Вопрос: Read the texts and check your guesses. 
Glossary 
silkworm — шелковичный червь 
mulberry seeds — семена шелковицы 
smuggle out — вывезти контрабандой 
hollow bamboo cane — полый бамбуковый посох 
movable type — печатный станок 
pinched card — перфокарта 
stimulated emission — индуцированное (вынужденное) излучение 
data processing — обработка данных 
tissues — (зд.) ткани человеческого организма 
corrective eye surgery — хирургическая коррекция зрения 
Technological civilisation 
We are a technological civilisation and culture. Technology has been with humans from the first use of a stone as a tool and it is impossible to separate technology from our life now. This tool use has since developed to an advanced state, where our human culture is dependent upon the technology that surrounds it. Here are some inventions to consider: 
1 
According to legend, the wife of Emperor Huangdi developed silk as an industry about 4,700 years ago. Her name was Xilingshi, and she may be the first ever recorded female inventor. People did not bring silkworms to the West until 550 AD as it was a Chinese secret guarded with the threat of death. Eventually two monks smuggled out eggs and mulberry seeds in hollow bamboo canes. China still produces more silk than any other country. 
2 
At the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance [CG] the German, Johan Gutenberg (1394/99-1467) invented printing with movable type. His Gutenberg Bible of 1455 was the first known printed book. More books were published in the 
50 years following Gutenberg than in the previous 1,000 years! So began the first revolution in information technology.? 
3 
The building of ships seems to have begun in Egypt when the first models were designed 
5,0 years ago and evolved to the sailing ships that could move easily with the help of wind. But there is still the mystery of how the first inhabitants of Australia were able to come to that continent 60,000 years ago since they had to cross a stretch of ocean of at least 70 kilometers. This most certainly required some means of ocean travel! 
4 
A Dutch optician, Hans Lippershey built the first documented telescope. Galileo, an Italian astronomer built another a year later and began his study of the sky. He proved that the Earth was not the centre of the solar system, destroying existing beliefs of the time. Isaac Newton built a telescope that used a mirror, a design used by most modern optical research telescopes today. 
5 
In 1888, an American inventor, Herman Hollerith, developed the first successful computer, using punched cards and electricity. 
This was the first step in automated data processing. In 1951, the first commercially available computer was introduced. By the late 1960’s, many large companies were using computers. Then in 1975, personal computers were finally introduced. Today we cannot function without them! 
6 
The principle of the laser was first known in 1917, when physicist Albert Einstein described the theory of stimulated emission. However, it was not until the late 1940s that engineers began to use this principle for practical purposes. These included Charles Townes at the Columbia University, Joseph Weber at the University of Maryland and Alexander Prokhorov and Nikolai Basov at the Lebedev Laboratories in Moscow. Both Townes and Prokhorov were later awarded the Nobel Prize for Science in 1964 for their inventions. Today lasers are used, for example, in corrective eye surgery, providing a precise source of heat for cutting tissue.
Категория: школьный раздел
Ответы:
1-С
2-E
3-F
4-A
5-В
6-D