Материал: Гвоздева Пхысицс фор адванцед студентс 2011
Vocabulary Notes
1.to inhabit – if a place is inhabited, people live there
2.average – ordinary
3.outer – (ant. inner)
4.suburbs – periphery
5.to claim – to pretend to something
WHAT MAKES THE SUN SHINE?
Study the passage. Mind the underlined grammar points.
The sun is certainly a prerequisite of our existence, as is the earlier generation of nearby stars in which heavy elements could have been formed by nuclear synthesis. The Sun is the size it is because it is so hot. It is burning hydrogen into helium, like a controlled H-bomb. The era’s best estimate of the sun’s age --- provided by the eminent British physicist William Thompson (better remembered as Lord Kelvin) ---- concluded that the sun couldn’t be more than a few tens of millions of years old. It would be another seven decades before scientists would develop the tools necessary to understand what made the sun shine. By the 1930s scientists knew that all the matter is made up of atoms and that these atoms have a nucleus of positively charged protons and neutral neutrons. (Hydrogen is the only exception --- its nucleus has only a proton.) Albert Einstein had demonstrated that the sun is not made of molten rock, as Thompson assumed --- it is composed mostly of hydrogen, together with some helium.
In 1938 physicist Hans Bethe realized that at the center of the sun, the pressure must be so great that individual hydrogen nuclei would be squeezed together with such force that they could overcome the repulsion that ordinarily keeps ions of like charges apart. Bethe laid out the four-step chain by which hydrogen ions fuse together. The final products of the reaction are a bit lighter than the ingredients that go into it, and this missing mass becomes converted (via E = mc2) into the energy that powers the sun.
The heat released in this process generates a pressure that enables the sun to resist the attraction of its own gravity, which is trying to make it smaller. Eventually, however, the sun will run out of nuclear fuel.
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Vocabulary Notes
1.a prerequisite – a precondition – something that must exist before another thing is possible.
2.a generation of stars – a group of stars of the same period of time
3.an estimate – a calculation
4.a tool – an instrument
5.to assume – to believe – to consider
6.repulsion – (ant.) attraction
7.to enable – to allow
POST-READING TASK
(To be done at home in writing)
I. Innumerate the points that make Earth a unique planet. II. Explain.
What makes the sun shine?
II. Put in the prepositions.
1.People believed that the earth was …. the centre of the universe.
2.Earth is a minor planet going … a very average star.
3.The sun is certainly a prerequisite …… our existence.
4.Heavy elements could have been formed in nearby stars ….. nuclear synthesis.
5.The sun is burning hydrogen ….. helium.
6.The sun couldn’t be more than ………………..
7.Eventually the sun will run out … nuclear fuel.
III. Give words close in meaning.
1. to understand |
5. a tool |
2. ordinary |
6. finally |
3. to believe |
7. to pretend to something |
4. by means of |
8. to make somebody do something |
CLASS EXERCISES
Exercise 1 (in groups)
Checking up understanding
1.What makes Earth a unique planet for the development of life and human evolution?
2.What kind of planet is Earth?
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3.What does the sun provide us with?
4.Why is the earlier generation of nearby stars considered to be a prerequisite of our existence?
5.What makes the sun comparable with a controlled H-bomb?
6.Why is the sun the size it is?
7.What man-made device can you compare the sun with?
8.What keeps ions of like charges apart?
Exercise 2 (do it yourself)
Formulate questions.
1.Matter is made up of atoms. (What ……….. of?)
2.The sun is composed of hydrogen, together with some helium. (What ……….. of?)
3.The repulsion keeps ions of like charges apart. (What?)
4.The mass of the final products of the reaction becomes converted into the energy that powers the sun. (What energy?)
5.The sun will eventually run out of its fuel. (Why?)
6.The earth goes in a circle around the sun. (Why?)
Exercise 3 (in pairs)
Ask the questions formulated by you in ex. 2 and give answers.
Exercise 4 (do it yourself)
Reconstruct the passage by formulating simple sentences with the key words.
1.Earth is a unique planet …………………..
2.60000 light years from the center of the galaxy is the distance which ……………..
3.Earth is a minor planet …………………….
4.The sun is a prerequisite of … ….
5.The sun .. …. hydrogen into helium.
6.The heat … .. … … generates a pressure that ….. the sun to resist the attraction of its own gravity.
7.Eventually the sun .. … … .. nuclear fuel.
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UNIT 6
THE DIVERSITY OF LIFE ON EARTH
DARWIN’S IDEA OF NATURAL SELECTION
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection required billions of years of incremental change to explain the incredible diversity of life on earth. Yet the era’s best estimate of the sun’s age provided by William Thompson concluded that the sun couldn’t be more than a few tens of millions of years old.
Darwin considered Thompson’s critique one of the gravest blows to the theory of evolution.
Scientific American, 2010
PRE-READING TASK Brainstorming
What do your think? Give your interpretations using: I agree entirely; I doubt it; I do believe that; I’m sure; I’m convinced; In my opinion; It is incredible that…
1.Life arose spontaneously on the planet of the solar system called earth as a result of chance combinations of atoms.
2.It was by chance that the first generation of life species developed the ability to reproduce themselves.
3.The transition from a one-cell organism to a many-cell one was ca-
sual.
4.It was by pure chance that as a result of evolution there appeared millions of different life species.
5.Males and females appeared by pure chance.
6.The appearance of vertebral species is a chance occurrence.
7.Vertebral species evolved into mammals by pure chance.
8.The appearance of an anthropoid ape as a species of the mammals was a chance occurrence.
9.A kind of anthropoid apes evolved into human beings by pure chance.
FYI
1.species – living groups.
2.a male – a man
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3.a female – a woman
4.a vertebrate is a creature that has a back bone. Mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and most fishes are all vertebrates.
5.a mammal is an animal, the female of which feeds babies with milk from her body.
6.apes are animals such as chimpanzees or gorillas. They are similar to monkeys but are larger and do not have tails.
Study some grammar points. I. We use can’t and couldn’t to say that the action is hardly possible = вряд ли
Study the sentence.
1. The sun couldn’t be more than a few tens of millions of years old.
II. Would is used to talk about the natural course and behavior of things and events as a result of some action. It is the less definite form of will.
Study the sentences.
1. The white hole could be in another part of the universe. This would offer the possibility of rapid intergalactic travel.
III. We use would have when you are saying that something happened or was true. You don’t translate would in this case.
Study the sentence.
Very high particle energies would have occurred in the early universe.
IV. This structure expresses the probability of the action in the present or in the future.
S + is likely + to V = probably S + is unlikely + to V = hardly (вряд ли)
Study the sentence.
1. As much as 90 percent of the matter in the universe is likely to be invisible.
b. This structure expresses the probability of action in the past.
S + is likely + to have V3 S + is unlikely + to have V3 Study the sentence.
1. Millions of different life species are unlikely to have appeared by pure chance.
We use both variants:
1.It is (un)likely that some very primitive form of life arose spontaneously on earth from chance combinations of atoms.
2.Some very primitive form of life is (un)likely to have arisen spontaneously on the earth from chance combinations of atoms
V. We use may + have V3 and might + have V3 to say what
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