Read the text and choose the best title for each paragraph. There is one title which you do not need to use.

Before you listen discuss these questions with your partner.

Have people always believed that the Earth goes round the Sun? Why do you think people would doubt this?

Listen to the radio program about Copernicus. Then complete these notes and listen again to check.

Nicolaus Copernicus (¹_____________) a Polish astronomer, provided the first (²______________) theory of the solar system.

Copernicus held many important positions and studied in many fields, including (³_________and____________). His ideas lead the way for science to question theories already held. He called into question (⁴_______________) that knowledge came from what we understood with our senses.

There were seven parts in his heliocentric theory. Firstly, the universe doesn’t have one (⁵__________). Secondly, the Earth is not the centre of the universe. Thirdly, any centre of the universe is near the Sun. Fourthly, the distance from the Earth to (⁶_________) is nothing if you compare it to the distance from the Earth to (⁷__________). Fifthly, the fact that the Earth revolves explains why the stars also revolve. Sixthly, the apparent movement of the Sun is caused by the Earth revolving around the Sun. And finally, the apparent (⁸_________________) of the planets is caused by the motion of the Earth, from which they are observed.

Moreover, he gave the correct order of (⁹_______________) and he showed why (¹⁰_______________________).

Speaking (1)

Make your own top five list of the most important discoveries and inventions of all times. Explain your choice.

PART II Milestones in Physics

Warm-up (2)

Match the following names of the prominent physicists (A) to their achievements (B).

Can you arrange them in chronological order?

(A)

Maxwell, Ptolemy, Volta, Rutherford, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Faraday, Hubble, Hertz, Rontgen, Becquerel, Thompson, Plank, Einstein, Bohr, Broglie, Archimedes, Schrodinger, Townes

(B)

X-rays, buoyancy principle, radio waves, radioactivity, the model of the solar system and the universe with the Earth at the centre, three laws of planetary motion, one of the first telescopes, the atom, the wave nature of particles, three laws of motion and the law of gravity, first storage battery, existence of electro-magnetic waves, electron, theory of special relativity, proton, model of the wave form of quantum mechanics, the idea of an expanding universe, MASER and LASER, the idea of magnetic field lines, the first quantum formula

Vocabulary (2)

Match these words from the text with the definitions. You can find them in the text and check your answers:

(1) buoyancy (2) to survive (3) scholar (4) tiny (5) to convince (6) investigation (7) insight (8) expansion (9) challenge (10) calculus

to continue to exist after a long time to make someone feel sure that something is true a sudden clear understanding of a situation or idea the ability of the object to flow growth the part of mathematics that deals with changing quantities something difficult but interesting that tests strength and skill an attempt to find out the truth about something extremely small an intelligent and well-educated person

Reading (2)

Read the text and choose the best title for each paragraph. There is one title which you do not need to use.

A Atomic physics

B Science in Classical antiquity

C Mechanical devices

D Challenges nowadays

E What we can learn from physics

F Ideas that speeded up the industrial revolution

G Scientific revolution and the origin of modern physics

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