LESSON FOUR

I. Look through the list of the English words and their Russian equivalents:

to coat – покрывать; digital – цифровой; to claim – утверждать; distortion – искажение; background hiss – фоновый шум (шипение); studio master – студийный диск; tough – прочный; careful handling – бережное обращение; to damage – наносить ущерб, повреждать; to wear out (wore, worn) – изнашиваться; conventional – обычный; hi-fi system – high fidelity system – система с высокой точностью воспроизведения.

II. Scan text С and say where compact disks are used.

Text С

Compact Disks

1. You have not only heard about Compact Disks (CD), you’ve been using them here and there in your everyday life. The invention of Sony has very quickly become popular all over the world.¹. A CD consists of a piece of aluminium coated with transparent plastic, 12 cms across, for producing sound. It's similar² to an ordinary record, except that it's "read" by a laser beam, and the information recorded on the aluminium is digital.

2. The makers claim that a CD can reproduce the original sound perfectly, without any distortion or background hiss. As the system is computerized, there's no loss of quality between the studio master and the record you buy. Also, a CD is much tougher than a vinyl record, so it doesn't need such careful handling. Dust and dirt won't damage it, and as there's no contact between the laser and the disk, it will never wear out.

3. The CD player produces an audio signal which you can amplify through a conventional hi-fi system, to produce the best sound possible. The technique became a new exciting development in hi-fi, linking sound recording with the computer revolution: What has followed it?

Notes

1. Sony – Сони {японская фирма no производству радиоаппаратуры)

2. It's similar to – он похож на

III.Say what a compact disk looks like.

IV.Write out of paragraph I two peculiarities of CD disks.

V. Try to answer the following questions about ordinary disks:

1. How is an ordinary record "read"?

2. In the new design the information is digital. What about ordinary disks?

VI. Look through paragraph 2 again and speak about:

1) the construction of a compact disk: 2) the peculiarities of it; 3) the advantages of it; 4) the principle of operation.

VII. Count the number of advantages of new records mentioned in paragraph 2 and name them.

VIII. Use the information of texts А, В and С for preparing a report on the theme "Everything about record-players".

Key to Lessоп 3: Getting the best from your stereo system.