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Прочитайте текст и опишите жилые отсеки Шаттла и Международной космической

Living Aboard the Space Shuttle and the ISS

We often see the cosmonauts carry out their complicated work

in space, but what do they do in their off-duty hours? What do they

eat, where do they sleep?

One of the main features of the Shuttle is the relatively low

forces of gravity during launch and reentry. These are about 3 g,

that is within the limits that can be withstood by people.

Its living accommodation is relatively comfortable. The crew

cabin is 71.5 m. There are two floors inside the cabin. On the top

level, the commander and pilot monitor and control sophisticated

equipment. Behind their seats is a work area where the crew can

carry out experiments.

The bottom level is the living area. It contains facilities for

sleeping, eating and waste disposal.

Living in such a kind of cabin requires only ordinary clothing.

Air pressure is the same as the Earth's at sea level. This air is made

of 80 % nitrogen and 20 % oxygen. The air is cleaner than the

Earth's. Temperature can be regulated between 16 and 32 °C.

The Shuttle meals are eaten in a small dining area consisting of

a table and restraints (ограничители) which function as chairs

while eating in zero-gravity. Meals are served in a special tray

which separates different food containers and keeps them from

floating around in the weightless cabin. Most foods can be eaten

with ordinary spoons and forks as long as there are no sudden starts

and stops.

Just as on Earth recreation and sleep are important to good

health in space. Different games, books and cassette-recorders to

listen to music are available.

In zero-gravity there is no «up» position and the cosmonaut is

oriented in the sleeping bag as if he or she were sleeping up. Now

beds are built into the walls with an individual light, communications,

fan, sound suppression, blanket and sheets. They even have

pillows.

Experiences on the space shuttle have helped prepare astronauts

for life aboard the International Space Station. Let's imagine

the life at the station in several years.

Life-support systems on the ISS can supply cleaner air, purer

water, better food and more sanitary toilet facilities than on the

space shuttle. Life aboard the station may not be easy, but it is significantly

healthier and more pleasant than in the past, allowing

astronauts to focus on the scientific research and station maintenance

that occupy them for about 9 hours a day.

The kitchen on the station, for the first time in space history,

has refrigerators and freezers. It may not sound like much, but it is

a giant step forward. For the first 30 years in space, all food was

kept at room temperature. Only now, in the 21st century, can refrigerator

allow NASA to supply milk to help with bone loss in space

flight. A glass of nice cold milk was asked for years. And the refrigerator

proved to be an easier solution than a lot of experiments to

make good powdered (порошковое) milk for a number of years.

Later in the day, thanks to another kitchen appliance, cosmonauts

will eat a frozen dinner just like the ones sold in supermarkets.

The combination convection/microwave oven automatically

thaws (размораживать) your food (using heat), than heats it with

microwaves (just as they do on Earth).

The refrigerator, freezer, and oven mean that astronauts eat a

healthier diet. The shuttle food was low in fiber. «The ISS food can

overcome that with salads, fruit, vegetables, apples, oranges, etc.,»

a space expert had predicted. Now, with these food delivered by the

space shuttle a few times a year, you no longer have to take special

tablets.

There is no dishwasher in the kitchen. Instead, you wash your

magnetic silverware (столовые приборы) with antiseptic towelettes

(салфетка). It does not seem very hygienic, but the shuttle astronauts

just had to lick their silverware clean.

The empty food containers will be either ejected into space to

burn up on re-entry to the atmosphere or returned to Earth on the

shuttle.

The next step in life support will be a completely closed airand-

food cycle, with plants grown in space. Plants and microorganisms

could even help remove contaminants from the water supply.

It is that sort of research that will be necessary if people are

ever to establish settlements far beyond Earth.

Biological approaches to supplying food, water, and air could

not only save power aboard the station, but could also reduce the

number of resupply trips required.

May be some day astronauts will have fresh bread on the station.

But even with today's frozen dinners, they already spend 4

hours a day on meals and hygiene. Exercise takes 2 hours more a

day. That leaves them just an hour of free time for the simple pleasures

of life in space: The view of Earth through the window. A letter

e-mailed from their family. Microwave popcorn with a movie.

And the friendship of the crew members with whom they share this

tiny world.

Text 12D

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Time Travel and New Universes

It is known that for a long time well before Albert Einstein scientists

were studying the ideas that seemed strange. Consider a few of

such ideas now accepted by the scientific community: clocks that

tick slower when they are on rockets in outer space, black holes

with the mass of a million stars compressed into a volume smaller

than that of atom and subatomic particles whose behaviour depends

on whether they are being watched.

But of all strange ideas in physics, perhaps, the strangest one is

the hole in the structure of space and time, a tunnel to a distant

part of the universe. American researchers have determined that it

will apparently be possible in principle for mankind to create an

entirely new universe by using the idea of wormhole (ход, прорытый

червем; червоточина) connection. Such a universe will automatically

create its own wormhole, squeeze through it, and then

close the hole after it.

Although to many people such an idea may seem useless and

fantastic, it can help scientists to develop their imagination and explore

how flexible the laws of physics are. It is such an idea that

could give answers to some of the fundamental questions of cosmology:

how the universe began, how it works and how it will end.

The idea of wormhole comes directly from the accepted concepts

of general relativity. In that theory A.Einstein proved that

very massive or dense objects distort space and time around them.

One possible distortion is in the form of a tube that can lead anywhere

in the universe — even to a place billions of light years away.

The name «wormhole» comes about by analogy: imagine a fly on an

apple. The only way the fly can reach the apple's other side is the

long way over the fruit's surface. But a worm could make a tunnel

through the apple and thus shorten the way considerably. A wormhole

in space is the same kind of tunnel; it is a shortcut (кратчайшее

расстояние) from one part of the universe to another that

reduces the travel time to about zero.

In fact, instantaneous travel leads to the idea of wormhole as

time machine. If it were possible to move one end of a wormhole at

nearly the speed of light, then, according to general relativity, time

at that end would slow down and that part of the tunnel would be

younger than the other end. Anything moving from the faster-aging

end of the wormhole to the slower one would essentially go backward

on time. The type of travel, however, could be nothing like

the mechanical time machine described by H. Wells. It is difficult

to imagine how a human being could move through a wormhole,

since it would theoretically be narrower than an atom and it would

tend to disappear the instant it formed.

ДОПОЛНИТЕЛЬНЫЕ ЗАДАНИЯ

Упражнение 1. A. Прочитайте словосочетания из текста 12А и постарайтесь

понять значения выделенных слов.

1. life expectancy 4. life-support module

2. risky process 5. the next great adventure

3. key module 6. merely

в. Подберите к каждому выделенному в А слову соответствующее ему по

значению.

a. essential to d. expected period during which

b. activity full of risk, danger smth. is active and useful

and excitement e. only, simply

с full of risk ^- equipment providing an environment

astronauts may live in.

Упражнение 2. Найдите в тексте 12А:

A. Прилагательные с суффиксами -о/, -ous и -/ve, соответствующие

словосочетаниям:

1. between different countries

2. connected with one person or part of smth.

3. connected with one country

4. that supplies reliable information

5. of technology

6. of the state, government and politics

7. coming earlier in time

8. important because of possible danger

9. full of strong desire to be or to do smth.

10. broad, extending in various or all directions

11. high priced

B. Словосочетания с этими прилагательными и приведите свои примеры.

Упражнение 3. А. Прочитайте текст и найдите слова, означающие:

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