Great people of Great Britain
Many of the things that make our lives easier and better are the results of the advances in technology. Scientists are learning to predict earthquakes, they are continuing to study many other natural events such as storms. But every medal has its reverse. The rapid scientific progress has aroused a number of problems. These are ecological problems, the safety of nuclear power stations, a nuclear war threat, a human cloning problem.
It's quite evident that no discovery would be possible without scientists. The names of Isaac Newton, Mikhail Faraday, Dmitry Mendeleev, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Mikhail Lomonosov, Thomas Edison are known all over the world. Dmitriy Mendeleev's Periodic Table of Elements began a new era in chemical thought.
Albert Einstein is perhaps the greatest scientist of the 20th century. He is known as the founder of the theory of relativity. Some of his ideas made possible the atomic bomb as well as television and other inventions.
Isaac Newton made his three great discoveries—the discovery of the differential calculuses, of the nature of white light, and of the law of gravitation.
The invention of our contemporary scientist Zhores Alferov revolutionized the mobile phone and satellite communication. He received the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics together with Herbert Kroemer.
NEWTON (1642—1727)
1) Newton was born on the 25th of December, 1642, in a little village in England.
2) His father was a farmer and had died before Newton was born.
3) His mother was a clever woman whom Newton loved all his life.
4) He studied mathematics at Cambridge and took his degree there in 1665.
5) Then the University was closed because of the danger of plague and Newton went home for a period of eighteen months.
6) It was an important period.
7) During that time Newton made his three great discoveries—the discovery of the differential calculuses, of the nature of white light, and of the law of gravitation.
8) These three great discoveries have changed the world.
9) The idea of the laws of gravitation first came to him when he sat in his garden and an apple fell on his head.
10) Newton died when he was 84, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, where his monument is today.
Outstanding People of Belarus
I wouldn’t like to follow a stereotype road of discussing the personalities that are known to all. My idea is to talk about those whose contribution is very important but who are not so widely known among common people. One of such personalities is Ivan Chersky who is both the Belarusian and Polish great scientist—geologist, geographer, paleontologist and researcher of Siberia.
He was born in the Vitebsk region and studied both there and in Vilno. For his participation in the anti-tsarist movement for the independence of his motherland he was arrested and exiled as a soldier to Omsk, Siberia. It was in Siberia that he conducted his scientific research work together with the local scientists. He created the first geographical map of the Baikal as well as of the Nizhnyaya Tunguska river. Many of Chersky’s discoveries are of great importance and significance. His discovery of a camp of prehistoric men caused a sensation . Chersky formulated the idea of the relief evolution in 1878. A number of places in Siberia were named in his honor. I am really impressed by the great contribution of Ivan Chersky to the world science and it is worth sharing his biography with you.
Mass Media
The main source of information for millions of people is mass media. Mass media includes newspapers and magazines, advertising and radio and, of course, television.
Television is a reflection of the modern world. It gives you an opportunity to travel all over the world, to see different people and to learn about their customs and traditions. There is always a great variety of programs on TV: current affairs programs and documentaries, plays and feature films, talk shows and TV games. A lot of people like TV news because they can see everything with their own eyes. Besides, TV has the power to educate and broaden our mind.
Some people think that the only way to be in the know of everything is to read newspapers and magazines. Newspapers are packed with the latest news, information, fashion and facts .Papers are generally divided into “quality papers”, or broadsheets, and “popular papers” known as “tabloids” which have a more sensational reporting style and contain more human-interest stories than news. “Quality papers” are serious, with long informative articles. People choose a paper according to their tastes and preferences.
There are a lot of magazines and other periodicals. Whatever your interest, there is likely to be a magazine about it—from sport, cookery and farming to religion, computer, cinema and more.
Still many people prefer the radio. It’s good to listen to the radio in a car, or in the open air, or when you do something about the house. Besides, radio has fresher news than newspapers. They are informed every half-hour.
The Internet has recently become another important source of information. It is a computer system that allows millions of people around the world to receive and exchange information about almost everything. It’s much faster and easier to surf the net in search of information than to travel to libraries in dozens of countries.
In my opinion, we can’t say exactly which source of information is the best. It depends on what kind of information you need.
Mass Media in our life.
There are many different ways to get information about our world. But one of the best ways of getting new information is mass media. Mass media are the various ways by which information and news are given to large numbers of people, especially by television, Internet, newspapers and magazines.
The Internet informs us of what is going on in this world and gives us wonderful possibilities for education and entertainment.
I am sure it is also impossible to imagine our life without newspapers and magazines. They are oriented towards people of all ages and contain the experience of many generations.
Radio and television provide the public with information. Television helps us to learn more about life and traditions of people from different countries; have a chance to visit other countries without wasting money. Speaking of radio I would like to say that you can listen to your favourite songs and get useful information while doing something.
Like it or not the Internet and television are the most popular mass media nowadays. But people, who spend hours using computers, have a tendency to become anti-social, get lazy, they have no time to communicate with their relatives and friends, go in for sports and it is also bad for their eyes.
In conclusion I would add that everything has its dark and bright sides. We should not forget that even very necessary and important things sometimes can not be so useful. But let’s hope for the better.