Иностранный язык (английский) Задания для контрольных работ по направлению «Юриспруденция»

TEST VIII

PHONE POWER

Telephone history begins at the start of human history. Man has always wanted to communicate from afar. People have used smoke signals, mirrors, jungle drums, carrier pigeons and semaphores to get a message from one point to another. But a phone was something new. Some say Francis Bacon predicted the telephone in 1627, however, his book New Utopia only described a long speaking tube. A real telephone could not be invented until the electrical age began. And even then it didn't seem desirable. The electrical principles needed to build a telephone were known in 1831 but it wasn't until 1854 that Bourseul suggested transmitting speech electrically. And it wasn't until 22 years later in 1876 that the idea became a reality. But before then, a telephone might have been impossible to form in one's consciousness.

On March 10, 1876, in Boston, Massachusetts, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Thomas Watson, his friend, fashioned the device itself; a crude thing made of a wooden stand, a funnel, a cup of acid, and some copper wire. Bell filed his application for the patent just hours before his competitor, Elisha Gray. So, these two men independently designed devices that could transmit speech electrically (the telephone). What's more, though neither man had actually built a working telephone, Bell made his telephone operate three weeks later using ideas outlined in Gray's Notice of Invention, methods Bell did not propose in his own patent. Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell entered into a famous legal battle over the invention of the telephone, which Bell won.

Alexander Graham Bell's success with the telephone came as a direct result of his attempts to improve the telegraph as they are both wire-based electrical systems. When Bell began experimenting with electrical signals, the telegraph had been an established means of communication for some 30 years. Although a highly successful system, the telegraph, with its dot-and-dash Morse code, was basically limited to receiving and sending one message at a time. Bell's extensive knowledge of the nature of sound and his understanding of music enabled him to conjecture the possibility of transmitting multiple messages over the same wire at the same time. Although the idea of a multiple telegraph had been in existence for some time, Bell offered his own musical or harmonic approach as a possible practical solution. His "harmonic telegraph" was based on the principle that several notes could be sent simultaneously along the same wire if the notes or signals differed in pitch.

Bell developed new and original ideas but did so by building on older ideas and developments. He succeeded specifically because he understood acoustics, the study of sound, and something about electricity. Other inventors knew electricity well but little of acoustics. The telephone is a shared accomplishment among many pioneers, therefore, although the credit and rewards were not shared equally. That, too, is often the story of invention.

What’s the phone nowadays? Let’s study different opinions.

“When I asked my daughter who was 16, which item she would keep: the phone, the car, the cooker, the computer, the TV, or her boyfriend, she said 'the phone'. I was really surprised. Personally, I could do without the phone entirely. Which makes me unusual. Because the telephone is changing our lives more than any other piece of technology.” Martha Vann, USA.

“The telephone creates the need to communicate, in the same way that more roads create more traffic. My daughter comes home from school at 4.00 pm and then spends an hour on the phone talking to the very people she has been at school with all day. If the phone did not exist, would she have anything to talk about?” Alexandra Pappas, Greece.

“The mobile phone means that we are never alone. The mobile saved my life. I had an accident in my Volvo on the road between Otley and Skipton. Trapped inside, I managed to make the call that brought the ambulance to my rescue.” Crystal Johnstone, UK.

“The mobile removes our privacy. I’m a Marketing Manager of Haba Deutsch and it allows me to ring my sales staff all round the world at any time of day to ask where they are, where they are going, and how their last meeting went.” Carl Nicolaisen, Germany.

“The telephone allows us to reach out beyond our own lives. Today we can talk to several complete strangers simultaneously on chat lines (at least women do. I wouldn't know what to talk about). We can talk across the world. We can even talk to astronauts (if you know any) while they're space-walking. And, with the phone line hooked up to the computer, we can access the Internet, the biggest library on Earth.” Philip Maurice, France.
TASKS
1. What do these dates mean to the history of the telephone?

1627, 1831, 1854, 1876

1. 
   People never wanted to communicate from afar.
   
2. 
   People have used birds to get a message from one point to another.
   
3. 
   Francis Bacon predicted the telephone in his book New Utopia.
   
4. 
   A real telephone could be invented only at the electrical age.
   
5. 
   The telephone was invented in 1854.
   
6. 
   The telephone was invented by two people working together: Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray.
   
7. 
   Two men rushed to the patent office within hours of each other, but Elisha Gray patented his telephone first.
   
8. 
   Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson independently designed two telephones.
   
9. 
   Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell had an illegal battle over the invention of the telephone.
   
10. 
    Alexander Graham Bell didn’t win the battle over the invention of the telephone.
    
11. 
    Bell's success with the telephone came as a result of his knowledge both of the electricity and of acoustics.
    
12. 
    Bell developed new and original ideas completely alone.
    
13. 
    The rewards for the invention are equally shared between Elisha Gray, Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson.
    

B. makes it worse.

How does the phone affect your life?
5. Who of the people from the list said or meant the following.
Martha Vann, Alexandra Pappas, Crystal Johnstone, Carl Nicolaisen, Philip Maurice.

1. 
   The mobile is useful for people of my profession.
   
2. 
   The telephone is changing our lives more than any other piece of technology.
   
3. 
   The mobile phone means that we are never alone which is good.
   
4. 
   My daughter adores telephone.
   
5. 
   The mobile saved my life.
   
6. 
   The phone allows you to talk to several people at the same time.
   
7. 
   I can easily live without the phone.
   
8. 
   We can talk to ast.
   
9. 
   ronauts while they're space-walking.
   
10. 
    The telephone creates the need to communicate.
    
11. 
    Women like talking on the phone more then men.