom is uncodified and consists mostly of a collection of written sources, including statutes, and international treaties, together with constitutional conventions.

      The Conservative Party, the Labor Party and the Liberal Democrats have been considered the UK's three major political parties. However, at the 2015 general election, the Scottish National Party became the third-largest party by number of seats won, ahead of the Liberal Democrats.

      The judicial branch – judiciary - is represented by different courts. The Magistrates Court is one of the minor courts and all criminal cases start here. The Supreme Court is the highest court for the whole of the UK.

 

National Symbols of the UK

The flag of Great Britain is one of the most important symbols of the country.

The Union Flag - the flag of the United Kingdom (UK)

The Union Flag, popularly known as the *Union Jack, is the national flag of the United Kingdom. It is the British flag.

It is called the Union Flag because it symbolises the administrative union of the countries of the United Kingdom. It is made up of the individual Flags of three of the Kingdom's countries all united under one Sovereign - the countries of England, of Scotland and of Northern Ireland' (since 1921 only Northern Ireland has been part of the United Kingdom). As Wales was not a Kingdom but a Principality it could not be included on the flag.

      Each country in Britain has its own patron saint and floral emblem.

England - St. George and the Rose The national flower of England is the rose. The flower has been adopted as England’s emblem since the time of the Wars of the Roses - civil wars (1455-1485) between the royal house of Lancaster (whose emblem was a red rose) and the royal house of York (whose emblem was a white rose).

 

Scotland - St. Andrew - the Thistle and Scottish Bluebell The national flower of Scotland is the thistle, a prickly-leaved purple flower which was first used in the 15th century as a symbol of defense. The Scottish Bluebell is also seen as the flower of Scotland.

 

Wales - St. David and the Daffodil The national flower of Wales is the daffodil, which is traditionally worn on St. David’s Day. The vegetable called leek is also considered to be a traditional emblem of Wales.

 

There are many explanations of how the leek came to be adopted as the national emblem of Wales. One is that St David advised the Welsh, on the eve of battle with the Saxons, to wear leeks in their caps to distinguish friend from foe.

 

Northern Ireland - St. Patrick and the Shamrock The national flower of Northern Ireland is the shamrock, a three-leaved plant similar to clover. An Irish tale tells of how Patrick used the three-leafed shamrock to explain the Trinity. He used it in his sermons to represent how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit could all exist as separate elements of the same entity. His followers adopted the custom of wearing a shamrock on his feast day.

 

REFLECTING TELESCOPE

Invented: 1668
Inventor: Isaac Newton

As a fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, Sir Isaac Newton took the idea of a reflecting telescope and turned it into reality. This huge leap forward in telescope technology made astronomical observation much more accurate.

TOOTHBRUSH

Invented: 1770
Inventor: William Addis

William Addis was a rag trader who was sent to prison in 1770. While there, he decided that the way people were brushing their teeth (rubbing soot and salt over them with a rag), could be improved. He saved a small animal bone from a meal, made a hole and tied some bristles through it. After his release, Addis set up a business to mass-produce toothbrushes. His company, Wisdom Toothbrushes, still exists.

STEAM ENGINE

Invented: 1801
Inventor: Richard Trevithick

Trevithick’s invention would become the father of the steam train and the father of portable steam power. On Christmas Eve 1801 he tested a steam car, known as the Puffing Devil, which successfully climbed the Camborne Hill in Cornwall. Trevithick became the first person to power a piston using high-pressure steam – and in doing so he transformed the world.

LIGHT BULB

Invented: 1880
Inventor: Joseph Swan

Cheap and reliable electric lighting was a holy grail for 19^th-century inventors. But didn’t Thomas Edison get there first? No! He was beaten by to it by Britain’s very own Joseph Swan. Swan got his patent - and started manufacturing and selling his bulbs - in 1880. The first bulbs lasted little more than 12 hours but, unlike gas lamps, there was no flame or dirty smoke and they soon caught on.

MODERN FIRE EXTINGUISHER

Invented: 1818
Inventor: George William Manby

The first modern extinguisher was invented after Manby saw firemen struggling to put out a blaze on the top floors of a house fire in Edinburgh. His solution was a portable copper cask containing three to four gallons of potassium carbonate, which dispersed by compressed air via a stopcock.

ELECTRIC MOTOR

Invented: 1821

Inventor: Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday was working at the Royal Institution when he demonstrated electromagnetic rotation for the first time. A free-hanging wire was dipped into a pool of mercury that had a fixed magnet in it. When an electric current was passed through the wire, it rotated around the magnet – the electricity produced a magnetic field around the wire, which interacted with the magnet in the mercury. This was the world’s first electric motor.

WATERPROOF MATERIAL

Invented:1823
Inventor: Charles Macintosh

Charles Macintosh, an amateur chemist, was experimenting with coal-tar napthan, a chemical waste product, and realized that it could make a solution from rubber. He coated a thin fabric with the sticky solution and sandwiched it between two layers of fabric to make waterproof material. His family started selling the coats as the “Macintosh”.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Invented: 1835
Inventor: William Henry Fox Talbot

It’s hard to say who was the inventor of photography – the first fixed image was made by Joseph Niépce in 1826 but took eight hours to expose. In 1835, Fox Talbot made another breakthrough by using silver iodide on paper and found a way to produce a translucent negative that could be used to make any number of positives by contact printing – a system used until the advent of digital cameras.

ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH

Invented: 1837
Inventors: Charles Wheatstone and William Cooke

The electric telegraph was a world-shrinking technology like no other. The first fully operational telegraph ran from 1839 between Paddington and West Drayton railway stations, but at first it was slow to catch on. That is, until New Year’s Day 1845 when the telegraph system helped catch murderer John Tawell. It was a sensation and telegraph cables were soon everywhere.

MODERN TORPEDO

Invented: 1866
Inventor: Robert Whitehead

It was British engineer Richard Whitehead who first designed a torpedo launched from a ship in an underwater tube, powered by compressed air and with an internal mechanism that adjusted itself to stay at a constant depth. The first ship to be sunk by his invention was the Turkish steamer Intibah in 1878, after being hit by a torpedo launched from a Russian warship.

 

TELEPHONE

Patented: 1876
Inventor: Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell patented his telephone model just hours before a rival inventor. The telephone came about thanks to a discovery that a thin metal sheet vibrating in an electromagnetic field produces an electrical waveform that corresponds to the vibration. The invention was first publically demonstrated in 1876 in Philadelphia.

STEAM TURBINE

Invented: 1884
Inventor: Charles Parsons

After the invention of the electrical motor – which transforms rotation into electrical power – the next step was to find a device to drive it. Piston engines vibrated too violently, so the steam turbine was the answer. Three quarters of the world’s power stations still use steam – and whether steam-powered or not, every station uses the theory behind Parsons’ innovation.

PNEUMATIC TYRE

Invented: 1887
Inventor: John Boyd Dunlop

In 1845, railway engineer Robert William Thomson patented the world’s first pneumatic tyres but there was no real market for them. Forty years later, Dunlop came up with pneumatic tyres to stop his son getting headaches from riding his bumpy tricycle. This time around, the invention handily coincided with the new bicycle craze.

 

ELECTRIC VACUUM CLEANER

Invented:1901
Inventor: Hubert Cecil Booth

Hubert Cecil Booth was watching a railway carriage being cleaned by a machine that blew the dust away when he had the idea for a machine that sucked the dust up instead. To test his theory, he placed a handkerchief on a chair and sucked through it, finding that dust collected on either side. He set up a cleaning service using hoses from vans on the street going through the windows of buildings.

 

STAINLESS STEEL

Invented: 1913
Inventor: Harry Brearley

In 1912 steelworker and researcher Harry Brearley was tasked by a small-arms manufacturer to find a material that could prolong the life of their gun barrels. He found corrosion-resistant steel instead. The story goes that he threw out some experimental steel and a few weeks later found it in the yard still shiny as new. Stainless steel is now used in everything from surgical instruments and turbine blades to cutlery and architectural cladding.

 

MILITARY TANK

Invented: 1914
Inventor: Ernest Swinton

The idea of the “tank” was first thought up by Britain’s official war correspondent, Ernest Swinton, who suggested the crawler tractors used to pull artillery on the Western Front could be used as offensive weapons with the capability to climb a five-foot obstacle, span a five-foot trench, resist small arms fire and travel at 4mph.

TELEVISION

Invented: 1925
Inventor: John Logie Baird

It’s hard to credit just one person with the invention of television, but it’s indisputable that John Logie Baird was the first to transmit moving pictures in October 1925. But his mechanical system ultimately failed – with a rival being developed at the same time able to produce a visibly superior picture. Baird, it was said at the time, was “doomed to be the man who sows the seed but does not reap the harvest”.

 

JET ENGINE

Invented: 1937
Inventor: Frank Whittle

24-year-old fighter pilot Frank Whittle first patented a new kind of aircraft - the turbojet - in 1930, but his new design was so radical that the military wouldn’t fund it, nor would any manufacturers, until in 1937 he found a few private backers and in 1941 a 17-minute test flight took place at Cranwell in Lincolnshire.

 

AUTOMATIC KETTLE

Invented: 1955
Inventor: Peter Hobbs

The automatic kettle – one that switches itself off when the water reaches boiling point – was the brainchild of Peter Hobbs, one of the two founders of appliance company Russell Hobbs. At its heart was a simple piece of technology: the bimetallic strip which bent as the water boiled, breaking a circuit and switching off the kettle.

FLOAT GLASS

Invented: 1959
Inventor: Alastair Pilkington

When we think of inventions, it’s machines and gadgets that usually come to mind. But what about the processes needed to create the materials our modern world is made of? Almost all the glass we use today is made using Pilkington’s “float” process, which made it far easier and cheaper to make high-quality glass.

 

HIP REPLACEMENT

Invented: 1962
Inventor: John Charnley

British surgeon John Charnley designed the first hip joint and, in 1962, performed the first successful hip-replacement operation. His design used a femoral stem and ball made of steel and a hip socket made of Teflon, glued together using acrylic bone cement. Many improvements have been made since but Charnley set the standard and today 80,000 hip replacements are performed in Britain each year.

 

CARBON FIBRE

Invented: 1963
Inventors: Royal Aircraft Establishment Engineers

This marvelous material is one of many inventions developed by the military that are incredibly useful. Today carbon fibre has thousands of applications in boats, cars, motorbikes, sports equipment, and even in the fuselages of jumbo jets.

 

ATM

Invented: 1967
Inventor: John Shepherd-Barron

John Shepherd-Barron first hit on the idea of a cash dispenser in the bath and secured a meeting with Barclays who signed up, installing the first ATM outside their Enfield branch in 1967. It gave out a maximum of £10 after customers inserted special cheques that the machine could recognise alongside a four-digit PIN number that’s still in use today.

 

WORLDWIDE WEB

Invented: 1989
Inventor: Tim Berners-Lee

Not to be confused with the internet, which is a system of linked computer networks, the worldwide web was invented by British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee. He created the first server in late 1990 and, on 6 August 1991, the web went live, with the first page explaining how to search and how to set up a site. Berners-Lee gave his invention to the world for free.

 

Useful vocabulary

сontiguous – смежный

D.C. – District of Columbia

to scatter- разбрасывать

 to emerge from – появляться из

arid – сухой

 to embark on – приступить, начать

tribe - племя

vigorous - стремительный, мощный

expansion - распространение

to acquire – получить, овладеть

to admit - признавать

to span – заполнить

impeachment – отстранение от должности

GDP (gross domestic product) – валовый внутренний продукт(ВВП)

to benefit from – извлечь пользу из, пользоваться преимуществом

 an abundance – изобилие, богатство

to overturn – переворачивать, свергать

rectangle -прямоугольник

pales – вертикальные полосы

to signify- означать

innocence - чистота, невинность

valour – отвага, доблесть

 vigilance - настороженность

 perseverance - упорство, стойкость

Great Seal- большая государственная печать

to emanate from - происходить из

 to aspire – стремиться

TASK IX.

In five minutes’ time how many words can you make from the word Washington? When the time is up, the person who has made up the most words wins.

TASK X.

The adjectives in the left-hand column were used to describe Yankees. Match each adjective with the best phrase from the right-hand column

People who are:

1. Independent 2. Honest 3. Shrewd 4. Realistic 5. Untalkative 6. Thrifty 7. principled

a. do not talk a lot b. do not cheat other people c. have strong ideas about what is right and what is wrong d.  use money and other things carefully e. See things as they really are f.  Don’t let other people cheat them g.  Do things themselves instead of asking others for help

 

TASK XI.

Benjamin Franklin was known for his humor  and common sense. Here are some sayings that he made up. Can you tell what each means? Are there sayings with similar meaning in your languаge?

 Remember that time is money.

 Little strokes fell great oaks (to fell=to cut down)

God helps them that helps themselves.

Experience keeps a dear school but fools will learn in no other. (dear= expensive, costly)

Grammar Focus

Supplementary reading

Science immigration

 

American political leaders' enthusiasm for knowledge also helped ensure a warm welcome for scientists from other countries. A notable early immigrant was the British chemist Joseph Priestley, who was driven from his homeland because of his dissenting politics. Priestley, who went to the United States in 1794, was the first of thousands of talented scientists who emigrated in search of a free, creative environment.

Other scientists had come to the United States to take part in the nation's rapid growth. Alexander Graham Bell, who arrived from Scotland by way of Canada in 1872, developed and patented the telephone and related inventions. Charles Steinmetz, who came from Germany in 1889, developed new alternating-current electrical systems at General Electric Company, and Vladimir Zworykin, an immigrant from Russia in 1919 arrived in the States bringing his knowledge of x-rays and cathode ray tubes and later won his first patent on a television system he invented. The Serbian Nikola Tesla went to the United States in 1884, and would later adapted the principle of rotating magnetic field in the development of an alternating current induction motor and polyphase system for the generation, transmission, distribution and use of electrical power.

Into the early 1900s Europe remained the center of science research, notably in England and Germany. From the 1920s onwards, the tensions heralding the onset of World War II spurred sporadic but steady scientific emigration, or “Brain Drain”, in Europe. Many of these emigrants were Jewish scientists, fearing the repercussions of anti-Semitism, especially in Germany and Italy, and sought sanctuary in the United States. One of the first to do so was Albert Einstein in 1933. At his urging, and often with his support, a good percentage of Germany's theoretical physics community, previously the best in the world, left for the US. Enrico Fermi, came from Italy in 1938 and led the work that produced the world's first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. Many other scientists of note moved to the US during this same emigration wave, including Niels Bohr, Victor Weisskopf, Otto Stern, and Eugene Wigner.

Indeed, several scientific and technological breakthroughs during the Atomic Age were the handiwork of such immigrants, who recognized the potential threats and uses of new technology. For instance, it was the German professor Einstein and his Hungarian colleague, Leó Szilárd, who took the initiative and convinced president Franklin D. Roosevelt to pursue the pivotal Manhattan Project. Many physicists instrumental to the project were also European immigrants, such as the Hungarian Edward Teller, “father of the hydrogen bomb,” and German Nobel laureate Hans Bethe. Their scientific contributions, combined with Allied resources and facilities helped establish the United States during World War II as an unrivaled scientific juggernaut. In fact, the Manhattan Project’s Operation Alsos and its components, while not designed to recruit European scientists, successfully collected and evaluated Axis military scientific research at the end of the war, especially that of the German nuclear energy project, only to conclude that it was years behind its American counterpart.

When World War II ended, the US, the UK and the Soviet Union were all intent on capitalizing on Nazi research and competed for the spoils of war. While President Harry S. Truman refused to provide sanctuary to ideologically committed members of the Nazi party, the Office of Strategic Services introduced Operation Paperclip, conducted under the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency. This program covertly offered otherwise ineligible intellectuals and technicians white-washed dossiers, biographies, and employment. Ex-Nazi scientists overseen by the JIOA had been employed by the US military since the defeat of the Nazi regime in Project Overcast, but Operation Paperclip ventured to systematically allocate German nuclear and aerospace research and scientists to military and civilian posts, beginning in August 1945. Until the program’s termination in 1990, Operation Paperclip was said to have recruited over 1,600 such employees in a variety of professions and disciplines.

In the first phases of Operation Paperclip, these recruits mostly included aerospace engineers from the German V-2 combat rocket program, experts in aerospace medicine and synthetic fuels. Perhaps the most influential of these was Wernher Von Braun, who had worked on the Aggregate rockets (the first rocket program to reach outer space), and chief designer of the V-2 rocket program. Upon reaching US soil, Von Braun first worked on the U.S. Air Force ICBM program before his team was reassigned to NASA. Often credited as “The Father of Rocket Science,” his work on the Redstone rocket and the successful deployment of the Explorer 1satellite as a response to Sputnik 1 marked the beginning of the American Space program, and therefore, of the Space Race. Von Braun’s subsequent development of the Saturn V booster for NASA in the mid-to late sixties resulted in the first manned moon landing, the Apollo 11 mission, in 1969.

In the post-war era the US was left in a position of unchallenged scientific leadership, being one of the few industrial countries not ravaged by war. Additionally, science and technology were seen to have greatly added to the Allied war victory, and were seen as absolutely crucial in the Cold War era. This enthusiasm simultaneously rejuvenated American industry, and celebrated Yankee ingenuity, instilling a zealous nationwide investment in "Big Science" and state-of-the-art government funded facilities and programs. This state patronage presented appealing careers to the intelligentsia, and further consolidated the scientific preeminence of the United States. As a result, the US government became, for the first time, the largest single supporter of basic and applied scientific research. By the mid-1950s the research facilities in the US were second to none, and scientists were drawn to the US for this reason alone. The changing pattern can be seen in the winners of the Nobel Prize in physics and chemistry. During the first half-century of Nobel Prizes – from 1901 to 1950 – American winners were in a distinct minority in the science categories. Since 1950, Americans have won approximately half of the Nobel Prizes awarded in the sciences. The American Brain Gain continued throughout the Cold War, as tensions steadily escalated in the Eastern Bloc, resulting in a steady trickle of defectors, refugees and emigrants. The partition of Germany, for one, precipitated over three and a half million East Germans – the Republikflüchtling - to cross into West Berlin by 1961. Most of them were young, well-qualified, educated professionals or skilled workers - the intelligentsia - exacerbating human capital flight in the GDR to the benefit of Western countries, including the United States.

 

American applied science

 

During the 19th century, Britain, France, and Germany were at the forefront of new ideas in science and mathematics. But if the United States lagged behind in the formulation of theory, it excelled in using theory to solve problems: applied science. This tradition had been born of necessity. Because Americans lived so far from the well-springs of Western science and manufacturing, they often had to figure out their own ways of doing things. When Americans combined theoretical knowledge with "Yankee ingenuity", the result was a flow of important inventions. The great American inventors include Robert Fulton (the steamboat); Samuel Morse (the telegraph); Eli Whitney (the cotton gin);Cyrus McCormick (the reaper); and Thomas Alva Edison, the most fertile of them all, with more than a thousand inventions credited to his name.

Edison was not always the first to devise a scientific application, but he was frequently the one to bring an idea to a practical finish. For example, the British engineer Joseph Swan built an incandescent electric lamp in 1860, almost 20 years before Edison. But Edison's light bulbs lasted much longer than Swan's, and they could be turned on and off individually, while Swan's bulbs could be used only in a system where several lights were turned on or off at the same time. Edison followed up his improvement of the light bulb with the development of electrical generating systems. Within 30 years, his inventions had introduced electric lighting into millions of homes.

Another landmark application of scientific ideas to practical uses was the innovation of the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright. In the 1890s they became fascinated with accounts of German glider experiments and began their own investigation into the principles of flight. Combining scientific knowledge and mechanical skills, the Wright brothers built and flew several gliders. Then, on December 17, 1903, they successfully flew the first heavier-than-air, mechanically propelledairplane.

An American invention that was barely noticed in 1947 went on to usher in the Information Age. In that year John Bardeen, William Shockley, and Walter Brattain of Bell Laboratories drew upon highly sophisticated principles of quantum physics to invent the transistor, a small substitute for the bulky vacuum tube. This, and a device invented 10 years later, the integrated circuit, made it possible to package enormous amounts of electronics into tiny containers. As a result, book-sized computers of today can outperform room-sized computers of the 1960s, and there has been a revolution in the way people live – in how they work, study, conduct business, and engage in research.

Part of America's past and current preeminence in applied science has been due to its vast research and development budget, which at $401.6bn in 2009 was more than double that of China's $154.1bn and over 25% greater than the European Union's $297.9bn.

The Atomic Age and “Big Science”

 

One of the most spectacular – and controversial – accomplishments of US technology has been the harnessing of nuclear energy. The concepts that led to the splitting of the atom were developed by the scientists of many countries, but the conversion of these ideas into the reality of nuclear fission was accomplished in the United States in the early 1940s, both by many Americans but also aided tremendously by the influx of European intellectuals fleeing the growing conflagration sparked by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Europe.

During these crucial years, a number of the most prominent European scientists, especially physicists, immigrated to the United States, where they would do much of their most important work; these included Hans Bethe, Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, Leó Szilárd, Edward Teller, Felix Bloch, Emilio Segrè, and Eugene Wigner, among many, many others. American academics worked hard to find positions at laboratories and universities for their European colleagues.

After German physicists split a uranium nucleus in 1938, a number of scientists concluded that a nuclear chain reaction was feasible and possible. The Einstein–Szilárd letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt warned that this breakthrough would permit the construction of "extremely powerful bombs." This warning inspired an executive order towards the investigation of using uranium as a weapon, which later was superseded during World War II by the Manhattan Project the full Allied effort to be the first to build an atomic bomb. The project bore fruit when the first such bomb was exploded in New Mexicoon July 16, 1945.

The development of the bomb and its use against Japan in August 1945 initiated the Atomic Age, a time of anxiety over weapons of mass destruction that has lasted through the Cold War and down to the anti-proliferation efforts of today. Even so, the Atomic Age has also been characterized by peaceful uses of nuclear power, as in the advances in nuclear power and nuclear medicine.

Along with the production of the atomic bomb, World War II also began an era known as "Big Science" with increased government patronage of scientific research. The advantage of a scientifically and technologically sophisticated country became all too apparent during wartime, and in the ideological Cold War to follow the importance of scientific strength in even peacetime applications became too much for the government to any more leave to philanthropy and private industry alone. This increased expenditure on scientific research and education propelled the United States to the forefront of the international scientific community—an amazing feat for a country which only a few decades before still had to send its most promising students to Europe for extensive scientific education.

The first US commercial nuclear power plant started operation in Illinois in 1956. At the time, the future for nuclear energy in the United States looked bright. But opponents criticized the safety of power plants and questioned whether safe disposal of nuclear waste could be assured. A 1979 accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania turned many Americans against nuclear power. The cost of building a nuclear power plant escalated, and other, more economical sources of power began to look more appealing. During the 1970s and 1980s, plans for several nuclear plants were cancelled, and the future of nuclear power remains in a state of uncertainty in the United States.

Meanwhile, American scientists have been experimenting with other renewable energy, including solar power. Although solar power generation is still not economical in much of the United States, recent developments might make it more affordable.

 

Telecom and technology

For the past 80 years, the United States has been integral in fundamental advances in telecommunications and technology. For example, AT&T's Bell Laboratories spearheaded the American technological revolution with a series of inventions including the first practical light emitted diode (LED), the transistor, the C programming language, and the UNIX computer operating system. SRI International and Xerox PARC in Silicon Valley helped give birth to the personal computer industry, while ARPA and NASA funded the development of the ARPANET and the Internet.

Herman Hollerith was just a twenty-year-old engineer when he realized the need for a better way for the U.S. government to conduct their Census and then proceeded to develop electromechanical tabulators for that purpose. The net effect of the many changes from the 1880 census: the larger population, the data items to be collected, the Census Bureau headcount, the scheduled publications, and the use of Hollerith's electromechanical tabulators, was to reduce the time required to process the census from eight years for the 1880 census to six years for the 1890 census. That kick started The Tabulating Machine Company. By the 1960s, the company name had been changed to International Business Machines, and IBM dominated business computing. IBM revolutionized the industry by bringing out the first comprehensive family of computers (the System/360). It caused many of their competitors to either merge or go bankrupt, leaving IBM in an even more dominant position. IBM is known for its many inventions like the floppy disk, introduced in 1971, supermarket checkout products, and introduced in 1973, the IBM 3614 Consumer Transaction Facility, an early form of today's Automatic Teller Machines.

 

T he Space Age

 

Running almost in tandem with the Atomic Age has been the Space Age. American Robert Goddard was one of the first scientists to experiment with rocket propulsion systems. In his small laboratory in Worcester, Massachusetts, Goddard worked with liquid oxygen and gasoline to propel rockets into the atmosphere, and in 1926 successfully fired the world's first liquid-fuel rocket which reached a height of 12.5 meters. Over the next 10 years, Goddard's rockets achieved modest altitudes of nearly two kilometers, and interest in rocketry increased in the United States, Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union. As Allied forces advanced during World War II, both the American and Russian forces searched for top German scientists who could be claimed as spoils for their country. The American effort to bring home German rocket technology in Operation Paperclip, and the bringing of German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun (who would later sit at the head of a NASA center) stand out in particular.

Expendable rockets provided the means for launching artificial satellites, as well as manned spacecraft. In 1957 the Soviet Union launched the first satellite, Sputnik I, and the United States followed with Explorer I in 1958. The first manned space flights were made in early 1961, first by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and then by American astronaut Alan Shepard.

From those first tentative steps, to the 1969 Apollo program landing on the Moon and the partially reusable Space Shuttle, the American space program brought forth a breathtaking display of applied science. Communications satellites transmit computer data, telephone calls, and radio and television broadcasts. Weather satellites furnish the data necessary to provide early warnings of severe storms. Global positioning satellites were first developed in the US starting around 1972, and became fully operational by 1994. Interplanetary probes and space telescopes began a golden age of planetary science and advanced a wide variety of astronomical work.

 

Medicine and health care

As in physics and chemistry, Americans have dominated the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine since World War II. The private sector has been the focal point for biomedical research in the United States, and has played a key role in this achievement. As of 2000, for-profit industry funded 57%, non-profit private organizations such as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute funded 7%, and the tax-funded National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded 36% of medical research in the U.S. However, by 2003, the NIH funded only 28% of medical research funding; funding by private industry increased 102% from 1994 to 2003.

The NIH consists of 24 separate institutes in Bethesda, Maryland. The goal of NIH research is knowledge that helps prevent, detect, diagnose, and treat disease and disability. At any given time, grants from the NIH support the research of about 35,000 principal investigators. Five Nobel Prize-winners have made their prize-winning discoveries in NIH laboratories.

NIH research has helped make possible numerous medical achievements. For example, mortality from heart disease, the number-one killer in the United States, dropped 41 percent between 1971 and 1991. The death rate for strokes decreased by 59 percent during the same period. Between 1991 and 1995, the cancer death rate fell by nearly 3 percent, the first sustained decline since national record-keeping began in the 1930s. And today more than 70 percent of children who get cancer are cured.

With the help of the NIH, molecular genetics and genomics research have revolutionized biomedical science. In the 1980s and 1990s, researchers performed the first trial of gene therapy in humans and are now able to locate, identify, and describe the function of many genes in the human genome.

Research conducted by universities, hospitals, and corporations also contributes to improvement in diagnosis and treatment of disease. NIH funded the basic research on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), for example, but many of the drugs used to treat the disease have emerged from the laboratories of the American pharmaceutical industry; those drugs are being tested in research centers across the country.

Useful vocabulary

Province – провинция

territory –территория (административная единица, не имеющая прав штата или провинции)

extend from…to – начинаться с …. и заканчиваться

sparsely – редко, частично

earthquake –  землетрясение

harsh – суровый

interior – внутренние районы страны

to exceed – превышать

mixed-blood – лицо смешанной крови (метис, мулат)

bilingual – билингв

diverse – разнообразный

to rely upon – полагаться на

abundant – многочисленный, изобилующий

 to compose – составлять,

responsibility for – ответственность за

revenue – доход

nominal income – номинальный доход

per capita – на душу населения

to ensure –обеспечивать, гарантировать

Human Development Index – индекс развития человеческого потенциала

transparency – информационная открытость, прозрачность

civil liberties – гражданские свободы

Commonwealth Realm – государство Содружества Наций

Francophonie – Франкофония

encompass – охватывать, окружать

to assemble –  собирать

to worship – почитать, преклоняться

Task XI

If people from Halifax are called Haligonians, what do you think people from these cities and provinces are called?

Toronto -

Alberta -

Quebec -

Winnipeg -

Vancouver -

Calgary -

Edmonton -

Montreal -

Newfoundland -

Prince Edward Island -

 

Grammar Focus

Task I. Fill in the  blanks with the correct form of the words given

verb	noun	adjective	adverb
reinforce			----------
	threat
embitter
collide
extinguish
		sustainable
		distinct

 

Supplementary reading

Government and politics

Canada has a parliamentary system within the context of a constitutional monarchy, the monarchy of Canada being the foundation of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The sovereign is Queen Elizabeth II, who is also monarch of 15 other Commonwealth countries and each of Canada's 10 provinces. As such, the Queen's representative, the Governor General of Canada, carries out most of the federal royal duties in Canada.

The direct participation of the royal and vice royal figures in areas of governance is limited. In practice, their use of the executive powers is directed by the Cabinet, a committee of ministers of the Crown responsible to the elected House of Commons and chosen and headed by the Prime Minister of Canada (at present Justin Trudeau), the head of government. The governor general or monarch may, though, in certain crisis situations exercise their power without ministerial advice. To ensure the stability of government, the governor general will usually appoint as prime minister the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) is thus one of the most powerful institutions in government, initiating most legislation for parliamentary approval. The leader of the party with the second-most seats usually becomes the Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition and is part of an adversarial parliamentary system intended to keep the government in check.

Each of the 338 members of parliament in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in an electoral district or riding. General elections must be called by the governor general, either on the advice of the prime minister, within four years of the previous election, or if the government loses a confidence vote in the House. The 105 members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, serve until age 75.

Canada's federal structure divides government responsibilities between the federal government and the ten provinces. Provincial legislatures are unicameral and operate in parliamentary fashion similar to the House of Commons. Canada's three territories also have legislatures, but these are not sovereign and have fewer constitutional responsibilities than the provinces. The territorial legislatures also differ structurally from their provincial counterparts.

The Bank of Canada is the central bank of the country. The Bank of Canada is the sole authority authorized to issue currency in the form of Canadian bank notes. The bank does not issue Canadian coins; they are issued by the Royal Canadian Mint.

The Constitution of Canada is the supreme law of the country, and consists of written text and unwritten conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (known as the British North America Act prior to 1982), affirmed governance based on parliamentary precedent and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments.

Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down Acts of Parliament that violate the constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and has been led since 2000 by the Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin (the first female Chief Justice).^[125] Its nine members are appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice.

Economy

Canada is the world's eleventh-largest economy as of 2015, with a nominal GDP of approximately US$1.79 trillion. It is a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Group of Eight (G8), and is one of the world's top ten trading nations, with a highly globalized economy. Canada is a mixed economy, ranking above the US and most western European nations on the Heritage Foundation's index of economic freedom, and experiencing a relatively low level of income disparity. The country's average household disposable income per capita is over US$23,900, higher than the OECD average. Furthermore, the Toronto Stock Exchange is the seventh largest stock exchange in the world by market capitalization, listing over 1,500 companies with a combined market capitalization of over US$2 trillion as of 2015.

Since the early 20th century, the growth of Canada's manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy to an urbanized, industrial one. Like many other developed nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three-quarters of the country's workforce. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of its primary sector, in which the forestry and petroleum industries are two of the most prominent components.

Canada is one of the few developed nations that are net exporters of energy. Atlantic Canada possesses vast offshore deposits of natural gas, and Alberta also hosts large oil and gas resources. The vastness of the Athabasca oil sands and other assets results in Canada having a 13% share of global oil reserves, comprising the world's third-largest share after Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. Canada is additionally one of the world's largest suppliers of agricultural products; the Canadian Prairies are one of the most important global producers of wheat, canola, and other grains. Canada's Ministry of Natural Resources provides statistics regarding its major exports; the country is a leading exporter of zinc, uranium, gold, nickel, aluminum, steel, iron,ore, coking, coal and lead. Many towns in northern Canada, where agriculture is difficult, are sustainable because of nearby mines or sources of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries.

As of 2015, the Canadian economy has largely stabilized and has seen a modest return to growth, although the country remains troubled by volatile oil prices, sensitivity to the Eurozone crisis and higher-than-normal unemployment rates. The federal government and many Canadian industries have also started to expand trade with emerging Asian markets, in an attempt to diversify exports.

Finance

Canadian financial services have exhibited a great deal of flexibility in responding to the monetary needs of the economy. To operate in Canada, a commercial bank must be individually chartered by the federal government. Most normal central-banking functions are fulfilled by the Bank of Canada, which has substantial autonomy in determining monetary policy. The official currency is the Canadian dollar, which is designed and distributed by the Bank of Canada. The national bank implements its monetary policies through its relations with the country’s large chartered (commercial) banks, which are highly developed and form the centre of the financial system. Other financial institutions—for example, credit unions, provincial savings banks, and trust and mortgage-loan companies—increasingly have amalgamated. However, the large banks, which are relatively free from controls on activities involving foreign exchange, still remain the main financial institutions.

Canada has stock exchanges in Montreal, Toronto, and Winnipeg; exchanges in Alberta and Vancouver merged in 1999 to form the Canadian Venture Exchange. There is extensive interpenetration between Canadian and U.S. stock exchanges. In the bond market the role of government-sector borrowing traditionally has been dominant. The degree of foreign ownership of Canadian industry is very high, accounting for as much as half of the primary resource sector (except agriculture) and manufacturing. The largest portion of the foreign investment is from the United States.

 

Science and technology

In 2012, Canada spent approximately C$31.3 billion on domestic research and development, of which around $7 billion was provided by the federal and provincial governments. As of 2015, the country has produced thirteen Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry, and medicine, and was ranked fourth worldwide for scientific research quality in a major 2012 survey of international scientists. It is furthermore home to the headquarters of a number of global technology firms. Canada has one of the highest levels of Internet access in the world, with over 33 million users, equivalent to around 94 percent of its total 2014 population.

The Canadian Space Agency operates a highly active space program, conducting deep-space, planetary, and aviation research, and developing rockets and satellites. Canada was the third country to launch a satellite into space after the USSR and the United States, with the 1962 Alouette 1 launch. In 1984, Marc Garneau became Canada's first male astronaut. Canada is a participant in the International Space Station (ISS), and is a pioneer in space robotics, having constructed the Canadarm, Canadarm2 and Dextre robotic manipulators for the ISS and NASA's Space Shuttle. Since the 1960s, Canada's aerospace industry has designed and built numerous marques of satellite, including Radarsat-1 and 2, ISIS and MOST. Canada has also produced one of the world's most successful and widely used sounding rockets, the Black Brant; over 1,000 Black Brants have been launched since the rocket's introduction in 1961.

Space Science

During this period Canadian space science developed a manned component in addition to unmanned activities. In the early eighties the government of Canada signed an agreement with the US regarding participation by Canada in the NASA space shuttle programme. Canada would design, build and donate four Remote Manipulator System devices, (popularly known as the Canadarm), used to handle cargo and equipment in the bay of the shuttle when it was in orbit, in exchange for the training of a Canadian astronaut corps by NASA and the assignment of Canadian astronauts as crew members aboard space shuttle flights. Shuttle flights have included those by, Marc Garneau, Canada's first astronaut, 1984/1996/2000, Roberta Bondar, 1992, Steve MacLean, 1992/2006, Chris Hadfield, 1995/2001, Robert Thirsk, 1996, Bjarni Tryg