Lectures of The Linguistic Culture, страница 3

The invention of the incandescent light bulb (лампы накаливания), by Joseph Swan (1826–1914).

The unification of electromagnetism, by James Clerk Maxwell (1831–79).

The first practical telephone, patented by Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922).

The UK continues to play a major role in the development of science and technology and major technological sectors include the aerospace, motor and pharmaceutical industries.

• The discovery of penicillin, by biologist and pharmacologist, Sir Alexander Fleming (1881–1955).

• The world's first working television system, and colour television, by John Logie Baird (1888–1946).

• The first meaningful synthesis of quantum mechanics with special relativity by Paul Dirac (1902–84) in the equation named after him, and his subsequent prediction of antimatter.

• The invention of the jet engine, by Frank Whittle (1907–96).

• The invention of the hovercraft (судно на воздушной подушке), by Christopher Cockerell (1910–99).

• The colossus computer, the first digital computer , by Alan Turing (1912–54).

• The structure of DNA, by Francis Crick (1916–2004).

• The World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee (1989).

• The theoretical breakthrough of the Higgs mechanism to explain electroweak symmetry breaking and why some particles have mass, by Peter Higgs (1929-).

• Theories in cosmology, quantum gravity and black holes, by Stephen Hawking (1942–).

The UK remains a leading centre of automotive design and production, particularly of engines, and has around 2,600 component manufacturers.

The UK plays a leading part in the aerospace industry, with companies including Rolls-Royce playing a leading role in the aero-engine market;

BAE Systems (оборонная компания, занимающаяся разработками в области вооружений и информационной безопасности) acting as Britain's largest and the Pentagon's sixth largest defence supplier, and large companies including

GKN (концерн, производящий компоненты автомобилей, вертолетов, сельхоз техники и др.) acting as major suppliers to the Airbus project. The Airbus A380 has wings and engines manufactured in the UK.

Two British-based companies, GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, ranked in the top five pharmaceutical companies in the world by sales in 2009 and UK companies have discovered and developed more leading medicines than any other country apart from the US.

Scientific research and development remains important in British universities, with many establishing science parks to facilitate production and co-operation with industry. Between 2004 and 2012 the UK produced 6% of the world's scientific research papers and had an 8% share of scientific citations, the third- and second-highest in the world (after the United States' 9% and China's 7% respectively). Scientific journals produced in the UK include Nature, the British Medical Journal and The Lancet(ланцет, копье).

Suggested themes for the projects (compositions) on the UK life ( 5-12 pp).

1. Important scientific and technological advances made by people from the UK

2. Scientific research

3. Cultural life.

4. Music.

5. Literature and writers

6. Museums and interesting sights

7. National life and characters

8. Personalities

British Media

The term “media” may include any communication system by which people are informed, educated or entertained. In Britain it generally refers to the print industries (the press or newspapers and magazines) and broadcasting (cable and satellite television, radio and video). These systems overlap with each other and with books, film and the Internet They cover homes, places of business and leisure activities and their influence is very powerful and an inevitable part of daily life.

The print media (newspapers and magazines) began to develop in the 18P^thP century. The first British newspapers with a limited national circulation appeared in the early eighteenth century and were followed by others, such as “The Times” (1785), “the Observer” (1791) and “the Sunday Times” (1822).

Initially, a wide circulation was hindered by transportation and distribution problems, illiteracy and government licensing or censorship restrictions. But over the last two hundred years, an expanded educational system, new print inventions and Britain’s small area have eliminated these difficulties and created allegedly free print media.

The growth of literacy after 1870 provided the owners of the print media with an increased market. Newspapers and magazines, which had previously been limited to the middle and upper classes, were popularized. They were used for news and information, but also for profit and entertainment. New types of print media and financially rewarding advertising increased in the competitive atmosphere of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

.In the 19th century, the growth and composition of the population conditioned the types of newspaper which were produced. The first popular national papers were deliberately printed on Sundays, such as “the News of the World “(1843) and “the People” (1881). They were inexpensive and aimed at the expanding and increasingly literate working class. In 1896, “The Daily Mail” was produced, which was targeted at the lower-middle class. In 1903 it was added by “ The Daily Mirror” for the working-class popular market. Both the Mail and the Mirror were soon selling more than a million copies a day.

The early twentieth century was the era of mass-circulation papers. “The Morning Herald” (later “the Daily Express”) was created in 1900. Both “The Daily Mirror” and “The Daily Herald (1911) supported the Labour Party and were the largest selling national daily in the early twentieth century.. Battles are still fought between owners, since newspaper-ownership is concentrated in a few large publishing groups, such as Rupert Murdoch’s News International (which has large media holdings in Britain, Australia and the USA). National newspapers

National newspapers are those which are mostly published from London and are available in all parts of Britain on the same day, including Sundays. Many are delivered directly to the home from local newsagents by newsboys and girls. The good internal distribution systems of a compact country enabled a national press to develop, and Internet online copies now offer updated and immediate availability

The circulation of national papers rose rapidly, but newspapers had to cope first with the competition of radio and films and later with television internet.. Although they have survived, there has, since the 1970s, been a decline in sales and in the number of national and other newspapers.

The national press in Britain today consists of 10 daily morning papers and 9 Sunday papers. Most national newspapers have their bases and printing facilities in London, although editions of some nationals are now published in Europe and the USA. Most of them used to be located in Fleet Street in central London. But all have now left the street and moved to other parts of the capital. The reasons for these moves were high property rents, fierce competition and opposition from trade unions to the introduction of new printing technology.New technology meant that journalists’ ‘copy’ could be printed directly through computers. But it also resulted in job reductions, trade union opposition and bitter industrial action such as picketing.

New technology, improved distribution methods and cuts in labour and production costs have increased the profitability of print industries. Although sales are declining they still have a considerable presence on the market.Surveys find that Britons buy more papers than any other Europeans. Some 50 per cent of people over fifteen read a national daily paper and 70 per cent read a national Sunday newspaper.

National papers are usually termed ‘quality’ or ‘popular’ depending on their differences in content and format (tabloid or broadsheet). Others are called ‘mid-market’ and are between these two extremes.

The ‘qualities’ (such as “The Times”) are broadsheets (large-sheet), report national and international news in depth and analyse current events and the arts in editorials and articles. The populars (such as “The Sun”) are mostly tabloid (small-sheet), deal with relatively few ‘hard news’stories, tend to be superficial in the material is sensationalized and trivialized. ‘Mid-market’ papers, such as “The Mail and Express”, cater for intermediate groups. ‘Qualities’ are more expensive than populars and carry up-market advertising that generates essential finance. There is no legal state control or censorship of the British press, although it is subject to laws of publication and expression and there are forms of self-censorship, by which it regulates its own conduct. Papers may have a political bias and support a specific party, particularly at election times.

The press is dependent for its survival upon circulation figures; upon the advertising that it can attract; and upon financial help from its owners. A paper may face difficulties and fail if advertisers remove their business. A number of newspapers in the 20th century ceased publication because of reduced circulation, loss of advertising revenue or refusals of further financial aid. Most national newspapers now have online Internet publication. This provides an additional medium for information and communication, as well as continuously updated news.

Regional newspapers

Some 1,300 regional newspapers are published in towns and cities throughout Britain. They contain a mixture of local and national news and are supported financially by regional advertising; They may be daily morning or evening papers, Sundays or weekly. Some nine out of ten adults read a regional or local paper every week and 75 per cent of local and regional newspapers also operate an Internet website.

Britain’s ethnic communities also produce their own newspapers and magazines, which are increasing in numbers, are available nationally in the larger cities and are improving in quality. There is a wide range of publications for Jewish, Asian, Afro-Caribbean, Chinese and Arabic readers, published on a daily or (more commonly) periodic basis.

Periodicals and magazines

T here are 9,000 different periodicals and magazines in Britain, which are of a weekly, monthly or quarterly nature and are dependent upon sales and advertising to survive. They are aimed at different markets and levels of professions and business or are dealing with sports, hobbies and interests (read by 80 per cent of adults).

The teenage and youth magazine market has suffered large sales losses recently. This is attributed to greater Internet and mobile phone usage. Women’s periodicals, such as Take a Break, Woman and Woman’s Own, have large and wide circulations. But the bestselling publications are the weekly Radio Times and What’s on TV, which contain feature stories and programmes for BBC and independent television. Other magazines cover interests such as computers, rural pastimes, gardening, railways, cooking, architecture, do-it-yourself skills and sports.