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Тема

What’s a MAP?

A map is a graphic representation of geographical, geological or geopolitical features of an area of the Earth or any other celestial body drawn to scale and usually on a flat surface. Globes are maps represented on the surface of a sphere.

Globes and maps are useful models of the earth. However globes and maps do not provide perfect representation of the earth. Each has specific advantages as well as disadvantages.

The most important advantages of globes relate to their shape. A globe is the only model of the earth in the shape of a sphere, just like the earth. Because it is true to scale, the landmasses and bodies of water the globe illustrates have the same shapes as they do on the earth’s surface. A globe accurately represents the earth’s grid of parallels and meridians as well as direction and distance from one place to another.

The disadvantages of globes are as follows:

- Price. They are expensive.

- Size. They are too big and bulky to carry around.

- Shape. People can view only one-half of a globe at a time due to the shape of a globe.

- Details. The individual areas that they illustrate are relatively small. As a result, globes cannot show the detailed features of an area, such as roads, streams, forests and parks.

Maps are flat representations of the earth. Maps vary in size from small maps that appear in pocket size to huge wall maps. Maps also vary in purpose.

One of the most obvious advantages of maps over globes is that they are more convenient for use. Maps can be rolled and folded and are easy to carry around. Maps and related material can also be collected in an atlas to provide an easy-to-use reference. Another advantage of maps is that they can show all the earth’s surface at a time or can show specific details.

Maps also can present information about a wide range of topics related to both the physical and cultural features of the earth. Using different colors and symbols, maps can illustrate many kinds of topics, including rainfall, mineral resources and religions.

On the other hand it is impossible to accurately show a three-dimensional object like the earth on a flat, two-dimensional map. For this reason all maps have one or more inaccuracies called distortions. The problem of distortion remains the major disadvantage of maps.

The art and science of making maps and charts is called cartography.

Maps may be classified according to their scale, content, or derivation. Map scale refers to the size of the representation on the map as compared to the size of the object on the ground, for example, the ratio 1:63,360 means one inch on the map represents 63,360 inches (one mile) on the ground. In general, a large-scale map is one on which one inch represents a mile or less; on a small-scale map the ratio may be 1:1,000,000 (one inch to about 15 miles); and medium scale denotes intermediate range.

There are different types of maps that give different types of information:

• Physical maps show landforms, mountains, deserts and lakes. They explain differences in elevation through hypsometric tints or changes in color.

· Topographic maps show the shape and elevation of the land through contour lines.

• Political maps offer cultural information about countries (such as their borders and main cities) and some physical characteristics (like oceans, rivers and lakes).

• Thematic maps give information about specific subjects such as population density, natural resources, climate, primary imports and exports. Some specialized thematic maps show information that can be useful to analyze different kinds of trends.

In short, maps are very important because they offer a great amount of information in a very small space.

Topographic maps can be made by a method called triangulation. A base-line is measured with chains or other devices, and by using this base as one side of a triangle the other sides are calculated from the angles at the two ends of the base-line. Angles can be measured more easily and accurately than distances, and from the points on the corners of the original triangle, a network of points joined by triangles can be established.

Topical Vocabulary

representation изображение, представление pocket size небольшого размера, миниатюрный
feature особенность, свойство fold складывать, сгибать
celestial[sɪ'lestɪəl] body небесное тело easy-to-use удобный, простой в использовании
scale масштаб symbol условный знак, условное обозначение
flat surface плоская поверхность, ровная поверхность земли rainfall количество атмосферных осадков в виде дождя
sphere[sfɪə] сфера, шар mineral resources полезные минеральные ископаемые
advantage [əd'vɑ:ntɪʤ] преимущество two -/ three - dimensional дух/трехмерный
disadvantage недостаток distortion искажение
landmass суша, твердь, земельный массив inaccuracy неточность
body of water водоём, водное пространство chart карта (кроме топографической)
grid сетка координат hypsometric[ˌhɪpsəʊ'mεtrɪk, -sə'] tints гипсометрическая шкала высот
meridian [mə'rɪdɪən] меридиан contour lines ['kɔntuəlaɪn] контурная горизонталь
parallel ['pærəlel] параллель triangulation ['traɪængju'leɪʃ(ə)n] тригонометрическая съемка
direction (cardinal direction) направление (сторона света) base-line базис, базисная/начальная линия
bulky крупногабаритный, громоздкий plotting составление карты, нанесение данных на карту

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