SOME FACTS OF OXFORD HISTORY

Nobody knows exactly when Oxford University 'began'. We know that lectures were being delivered in Oxford at the very beginning of the twelfth century. The students, mostly teenagers, lived wherever they could find lodgings. The learned men who taught them gathered together in small communities, and whenever they could raise the money they built homes for themselves on the monastic pattern. By the fifteenth century most students were living in colleges alongside their teachers, and so they continue to do today. The oldest college buildings still used as rooms for tutors and students are nearly seven hundred years old.

The structure of Oxford University (together with Cambridge) is unique in that it preserves the mediaeval university organisation. In contrast, almost all other British universities are similar to Russian ones, with a central administration in the main building, various faculties, and within the faculties, various departments. Professors run the departments, deans rule the faculties, and at the top of the hierarchy is the Vice Chancellor, equivalent to Rector. He or she has some kind of council to help govern the university.

2. Ответьте на следующие вопросы.

a) When did Oxford begin?

b) Is the structure of Oxford University unigue?

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STRUCTURE OF OXFORD

Oxford and Cambridge, however, are quite different. You must imagine a federation of autonomous republics with a common foreign policy (dealings with the government and other universities) and with a common budget (money from the government and from other national and international sources) and a set of common values (the teaching of undergraduates and graduates and the pursuit of scholarly research), which are at the same time fiercely independent "republics" with their own funds, their own students, their own projects and enthusiasms.

Despite its venerable age Oxford is emphatically not a museum. Each building is occupied and alive. Even more important, both the University and its colleges are very democratic institutions. Every member of the university is also a member of a college. The 3,200 senior members of the university (that is, those engaged in teaching and research) vote for the Vice Chancellor, who is appointed for four years only and cannot be re-elected; they also vote for the two governing councils, for the faculty committees, the library committees, and the administrators. At the same time, as Fellows of their own college, they appoint new fellows, select students from the many who apply to enter the university, organize the finances and take on many practical responsibilities.

2. Ответьте на следующие вопросы.

a) Are Oxford and Cambridge quite different?

b) Can the Vice Chancellor be re-elected?

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TAXATION

Everyone knows that taxation is necessary in a modern state: without it, it would not be possible to pay the soldiers and policemen who protect us: nor the workers in government offices who look after our health, our food, our water, and all the other things that we cannot do for ourselves, nor also the ministers and members of parliament who govern the country for us. By means of taxation we pay for things that we need just as much as we need somewhere to live and something to eat.

But though everyone knows that taxation is necessary, different people have different ideas about how taxation should be arranged. Should each person have to pay a certain amount of money to the government each year? Or should there be a tax on things that people buy and sell? If the first kind of taxation is used, should everyone pay the same tax, whether he is rich or poor? If the second kind of taxation is preferred, should everything be taxed equally? .

In most countries, a direct tax on persons, which is called income tax exists. It is arranged in such a way, that the poorest people pay nothing, and the percentage of tax grows greater as the taxpayer's income grows.

2. Ответьте на следующие вопросы.

a) Why is taxation necessary in modern society?

b) How is income tax arranged?

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ANDREW CARNEGIE

The life of manufacturer and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) is a perfect example of the "rags to riches" philosophy of the nineteenth century. Born in Scotland of parents who were hardworking craftsmen, he was sent to the states in 1848 because of the poor economic prospects in Scotland. Young Carnegie went to work as a bobbin boy in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, at a salary of $1.20 a week, while he read extensively to improve his mind and contributed letters on national topics to the New York "Tribune" and other papers. He next worked as a telegraph messenger, then for the Pennsylvania Rairoad, where a small investment in stock brought a considerable return, which was then invested in the expanding steel industry. At the age of thirty, he was fully embarked upon a line of business, which by 1901 would be worth a

quarter of a billion dollars. Carnegie maintained an interest throughout his career in writing and produced several books on his business theories, social progress, and government. In his essay "Wealth", first published in the "North American Review" in 1889, Carnegie defends the status quo as a necessary condition to the survival of civilization. He suggests that the best method of social reform lies in the uses made of wealth by the wealthy. After his retirement, Carnegie attempted to demonstrate what he meant by using his personal fortune for establishing libraries, supporting education, and leading the international peace movement.

2. Ответьте на следующие вопросы.

a) What was Andrew Carnegie?

b) What has Andrew Carnegie been famous for?

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ROLE OF CHANCE IN DISCOVERY

Probably the majority of discoveries in biology and medicine have been come across unexpectedly, or at least had an element of chance in them, especially the most important and revolutionary ones. It is scarcely possible to foresee a discovery that breaks really new ground, because it is often not in accord with cunent beliefs. Frequently I have heard a colleague relating some new findings, say almost apologetically. "I came across it by accident". Although it is common knowledge that sometimes chance is a factor in the making ~f a discovery, the magnitude of its importance is seldom realized and the significance of its role is not fully appreciated or understood. A good maxim for the research man is "look out for the unexpected".

The history of discovery shows that chance plays an important part, but on the other hand it plays only one part even in those discoveries that are attributed to it.

The truth of the matter lies in Pasteur's famous saying, "In the field of observation, chance favours only the prepared mind". It is the interpretation of chance that counts. The role of chance is merely to provide the opportunity and the scientist has to recognize it and grasp it.

2. Ответьте на следующие вопросы.

a) Is the role of chance in scientific discovery great?

b) How can you explain Pasteur's famous saying that "chance favours only the
prepared mind?

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METALS AND NONMETALS

There are some distinctions between metals and nonmetals. Metals are distinguished from nonmetals by their high conductivity for heat and electricity, by metallic lustre and by their resistance to electric current. Their use in industry is explained not only by those properties, but also by the fact that their properties, such as strength and hardness, can be greatly improved by alloying them with other metals.

There are several important groups of metals and alloys. The common metals such as iron, copper, zinc, etc. are produced in great quantities.

The so-called precious metals include silver, gold, platinum and palladium. The light metals are aluminium, berillium and titanium. They are important in aircraft and rocket construction.

Many elements are classified as semimetals (bismuth, for example) because they have much poorer conductivity than common metals.

Nonmetals (carbon, silicon, sulphur) in the solid state are usually brittle materials without metallic lustre and are usually poor conductors of electricity. Nonmetals show greater variety of chemical properties than common metals do.

Metals can undergo corrosion, changing in this case their chemical and electromechanical properties. In order to protect metals from corrosion the products made of metals and steel are coated by some films (coatings). Organic coatings protect metals and steel from corrosion by forming a corrosion-resistant barrier between metal . or steel and the corrosive environment.

2. Ответьте на следующие вопросы.

a) By what properties are metals distinguished from nonmetals?

b) What is done to protect metals from corrosion?

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