ELECTRONICS AND WE

1. In our country much attention is given to electronics, which is playing a major part in economic development, Russian scientists and engineers have many achievements to their credit in this field. One outstanding example is space.

2. Electronics, however, has not only helped us to reach cosmic expanses but has given us an insight into the world of the most minute organisms - viruses. For instance, a modern electronic microscope shows the processes taking place in ultra-microscopic formations of a living cell. Now it is possible to distinguish details being a millionth of a millimetre away from each other.

3. Electronics is in many ways helping us to solve the problem of the peaceful uses of atomic energy, and to study atomic nuclei and elementary particles. We know electronics to have found broad application in industry as a means of automation, control and inspection, and as a direct means of fulfilling such operations as melting, cutting of superhard materials, welding, etc.

4. The electron beam acting like a micro-miniature instrument can cut, bore, mill or plane any material, including tungsten and diamond, with an accuracy to within microns. Quantum generators can focus light in extremely narrow beams, their angular width being in the order of a thousandth of a degree. These instruments are called lasers and they can be used for cutting, drilling, welding and other treatment of materials.

5. The lasers are also used in studying the properties of various substances, in radioengineering, medicine, biology, etc. Scientists believe that such a beam of light will make it possible to establish contact with the stellar systems closest to our planet.

5. Прочтите 5-й абзац текста и ответьте письменно на следующий вопрос:

What branches of engineering and science can lasers be used in?