Scientists have reconstructed the history of atmospheric pollution from the plumage of birds. Tits have unique abilities for social learning and the transfer of experience to their descendants. Scientists have been researching for many years

Our world is full of secrets, and man will always strive to unravel them. And while scientists in different countries are racking their brains over the most mysterious and enigmatic phenomena, science has already found answers to some of them.

10. How birds navigate in flight

Birds make some of the most mind-boggling flights ever and never go astray. The answer to the question of how they do it has always been one of the most difficult riddles that has puzzled the minds of scientists and ornithologists for a long time.

A team of scientists from Peking University (China) seems to have figured it out. As it turns out, the answer lies in proteins.

We have always believed that birds fly, guided by the Earth's magnetic field, but so far we have not been able to find a magnetic sense organ. Therefore, Chinese scientists, based on this theory, conducted research on bird proteins for orientation. They found that the protein complex of pigeons and monarch butterflies does indeed align with the Earth's magnetic field, changing every time they take a wrong turn or move in the wrong direction.

For the first time in history, research has identified anatomical structures that allow birds to find their way home. This is a huge step towards understanding the navigation of birds and other animals.

9. Where does the penis come from?


Although many species reproduce sexually, and this seems to be one of humanity's favorite pastimes, the evolution of the penis has been a mystery to science for a long time.

The evolutionary path of development in all animals is different, depending on the structure of the skeleton and tissues that characterize different species. However, a team of biologists studied the early embryonic stages of various animals that have a penis and finally came to some conclusions.

In all animals, a special cavity called the cloaca (the cavity from which the back of the intestine develops) later becomes the site of penis formation. The position of the cloaca obviously determines the location of the penis, which in humans is located in the pelvic region. To confirm this, the scientists transplanted cloacal cells into an area of ​​the chick embryo where a penis does not normally grow, and found that it began to form there.

While this discovery solves a long-standing question that has plagued evolutionary biologists, it nevertheless raises an even more puzzling question: where does the clitoris come from in women? The same muscle that forms the penis diverges into the clitoris at a later stage, so we need a little time before understanding this.

8 How Birds Lost Their Teeth


Birds, direct descendants of dinosaurs, have gone through several evolutionary paths to reach their current structure. However, there is a lot that we do not know about birds. For example, why don't they have teeth?

Although birds once had teeth, at some point they sacrificed them for their beak. We had no idea how or when this happened until scientists started studying the bird genome.

Scientists studied the genes involved in the formation of teeth in representatives of 48 different species of birds and identified their common ancestor, who lived almost 116 million years ago. Part dinosaur, part bird, he ate with both his beak and his teeth, because a half-formed beak alone was not enough to survive. Over time, this ancestor evolved into almost every bird we see today.

7. What rids the oceans of harmful ammonia


The ocean is a beautiful part of our planet, full of various plants and animals for which it is home. However, these living beings also die. Considering the vast size of the oceans, this must be a huge pile of corpses. If we assume that the mortality rate among aquatic inhabitants is comparable to ours, then the oceans on Earth should look like huge puddles with rotting fish corpses.

For a long time, scientists weren't sure what was going on. They suggested that some kind of organism feeds on harmful ammonia from dead bodies, turning it into nitrous oxide, which abounds in the oceans.

These microbes are called archaea and are different from all organisms known to us. We cannot study them because they cannot be grown in a laboratory for scientific research.

Then the scientists accidentally left 4 bottles of sea water in the refrigerator for 1.5 years. The cold killed all the organisms in the water, except for the archaea.

When scientists compared the composition of nitrous oxide formed by archaea in bottled water and in ocean water, it turned out that it was largely similar. Incidentally, this was the first time that archaea had been studied in an observable environment.

6. How Aquatic Mammals Hold Oxygen Underwater


A long time ago, some aquatic animals that lived on Earth decided to move to land. As they developed limbs and other features to adapt to new environments, they evolved into the mammals we see today.

However, some mammals have returned to the water, becoming underwater mammals such as whales and dolphins. True, why they returned back to the water is unknown. But an even bigger mystery is how they breathe. For example, whales can stay underwater for long periods of time, but in order to survive, they must swim to the surface and take in oxygen from the air.

Scientists from the University of Liverpool studied the action of myoglobin, a protein present in the body of swimming mammals and responsible for oxygen saturation of muscles. The researchers found that myoglobin has a special property that helps these animals stay underwater for longer periods of time.

Myoglobin is a positively charged protein. This scares away other proteins, thereby preventing them from sticking together, which allows the myoglobin to fill up with a significant amount of oxygen. These oxygen reserves allow swimming mammals to stay underwater for up to one hour, which land mammals cannot do.

5The Deep Sea Sock-Like Creature

In the 1950s, off the Swedish coast, scientists stumbled upon a mysterious deep-sea animal that baffled them until early 2016. The shape of the creature literally resembled a purple sock. Scientists had no idea what it was and where in the evolutionary cycle it belongs. This creature was like nothing else they had ever seen.

Recently, however, researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography have discovered new species belonging to the genus Xenoturbella, which is represented by a purple "sock-like" creature. In the course of their research, they determined that this genus played a major role in the evolution of all animals.

Scientists attributed this genus to the basis of the evolutionary development of animals. These individuals do not have brains or other organs that other animals have. There is only an opening that functions as a mouth and rectum.

And while scientists still have a lot to learn about this purple sock-like creature, it could help us answer the big question: how did humans come about?

4. Where did water come from on Earth


Water is the key to life on Earth, but its origin on our planet has remained a mystery until now. Until recently, we had no idea whether water hit the Earth with a meteorite or formed on the planet on its own. Finally, some recent research has resolved this controversy. Water has always been here and contributed to the birth of the first organisms.

In one study, scientists studied some meteorites and found that water appeared on Earth when the solar system was in the early stages of planet formation. This is much earlier than previously thought, and suggests that water originated with the planet.

Another study done on lava in Canada gave the same results. These studies have led to the conclusion that water on Earth has an even more ancient origin than the Sun. Although scientists are still arguing about new findings, we seem to have a working answer to this question.

3. How Giraffes Got Long Necks


Giraffes, with their long necks, have always been a favorite topic of debate among evolutionary biologists. Charles Darwin certainly had a lot to say about this. However, the long-standing theory that giraffes evolved through natural selection because they could reach higher leaves seems to be wrong.

The giraffe neck is a unique feature in nature, yet we had no idea how it evolved over a long period of time.

Everything changed when scientists paid closer attention to the fossilized remains of giraffes. They figured out something no one expected: Giraffes' necks didn't suddenly evolve, as we previously thought. Instead, it happened in stages and actually happened before giraffes even existed.

A new study of fossil neck vertebrae shows that evolution took place in several stages: one of the vertebrae of the giraffe's neck first stretched towards the head, and then, several million years later, towards the tail.

According to scientists, the study demonstrates for the first time the specifics of evolutionary transformation in extinct species of the giraffe family.

The vertebrae evolved at different times, resulting in giraffe necks the way we see them today. And while we still don't know why giraffes developed such long necks, we now know how.

2. How flightless birds evolved


From an evolutionary standpoint, flightless birds are one of nature's biggest mysteries.

Even if we ignore the question of why they once gave up flying, the mystery of how they crossed continents without the ability to fly has been on the minds of scientists for more than 150 years. The separation of the continents from each other had already begun when birds evolved, so it was impossible to cross the ocean without flying over it.

However, according to a recent report, all flightless birds (i.e., ratites) evolved from a single bird that flew almost 60 million years ago. It used to be thought that birds evolved separately after the continents started drifting apart but before large mammals evolved.

The scientists then proved that there was a close relationship between two seemingly separate species of ratites, the kiwi and the epiornis, an extinct family of flightless birds that lived in Madagascar.

This is not the first time scientists have discovered a genetic relationship among various families of ratites. Research conducted in the 1990s showed that emus were also close relatives of the kiwi bird.

1. How life originated on Earth


How the first organisms appeared on Earth has always been a big question mark. In the first half of the last century, the Soviet biologist Alexander Ivanovich Oparin put forward a theory about the "primordial soup" - the emergence of life on Earth through the transformation of hydrogen-containing molecules as a result of gradual chemical evolution into a primary soup, which, as expected, existed in shallow reservoirs and probably served incubation center for the first living molecules.

However, there have always been problems with this theory. For example, it is widely known that the ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecule was the first form of life on Earth. But RNA can only replicate with the complex protein molecules it forms later. So how did she get there in the first place?

After studying the conditions that existed on Earth at the time of the origin of life, British researchers proved that at that time everything necessary for the formation of RNA was already present in the environment.

Scientists artificially created 50 nucleic acids - the building blocks of RNA - from hydrogen sulfide, ultraviolet light and hydrogen. All three components were present on Earth when life began. Although scientists had previously suggested that RNA formed before proteins, this is the first time it has been proven that RNA can exist without them.

How owls fly without making a sound


Scientists have always been fascinated by the ability to fly without making a sound. To understand how they do this, they recently studied owl feathers under high-resolution microscopes.

It turned out that owl feathers have at least three distinct characteristics that combine to produce silent flight: a stiff ridge on the leading edge, an elastic fringe on the trailing edge, and a soft material that spreads evenly across the top of the feathers.

No other bird has such a complex wing structure. This discovery has already inspired the development of a material that could one day help produce silent aircraft.

Her head Alexander Sergeev called the results of research by ornithologists. They found another mechanism that allows birds to fly thousands of kilometers with amazing accuracy. The director of the Rybachy biological station, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, tells about the essence of this study. Nikita Chernetsov.

Many are sure that science has long figured out the migration of birds, that they are guided by the magnetic field. However, recently a reputable scientific journal Science acknowledged that bird migration is still a mystery to science. But it has been studied for over 100 years. How far have scientists advanced in understanding this phenomenon?

Nikita Chernetsov: In order for a bird to be able to return to its nesting place thousands of kilometers away, it needs a map and a compass. This was understood in the mid-1950s by the German scientist Günter Kramer. First, she must understand where she is in relation to the target, and here she needs a map, and then, using the compass, select and maintain the direction of movement. Today, science believes that both the compass and the map can "work" on different physical principles.

That is, the matter is not limited to the Earth's magnetic field?

Nikita Chernetsov: It is now generally accepted that birds navigate using three compass systems: by the Sun, by the stars and by the Earth's magnetic field. The solar compass depends on the sense of time of the birds, in fact, on their internal clock. And they learn to navigate by the stars from a very young age. In general, the ability to use a star compass with its complexity amazes many specialists. It requires birds to have well-developed cognitive abilities, much more advanced than when working with a magnetic compass. For example, birds should notice the slow rotation of the sky, highlight the center of rotation.

But the magnetic compass, which many have heard of, was actually not recognized by a number of scientists for a long time. After all, he suggests that birds should have a special system that humans do not have, the so-called sensory modality. Therefore, such studies were treated with the same skepticism as, for example, the study of telepathy in humans. The situation changed when, in the 1970s, scientific facts proved the existence of a magnetic compass in birds. It is believed that, unlike solar and stellar, it is innate in birds. This compass does not work in complete darkness, it works in blue and green light and "turns off" in yellow and red.

What is the mechanism? How do birds perceive a magnetic field?

Nikita Chernetsov: This is a complex system, you can't explain it on your fingers. It is only important to note that in the retina of their eyes there are receptors through which chemical reactions are triggered. They transform the field into visual images. We can say that the birds actually "see" the magnetic field. But here's what's interesting. In addition to the eye, for receiving information about the magnetic field in birds, there is another channel - this is the trigeminal nerve. Its sensitive endings are located in the mandible, from where information is sent along the nerve to the brain.

Why is nature so wasteful? Why did she give the bird three compasses at once? By the way, which one is more accurate?

Nikita Chernetsov: Scientists have been struggling with this issue for a long time. By the way, it is very difficult to conduct experiments on birds that would give unambiguous answers. It is now believed that the hierarchy of different compasses depends not only on bird species, but they are different even in populations of the same species. Some birds, say "truckers", regularly check their magnetic compass with the astronomical one. For those migrating short distances, one magnetic compass is sufficient. But if science has a certain clarity with compasses, although there are still many questions, then the situation with bird navigation charts is much worse.

That is, it remains unclear how birds determine their location in relation to the purpose of the flight?

Nikita Chernetsov: There are many hypotheses here, two of them are the most realistic. According to the first, birds use a map of magnetic field gradients, in particular, its intensity and inclination. They change from the pole to the equator, and therefore can be latitude coordinators, the north-south direction. And experiments have shown that birds somehow know how to measure it. But how can they determine the geographical longitude on the map, the coordinates "east-west"? Even people learned to determine longitude only in the 18th century.

And in order for birds to solve this problem, they also need to measure the third parameter, magnetic declination - the angle between the geographic and magnetic poles. Such a hypothesis was expressed long ago, but there was no real confirmation of it. And for the first time in the world, we were able to show in experiments with reed warblers that they have such an ability, that they can measure the declination in the east-west direction. So, they can use a magnetic card. It was this work that the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Sergeev had in mind when speaking about the latest achievements of the Academy. Now we need to show that a similar mechanism works in other birds.

Did you manage to understand the mechanism, the physics of the phenomenon?

Nikita Chernetsov: We have shown that information about longitude can enter the brain through the trigeminal nerve, which I have already mentioned. Perhaps there are small particles of magnetite in the beak, in fact, it looks like our usual compass. Now we are studying this version together with scientists from St.

There is a version that birds can navigate in space by smell..

Nikita Chernetsov: Yes, because the concentration of certain substances in the atmosphere can change, which means that there is probably a gradient here as well. In a number of experiments, birds with a "disabled" olfactory system lost their orientation. But this version has many critics, it requires a very serious argument.

Russian scientists are studying a new drug for the treatment of schizophrenia

Russian pharmacologists have discovered a drug that can be used in the development of new approaches to the treatment of mental disorders in people - schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder, which is characterized by obsessive-compulsive disorders.

Half a needle in a haystack: a new express method will find ultra-low concentrations of low molecular weight substances

Russian researchers from the Institute of General Physics. AM Prokhorov Institute of Physics and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology have developed the world's first ultrasensitive method for the rapid detection of low molecular weight compounds.

Scientists have deciphered the structure of a molecule suitable for the treatment of brain cancer

Russian scientists, using the unique experimental base of the National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute", determined the spatial structure of an aptamer (a small fragment of a deoxyribonucleic acid molecule, DNA), capable of recognizing brain tumor cells and delivering drugs directly to them, the press service of Kurchatovsky told RIA Novosti institute.

Four projects of the SB RAS will be included in the program of reindustrialization of the economy of the Novosibirsk region

Anatoly Sobolev, Deputy Governor of the Novosibirsk Region, told Continet Siberia newspaper that the government is currently considering four new potential "flagship" projects.

Scientists have discovered substances in several sea creatures that can destroy cancer cells

​Scientists from the Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU), together with their colleagues from the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FEB RAS), as well as from leading oncological clinics in Germany and Switzerland, have discovered unique substances in a number of marine organisms (aquatic organisms) that can destroy tumor cells.

Scientists study the propagation of heat in ultrapure crystals

Scientists from Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) have developed a mathematical model of the processes that occur during the propagation of heat in ultrapure crystals. This will open up prospects for creating new materials for use in cooling circuits of various equipment.

"The tit bird is not great, but clever." (proverb)

For many years (or rather cold winters) I have been feeding tits on the window and watching these bright, cheerful and intelligent birds with great pleasure.

And so, I began to notice that titmouse familiar to me brought their chicks to my window for the next year and taught them how to quickly peck out seeds from a narrow hole in a round plastic feeder.

Research by scientists from the University of Oxford has shown that tits are very intelligent birds with the ability to quickly social learning and transfer useful skills to future generations.

In the first half of the 20th century, tits in the UK learned to peck through the foil on milk bottles (at that time milkmen simply left them on the doorstep of customers early in the morning) and drink the cream accumulated in the upper part of the neck.

Tits masterfully learn useful skills from their relatives, copying their behavior, and soon this "cultural tradition" began to be transferred like a fire from one flock to another.

The “tits and milk bottles” problem reached its peak by the 1950s and 1960s and swept across the United Kingdom (UK). Many Britons were forced to leave special plastic caps on the stairs so that the milkman would protect the bottles from the raids of the "flying thieves", who even learned the time when the milkmen went around the houses of customers and accompanied their wagons with joyful whistling.

This ability to open the foil caps on milk bottles has been passed down to future generations for a century (first observed in 1921 by the inhabitants of Swaitling, Hampshire), and even today in rural England there are early morning raids by "enemy feathered aircraft" on milk bottles of conservative Britons who still prefer to order quality, fresh milk from small farms rather than buy well-sealed plastic and carton packs of less tasty milk from hypermarkets (although the number of such people is rapidly declining: about 2 million glass bottles of milk are delivered to customers in the UK in our days, compared to 40 million bottles in the early 1990s). Imagine what a mass phenomenon it was in the 60s!

Studying this mass phenomenon, scientists came to an even more unexpected and exciting discovery - tits not only transferred their experience from one individual to another within the established flock, they changed it, adapting it to the living conditions of the population where they flew.

This discovery is the first studied example "cultural conformity" (cultural conformity) among animals, with the exception of primates.

The researchers say their findings challenge conventional wisdom about cultural development in birds and other animals (except primates).

Adaptation to local traditions has been a key factor in the evolution of human culture.

Dr Lucy Aplin, a zoologist at the University of Oxford, said: “We found that great tits (Parus major or great tits) learned extremely quickly from observing each other in the wild. The new behavior spread from a couple of birds to hundreds of individuals in just a few weeks. At the same time, each population maintains its own cultural traditions, and individuals migrating from one large flock to another adapt their behavior to the new environment in order to correspond to the new way of life.

Dr. Aplin and her colleagues, whose work was published in the journal Nature, studied 8 populations (flocks) of great tits, each with about a hundred birds in Wytham Wood in Oxford (Wytham Wood in Oxford).

Bird observations have been carried out since the 1940s, most birds received unique identification chips (identifying chips) to track the behavior and movement of each individual.

From 5 populations, two males were captured and trained to open a puzzle feeder(puzzle-box) by sliding the sliding door left or right to get to the feed.

Each of the innovator birds was taught only one method of opening the feeder, watching an Oxford-trained bird trainer.

Of the three remaining populations, 2 male tits were also caught, but they were not taught anything.

The captured birds were then released back into the wild in their original populations, and boxes of puzzle feeders were strewn across the woods inside cages that could track the birds that came in through their microchips and film the method they used to open each box.

The researchers found that each great tit population begins to learn only the method of opening the feeder that the innovative male from their area was taught.

In just 20 days, more than three-quarters of the great tits in the forest have opened one of the puzzles using a technique introduced into their area by captured males.

In three populations where males were not trained, only one out of 10 tits managed to open feeders.

One year later The researchers put more puzzles into the forest and found that while nearly two-thirds of the original birds died and were replaced by a new generation, each of the 5 populations applied the method they had adopted the previous year.

This suggests that the birds passed on the behavior as a "cultural tradition" to the next generations.

When the researchers looked at birds that moved between populations over the course of a year, they found something more surprising - these birds followed local tradition rather than using the technique they had originally learned.

Dr. Aplin added: “As if his personal experience was rewritten by the behavior of the surrounding majority. Conformist behavior - the prioritization of social learning over personal experience - has often been considered primate-only and cognitively challenging, so these results in birds are an exciting challenge to previously accepted ideas."

The Oxford scientists' findings could explain why the great tit's ability to open milk bottles spread so quickly across the UK and why the tradition was able to last for almost a hundred years.

Professor Ben Sheldon, director of the Edward Gray Institute at Oxford University, said: "Our experiments show that birds can learn through observation, and this can help create arbitrary local 'cultural traditions'." Once the majority in a group accepts one way of doing things, those cultural traditions are passed on to the next generation and can be maintained for many years."

Today horned larks (lat. Eremophila alpestris) are small songbirds with white bellies and yellow chins. But a century ago, at the height of U.S. urban air pollution, their pale feathers were dark gray from the soot in the atmosphere.

In the new study, scientists used birds from museum collections to track the amount of black carbon in the air over time and the impact of environmental policies on pollution.

“Soot on bird plumage allowed us to determine how the amount of black carbon in the air changed over time, and we found that by the turn of the century urban air was even more polluted than expected,” says Shane Dubay, a graduate student at the Field Museum of Natural History at University of Chicago and one of the authors of the study. He and his colleague Carl Faldner analyzed more than a thousand birds collected over the past 135 years to quantify soot emissions from cities in the Rust Belt. Rust Belt), also known as Industrial or Factory. This belt includes part of the Midwest and East Coast of the United States, where steelmaking and other American heavy industries were concentrated from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution until the 1970s.

“If you look at the Chicago sky today, you will see how blue it is. But US cities like Chicago and Pittsburgh used to be no better off with air pollution than they are now in Beijing and Delhi. Using museum collections, we were able to reconstruct this history,” the scientists say.

Carl Fuldner and Shane DuBay, The University of Chicago and The Field Museum

Ornithologists working at the Field Museum have long known that the bird specimens in the collection from the early 1900s are noticeably darker, and have assumed atmospheric soot to be the culprit. “When you touch these birds, you leave traces of soot on your hands. The fact is that the soot in the air stuck to their plumage, like dust to a fleecy rag. These birds act like air filters as they move through the environment,” explains the author of the study.

The birds also turned out to be ideal candidates for study because they shed their plumage and grow new ones every year, which means that soot could only have accumulated on them in the year they were collected. And at the same time, there was an obvious trend: the old birds were dirtier, and the more modern ones were cleaner.

Carl Fuldner and Shane DuBay, The University of Chicago and The Field Museum

To measure changes in plumage pollution over the years, Dubay and Faldner decided to photograph the birds and measure the light reflected from them. More than a thousand birds from five species have been photographed, which breed in the Industrial Belt and have many white feathers.

The images show an impressive contrast between dirty gray birds and pure whites. The authors calculated the amount of light reflected from bird feathers, comparing it with the year the birds were collected. They then delved into the social history of urban air pollution to link historical data to the results.

“Changes in plumage color reflect efforts to tackle the problem of air pollution up to national movements. We can really go back in time and see how effective this or that environmental policy was. And we were surprised at the accuracy we were able to achieve. Soot on birds consistently reflects coal use over time,” Faldner says.

The study showed that during the Great Depression, there is a sharp decrease in bird pollution, because coal consumption is reduced due to the crisis. During World War II, when coal was used, the amount of soot on birds was greater than after it ended, when people in the Industrial Belt began to heat their homes with natural gas supplied from the West.

“Just because more modern birds are cleaner doesn't mean we're cleaner,” says Dubei. While the US is emitting much less black carbon into the atmosphere than before, we continue to fill our atmosphere with pollutants that are simply less visible than soot. In addition, many people around the world are still breathing soot in their cities.”

Analysis of atmospheric black carbon could help scientists studying climate change. “We know that black carbon is a powerful driver of climate change, and at the turn of the century, levels were higher than previously thought. I hope our results will help climatologists and atmospheric scientists better understand the impact of black carbon on climate."

“This study shows the tipping point where we moved away from burning coal. And today we are at a similar pivotal moment with fossil fuels. In the middle of the 20th century, we invested in infrastructure and regulated fuel sources and hope to be able to make a similar transition to more sustainable, renewable energy sources that are more efficient and less harmful to our environment.”

ANSWERS

Check your literacy
1.

Scientists have been studying birds for many years, whose feathers dazzlingly sparkle in the sun, and whose long tail flutters in the wind. The deteriorating weather did not allow sowing at the best time. In the vicinity of sheer cliffs, over the very abyss, an eagle soared. A ray of sun shone, and one could clearly hear how a leaf rustled on a tree, how a long pike whipped its tail and splashed in the water. The table was filled with food.

To make roasted coffee, you need to light the stove. The cobbled road ran along a wooden fence along a sandy beach. The ground beetle buzzes in vain, crawling under the juniper branch.

Along the alley stretched a gallery with a marble staircase and railings made of aluminum metal. Cavalry has always been more mobile than artillery. Crystal clear water is obtained by passing it through the crystal lattice of billions and millions of molecules.

The rider jumped on his horse and galloped along the road. The horse made a long leap. We are harvesting and we will collect a lot of fruit. You can't sunbathe for a long time. With a beautiful tan, the skin does not burn. The dawn was breaking, the stars were burning out.

The defenseless landless peasants wrote an appeal and rebelled against lawlessness, inhuman conditions and innumerable violations of rights. Undoubtedly, it is pointless to fight insomnia.

Summing up the conference, it is interesting to note that the super-intensive research allowed to obtain super-interesting results that exceeded all expectations.

The elderly president of a radio company, being in his old age, found himself a new successor, reserving all the privileges. Mountains rose all around. Artless paintings are works of primitive art. A group of tourists who arrived in the city stayed at the hotel for two days.

Lectures are given in the lecture hall. In the building hung a picture painted by an artist named Ptitsyn. It depicts a gypsy at the station. The circus is loved by children and high school students. The compass draws well. A road was brought to the power plant.

With a heavy burden, the cricket looks like a twig. The old man was walking along the highway with his luggage over his shoulder in a canvas bag. There was a rustle and a whisper. A river flows far away. With a stiff brush, they scratch the horse's bangs and put on blinders. The field was covered with black locusts. Snow covered the meadow and the gully.

A deacon and a clerk drove up to the landowner's estate. You will see how powerful the strong man is. You need to light the oven and bake a cake. Can you solve a hundred problems? A beam broke out of the clouds and illuminated five dachas. The frost is crackling, the spruce forest is fragrant. Touch it - you'll get burned.

The evening papers came out with an article about the great genius. The branches of the trees are silver in the morning hoarfrost. By nightfall, the cat's eye saw more clearly the footprints of a hare in the snow. The shepherd played the horn and flute. Seagulls flew over the raging blue sea in the radiance of the sun.

The restoration of a genuine masterpiece of painting progressed slowly. Thoughtful student - beautiful and smart - learns languages: French, Dutch and Belarusian. Dormant willows leaned over a pond of melting snow. The long-awaited rain was falling. The announcement we heard was about a flight that was delayed for reasons beyond the administration's control.

In the misty distance of the sandy shore, the crimson lights of an old hotel shone dimly. In the living room, on the painted floor, decorated with intricate ornaments, there was an elaborate table with artificial flowers in a glass vase. Turned table legs with sharpened ends were gilded. Burnt matches lay on the stand of a silver candlestick. The whitewashed ceilings, recently whitewashed, shone white. Embossed leather chairs stood next to the broken chairs.

The moon shone like a spring dimly. Within two years he learned to speak English, French, German and Russian well. She had no friends or girlfriends. She did not visit anyone, did not like to read or write.

Half-January, the leather and footwear factory exceeded the average daily rate. A forty-year-old man, an experienced steelworker in an iron foundry, in a light gray suit, went to an eight-year school to attend a meeting with his son. A low-growing evergreen shrub with pale pink flowers grew in the northwestern area of ​​the city. At half past nine in the morning, the headquarters of a prominent military leader was informed by long-distance telephone about an international conflict on the basis of civil strife. The biography of the ancient Greek philosopher was published by a South Russian publishing house. On the plate were half an orange and half a lemon.

He bowed to the ground and lay for several minutes on the cold floor strewn with fir trees.

At this time, from behind the height, which was half a verst from the fortress, new horse crowds appeared, and soon the whole steppe was dotted with a multitude of people armed with spears and tails.

The old commandant crossed her three times, then picked her up and, after kissing her, told her in a changed voice! "Well, Masha, be happy."
Lesson 1

1. Here and below, as examples, without indicating the authors, sentences are offered from the works of Russian writers: A. S. Pushkin, M. Yu. Lermontov, N. V. Gogol, S. T. Aksakov, A. I. Goncharov, N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky, A.P. Chekhov, V.K. Arseniev.

Halfway met him Anna Semyonovna. Me nobody did not recognize.

Circles appeared on the dark surface of the water.

In the frosty air resounded laughter and cheerful talk.

Live it got harder and harder every year.

Wade through the thickets of the burnt forest is always difficult.

Both went to the window and began to talk about something in a whisper.

Worked around her two doctors.

Suddenly, three birds rose at once with a noise.

In every wrinkle of Yegorushka's face sat a thousand secrets.

Most of the day already passed.

Along one edge of the site stretches row of carts.

Several bright stars flickered over the river.

Wandered around the neighborhood a lot of boars.

Other People remained below to arrange a bivouac.

We are all four we don't write.

Same day in the evening one of the wise men came to the king.

diners he is not noticed.

1) Nothing did not move. 2) The rest six spoons disappeared. 3) lunch- the crowds got up noisily. 4) Flew across the sky some brilliant weather

Some of them came to our bivouac.

moat. 5) Little by little, the feathered inhabitants of the forest (birds) began to wake up. 6) At Olenka's feet lay two pieces of canvas and several bundles. 7) All those who play double basses and trombones usually unobtrusive. 8) About fifteen years ago it was here up to four thousand deer. 9) A little later Laptev and his son-in-law sat upstairs in the dining room. 10) Latest did not want to return to Vladivostok.

Dazzling - he is blind
to be dumbfounded - the pillar is cheaper - the goods are cheap

Unfading - the flag will fade - it will blow

Vegetate - chill child develops - development

Enrichment - wealth pile up - cumbersome

Annoyed - teasing to stiffen - tree - trees

Match - put disappointed - enchantment

Animal tracks of enormous size led from the valley to the green forests. Birds and their chicks stirred in the nest and opened their beaks. Plasticine was attached to the material evidence. Swans are the epitome of grace. The priest read a sermon on the benefits of enlightenment.

Vile - sad inert mind - bone broth

Worst - best feel - participate

Narrow - bulky honor - keep silent

envious - cowardly boastful - hardy

It is easy to slip on a slippery path. The language teacher was reading the newspaper Glasnost Bulletin. Lower organisms were studied at higher courses. The downdraft carried away the model of a gigantic airplane. In the surrounding provincial villages, not far from the sheer cliffs, a travel agency staged a celebration. A charming view of the wonderful landscape opened from a private house. The debut received favorable reviews.
Lesson 2

Would you take a ticket!

yes go away you finally!

you show something cheaper for us.

He certainly will look for us on the shore.

The pencil went like this on paper.

I I don't visit (=Not I visit).

1) The heart is beating. 2) Life is passing by. 3) Then I_ did not miss her out of sight (followed behind her). 4) If only he learned Yes at home did not indulge. 5) He found it was briefcase, yes again lost. 6) You would go in the canopy and on the bolt of the door locked! 7) He made a move (stepped) back and the rest

would give heartburn from these sturgeons. 9) I visit you often now I will ride.

1. 
   Of all the luxury, she first of all caught my eye big mirror.
2. 
   A bunch of green and gray lizards rushed to the cracks and into the grass.
3. 
   I pulled myself together (calmed down) And remained in place. 13) General sat down to the table and took pen in hand.

new like crazy (freeze). 8) I am in your place now hiccup And stra-

Nadia began to look into the window.

He stopped to me expel money.

I didn't want to go to Olya.

You must do to the stage!

You don't have the right to speak This!

1) I happy to be treated. 2) I'm terrible I am hungry. 3) I tried not to look down. 4) We his couldn't stand. 5) We started cooking tea.

1. 
   Began I walk through the hall. 7) Otherwise, I I have to take extreme measures (= must will fire, remove b etc). 8) But the doctor should have interrupted your speech. 9) He could write complete course in gardening. 10) Kunya hat continued more hang on a nail. 11) He couldn't stand lordly arrogance and self-importance. 12) And he again started screaming long and loud. 13) Olga continued to look at me with surprise. 14) my dexterity could not envy even the Bears. 15) On this point, I ready to argue with you without end. 16) Petrov does not want more release on credit { =not wants more lend ) paper. 17) I would not be able to upset (=not could would upset ) her by her disobedience. 18) Debutante was ready to fall through the ground out of shame and anticipation.

Lesson 3

1) All It's clear. 2) I slave. 3) The air is great. 4) Both of you are people with means (=rich). 5) You Very kind. 6) Yegorushka is alive and well.

1. 
   Doctor very good. 8) You Just spoiled success. 9) She immeasurably higher you. 10) First was brother Fyodor Fedorych. 11) Suitcase this my. 12) I one of permanent visitors operas.

2.

You have become boring. The night was clear. Mountains turned dark blue And sullen. The valley got wider And wider. Life her will be beautiful. And you would be free. A the door was left unlocked. At ten o'clock ball was in full swing.

1) The night promised to be cold. 2) The night was unusually quiet And calm. 3) The defendant kept himself on trial very strange. 4) The weather was great. 5) The hunt failed. 6) It seemed to me acquaintances. 7) Not him first. 8) Now he my.

Face his Cold And strictly. Die is cast. A bargain is a bargain. He is not a coward And not afraid of people. She was the soul of the company. He is kind And honest fellow. Smiles are less than appropriate. One of the houses was empty. She was in a swoon. They will you so happy.

At that time a lizard appeared. One trace appeared to me somehow strange. He looked And felt at the height of bliss. Every day it got harder to walk And harder. Ahead on muddy ground prints were visible tiger paws. Under old age he is already couldn't hunt And became a trapper.

A well-trodden horse walks along the carefully groomed paving stones, rattling with a cart. Behind the wooden fence is a shack, and next to it is a hut. A girl in mittens sat on a tub and ate pies with buckwheat honey. Happy is the man without vanity. The flabby face of the traveler disappeared outside the window of the wagon. The frail puppy squealed in vain at the closed gate. Dawn was already breaking, but nothing could be found out about the trip.

Developing spelling and punctuation skills1.

To friends, nodding - 4

Recognized - 20

Accompany - 32

Famous, who wrote novels - 33

Amateur illustrator - 2 some - 7

Companies - 9 ** company - group of people: cheerful company; trading company, But campaign - some process: advertising (military, pre-election) campaign

Linen - 15 Ryabovsky, that - 36 smiling, held out - 39

Lesson 41.

Thrift is the best wealth. repetition - mother teachings. Word - tin, silence - gold. Without causes live- sky smoke. For a long time sleep- with debt get up. My dream- newspaper publish.

Main- turn life around nothing else matters. The best thing in your position - run away from here. Read for coffee - this is my invincible habit. The best remedy for nerves is Job.

After all, going to a monastery means renouncing life, destroy her. To be able to achieve this - here task right upbringing. Talent He has - God forbid everyone!

1) Brag- not wheels smear. 2) Poetry - language gods. 3) Me and the Count- peers. 4) Main everything is trust. 5) Geography- the science