01 семестр / Разное / Всё сделанное в учебнике (переведены тексты и сделаны упражнения) / English / Text 04 / 4D

Talking via Space

Communication has come a long way from the time when a Indian beat a drum in the forest to the time when a scientist receives messages from a satellite. In this space age communication has become a highly developed field. The system of communication in large countries is unthinkable today without space satellites. Besides large distances, there is a great time difference: the territories of some countries comprise up to 11 zones. Satellites help to minimize all the difficulties that may appear. They rapidly transmit TV and radio programs to different towns, cities, and distant areas.

Space systems and electronic technology have made it possible to set up an automatic system of communication designed for rapid transmission of all kinds of information.

People write letters and send telegrams. But at the same time people living in various cities like to exchange news on the telephone. Statistics reports that the number of long-distance telephone calls is about 2,000 million per year. A person in Moscow talking on the phone with Vladivostok must know that this conversation is carried on through a satellite.

Trains and cars can use mobile radio telephones to make calls. Businessmen can use teletypewriters to send messages via telephone lines to other teletypewriters in another city which automatically print them as they are received. Even photographs can be sent over telephone wires.

Practically all the population in large countries can watch TV programs via satellites. The orbital communication systems make it possible for people from different continents to see and hear one another.

The importance of space means of communication is increasing every year. The communication satellites of the international organization "INTERSAT" enable people to keep reliable telephone, telegraph and telex communication in any weather with ships practically in every part of the World Ocean.