| He is well on his way to | mastering English. | ³í äàëåêî ïðîñóíóâñÿ ó âèâ÷åíí³ àíãë³éñüêî¿. |
| recovery. | ³í ñêîðî îäóæàº. |
². Decide which of these statements are true and which are false.
1. Karel Chapek was a Czech engineer. 2. Robots are used to perform boring repetitive work. 3. Robots can be found only at the enterprises. 4. Robots can easily do ironing.
²². Answer the following questions.
1. Where did the word “robot” first appear? 2. How many industrial robots are used today? 3. What household jobs can robots perform? 4. What robots are being used now to entertain their masters?
Text 19. Raphael Revealed by Raman Spectrography
Active Vocabulary:
| provenance | ïîõîäæåííÿ | microscopy | ì³êðîñêîï³ÿ |
| fleck | ÷àñòèíêà, çðàçîê | dispersive | òàêèé, ùî ðîçñ³þº |
| canvas | ïîëîòíî | x-ray | ðåíòãåí³âñüêå ïðîì³ííÿ |
| to reveal | â³äêðèâàòè | to identify | îòîòîæíþâàòè |
| lead | ñâèíåöü, îëîâî | lead-tin | câèíöîâî-îëîâ`ÿíèé |
| massicot | îêèñ ñâèíöþ | confirm | ï³äòâåðäèòè |
| evidence | äàí³ | conclusive | ïåðåêîíëèâèé |
| to detect | âèÿâëÿòè | conclusions | âèñíîâêè |
A portrait of Madonna and the Child is one of Raphael’s most famous Renaissance creations. Now it is in a gallery in Dresden, Germany. For many years people have wondered what the provenance of the work is.
Laser Raman spectral analysis of three flecks of paint taken from the Raphael’s canvas reveals that the unknown artist used a lead-based yellow pigment called massicot (lead II oxide). This is typical of the Renaissance period and it was not used in the early 17th century. There’s historical evidence that massicot was one of the pigments used by Raphael himself.
Raman analysis is a very good technique for detecting pigments. Using scanning electron microscopy (energy dispersive x-ray microanalysis), scientists identified another yellow – lead-tin yellow – in some of Raphael’s paintings at the gallery. But it is possible that the artist was also using other yellows.
Later, as the painting has aged, a miniature sketch of the composition has become visible beneath the Madonna’s scarf. “It’s undoubtedly an original in some form,” Alan Ward said. Further research could confirm it. But it’s unlikely there will ever be conclusive proof that Raphael was the artist. “The more evidence one gets about it, the more firm the conclusions that can be drawn,” he said.