Technological progress

People tried to invent something since they had appeared in this world. Their natural wish to improve the environment pushed them to evolution and further progress. And at almost no time in the human history there has been any pause. Mankind kept on creating more and more complex things.

We know now that many of the world's most important discoveries and inventions were made not by scientists and engineers but by amateurs. Very often these amateurs had unusual or even funny ideas. Many of them could hardly realize their own inventions' potential. But they did their best and gave us many of the things we use today.

Industrial Revolutions greatly contributed to further progress of mankind. The first revolution, resulting from the introduction of steam power, gave us the machines to do the work that before had been done by men's hands. The second revolution was much more complicated. It was connected with electricity that provided power, easier and cheaper to control, than steam. It also greatly contributed to the development of many industrial branches. The third revolution that was connected with automation gave us the machines that could do the work of men's brains.

The last centuries became the time of unprecedented technical and scientific achievements that can be rightly called wonders of the modern world. These wonders have made our life easier, more efficient and comfortable. We can not imagine our life today without radio and TV, electricity and telephones, cars and planes, computers and the Internet.

Smart robots, run by computers, replace now people in many hard and dangerous jobs. New sources of power, new processes and advanced technologies, as well as the all-new materials are coming into use at such bewildering speeds that it is hard to keep track of them.

The achievements in the space exploration have surpassed our wildest expectations. They have overturned many of the notions made by some reputable scientists, who could hardly foresee man-made space ships and satellites, international space stations and austronauts walking on the Moon or in the outer space.

The time, we live in, may be characterized in various ways: the electronic age, the atomic age or the space age. But, no doubts, it is the age of great changes. And all of us are a link in the chain of universal human progress.

4. Переведите на английский язык.

1) Улучшать окружающую среду; 2) толчок к эволюции/ прогрессу; 3) изобретать/создавать сложные вещи; 4) делать все возможное; 5) появляться, пы­таться; 6) делать важные открытия; 7) заменять людей; 8) необычные идеи; 9) изобретения, созданные дилетанта­ми; 10) осознавать/понимать возможности; 11) тяжелая, опасная рабо­та; 12) выполнять умственную работу; 13) превосходить са­мые смелые ожидания; 14) опровергать многие понятия/пред­ставления; 15) беспрецедентные научные и технические дос­тижения; 16) использовать новые материалы и источ­ники энергии; 17) космический/электронный век; 18) ува­жаемые ученые; 19) исследовать космическое пространство; 20) век атома/век больших перемен; 21) предвидеть искус­ственные спутники и космические корабли; 22) облегчать жизнь; 23) следить за чем-либо; 24) несомненно; 25) пере­довые технологии.