Task 8. Make the written translation into Russian (2,200 characters).

Everything is made up of matter. Matter is anything that takes up space and has mass. Anything that is material is made of matter – in fact both words come from the same Latin root meaning «stuff». Matter is made up of molecules, and molecules are made up of atoms.

About 2400 years ago, a Greek philosopher named Democritus (460-370 B.C.) thought a lot about what things were made of. One day while slicing an apple, he wondered how small he could slice it. He figured that everything that could be touched could be divided again and again until there was a piece left that was so small it couldn’t be cut. It turns out that he had the right idea, and that smallest piece we now know as the atom. The word atom comes from an ancient Greek word that means «uncuttable». Democritus could not see an atom (as we can today), but he had figured out something very important. His atom is what we talk about today as an element. In the mid-17th century, scientists began to prove the existence of specific elements, or pure substances that couldn’t be «cut» into other pieces. This led scientists to discover the elements and atoms that make up all matter. At the beginning of the 20th century, scientists found that Democritus’ atom actually could be cut into smaller pieces, called sub-atomic particles.

The parts of the atom are nucleus, electron, proton and neutron. The nucleus is at the center of the atom. It is made up of protons and neutrons. Moving around outside of the nucleus are the electrons. In 1915 a scientist named Niels Bohr proposed a model of the atom that illustrates the atomic structure, called the planetary model or the Bohr model. Proton comes from the Greek word for «first». Protons have a positive charge. Typically, positively charged particles would repel each other, but they are held together in the nucleus with a force called the strong atomic force. This is the strongest force in the universe. The other part of the nucleus is the neutron. Neutrons are about the same size as protons. The word «neutron» comes from the Latin word for «neutral». The neutron has no charge – it is neutral. The third particle of an atom is the electron. Electrons are much smaller than the protons or the neutrons (almost 2000 times smaller). It is easy to illustrate them orbiting around the nucleus using the Bohr model, although they actually move in a cloud. Electrons are negative. Protons and neutrons are both composed of other particles called quarks and gluons. Protons contain two «up» quarks and one «down» quark while neutrons contain one «up» quark and two «down» quarks. The gluons are responsible for binding the quarks to one another. (From www.wikipedia.org)

THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY

«When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity».

Albert Einstein

Vocabulary