Economy of the United Kingdom

In the past English industrial prosperity depended on some important products, such as textiles, coal and heavy machinery. Now the UK has a great variety of industries, e.g. heavy and light industry, chemical, aircraft, electrical automobile and many others. The UK is one of the world’s major manufacturing nations. Now high technology industries are more developed than heavy engineering and other traditional industries are in decline.

Certain areas are traditionally known for various types of industries. For example, Newcastle is famous for coal industry, Lancashire is famous for its textile industry. The Midlands, the central countries of England, are well-known for the production of machinery, coal, motor cars, chemicals. Today regional industrial distinctions are less clear, more and more new factories are built in different parts of the country.

Speaking about the cities of the UK, London should be mentioned first. London, the capital of the UK, is a big port on the river Thames, a major commercial, industrial center. Leeds is the center of clothing industry. Glasgow is a major port on the river Clyde where shipbuilding industry is developed.

About two per cent of the population is engaged in the agriculture. Yields of English farms and pastures are very high. Wheat, barley, oats and potatoes are the most important crops. Sheep, cattle, pigs are the most numerous types of livestock.

SLEEP

In a normal life a person sleeps for about twenty-five years. But why do we sleep? The simple answer is: we don't know. We need more sleep when we are young. A baby sleeps for about ten hours. A teenager sleeps for eight and a half hours and an adult for seven or eight hours. Old people need only five or six hours.

There are two kinds of sleep. When you go to sleep you go into deep sleep. Your temperature falls, your body relaxes and you breathe slowly. After about half an hour you go into active sleep. This is also called rapid eye movement sleep (or REM sleep), because your eyes move. You dream in both deep sleep and REM sleep, but in REM sleep you dream in pictures. If you wake up in REM sleep you can usually remember your dream. Your body spends about twenty minutes in REM sleep and then goes back into deep sleep for an hour.

People sleepwalk in deep sleep and sleepwalkers do amazing things. They drive cars, they take a bath or a shower, they get into bed with other people.

Sleepwalkers are asleep, but they have their eyes open and they can see. They can't wake up easily. If they do, they can't remember anything.

IVAN PETROVICH PAVLOV (1849 -1936)

Ivan petrovich Pavlov was born in Ryazan in 1849. His father was a poor priest and there were eleven children in the family. Pavlov was a very bright boy, he read a lot, he also liked to work in the family garden where he watched the plants and flowers grow. Pavlov studied at the University in St. Petersburg and then at the Military Academy. In 1884 he was appointed lecturer in physiology and spent two years in Germany where he continued his studies. Then he worked as a professor of physiology at the Medical Academy in St. Petersburg.

Pavlov made a lot of important discoveries in physiology, but his most important contribution to science was the discovery of the "conditioned reflex". In 1904 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his outstanding achievements in physiology. Pavlov won many оther rewards during his 1ifetime. In 1907 he became оnе оf the four scientific members of the Academy of St. Petersburg and in the same year – a foreign member of the British Royal Society.

After World War I, he was made director of the Russian Institute of Experimental Medicine, and in 1928 he was made an honorary member of the Royal College of Physicians in London. Many of his works laid the foundation for further studies and discoveries in physiology.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-16