English

This joke is about one woman with blond hair. The woman bought a ticket for a plane. It was a tourist class ticket to Majorca, but this woman sat down in business class.

A stewardess told her three times, that her ticket was in tourist class, and that she had to sit in tourist class, but the woman didn’t listen to her.

So, the stewardess went to the pilot and asked him for help. The pilot went to the woman and said something quietly into her ear. The woman stood up and sat down in tourist class.

The stewardess was shocked and she asked the pilot, “What did you tell her?”

the pilot said, “I told her that business class is not flying to Majorca.”

This news is from the Netherlands. People are at a port. They work there.

They find a ship in the water. The ship is very old. It is from the 15th century. It is 20 metres long and 8 metres wide. It is 40 tons heavy. People used the ship for trade in the Baltic and North Seas.

This ship is very old, but it looks good. Experts are very happy.

They put a special box around the ship. They pick the ship up.

Difficult words: port (a safe place for ships – boats), use (to do something with something), trade (business).

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A show of force from the Russian Defence Ministry… This large-scale military drill involved 8,500 troops, about 900 military vehicles, 50 warships and up to 200 warplanes on the annexed Crimean Peninsula and in the southern Krasnodar region.

Russia's carried out several unannounced military drills since relations with the West deteriorated over the Ukraine crisis with Moscow criticising what it says is a build-up of NATO forces near Russia's borders. Back in January, Russia said it would form four new military divisions this year to strengthen its western and central regions.

Just a day before this drill on the 11th of February, NATO agreed, its boldest steps yet to deter Russia from any attacks in the Baltics or eEeastern Europe, setting out ways to rapidly deploy air, naval and ground forces without resorting to Cold War-era military bases.

Last year, Russia started targeting Syria with airstrikes that it says are aimed at Islamic State which Turkey, Arab states and the West say are mostly aimed at other opponents of Assad’s.

Russia's intervention in Syria’s made an already complicated situation more complex, testing the NATO alliance’s ability to deter a newly assertive Moscow without seeking direct confrontation.

Difficult words: drill (training), troops (soldiers), annexed (connected), unannounced (not announced – officially told), deteriorate (to get worse), bold (risky), division (a large military formation with 10 to 20 thousand soldiers), deter (to scare off), set out (to plan), deploy (to move into position), resort to (to do something), alliance (a group of countries working together), assertive (strong and active).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4QlafP7hws


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Moon

Though a satellite of Earth, the Moon is bigger than Pluto. Some scientists think of it as a planet (four other moons in our solar system are even bigger).There are various theories about how the Moon was created, but recent evidence indicates it formed when a huge collision tore a chunk of the Earth away.Because it takes 27.3 days both to rotate on its axis and to orbit Earth, the Moon always shows us the same face.

We see the Moon because of reflected sunlight. How much of it we see depends on its position in relation to Earth and the Sun.

The 27.3-day number is what scientists call a sidereal month, and it is how long it takes the Moon to orbit the Earth in relation to a fixed star. Another measurement, called a synodic month, is measured between in relation to the Sun and equals 29.5 days. Full moons and new moon are measured by the synodic month.

Earth's gravity keeps the Moon in orbit, while the Moon's gravity creates tides on our oceans.

Like the four inner planets, the Moon is rocky. It's pockmarked with craters formed by asteroid impacts millions of years ago. Because there is no weather, the craters have not eroded.

The Moon has almost no atmosphere, so a layer of dust - or a footprint - can sit undisturbed for centuries. And without an atmosphere, heat is not held near the planet, so temperatures vary wildly. Daytime temperatures on the sunny side of the Moon reach 273 degrees F; on the dark side it gets as cold as -243.In June of 1999, researchers discovered by accident that a huge cloud of sodium gas trails behind the Moon. The Lunar Prospector in 1998 provided evidence of ice near the Moon's poles, perhaps as much as 6 billion tons of it.

The Moon travels around the Earth at a little more than half a mile per second; its speed is slowing and the satellite is gradually moving away from Earth.

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Russian space science

On April 12 every year the Russian people celebrate Cosmonautics Day in commemoration of the first space flight in the world which was made by a Soviet citizen. Here are three main dates in the history of space exploration. October 4 in 1957 the Soviet Union launches the first sputnik in the world. April 12 in 1961 the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin goes into space and makes one orbit round the Earth in his spaceship Vostok-1. July 21 in 1969 the American astronauts Armstrong and Alidrin land on the Moon.

Since Yuri Gagarin's flight, Russian space science and engineering have come a long way. According to space experts in the US and Europe Russian takes the lead in almost all space exploration. Russian has launched more than 2300 space vehicles designed to perform a variety of functions. Unmanned satellites have been of great significance in the exploration and peaceful use of outer space. They help us learn more about the relations between processes occurring on the sun and near the earth and study the structure of the upper atmosphere. These satellites are provided with scientific equipment for space navigation of civil aviation and ship, as well as exploration of the World Ocean, the earth's surface and it's natural resources.

Russia is known to carry out many orbital manned flights involving over 80 cosmonauts, many of them having flown several times. It is well known that Russian cosmonauts hold the record for the longest time in space (L. Kizim has worked 375 days) and for continuous stay in space (V. Titov and M. Manarov – 365 days).When the 170 million horse power carrier-rocket called "Energia" was successfully tested in 1987, Russian has gone far ahead of the United States in the space competition. With the new "Energia" rocket it's possible to put into orbit a 100 ton load (one must know that the first satellite carried 83.6 kg). That is enough to put into orbit components for a space station which could be a platform for a manned flight to Mars. Russian experts believe "Energia" to be able to take explorers to the Moon or bring back to the Earth satellites that went out of operation. In principle this makes it possible to build in orbit large complexes from separate units not tens of meters but kilometers across. Cosmonauts would live there permanently. And from these structures may be flights to other planets.

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Virtual Reality

Not long ago computers were considered an amazing invention. Today they form part of our everyday life. The latest thing today is Virtual Reality. A Virtual Reality system can transport the user to exotic locations such as a beach in Hawaii or the inside of the human body.

The Virtual Reality system is still in the early stages of its development. At the moment it is necessary to put a large helmet on your head to see the simulated world and you have to wear a special glove on your hand in order to manipulate the objects you see there. Lenses and two miniature display screens inside the helmet create the illusion that the screen surrounds you on every side.

You can "look behind" computer— generated objects, pick them up and examine them, walk around and see things from a different angle.Already today Virtual Reality is used in medicine. In hospitals, surgeons could plan operations by first "travelling" through the brain, heart or lungs without damaging the body. It is also used in police training schools. In schools pupils could explore the Great Pyramid or study molecules from the inside. Developers of Virtual Reality say its potential is powerful.

The word which comes closest to describing Virtual Reality is "simulator." Virtual Reality technology resembles the flight simulators that are used to train pilots.