Read the text again and match the italicized words and word combinations with their meanings.

a) ___________________ a task or situation that tests someone's abilities

b) ___________a cleansing agent, esp. a surface-active chemical such as an alkyl sulphonate, widely used in industry

c) ___________________ to think of a plan or idea and suggest it

d)___________________to have gained knowledge and experience of the world

e) ___________________ restore (something damaged, faulty, or worn) to a good condition

f) ___________________ lacking the qualities or features of living beings

g) ______ a substance formed from two or more elements chemically united in fixed proportions

h)__________________ to make or become better; improve

Read the text once more carefully and answer the questions.

a) What means of corrosion prevention do you know?

b) What idea lies behind the new technology of protecting metals?

c) Why was it difficult to put the idea into practice?

d) How did researchers manage to overcome the problem?

Translate the last paragraph of the article in written form.

Translate into English using the Gerund where possible.

Все люди, которые связаны с разработкой, эксплуатацией и ремонтом сложной электронной техники, знают, что в большинстве случаев выход из строя электронных устройств связан с их механическими повреждениями, приводящими к появлению трещин и микротрещин в проводниках. Поиск таких повреждений является делом долгим, трудным и дорогостоящим. В некоторых случаях ремонт электронного устройства становится нецелесообразным с экономической точки зрения. Но в последнее время ведутся разработки технологий самовосстанавливающейся электроники, благодаря которым электронные устройства могут сами ликвидировать возникшие повреждения и продолжить работать в нормальном режиме.

Технологии самовосстановления не являются чем-то новым. Обычно твердый материал заполняется капсулами с заключенной в них жидкостью. Э та капсулы разрываются, если материал получает повреждения. Выпущенная из них жидкость затвердевает на воздухе, восстанавливая целостность материала. Этот принцип используется в изготовлении самовосстанавливающихся строительных материалов и полимеров. Исследовательская группа из университета Иллинойса применила подобный принцип по отношению к электронике. Они создали технологию, которая позволяет автоматически восстановить проводимость треснутого проводника за доли секунды. В качестве капсул самовосстановления используются микрогранулы, размерами около 10 микрон, заполненные "жидким металлом", сплавом галлия и индия.

SELF-ASSESSMENT IV 1. Translate the article using a dictionary.

A healing balm

Self-healing substances that are capable of repairing themselves when damaged are under development

One of the differences between animals and machines is that animal bodies can repair a lot of the damage that a cruel and

hostile world inflicts on them. A machine, by contrast, has to wait for someone to come and fix it. But that may change if researchers in the field of self-repairing materials have their way. Two groups in particular - one in America and one in Britain - are trying to create composite materials that mend themselves if they get cracked, in much the same way that an animal's broken bone heals itself. The difference is that these materials will heal in minutes rather than months.

Such self-healing composites may take a while to enter everyday use. But if they can be made reliably they will be welcome in high-stress applications that are difficult to inspect regularly (the blades of wind turbines, for example) or are critical to safety (such as the doors and window-frames of aircraft).

Jeffrey Moore and his colleagues at the University of Illinois are working on the problem by adding extra components to their composites. Like most such materials, these composites consist of fibres (in this instance, carbon fibres)

embedded in a plastic matrix (an epoxy resin). The main extra component added by Dr Moore is a sprinkling of tiny capsules containing a chemical called dicyclopentadiene. If the composite cracks, the capsules near the crack break open and release the dicyclopentadiene molecules, which link together to form another type of plastic that binds the crack together and thus heals the material.

To start with, Dr Moore had to nurse this process along by adding a second extra component—a catalyst based on ruthenium. This worked well in the laboratory, but ruthenium is too expensive for mass deployment. However, when he was playing with solvents that might be added to the system to speed the transfer of the dicyclopentadiene to the cracks it is intended to heal, he found a solvent that encouraged the process to work without the ruthenium catalyst. Alas, the solvent Dr Moore hit on, chlorobenzene, is pretty nasty stuff (it is used, for example, in the manufacture of DDT). However, he has since found a suitable alternative that turns out to be even better. The chlorobenzene process restored only 80% of a material's original toughness. The new solvents restore it completely.

The Economist