Exercises

I. Answer the following questions:

1. What system is the earth a member of? 2. How many planets does the solar system include (comprise)? 3. What do the nine planets revolve around? 4. How long (how many days) does the earth take to make a complete revolution about the sun? 5. Why is the earth farther away from the sun at some times than at others? 6. What's the average (mean) distance of the earth from the sun? 7. What's the earth's shape? 8. Is the earth's polar radius equal to its mean equatorial radius? 9. How does the earth's average density change with depth? 10. Does the temperature increase toward the centre or does it remain the same? 11. How much time does the earth take to rotate once on its own axis? 12. The moon is one of the planets of the solar system, isn't it? 13. In how many days does the moon revolve once around the earth? 14. What is the cause of ocean tides on the earth? 15. Why is the geological influence of the sun upon the earth far greater than that of the moon?

Word-Building

II. State to what part of speech the following words belong and translate them into Russian:

Important — importance — unimportant; distance — distant; rotate — rotation — rotational; revolve — revolution — revolving; considerable — inconsiderable — considerably; compare — comparison — comparative — comparable — comparatively; divide — division — divisible — indivisible; flat — flatten — flattened

III. Form adverbs in -ly from the adjectives and translate them into Russian:

complete, whole, large, considerable, partial, precise, relative, slight, comparative, indirect, direct

Grammar Exercises

IV. Translate into Russian:

seven — seventh, seventeen — seventeenth, seventy — seventieth, two — second, twelve — twelfth, twenty — twentieth, five — fifth, fifteen — fifteenth, fifty — fiftieth, nine — ninth, nineteen — nineteenth, ninety — ninetieth

V. Translate into English:

двести метров, шестьсот километров, три тысячи книг, сотни книг, двадцать один студент, тысячи студентов, миллионы звезд, девяносто два миллиона километров, пять тысяч градусов по Цельсию

VI. Write or read in English:

25 мая 1971 г., 5 декабря 1955 г., 1 ноября 1648 г., 19 марта 1803 г., 20 августа 1900 г., 29 января 1930 г., в 1941 году, в XVIII веке

VII. Write or read in English:

a) 1/4, 1/2, 1/3, 2/3, 3/5, 3/4, 2¹/₃, 5¾, 1½, 1/23, 5/12000

b) 2.1; 39.04; 0.057; 2.008; 0.1; 5.5; 256804.23

c) -15°C; +80°F (F — Fahrenheit [ˊfærənˊhaɪt], [ˊfɑ:...]); -231°C; +10,000°C; 5%; 99.9%

VIII. Translate into Russian paying attention to that, those:

1. The regime of rivers controlled by rainfall, for instance, in the Far East, differs from that of the rivers of the European part of the USSR. 2. Seismograms suggest that the crust beneath the oceans differs from that beneath the continents. 3. The basis on which periods are divided from one another in geology is different from that on which eras are distinguished. 4. The movement of a glacier resembles that of a river: the centre moves more rapidly than the margins. 5. The conditions of life upon the land are in several respects different from those in the water. 6. Pluto was discovered in 1930, and at present little is known about it. Its diameter is probably intermediate between those of Earth and Mercury. 7. The orbits of the planets are nearly circular, but those of the planetoids (малая планета, астероид) are distinctly elliptical. 8. The law controlling magnetic attraction is identical in form with that governing gravitational attraction. 9. The period of the moon's axial rotation is nearly equal to that of its revolution around the earth.

IX. Give the degrees of comparison of the following adjectives and adverbs:

large, big, small, important, modern, progressive, many, much, little, few, good, far, outer, inner, northern

X. Translate into Russian paying attention to the form of the adjective or adverb:

small satellite; smaller satellite; the smallest satellite

outer planet; outermore planet; the outermost planet

(is) smaller than; farther than; faster than

important problem; more important problem; the most important problem

considerable influence; more considerable influence; the most considerable influence

(is) more important than; more precisely than; more rapidly than

1. Warm air is less dense (lighter) than cold air. 2. The rivers of Asia are longer than those of Europe. 3. The sea in high latitudes is always warmer in winter than the land, and the coast lands have climates less severe than the interior. 4. The snow line is a level above which snow remains throughout the year. The snow line is lower on the western side of the Sierra Nevada than on the eastern side, because more snow falls on the western side. 5. As a rule, river sands are more angular than those found in lake and marine deposits. 6. As­tronomy is one of the oldest sciences. 7. Lake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes. 8. Saturn has a density less than water. 9. The least distance between two points is a straight line. 10. Hydrogen and helium are the lightest of all known elements. 11. The Amur River is the most important river of the Soviet Far East. 12. The topmost layers of the earth are called the crust. 13. The outermost shell of the earth, the lithosphere, consists of silicates. 14. The distance of the earth from the sun varies: when the earth is nearest the sun (peri­helion), its distance is 91,500,000 miles, when the earth is farthest from the sun (aphelion), it is 93,500,000 miles from the sun. 15. The primary division of the earth's surface is between land and sea, or more precisely, between continents and ocean basins.

XI. Translate into Russian paying attention to the emphatic form of comparative degrees of adjectives and adverbs:

much smaller than; (by) far easier than; much better than; far less than; much more difficult than; far more important than; much more considerable than; far more rapidly than

1. The glaciers in Europe are much smaller than those of Asia. 2. Some parts of the moon are much brighter than other parts. 3. The outer part of the Earth consists of material much lighter than the average of the Earth as a whole. 4. Long long ago many parts of the earth's surface were very much colder than they are today. 5. Despite the sun's far greater mass, it is so much farther away than the moon that its maximum tide-producing force is only 0.46 that of the moon. 6. Of the two types of weathering, the chemical type is much more important. 7. The soils of the drier parts of the United States are far more fertile than are those of the well-watered Northwest Coastal region of the East.

XII. Translate into Russian paying attention to as . . . as, not so (as) . . . as:

(is) as simple as; (is) as important as; as rapidly as; (is) not so (as) simple as; (is) not so (as) important as; not so (as) rapidly as

1. The areas of greatest depths in the oceans are almost as small in extent as the areas of greatest heights on land. 2. The earth attracts a pound of air with as much force as it attracts a pound of rock. 3. The geology of New Zealand is as interesting as this small country is beautiful. 4. There are few parts of the world where the instability of the earth's crust is as vividly demonstrated as in New Zealand. 5. The regimen of an ice sheet is not so simple as the regimen of a valley glacier. 6. During most of the geologic past the lands probably did not stand as high as now. 7. Geology has not advanced so rapidly as physics or mathematics.

XIII. Practise the following patterns of comparison speaking about different things (see exercises X, XI, XIII):

larger

1) X is than Y

more important

larger

2) X is much (far) than Y

more important

3) X is as large as Y

X is not so (as) large as Y

4 ) X and Y are the same size (length, height, age, etc.)

(nearly) equal (in size, age, etc.)

Use the following adjectives and nouns:

continents, countries, towns, seas, etc. (large, small)

climates (cold, warm, dry, wet)

mountains (high, low, old, young)

rivers (short, long, wide, narrow, deep, shallow)

the sun, the earth, the moon, radius, diameter, distance (large, great, small, far/distant, close/near, etc.)

Note: Use the words "slightly, a little, considerably" where possible.

XIV. Translate into Russian. Pay attention to there is, there are:

1. We know that there are many different kinds of surface. One is flat and the other is hilly. 2. Probably there is no part of the Earth's surface on which rain or snow does not sometimes fall. 3. Almost everywhere in the world where rocks of later Paleozoic [ˏpælɪouˊzouɪk] age are found there is coal. 4. With an increase of our knowledge of earth's history there comes an extension of our conception of geologic time. 5. There exists a continual exchange of water between the atmosphere, the surface of the earth, and the hydrosphere. 6. In the southern zone there lie the arid regions of Australia and of South Africa. 7. There have been great earthquakes affecting large areas, in which there has been no observed evidence of tectonic disturbance. 8. Gradually indications accumulated that within the limits of the Pleistocene lˊplaistəˊsi:n] epoch there had been four distinct glacial ages, when glaciers spread over nearly a third of the world's land area.