Vocabulary:

adjunct professor - адъюнкт-профессор

to confirm - подтверждать

extraordinary professor – старший профессор

ordinary professor – ординарный профессор

diligent – усердный, старательный

to mock - осмеивать

3.14 Match the words in column a with their synonyms in column b a b

1. to face a) to test

2. to dismiss b) to ridicule

3. to devote c) to confront

4. to response d) to disregard

5. to mock e) to discharge

6. to prove f) to apply

7. to elect g) to choose

3.15 Read the statements below and say if they are true or false:

1. When Lobachevsky was nine years old, the family moved to Kazan.

2. The Kazan University was founded in 1807.

3. The dean of the University was sure that Lobachevsky would be famous in future.

4. Lobachevsky received a Master's Degree in mechanics and mathematics in 1811.

5. At the age of 23 Lobachevsky was elected an adjunct professor.

6. Since 1817 he had been working on one of the most difficult problems, the proof for the fifth Euclid postulate on parallel straight lines.

7. In 1823 he came to conclusion that the fifth postulate can be proved.

8. At the age of 40 Lobachevsky headed the observatory and was the dean of mathematics faculty.

9. He was re-elected five times, heading the university for twenty years.

3.16 Complete the sentences:

1. Lobachevsky entered gymnasia and began to study at… .

2. His original intention was to study … .

3. Lobachevsky’s career was … .

4. The list of disciplines enumerates … .

5. Since 1817 he had been working on one of the most difficult problems… .

6. The works, which prove that Lobachevsky’s geometry is as rightful as the non-Euclidean one … .

7. He was not understood and even … .

8. Lobachevsky used to go to Petersburg … .

9. As the rector he energetically and with competence devoted himself to… .

3.17 What do the dates in the text refer to?

1807, 1811, 1814, 1822, 1827, 1842, 1846.

3.18 Find some examples in the text proving that Lobachevsky was a good rector of the Kazan University.

3.19 Speak on the scientific career of n. Lobachevsky.

3.20 Read and translate the text: Sofia Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya

Born: 15 Jan 1850 in Moscow, Russia

Died: 10 Feb 1891 in Stockholm, Sweden

The outstanding Russian mathematician, Sophia Kovalevskaya, was born in Moscow on January 5, 1850 to a well-off family of an artillery general, Korvi-Krukovsky. Sofia lived in St. Petersburg and joined her family's social circle, which included the author Dostoevsky.

Though Sophia liked literature very much, she showed an unusual gift in mathematics, too. When Sofia was 11 years old, the walls of her nursery were papered with pages of Ostrogradski's lecture notes on differential and integral analysis. When she was only twelve she surprised her teacher by suggesting a new solution for the determination of the ratio of the diameter of the circle to its circumference.

 In 1866, Sophia and her older sister were taken to St. Petersburg where Sophia went on with her studies. But, as women were not permitted to attend public lectures, she was obliged to read privately. She applied for permission to attend lectures at the University.  Although the permission was granted, she was not allowed to take examinations, to say nothing of taking a degree.

 The only possible way out for her was to go abroad. There was a condition, which was to be observed. If a woman wanted to go abroad, she should be married. Sofia was forced to marry so that she could go abroad to enter higher education. At the age of eighteen, she entered a nominal marriage with Vladimir Kovalevsky a young palaeontologist. This marriage caused problems for Sofia and, throughout its fifteen years, it was a source of intermittent sorrow. They left for Vienna where she began to study physics at the University. Soon Sophia made up her mind to go to Heidelberg University. There she could study and her intention was to take examinations and get a degree (Ph.D.).

In 1870 the Kovalevskys went to Berlin. During the four years spent in Berlin, Sophia succeeded not only in covering the University course but also in writing three dissertations, for which the University granted her a Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in absentia. By the spring of 1874, Kovalevskaya had completed three papers. Weierstrass deemed each of these worthies of a doctorate. The three papers were on Partial differential equations, Abelian integrals and Saturn's Rings. In 1874 Kovalevskaya was granted her doctorate from Göttingen University.

Despite this doctorate Kovalevskaya was unable to obtain an academic position. This was for a combination of reasons, but her sex was a major handicap.

Some years later the Kovalevskys returned to St. Petersburg. Sophia Kovalevskaya, an outstanding scientist already, could not get any position at the University and was obliged to turn to journalism. But as she had made up her mind to take her Magister's Degree, she returned to Berlin to complete her work on the refraction of light in crystals.

 It was only in 1883 that she was given an opportunity to report on the results of her research at a session held in Odessa, but again no post followed. That is why, when she was offered lectureship at Stockholm University, she willingly accepted the offer.

 In 1888 she achieved the greatest of her successes, winning the highest prize offered by Paris Academy of Sciences for the solution of complicated problem: to perfect in one important point the theory of the movement of solid body about an immovable point. The solution suggested by her made a valuable addition to the results submitted by Euler and Lagrange. The prize was doubled as recognition of the unusual merits of her work.

 In 1889 Sophia Kovalevskaya was awarded another prize, this time by the Swedish Academy of Sciences. Soon in spite of her being the only woman-lecturer in Sweden, she was elected professor of mathematics and held the post until her death.

 Along with her scientific and pedagogical work she carried out a good deal of literary work. In consideration of her literary work she was elected member of the Literary Club in Stockholm, where she used to meet Ibsen and Grieg with whom she made friends.

Unfortunately, Sophia Kovalevskaya died at the age of 41 just as she had attained the height of her fame and had won recognition even in her own country where she was elected member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.