.


:




:

































 

 

 

 





. , . :

 

 

If I had known it before... ( )...
Had I known it before...
If I were less tired... ( )...
Were I less tired...

: - , - . : , . , , , . , : 1) - 5 , ( . ); 2) , ( ).

- -. , :

If I won If I should win If I were to win Should I win Were I to win I would (should) buy a car.

:

If I had won five thousand roubles, I should have bought a car. ..., ... ( ).

, .

 

:

:

If you need a dictionary, go to the library. I shall go immediately unless you want me to wait. We shall wait here if you don't mind. If he was ill, why didn't he lie down? I can conduct the observation provided you help [me. If I find that letter, I shall show it to you. If I meet him, I shall invite him. If the children are playing quietly, don't disturb them.

:

If I met him again, I could ask him about it. Do you think he would be angry if I asked him to help me? Would they come, if we invited them? Should it be necessary, we could make another test. If he should ask you, tell him no news has been received.

Tun B:

If he were older, he could take that job. If I were you, I should make another experiment. He could not translate that story even if he tried. If they knew the answer the teacher would be happy. If John were there, I should immediately go to him. If I knew his native language, I should answer him.

:

If we had known about your experiments, the letter would not have been sent. Had the road been better, we should not have been late. If John had been here, we should have asked him. Had I known his native language, I should have answered him.

, . . : a‿claim [q'kleIm], of‿land [qv'lxnd].

 

:

THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA

(continued)

II

Aclaim was a‿piece of‿land a‿few feet square. Each man was‿ allowed to‿have only one. There he‿might work as‿long as‿he‿ wished. No‿one dared to‿work upon ‿another's claim. If he‿tried to‿do so, he‿was brought before a‿ rough court of‿miners and severely punished.

Each miner had his own tent or cabin and had to do his own cooking, or sometimes two lived together. The only cooking implements were a frying-pan and a c offee-po t. In the early days there were few women or children at the mines.

At the camps the only amusements provided (1) were drinking and gambling.

It was a rough life. The men had to go armed to protect themselves. Fighting was common (2), and men were often killed.

After the first year few of the gold-diggers became rich. The gold that lay on the top of the ground or near the surface had been dug out, and the men had no machinery for deep digging. Many grew discouraged and turned to other work.

When gold was first discovered, the small towns in California were quickly emptied of people. But soon it was found that men could often make more money (3) in the towns than they could in the mines.

The towns were made up mainly of canvas tents, which were used as hotels, and gambling houses. The streets were always deep in dust or mud. When these streets grew so bad that men were drowned by falling into pools of water, and horses sank out of sight (4) in the mud, the townspeople at last had to cover them with planks laid side by side (5).

California drew up its own constitution and was admitted later to the Union as a state (6). The first great gold rush was soon over.

, , .

 

 

MINE INSPECTORS HOLD COMPANY GUILTY IN DEATH OF SIX WORKERS

Federal Bureau of Mine inspectors (7) hold the Bethlehem Mines Corporation, a subsidiary of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation (8), guilty in the death of six workers in an explosion of accumulated gas in a Marianna, Pa., (9) mine last Sept. 23.

 

The group, together with the five who escaped, had been checking the ventilating system. Had the full working force been on the job, dozens would have lost their lives.

The four inspectors charge that the mine management had received a written report the day before the explosion, warning that accumulated gas had created a dangerous condition. They found the explosion had been set off by an electric spark from the power line.

The mine is classified as "gassy" by both federal and state authorities. This is synonymous with "very dangerous".

From The Worker

(1) the only amusements provided = the only amusements that were provided () .... Only . Provided . II provide , . (amusements provided) . . provided .

(2) fighting was common . Fighting . ( 13).

(3) make money

(4) sank out of sight ( . 19)

(5) laid side by side . Side by side .

(6) admitted... as a state ()

(7) Federal Bureau of Mine inspectors . Federal . . both federal and state authorities (state), (federal).

(8) Bethlehem Steel Corporation

(9) Marianna, Pa (= Pennsylvania) . ,

 

accumulate [q'kju:mjuleIt] v ,

admit [qd'mIt] v , , ( )

allow [q'lau] v , ,

amusement [q'mju:zmqnt] n

armed ['Q:rmd]

authority [O:'TOrItI] n ,

be over ['quvq]

cabin ['kxbIn] n

camp [kxmp] n

canvas ['kxnvqs] n , ,

charge [CQ:G] v

check [Cek] v

claim [kleIm] n , ; .

classify ['klxsIfaI] v

coffee-pot ['kOfIpOt] n

constitution ["kOnstI'tju:S(q) n] n

cooking [kukIN] n ,

court [kO:t] n ; ,

dare [dFq] v

discourage [dIs'kArIG] v ,

draw [drO:], drew [dru:], drawn [drO:n] v , ; , ;

draw up (, )

drown [draun] v ,

empty ['emptI] v ,

explosion [Iks'plquZ(q) n] n

force [fO:s] [fo:s] n

fry [fraI] [frai] v ; frying-pann

gamble ['gxmbl] v ; gambling house

gassy ['gxsI]

guil t y ['gIltI] ; hold guil t y

hotel [hqu'tel] n ,

implement ['ImplImqnt] 'implimont] n

lay [leI], laid [leId], laid v

machinery [mq'SI(:) nqrI] n a,

management ['mxnIGmqnt] ,

mud [mAd] ,

plank [plxNk] n ,

pool [pu:l] n , ,

pot [pOt] n ,

provide provide ['pAnIS] v

punish ['pAnIS] v

rough [rAf] ,

severely [sI'vIqlI] adv

sink [sINk], sank [sxNk], sunk [sANk] v ()

spark [spQ:k] n

steel [sti:l] [stfcl] n

subsidiary [sqb'sIdjqrI] n

synonymous [sI'nOnImqs] ,

tent [tent] n ,

townspeople ['taunz"pi:pl] n

union ['ju:njqn] n

upon [ [q'pOn] e'pon] prp (= on)

ventilate ['ventIleIt] v

warn [wO:n] v

wish [wIS] v

 

6, 10, 15 20 . 150, 350, 600 850. 2125 250 . ? , 1100 , , 2000. ? , , . , 25.

to accumulate -ion -or accumulation accumulator .

to admit , , -ion, -ance - admission , , admittance , , non-admittance ( -.).

-ment amusement , , to amuse , , an amusing story .

armed to arm , unarmed , disarmed , armament , disarmament , , .

punish punishment ; management to manage , a manager .

classify classification, classified, unclassified. to ventilate ventilation, ventilator . .

severely severe , severity .

, .

25 empty v ; camp n v ; charge v ; wish v .

townspeople , , . , to wish well , well-wisher .

, Reading, , ,

2000

I. : ( ) , ( ). :

I shall close the window if you allow. The door will not open unless you press the button. We can go now if you wish. If you check the data, you will find everything in order. If I allowed my children to do what they like, they would not go to bed in time. We can make the test provided the management supplies us with materials. If these words were synonymous, you could use either of them. They would buy those implements if they needed them. If you want to draw, you need better pencils. If he were guilty, he would not dare to come. He will not run away unless he is guilty.

2. : ( ) ( ). :

If you knew him better, you would not admit, him into your house. Had I known the facts better, I should have allowed you to make a new test. I should not have mentioned it if my friends had not warned me. If he were dead, I should be sorry. If the bottle were empty, we could use it for oil. Do you think she would have spoken better if she had not been so tired? If the ventilating system had been better, the management of the American mine would not have been held guilty in the death of six miners.

3. , ( ):

It would be better if you admitted your mistake. If you classified the data, fewer tests would be needed. If they listened to us, we could warn them. They might attack us if they dared.

4. :

I wish I could go to Leningrad. I wish it were so. I wish he were alive. You shouldn't allow your children to play so late. One should admit one's mistakes. Young girls should learn cooking.

5. [], [], [ai]; . , .

6. (. 3).

7. :

 

 

IF ALL WERE ONE

If all the seas were one sea,

What a great sea that would be! And if all the trees were one tree,

What a great tree that would be! And if all the axes were one axe,

And if all the men were one man,

And if a great man took the great axe,

And cut down the great tree, And let it fall into the great sea,

What a great splash that would be! (splash )

I. , .

II. ( ). . 1, 4 6 ( ) :

1. If the ground is soft, our work will be easy. 2. We shall be late unless we go much faster. 3. Provided we get the implements, We shall check the power line. 4. If you agree, we shall warn the management. 5. If you allow me, I shall go to a hotel. 6. If the wind increases, I may stay at home.

III. :

If I went away, it was because I did not like the hotel. If they are found guilty, will they be severely punished? If you went there, there would be many changes. If you admitted your mistake, you did well. If he were really ill, he would not be able to live in a canvas tent. If we go to the theatre tonight, we shall see a very good play. If I told you the truth, you would not like it. Even if you had not agreed, it would have made no difference at all. Had you made this experiment last year, everybody would have laughed at you. The results are remarkable provided all the figures have been checked. Had I known what to do, I should have saved' much time. If he should ask, tell him no answer has been received.

IV. : 1) 12 , ; 2) ; 3) . to lie to lay .

V. 2- .

VI. :

admit, spark, allow, punish, authority, to draw, so, lay, guilty, empty, rough, armed, court, union, wish, charge, severely, be, over, hotel, check, drown, dry, mud, camp, to sink, warn, implement, pool, provided, claim, accumulate, management

VII. , :

, , , , , , , , , ,

 

13-23, , 3, 8, 9 15, 16, 17. , . 371-380 ( 4) :

 

 

READING

QUOTATION

The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workers of the world, unite!

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

Manifesto of the Communist Party

A MINER FROM MICHIGAN

The star of a new film made in the Ukraine is a former American miner who became a Soviet mineworker in 1922.

John Pinter began work in 1910 at copper and coal mines in Michigan and Illinois.

An active trade-union member he joined the American Socialist Patry in 1916, and three years later, the United States-Canadian Society for Technical Aid to Soviet Russia.

In 1922 he was one of 32 American miners who answered Lenin's call to come and help the young Soviet state.

He started work at Lidiyevka mine in the Ukraine and became a team leader (). Later he became manager of two mines, took p rt in the testing of the first Soviet-made coal-cutter ( ), and worked as an engineer at a design institute.

He married in the USSR and brought up () two sons and two daughters, all of whom got a good education and work in the Ukraine.

From Soviet Weekly

THEY ALL GO TO THE PAMIRS

Afore and more people physicists, seismologists (), archaeologists () and other scientists are visiting the Pamirs, one of the earth's highest mountain systems.

The Pamirs are a natural laboratory for the study of cosmic radiation, which is being studied at the high mountain research camp at Ak-Akhrar, nearly 3.5 miles above sea level.

Tadjikistan is also the most earthquake prone () part of the Soviet Union. There are weak underground tremors practically every day; middling () ones about once a year; severe ones every few years; and really destructive ones () every few decades ()'.

The Pamirs are extremely rich in power resources, for they are the source of powerful mountain rivers like the Vakhsh.

Archaeologists recently made an amazing discovery in the Pamirs the remains () of a 10-12th century mining town, high above the clouds.

This town is 12,540 feet above sea level, and graves have been found containing a great quantity of things which throw much light on the history of the area.

Botanists find the Pamirs highly interesting, and recently ten expeditions have been working in different parts of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region. One of the world's highest botanical gardens is just outside Khorog, capital of the region. Its plan includes study of medicinal herbs ( ) and observation of the effect of ultra-violet rays on the growth of trees and other plants.

The Pamirs are the largest glacial () zone in the USSR, so naturally glaciologists () find them interesting. There are more than a thousand glaciers (), one of which, the Fedchenko, is more than 44 miles long.

Hydrographers study the snow cover on the mountains, for agriculture in Central Asia depends on the amount of water in the mountains brought down by its chief rivers, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya.

Finally, the Pamirs have a particular interest for students of languages. The area is a kind of linguistic () museum in which many "dead" Iranian languages still live.

From Soviet Weekly

EXPERIENCE

Experience is a fine teacher, it's true,

But here is what makes me burn (1):

Experience is always teaching me

Things I'd rather not learn.

Ethel Wegert

(1) what makes me burn

 

, , . : , , , , , , . .

, ( 7), , ( 5), - ( 21).

21 , , , . .

, - , . , , , : , , . .

, , . ?

, , -, ; -, ; -, , .

: 1) ; 2) ; 3) .

( ), . . . , . . (, ) . , , , 21. , - , (, , , . .).

. , , . ( , .) : , , , . , , , - ; , -. , - and I , .

, . 3, , , . , , , . . . : She loved and trusted her friend. : , , ( ? ?), ( ? ?). : . .

. , , . , 2G Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. , , (. 3 ). the Underground Railroad 18. , . , , the Underground Railroad , , - .

, .. . , to take part , to hold a meeting , a meeting was held , a good deal , how do you do . . ! , . . . .

. , . . , F,R.$. ..., . : Fellow of the Royal Society : , , , the Royal Society.

, : , . , Sean Leicester, ; , , , .

( 8-10 ), . , , . : ?, ? , , , , . (, , .) , , , , , . .

, , , , .

. , - . . . , . ( . . ).

, - . , (, , , , , , ).

Reading , . , . , , , - .

, , , , .

 

IS THERE A TENTH PLANET?

Is there an undiscovered tenth planet circling the Sun, as big as Earth?

Many Leningrad astronomers believe so. Their opinion is based on a complicated mathematical analysis of the flight trajectory of a comet known in the astronomical catalogues under the index number of 1862-3.

The comet's orbit seems to be distorted by a large unknown gravitational centre.

If, as they think, it is a planet, it would have a diameter of 5,000 to 7,500 miles and a similar mass and volume as Earth. It would be very much farther out, however circling the Sun at a distance of about 5,000 million miles, some 54 times the distance of Earth from the Sun.

If the orbit coincides with the one calculated, it will be certain proof of the existence of the unknown planet.

From Soviet Weekly

 

MYSTERY OF LAKE SOLVED

One of the mysteries of Lake Balkhash, in eastern Kazakhstan, has been cleared up. This salt lake, as large as half a dozen English counties, always stays at the same level, though it stands in a desert which rarely gets any rain and is fed by only a few surface rivers.

It has now been discovered that there are, however, huge rivers underground.

The largest of them carries some 176,000 million gallons a year.

From Soviet Weekly

HIPPO WAS TEN MILLION YEARS OLD

Remains of an extinct hippopotamus have been discovered in the Gobi desert by a party of Soviet and Mongolian palaeontologists.

This is the first such discovery in the Gob i hitherto such fossils have been discovered only in North America. The Gobi hippo lived about seven to ten million years ago. At that time the Gobi desert was a hot marshy plain covered with rich vegetation.

From Soviet Weekly

 

THE LEGEND

A legend has long been current that the town of Yangikent in the Syr-Darya delta in Central Asia was abandoned by its inhabitants because of a plague of snakes.

The ruins of the town were first discovered by Russian travellers in 1741, but there was no clue to why it had been abandoned. There were no traces of conquest. The most recent tombstones were dated 1362.

From Soviet Weekly

GRAVEYARD OF GIANTS

A rich grave, almost 5,000 years old, has been found inside a hill in the Northern Caucasus.

It is made of slabs of volcanic rock, some of them weighing over a ton.

It contained the bodies of a man and a woman, together with household utensils and golden ornaments and jewellery, possibly of Sarmatian and Hunnish origin.

One of the most interesting points was the height of theman: oyer 7 ft 2 1/2 in.

 

 

He would have been a giant today, let alone 5,000 years ago, when most researchers suggest that men and women were generally very much shorter than at present.

From Soviet Weekly

 

ROBOT ZAAN SORTS OUT THE REJECTS

A robot recruit to British industry was shown to the public in London.

The creature's name is Zaan, and its talent is for sorting out small objects by their colour. In particular, it is designed for the food industry to pick out foreign bodies and sub-standard candidates from rivers of beans or nuts or potato flakes. It can separate rejects at the rate of 200 rejects a second.

This sort of work has been done in the past by four or five men sitting alongside a conveyor belt picking out tiny peanuts or bad fried potato flakes from satisfactory ones. Men can pick out rejects at a rate of about one a second; it is tedious work. It costs £ 50 a ton to sort dehydrated food flakes by hand.

There are machines which can sort small objects by size and shape, for instance rejecting a bean with a maggot hole which is detected by intelligent needles. But the Zaan Colour Sorter inspects the small particles with photo-electric eyes and casts out any which are the wrong colour or the wrong brightness.

Unlike human sorters, the machine is unaffected by emotional problems, fatigue, eye-strain, the tea-break, or the conversation next door. The inventors claim that it is cheaper, more hygienic, and more accurate than traditional methods of sorting.

From The Times

CANCER STUDY

The mechanism by which cancer spreads from one place in the body to many, has been the subject of intensive research by scientists for many years. What may be an answer to that question and a suggestion as to how metastasis might be inhibited came from the Institute for Cancer Research.

Speculation on how cancer spreads throughout the body has included the possibilities that it does so through the migration of whole malignant cells from the primary tumor mass, or through viruses that are released from dying cancer cells.

The report in the journal Science suggests a third possibility. This is that cancer ceils or viruses leak their genes in the form of deoxyrebonucleic acid, or DNA into the bloodstream, and the DNA then travels to places where it invades normal cells and transforms them to malignant ones.

To test this hypothesis scientists injected mice with DNA from polyoma cancer virus and from a pneumococcal bacterium and compared the results.

They found that DNA from tumor viruses was much more resistant to body defences than the bacterial DNA. The reason for this, they said, may have had something to do with the closed-ring form of the tumor-type DNA molecules. They said their results indicated that this DNA could still produce its cancerous effects.

Thus, the report said that "tumor-inducing DNA can be transported in biologically active form from one part of the body to another."

From The New York Times

 

MANIPULATING THE BRAIN

Some persons were disturbed last week over a report of experiments in which the behavior of animals and people was influenced by electrical stimulation of selected regions of their brains.

According to the report, weak currents made to flow through electrodes implanted in the brains of monkeys and cats enabled scientists to "play" the animals like little electronic toys. They yawned, climbed, ran, turned, slept, mated and changed their emotional states from passivity to rage and vice versa, all on electrical command.

In one of the most spectacular experiments, a Spanish fighting bull was stopped in full charge by a stimulus radioed to an electrode implanted in its brain, which inhibited aggressiveness.

People, too, have undergone such stimulations in the course of diagnosis and therapy for severe cases of epilepsy. Electrical stimulation of certain regions of their brains have produced feelings of intense pleasure and of severe anxiety, a loss of ability to think or express themselves, a sudden increase in word output and profound feelings of friendliness.

The scientist who reported these findings was Dr. Jose Delgado of Yale University's School of Medicine. In a lecture, Dr. Delgado discussed some aspects of this work that might worry persons outside this field of research.

He emphasized, first, that the implantation of the electrodes in the brain and the passage of weak currents through them neither hurts (brain tissue is insensitive) nor causes any functional damage.

Such studies, Dr. Delgado believes, may enable scientists to discover the "cerebral basis of anxiety, pleasure, aggression and other mental functions, which we could influence in their development and manifestation through electrical stimulations, drugs, surgery and especially by means of more scientifically programmed education."

Dr. Delgado believes that control of human behavior on a large scale would not work because the effect of a stimulus can be changed or even overridden by the subject's own desires, emotions, etc. This has been shown in experiments on both animals and people. For example, monkeys in which aggressive behavior was electrically stimulated did not just attack any other member of the colony, but made "intelligent" attacks only on rivals, sparing their "friends".

Dr. Delgado thinks it will be necessary to develop new theories and concepts to explain the biological bases of social and anti-social behavior. These, he said, "for the first time in history can be explored in the conscious brain".

From The New York Times

 

FISH STORY

A special kind of fishing expedition was organized in Ohio. Its goal was to collect specimens, most of them known as placoderms, that lived some 300 million years ago.

What had brought about the project was the cutting of a highway into Cleveland. Giant earth-moving machines would cut through a formation of world-wide fame, the Cleveland shale. For more than a century it had been known as a rich source of fossil fish from the Devonian period. Specimens, collected where rivers had cut through the shale, were prized possessions of the British Museum in London, the American Museum of Natural History in New York and other centres.

Cleveland's Museum of Natural History conducted the new hunt which, it was hoped, would provide the first complete remains of fossil fish that mark nature's initial experiment with movable jaws. Some of these species had been partially reconstructed into creatures of frightening appearance.

From The New York Times

 

SCIENTISTS STUDY NATURE PARKS

Special nature reserves are being created in three.areas of the Soviet Union in the forests round Moscow, the south Russian steppe and the Kara-Kum desert for observation of changes in the earth, air and water.

All changes brought about by human activity will be recorded and studied with a view to preventing man-made ecological upsets.

The Soviet Union conducts such studies with the other socialist countries and a number of western ones.

From Soviet Weekly

TRAINS HALTED BY PROTEST

Eastern region rail services were halted last night after drivers stopped work in sympathy with a driver who was dismissed.

The driver, who is based in Leeds, was acting in line with a decision by Eastern Region staff not to implement changes in working schedules arising from British Rail's economy measures.

After refusing to take out a train in accordance with a new schedule, he was sent home, and 400 drivers at the Leeds Holbeck depot decided to stop work until he was allowed to start work again. The action was supported by drivers in the London area.

On the Southern Region, the National Union of Rail-waymen is recommending members to stop work for part of Thursday afternoon to coincide with the funeral of a guard (. ) who was stabbed to death.

From Morning Star

 

TIDAL WAVE EXPERTS WORKING TOGETHER

Experts from the Soviet Union, the United States and Japan have left Vladivostok aboard the research vessel Pegasus to study tsunami the devastating tidal waves produced by undersea earthquakes in the Pacific.

There is regular exchange of information between the tsunami study centres in Sakhalin and Honolulu. Sakhalin transmits data from observers in Kamchatka and the Kuril islands. These He in a zone where four-fifths of all earthquakes in the world occur. These earthquakes sometimes originate only 100-125 miles from Soviet shores, a distance a tidal wave can cover in 20-30 minutes.

But Soviet stations give warning of possible danger within seconds of the quake.

From Soviet Weekly

NORTH SEA OIL IS POLLUTING THE BALTIC

The oily waters of the North Sea are polluting the Baltic.

This is the verdict of studies conducted by expeditions aboard the research ship Oceanograph. The waters of the North Sea now contain far greater amounts of harmful substances, particularly oil and oil products.

In the past the picture was quite the reverse. The currents passing through the Skagerrak and Kattegat brought oxygen into the Baltic and served as a ventilator for its waters at great depths.

The pollution of the North Sea has been caused by the rapid increase in oil extraction there. Large quantities of oil have escaped on to the northern European, particularly Scandinavian, continental shelf.

Urgent and efficient measures are needed to decrease the quantities of harmful waste thrown into the sea. All the states of northern Europe would agree with that, of course, but many aspects of the problem remain unsolved.

So far as the Baltic is concerned, the states along its shores the USSR, Poland, Denmark, the German Democratic Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany and other European states have worked out a convention to prevent its pollution.

From Soviet Weekly

SCIENTISTS FIGHT OLD AGE

At the Institute of Gerontology in Kiev, a branch of the Soviet Academy of Medical Sciences, scientists are waging an offensive against old age.

We begin to age far earlier than we think. The process of "descending development" begins in the early thirties.

As a biological species, man ought to live 100-120 years, but for various reasons we lose the last 30 or 40.

We can now, however, to some extent, lengthen life. In experiments on animals, we have learned to prolong it by a third or more.

One aspect of the institute's work is the discovery and testing of substances which will produce a physiological effect combinations of vitamins which the aging body needs and preparations with microelements and amino-acids

Some of these are giving promising results.

In some republics, like Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, people over 80 are forming a distinct and evergrowing group of the population.

Old age is a contradictory process. On the one hand the body adapts itself in some ways, while, on the other, certain faculties atrophy and die.

It appears that our brains and muscles tend to stay young the more actively and regularly we use them.

A correctly chosen profession, doing as much work as we are fit for, sensible meals and purposeful, not passive, leisure are all things that help the body adapt.

It has long been remarked that there are in the world some places where people live longer, are less frequently ill, and are able to work almost to the end of their days.

There are areas like that in the USSR, and the Kiev Institute of Gerontology has made a special study of some of them, examining some 40,000 people aged 80 and over.

They questioned centenarians (that is, people over 100 years old) about themselves, and also about their forebears and the way they lived, what they ate, what work they did, and so on.

The laboratory of social gerontology has summed up the work done by over a thousand doctors.

They found, for instance, that as a rule centenarians live in rural areas, and that more than half of them are engaged in farming. Only one in twelve of them are vegetarians, but half never smoke or drink anything alcoholic. It is interesting that very few of them have been divorced.

The Kiev institute is engaged in joint undertakings with doctors in Bulgaria, the German Democratic Republic and Hungary.

The more joint study there is, the more exchange of information, and the more exchange of personnel, the sooner will problems that affect so many millions be solved.

From Soviet Weekly

 

MONTH IN THE COUNTRY?

Two lorry drivers working on a new road being cut through the Siberian forests were found recently after being lost in the taiga for nearly a month.

The two, Anatoly Laptev and Vladislav Inshin, had gone hunting with no more that 20 cartridges between them.

After firing off all their cartridges, they met two bears. Fortunately these local residents appeared to have dined well and did not attack them.

Another encounter proved lucky. It was the half-buried carcass of a huge elk, recently killed by a bear and stored for future meals.

Meanwhile their comrades were looking for them. A helicopter and an AN-2 plane circled over the forest from morning to night.

The two men saw the helicopter, but had no way of signalling it. Their matches had run out as well, and rubbing two sticks together only blistered their fingers.

At the beginning of the fourth week, they found a hunter's winter hut, with stores of dry bread, matches and salt.

After bringing in wood, Laptev left his comrade, who had sprained an ankle, and went on, looking for help. He finally emerged near the Educhanka, a river falling into the Angara some 60 miles below the village from which their hunting expedition had started.

Even then it took another two days to find the hut, which could not be seen from the air.

From Soviet Weekly

 

NAPOLEON'S SWORD

Among the many weapons in the State History Museum in Moscow is Napoleon's sword. It has its own history.

Manufactured by the best armorers of Versailles, it has a Damascus steel blade on which is inscribed: "To Napoleon Bonaparte, the First Consul of the French Republic." The hilt is inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and has bronze and filigree work as ornamentation. At the end of the hilt is a lion's head and a ring. The scabbard is of black leather, ornamented in bronze. The signature of Bouttethe armorer is engraved on the scabbard. The only time Napoleon ever parted with his sword was under the following circumstances.

When the French army was routed and the allied troops entered Paris, on March 31, 1814, the high command decided to exile Napoleon to the Island of Elba. Among the three allied commissars who were to accompany him was Count Pavel Shuvalov, aide-de-camp of Alexander I. When he learned that an attempt was to be made on Napoleon's life at one of the ports through which they would pass, Count Shuvalov offered to change clothes with Napoleon, and gave him his army greatcoat. As a token of gratitude Napoleon presented him with his sword.

In 1912 the sword was shown at an exhibition for the centenary of the Patriotic War of 1812. After the exhibition it was returned to Countess Vorontsova-Dashkova, nee Shuvalova, and was preserved for a long time at her estate in the Ukraine.

In 1926, a Red Army officer, whose name is not known, presented Napoleon's sword to the Museum of the Red Army as the weapon he used in the war. A little later one of. the museum's staff discovered the inscription and the sword was given to the State History Museum.

From Canadian Tribune

APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA

Death speaks: "There was a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions, and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, "Master, just now when I was in the market-place I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture; now lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me." The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the market-place and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, "Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?" "That was not a threatening gesture," I said, "it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra."

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