VII. Read the text and name the serendipitous discoveries mentioned there

B) Translate into English.

VI. a) Translate the following sentence.

Some of artificial sweeteners are thousand times as sweet as sugar.

1. Эта книга в два раза дороже той. 2. Этот дорога в пять раз длиннее той. 3. Их метод в два раза эффективнее нашего. 4. Эта машина в несколько раз дешевле той. 5. Эти тексты в сотню раз сложнее тех. 6. Эти тесты в три раза проще тех. 7. Она в два раза моложе его. 8. Этот дом в пять раз больше моего. 9. Их открытие в два раза полезнее нашего. 10. Наша работа в два раза сложнее, чем их.

Most important discoveries in the world of science and technology came about by some sort of lucky accident.

Alexander Fleming found some mould (плесень) growing on a laboratory dish which he had absent-mindedly left on a window-sill. He found that his mould stopped the spread of bacteria, which as you know, is the cause of illness like pneumonia. And modern antibiotic drugs based on penicillin save millions of lives every year.

Now all the sea and air transport depends on radar for navigation and safety –and armies depend on it for defence as well, of course. Radar was discovered during the war while British military scientists were trying to find a death ray, which was some sort of radio wave that could be used to kill people. They didn’t find a death ray, but they found a technique.

Teflon is a substance which is used in non-stick frying pans. This was discovered by accident in a laboratory by DuPont scientists, who were doing research into gases to use into refrigerators. They discovered that a plastic coating had formed on their equipment and this was unaffected by heat and it was also very slippery. No use was found for this until some time later a French researcher used it in a frying pan. Teflon is also used in space vehicles.

Artificial sweeteners (for example Cyclamate, NutraSweet) were discovered by accident. The usual pattern was that scientists were doing another experiment and they happened to taste one of the by-products, which they found to be sweet. Some of them are thousand times as sweet as sugar.

Chewing gum was discovered while scientists were looking for a substitute for rubber. And again there seemed at that time no apparent use for this product of the Mexican Sapodilla tree! But serendipity made this product – there’s no country in the world where chewing-gum isn’t available.

There’s one more useful product. We use little yellow stick-on notes in the office and for leaving phone messages and so on. A researcher was doing into adhesive and glue, and discovered a substance that seemed to be completely useless. It was quite sticky but it wouldn’t stick permanently to anything and it didn’t mark on the surface. That man was a member of a church choir and he always had to use slips of paper to mark the place where each of the hymns was in his hymn-book – and the slips of paper were always falling on the floor. So he used these bits of sticky paper with this ‘useless’ adhesive on to mark his place in the hymn-book. And then he realized that other people could find a similar use.

Just serendipity!

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