Read three texts and match the headings with texts

2.Read the text again and underline answers to these questions

3.Find words in the text with the following meaning

Each year, the top high-school science students in the United States enter the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. This contest is the most prestigious of its kind. Finalists of this competition win cash awards in the thousands and have very high chances of being accepted to the top universities of the USA. The competition has been called the “Junior Nobel Prize”, a nickname that is quite merited considering six finalists have become Nobel Prize winners.

The selection process is highly competitive and depends not only on the high-level scientific research paper but also recommendations, essays, test scores, and high school transcripts. Each year, the top 300 applicants are announced in mid-January. In late January, the 40 finalists are informed; they compete in March in Washington, D.C., at the National Academy of the sciences for the top ten spots, which have scholarships ranging from $20,000 to $100,000 for the first prize winner. In addition, all finalists receive $5,000 scholarships and an Intel Centrino powered laptop.

The Nobel Prizes were founded by Swedish industrialist and scientist Alfred Nobel who invented dynamite in 1866. Alfred Nobel was many talents rolled in one as he worked as chemist, engineer and industrialist. Also, he could speak 5 languages fluently at the age of 17. He left 31 million Swedish kroner (today about 265 million dollar) to fund the Nobel Prizes.

In his will dated November 27, 1895, Nobel dedicated a mammoth share of his fortune to honour work by awarding prizes in five areas - Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, and Peace. The Nobel Prizes are announced in advance but distributed every year on December 10 to mark the death anniversary of Alfred Nobel.

The prize consists of a medal with inscription "Inventas vitam juvat excoluisse per artes," which in loose translation means - "And they who bettered life on earth by new found mastery.", personal diploma and cash worth 8 million Swedish kroner (roughly equal to $1.1 million US dollars as of october 2014).

2.Read the text again and underline answers to these questions

3.Find words in the text with the following meaning

George Stephenson is one of the most famous engineers who ever lived. He is popularly regarded as the author of the railway and the steam locomotive. No other invention had such an overwhelming effect upon society as this first from of mechanical transport. 

G. Stephenson was born at Wylam, on 9 June 1781. His early life was spent in extreme poverty, but 1804 he moved Killingworth supplementing his income by repairing watches and clocks, and in 1812 he was appointed enginewright of High Pit colliery. In two years George Stephenson completed his first engine which he put at work at Killingworth colliery.

In 1823, Stephenson was invited by his colleague, Edward Pease, to build and equip a railway from Stockton to Darlington. Stephenson persuaded the directors to use steam instead of horse traction. The railway opened on 27 September 1825, and the first public passenger train in the world was drawn by Stephenson’s Active, later renamed Locomotive. In 1829 the Liverpool and Manchester railway held a contest to decide upon the best kind of traction to use and it was won by Stephenson’s Rocket. The success of the Rocket was attributed to its multitube boiler and its more effective system for exhausting the steam and creating a draft in the firebox, basic features that continue to be used in the steam locomotives. The Rocket had one pair of driving wheels. After it came the four-coupled locomotive, followed by the six-coupled. The number of coupled wheels grew to a maximum of 14, a locomotive with this remarkable number being built in Russia.

The Liverpool and Manchester railway was opened on 15 September 1830, and it became the first public railway on which all traffic was hauled by steam locomotives.

Stephenson was engineer of many other railways in the midlands, h was also consultant to many foreign companies, notably in Belgium and Spain. His only son Robert Stephenson assisted his father in a survey for all the railways the latter built, but, however, Robert was particularly concerned with the construction of railway bridges and his work extended to Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland and Egypt.

George Stephenson’s last years were spent in retirement at Tapton House, Chesterfield, where he died on 12 August 1848. The development of railways is one of the great landmarks in the progress of human civilization. And of course, George Stephenson’s name, a prominent engineer in the history of railways is great. A monument to father and son was erected in Westminster Abbey.  

2.Read the text again and underline answers to these questions

3.Find words in the text with the following meaning

 The construction of Public Joint Stock Company Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (PJSC MMK) started in 1928. In the following year, iron ore mining started at Magnitnaya (Magnetic) Mountain. Three years later, on February 1^st, 1932, the first blast furnace produced pig iron, thus making the birth of MMK.

By 1941 MMK had become the largest enterprise in the country’s steelmaking sector and has maintained that leading position ever since. The works has passed through several stages in its structural and technological development, each successive stage elevating it to an entirely new level.

The 1960s saw the commissioning of 2500mm hot and cold rolling mills, two 2014m³ blast furnaces and the nation’s largest open-hearth furnace steel shop with two-bath and Siemens-Martin steelmaking units. The 70s through the 90s was a period of commissioning facilities which significantly broadened the Works’ range of products, such as lines for producing cold rolled strip, cold formed sections, galvanized sheet and electrolytic tinplate. Over the 10-years period from 1990 to 2000 steelmaking production at the Works was radically modernized and most of the obsolete open-hearth furnace production replaced by oxygen converters (BOF- Basic Oxygen Furnace).        All this enabled the decommissioning and dismantling of 30 open-hearth furnaces with a total production capacity of 8Mt/y. The site where the furnaces used to be is now an expanse of green lawn.

The company has also been implementing a consistent and purposeful environmental program. In 1999 Europe’s most modern coke gas treatment plant was put on stream at MMK. Over the past decade total harmful discharges into the environment have decreased fourfold.

For the past 5 years the Works has been developing at an accelerated pace, with output increasing 156% between 1996 and 2001. In 2001 MMK produced over 9.2 Mt of rolled steel while in 2002 it was planned to produce 9.5Mt. In the next few years the company intends to concentrate on project ensuring downstream processing of steel. As part of this effort, MMK is currently implementing a large-scale investment program aimed at creating a modern production complex for cold rolled sheet which will be competitive on the world market.