Grammar in Use

1. Fill in the gaps in the following sentences using the appropriate form of the verb in brackets.

1). Some decades ago the words "automation", "automatic control" seldom (to appear) on the pages of the press or scientific publications. 2). The man (to remain) the principal agent of the technological process. 3) Last year a lot of automated control systems (to go) into operation at different enterprises and organizations. 4). In 1990s the main trend in automation (to develop) various technological processes and systems. 5). Flexible manufacturing systems (to be) the best way to meet the demands of industry

2. Make up questions to which the underlined words are the answers:

1) Automation replaces human muscle by mechanical power. 2) These machines confined human operator to two kinds of work. 3) Since then technical development has been gradual and continuous. 4) The transfer-machine combines automatic machining with automatic transfer between operations. 5) All loading and unloading is done mechanically. 6) During the Middle Ages, windmills had been made. 7) Automation was first applied to industry in continuous process manufacturing.

3. Open the brackets using the appropriate form of the verb.

1). Robots already (to demonstrate) an ability to perform work that (to require) simple repetitive motions and, therefore, can relieve human operators from hazardous or monotonous tasks. 2). The number of types of electromechanical robots continually (to increase). 3). In forging operations, robots (to be) used to transfer hot billets from furnaces to forging presses to transfer parts from die to die in successive forming operations. 4). For last decades many ways (to be) tried to increase productivity on assembly lines. 5). To test different kinds of acceleration couches, scientists (to build) robots that look and "feel" like men.

Additional Text (for individual work)

Read and translate the text.

What can robots do?

In addition to their many practical uses, robots are helping our research scientists answer many difficult questions. Robots help astronomers find and track new stars and lead the way to new and better rockets. They even help scholars figure out the meaning of documents written near the beginning of man's history.

Very few of the robots we have talked about up to now have looked like men. That's because robots are specialists.

There are some robots, however, that are made to look and react like men. That is their specialized task. They are the robots that researchers use to find out what will happen to a human body under a variety of situations.

One of the things that space researchers want to know is what kind of seat is the best for rocket passengers. The blast-off of a rocket will exert tremendous pressures on anyone riding in the rocket. Because of that, a rocket will have to have specially designed seats to protect its passengers. These seats are called "acceleration couches".

To test different kinds of acceleration couches, scientists have built dummies that look and "feel" like men. They have "bones" and "blood" and "flesh". Inside these robots are instruments that tell how much pressure and strain is exerted on each part of the body. These robots are placed on acceleration couches and subjected to pressures like those that would be present in an actual rocket take-off. The measuring devices inside the dummy tell the scientists whether or not the acceleration couch would prevent the blast-off pressure from injuring or killing a man.