Questions. 1) What is the purpose of this article?

1) What is the purpose of this article?

2) What are two main procedures for a theoretical physicist?

3) What is meant by working from the experimental basis?

4) What is meant by working from the mathematical basis?

5) What does the choice of the procedure depend on?

Текст № 2

TENNIS

A great many different games are played with a ball. Tennis is one of them. A tennis ball is an air-filled rubber ball covered with flannel. It is made so that it bounces very well. The ball is hit with a racket back and forth across a net. A-tennis racket is a frame with strands¹ of catgut², silk, or nylon stretched across it. The frame is usually made of ash.

The game of tennis is very much like ping-pong. Ping-pong, in fact, is called table tennis.

To anyone who does not know the game, the score at times sounds strange. "Love" is used for "zero". If the score in a game is "15 – love", one side has 15 points and the other side nothing. A game tied at 40-40 is a "deuce" game³.

Tennis may be played by either two people or four. Games in which two people play are called "singles". "Doubles" are games with four players. Both men and women play tennis. If each team in a match is made up of a man and a woman, the match is called "mixed doubles". "Tennis" is short for "lawn tennis". At first the game was played on grass-covered courts. But now many courts are bare. Some are clay-covered, some are concrete, and some are even covered with cinders.

Tennis was invented by an English major in 1873. He called it by the peculiar name, but many liked the game. Now tennis is played all over the world.

Although outdoor tennis is a little more than 100 years old, its ancestor court tennis goes back to the Middle Ages. Kings and noblemen played court tennis indoors in special rooms built for it. Every year there are world and European championship tennis matches. The most famous tennis matches are held at Wimbledon (England). The best-known trophy is the Davis Cup⁴. The Davis Cup matches are also international.

In Russia tennis began to develop in the end of the 19th century. In 1903, Russian sportsmen took part in international competitions for the first time. The first championship of the Soviet Union was held in 1924. And since 1958 our sportsmen have been taking part in all international competitions.

There are officials⁵ at tennis tournaments. But the players themselves help with the rulings. If a player makes a mistake which the official fails to see, the player reports it. No player accepts a point unless he is sure he is entitled to it. For this reason tennis is often called a "gentleman's game".

Notes

1. a strand – нить

2. a catgut – струна

3. A game tied at 40-40 is a "deuce" game. – Если в игре соотношение очков 40-40, счет становится «ровно».

4. the Davis Cup – Кубок Дэвиса

5. officials – судейская коллегия

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