D. I. Mendeleyev

Text C

Основные положения химии необходимы для многих специалистов, включая с/х работников, биологов, дантистов и т. д.

1. Pay attention to the following words and word combinations:

to make investigations – проводить исследования;

calculations – вычисления;

account – отчёт;

to set forth arrangement of the elements – выдвигать классификацию элементов;

the significance of the periodicity – значимость периодичности;

similarity – сходство;

to predict – предсказывать;

the existence of elements – существование элементов.

2. Read the text and be ready to say if the following statements are true or false. Use the following phrases:

As far as I know …

It seems to be wrong (right) …

I cant’t agree with you …

I’m afraid you are mistaken …

On the contrary …

That’s right …

1. D. I. Mendeleyev graduated from Pedagogical Institute in Tobolsk.

2. D. I. Mendeleyev was invited to lecture on theoretical and organic chemistry at Petersburg University

3. He went to France to continue his education.

4. His work "Fun­damentals of Chemistry" wasn’t of great importance.

5. Mendeleyev created the Periodic Table of Elements.

6. Mendeleyev predicted the existence of unknown elements and their properties.

7. He carried out research in shipbuilding industry in Germany.

Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleyev was born in Tobolsk in 1834. In 1850 he entered the Pedagogical Institute in St. Petersburg to study chemistry. Five years later he graduated from it with a gold medal and was invited to lecture on theoretical and organic chemistry at Petersburg University.

Then, in 1859, he was sent to Germany to continue his education. When he was living abroad, he made a number of important investigations.

The year 1868 was the beginning of his highly important work "Fundamentals of Chemistry".When Mendeleyev was working on the subject, he analyzed an enormous amount of literature, and made thousands of experiments and calculations. This tremendous work resulted in the Periodic Table of the Elements consisting of vertical groups and horizontal periods.

It was in March of 1869 that D. I. Mendeleyev published his first accountof the periodic system, in which he set forth the arrangementof the elements in terms of their in­creasing atomic weights. D. I. Mendeleyev was the first to fully appreciatethe significanceof this periodicity.In his first paper D. I. Mendeleyev pointed out the similarities of a number of properties of certain elements and reversed the order of atomic weights where necessary in order to maintain this group similarity.

Of considerableinterestand importance was the fact that D. I. Mendeleyev was able to predict not only the existence of a few unknown elements but their properties as well.

D. I. Mendeleyev was engaged not only in the study of chemistry. He combined theory with practical activity and carried out enormous research in coal, petroleum, iron and steel industries in Russia.

Mendeleyev died in 1907 at the age of 73.

3. Make up the plan to the text.

4. Give a brief summary of the text.

Text D

1. Read the text and choose the most suitable title out of the given ones:

a) Alchemy and Alchemists.

b) From the History of Chemistry.

c) Alchemy and Modern Chemistry.

Thousands of years ago people valued gold as a rare and beautiful substance. They also understood that gold had a unique ability to resist decay and corrosion. Since there was no known acid or other substance that could damage gold they thought that gold had a quality of performance that could be transmitted to humans. Therefore, every medicine that fought ageing contained gold as an essential ingredient and doctors urged people to drink from gold cups to prolong life.

This universal desire for gold made alchemy a formal discipline in the first century A.D. It first appeared among Greek scholars, then spread to eastern Mediterranean countries, and finally to Spain and Italy in the 12th century. Though the attempt to produce gold from other substances was the original and central purpose of alchemy, a number of physician-alchemists in Europe in the Middle Ages tried to produce medicines that were not dependent on gold or related to it.

They worked to produce medicines and spirits from raw materials, such as herbs, and in this way improved methods of separating ele­ments by distillation. For example, as early as the 13th century, Thaddeus of Florence identified the medical benefits of alcohol distillates taken internally and applied locally. Paracelsus (1493-1541), the German-Swiss physician and alchemist, was the first person to unite medicine with chemistry through his use of remedies that contained mercury, sulphur, iron, and copper sulphate. This led to steam distillation and improved equipment.

The development of apparatus and the extensive efforts to break down or distil substances laid the foundation for modern chemistry, but as true science began to evolve during the Renaissance, the study of alchemy blocked the birth of modern chemistry. Some scientists tried to lead people toward reliance on empirical evidence (that is, what can actually be observed and/or measured), but the idea of four essential elements (earth, air, fire, and water) lived on and there was no recognition that these four substances are made up of a combina­tion of basic elements.

2. Write out:

а) key words and terms;

b) the sentences expressing the main idea of each paragraph.

Unit 2

GRAMMAR: Parts of Speech, Sentence Structure, Active Voice.

1. a) Determine the parts of speech of the following words and translate them.

Chemist, chemistry, chemical, simpler, older, substance, united, proportion, tasteless, greenish, approximately, ordinary, temperature, odourless, moderately, pressure, greater, conversely, property, broadly, reaction, catalyst, decomposition, addition, quantity, suitable, readily, exception, crystalline, hydrogen, oxygen.

b) Translate the following sentences into Russian, paying attention to the parts of speech of the underlined word. Analyze the forms of the verbs:

1. They found quartz in the form of large, nearly perfect crystals.

2. Quartz, silicates and aluminosilicates together with other minerals form a great amount of ceramic raw materials.

3. Among ceramic products, alumina in both forms possesses the highest mechanical strength and hardness.

4. This is an example of chemical change, since a chemical change results in permanent changes of properties.

5. The properties of this substance change when we heat it.

6. He studies the change from one state to another.

7. The colour of the solution changed after the reaction.

8. Ceramic products are light in weight.

9. The velocity of light is very high.

10. Aluminium is a very light metal.

2. Put the words in the correct order to form sentences.

1) hydrogen, of, water, consists, oxygen, and;

2) ordinary, water, tasteless, at, odourless, is, pure, liquid, and, temperature, the;

3) water, non-metals, do, react, not, with;

4) ordinary, water, the alkali, the, attack, readily, at, metals, temperature;

5) Vapour, water, into, freezes, and, snow, hoar frost.

3. Read the text and translate it using a dictionary.

Text A

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