Goen
DO IT ON YOUR OWN
8
In the table above find Russian equivalents for the English terms inch
yard, mile, ounce, pound, stone, pint, gallon.
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  Darwin had not planned to be a scientist. He wanted to become a doctor. But he was interested in plants and animals.
   A friend who knew about Darwin's interest in nature invited him to take the trip. Charles was 22 when he left England for a five-year trip around the world.
   This trip is a very important one in the history of science, for it led Darwin to write one of the worlds most famous books. The book is "The Origin of Species".
   It gives Darwin's ideas of how all the plants and animals of today have come from the very simple plants and animals that first lived on the Earth. Darwin was seasick for much of the voyage, but he came back with the notes for his great book.
   He visited the Galapagos Islands, Australia, New Zealand. There he saw many strange plants and animals.
   These were Darwin's chief ideas: many more plants and animals are produced than can possibly live. There is no two plants and animals, even of the same kind, which would be exactly alike.
   The idea that all the plants and animals of today came from the simple plants and animals of long ago is called "The theory of evolution"
 

Перевод: Дарвин не собирался становиться ученым. Он хотел стать врачом. Но его интересовали растения и животные.
   Один его друг, который знал об увлечении Дарвина природой, пригласил его в путешествие. Чарльзу было 22 года, когда он выехал из Англии в кругосветное путешествие на пять лет.
   Это путешествие имеет большое значение для истории науки, потому что оно написанию одной из самых известных в мире книг. Это книга «Происхождение видов».
   В ней высказывается теория Дарвина о том, что все современные растения и животные произошли от древних растений и животных, которые когда-то населяли Землю. Значительную часть путешествия Дарвин страдал от морской болезни, но это не помешало ему собрать заметки для своей большой книги.
   Он побывал на Галапагосских островах, в Австралии и Новой Зеландии. Там он увидел много необычных растений и животных.
   Вот основные идеи Дарвина: растения и животные появляются на свет в гораздо большем количестве, чем могут выжить. Не существует двух абсолютно одинаковых растений или животных даже в рамках одного вида.
   Теория Дарвина о происхождении всех современных растений и животных называется «Теорией эволюции».

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a prominent Russian cosmonaut. He was the first man who dared to make a journey into outer space. Gagarin was born on March 9th 1934, in a small village called Klushino, near Gzhatsk. Today this town is called Gagarin after the first Russian cosmonaut. His family was neither rich nor famous. Gagarin’s father was a humble worker and his mum was a milkmaid. Apart from Yuri, there were three other children in the family. The future cosmonaut had an uneasy childhood. As many people at those times, his family suffered from Nazi occupation. When he was a child, his father taught him to make toy planes. In 1941 he started attending a local school, but his studies were interrupted by the World War II. The whole village was occupied by Germans in November of the same year. However, life continued and Yuri grew as a smart and active boy. Together with his mother and his siblings he had to hide in a dugout during the war. Soon they moved to Gzhatsk and then to Moscow region. In 1951 he graduated with an honors degree from an evening school in Lyubertsy. In 1955 he graduated from the Saratov Industrial Technical School. During his student years he also attended a local aviation club. Gradually, aviation became his life’s work. In 1960 he started preparing for the flight into space. His first flight into space took place on April 12th 1961. Gagarin spent 108 minutes there in the spaceship “Vostok”, and this date became an international Cosmonautics Day. After this flight he became a world hero. He visited many countries and met millions of people. He died on March 27th 1968 but will be always dearly remembered in Russia and in many other corners of the globe.

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