М. М. Кутепова The World of Chemistry Мир

Read the text thoroughly with a dictionary and answer the following questions. Use your knowledge of chemistry as well.

1. 
   Why can’t you know that there’s air around us?
   
2. 
   Why is it impossible to say how deep the atmosphere is?
   
3. 
   Why isn’t it possible to stop gases mixing together?
   
4. 
   What was the atmosphere made up at first?
   
5. 
   What are the main gases in the atmosphere nowadays?
   
6. 
   What experiments can be made in the laboratory to find out about the air?
   
7. 
   What can you say about carbon dioxide and its importance?
   
8. 
   What will you do to show that there is water vapour in the air?
   
9. 
   Why is it difficult to make experiments for removing nitrogen from the air?
   
10. 
    What do you know about argon?
    

4. 
   Using a dictionary, find in the text English equivalents to the following Russian words, word combinations and chemical terms:
   

nouns: слой, одеяло, вещество, дно, вершина, уровень, скалолаз, свидетельство
verbs: упоминать; вести; загрязнять; дышать; улетучиваться;
добавить; выяснить; доказать; выделять (изолировать) adjectives: тонкий; глубокий; перемешанный; обычный adverbs: вокруг; вдруг; точно; стихийно; начало; позже; постепенно; полностью; много; почти; в отличие; около prepositions and conjunctions: с тех пор как; до сих пор

word combinations: очень сильно; возможно состояла; другими словами; избавиться; наилучший способ; трудно; совершенно легко; можно было бы назвать; иначе говоря chemical terms: горение; ржаветь; кислород; азот; аргон; реактивный; инертный; углекислый газ; охлаждение; удалить; смесь

8. Match the words, word combinations and chemical terms in A with their synonyms in В:

9. 
   Complete the following sentences using the words from the list below. Some of the words can be used more than once:
   

level, layer; blanket, top, evidence, to mention, to lead, to contaminate, to isolate, nitrogen, oxygen, argon, spontaneously, gradually, to escape, atmosphere, density, bottom

1. 
   ... for other gases in the ... came towards the end of the 19th century.
   
2. 
   The work ... to the discovery was an investigation into the ... of....
   
3. 
   The ... lying all over the Earth like a ... is called the ....
   
4. 
   So far we’ve ,... , carbon dioxide and water vapour.
   
5. 
   By the time you get to 50 miles above sea ... , there’s practically no air left.
   

A

1. 
   stuff
   
2. 
   evidence
   
3. 
   to contaminate
   
4. 
   to sort out
   
5. 
   ordinary
   
6. 
   suddenly
   
7. 
   exactly
   
8. 
   spontaneously
   
9. 
   gradually
   
10. 
    plenty
    
11. 
    burning
    
12. 
    rusting
    
13. 
    unreactive
    
14. 
    to remove
    
15. 
    mixture
    

16. 
    inert
    
17. 
    usual
    
18. 
    precisely
    
19. 
    testimony
    
20. 
    to delete 0 to isolate
    
21. 
    much
    
22. 
    matter
    
23. 
    combustion
    
24. 
    impulsively
    
25. 
    to pollute
    
26. 
    corrosion
    
27. 
    unexpectedly
    
28. 
    amalgam
    
29. 
    little by little
    

В


106

6. 
   The main gas that... the atmospheric ... is ... .
   
7. 
   Gases mix together... .
   
8. 
   So a gas that... from the Earth becomes a part of the ....
   

9 more and more ... is added to the ....

9. 
   ... and ... were ... long before the end of the 19th century.
   
10. 
    We live at the ... of a very deep “ocean of air”.
    
11. 
    There’s enough air to breathe at the ... of Mt. Everest.
    

JO. Complete the other sentences, this time using chemical terms from the list below. Some of them can’t be used in the given sentences, while the others can be used a few times:
combustion, rusting, hydrogen, oxygen_y nitrogen, argon, inert, reactive, atmosphere, carbon dioxide, cooling, heating, remove, mixture, substance, isolate

1. 
   ... is a corrosion of iron or steel to form a hydrate iron (III) oxide.
   
2. 
   ... occurs in the air (78%) and is an essential constituent of proteins and nucleic acids in living organisms.
   
3. 
   ... is a chemical reaction in which a ... reacts rapidly with ... producing heat and light.
   
4. 
   ... is a colourless, odourless gas, soluble in water, ethanol and acetone.
   
5. 
   ... occurs only in the presence of both water and ....
   
6. 
   Reactions of... are often free-radical chain reactions, which can usually be summarized as the oxidation of carbon to form its oxides and the oxidation of... to form water.
   
7. 
   ... is really prepared in the laboratory by the action of dilute acids on metal carbonates.
   
8. 
   Though ... is essential to all forms of life, the huge amount present in the ... is not directly available to most organisms.
   
9. 
   ... is the lightest element and most abundant at the universe.
   
10. 
    ... is an electrochemical process in which different parts of iron surface act as electrodes in a cell reaction.
    
11. 
    Flame is a luminous ... of gases undergoing ....
    
12. 
    ... is a by-product (побочный продукт) from the manufacture of lime (известь) and from fermentation process.
    

11. 
    a) Study carefully grammar tables 8-11 in Appendix 1 and find in ex. 2 and ex. 5 all the sentences containing infinitive, participle (I and II) and gerund. Translate these sentences into Russian.
    

107