English for Astronomers. Учебно-методические рекомендации для технических специальностей. Бахытжан Саякова

       Exercise 1

      Use these verbs in the Present Simple or the Present Continuous: live, work, stay.

      0 Mike lives in Glasgow and he works as an engineer.

      0 At the moment Mike is staying in Aberdeen because he is working on a bridge design there.

      1. Sally____________ in London where she ____________as a conference organizer.

      2. At the moment Philip __________________ in Birmingham because he ____________at a trade fair there.

      3. At the moment Sally_____________ in Dublin because she__________at a congress there.

      4. Jenny______________ in Brighton where she ____________ as an accountant.

      5. Philip ______________ in Leeds where he as a salesman.

      6. At the moment Jenny____________ in London because she__________at head office.

       Exercise 2

      Use the words in brackets () to complete the dialogues. Use Present Continuous or Present Simple.

      0 (The sun/rise/in the east.)

      The sun rises in the east.

      1. Sam: (Why/that machine/not /work/at the moment?)

      _____________________________________________

      Chris: (I don’t know, but a mechanic/mend /it)

      _______________________________________

      Sam: (What/the machine/do/in fact?) (it/make/ boxes?)

      _______________________________________

      Chris: (Yes, it/make/boxes of all size)

      _______________________________________

      2. Mary: (Look! The Forsters/work/in their garden.)

      _______________________________________

      (They/not/usually/work/on Sundays.)

      _______________________________________

       Exercise 3

      Put the verbs into the correct form, present continuous or present simple.

      1. Are you hungry?__________________some-thing to eat? (you/want)

      2. Don’t put the dictionary away. I_______________it. (use)

      3. Don’t put the dictionary away. I_________________it. (need)

      4. Who is that man? What________________________? (he/want)

      5. Who isthatman?Why_____________________at us? (he/look)

      6. George says he’s 80 years old but nobody _______________ him. (believe)

      7. She told me her name but I________________it now. (not/remember)

      8. I_____________________of selling my car. (think) Would you be interested in buying it?

      9. I you should sell your car. (think) You______________it very often (not/use)

      10. I used to drink a lot of coffee but these days I________________tea. (prefer)

      11. Air _________________ mainly of nitrogen and oxygen. (consist)

      12. Jill is interested in politics but she__________to a political party. (not/belong)

      13. Jim is very untidy. He______________(always/leave) his things all over the place.

      14. ___________________The train is never late. It__________(always/leave) on time.

       Exercise 4

      Discuss the following questions, what do you think?

      1. What is the universe composed of?

      2. What is the relationship between the billions of objects in the universe?

      3. What happens inside these objects?

      4. How was the universe created?

      5. What will happen to the universe in the future?

       Exercise 5

      Now read the text and check your answers

OBSERVING THE SKY WITH THE UNAIDED EYE

      Astronomers carry out observations and perform calculations. Observations are carried out either with telescopes or with the unaided eye. Everybody is an astronomer in fact, since everybody looks at the sky. Looking at the sky with an unaided eye reveals several objects.

      Since the sunlight covers the entire sky, it is impossible to make clear observations in the sky during the daytime. Observations must be carried out nighttime in order to see celestial objects. The most obvious one of these objects is the Moon with its dimensions apparently the same as the Sun.

      Now get ready for the show of light in the night sky. The twinkling, point-like light sources are stars, many of which are just like our Sun, but appearing very small and faint due to the very large distances over which their light travels to reach us. Some stars are even more gigantic than the Sun and there are stars so colossal that they are a million times brighter than the Sun.

      There are also a few other objects that have the appearance of a star, but they do not twinkle. These objects are the planets of our solar system. It is not possible to see all the planets with the unaided eye. A careful observer can make out five planets of our solar system: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.

      An observer may see a broad, diffuse band of light through the sky on a clear moonless night. This band is the Milky Way galaxy that consists of about 400 billion stars, and clouds of interstellar gas and dust. There are billions of galaxies in the universe, but not all are visible with the naked eye. Meteors are occasional visitors, which may be observed with the naked eye.

      They are seen as brief, falling flashes of light. The other occasional members of our sky are comets. Comets revolve around the Sun with constant periods. The most famous comet is the Halley’s Comet, which passed very close to the Earth in 1986.

      ‘The entire universe is rotating around the Earth!’ This debate persisted during the ancient times based on the idea that the Earth was at the centre of the universe. Now it is known that the Earth is not at the centre of the universe but only appears to be rotating around the Earth. The motion is actually that of the Earth around its axis, so the universe is rotating relative to the Earth. Since we are making our observations in the reference frame of the Earth, we perceive the universe to be in motion.

      Each revolution of the Earth around its rotational axis corresponds to one revolution of the objects in the sky around the Earth. A long exposure photograph clarifies this motion. We can conclude that the entire universe appears to be in circular motion around the Earth. During the Earth’s rotation, we observe that the Sun is also in circular motion around us.

      But it is not as simple as it appears to be. There are too many objects that have their own motion through the sky, and the objects have relative motions with respect to each other. One of the most famous of these relative motions is the retrograde motion of Jupiter.

      New words

       Exercise 6

      Translate the following word combinations into Kazakh (Russian)

      To perform calculations,to revealseveralobjects, entire sky, celestial objects, the show of light in the night sky, point like light sources, a million times brighter than the Sun; a broad, diffuse band of light, clouds of interstellar gas and dust, occasional visitors, naked eye, falling flashes of light, rotating around the Earth, the ancient times, rotational axis, a long exposure photograph, circular motion around the Earth, relative motions.

       Exercise 7

      Match the highlighted words with the definition

      1. ____________________