Unit 2 natural hazards

Words to know:

disaster to spread to cover to cause harm damage injury violent to explode devastation harsh to face landslide to miss missing people avert

катастрофа распространятся покрывать, охватывать быть причиной вред ущерб, вред травма сильный взрывать разрушения суровый столкнуться оползень пропадать пропавшие люди предотвращение

Fill the crossword:

Across

Use the words from the crossword to complete the sentences:

1. Last night volcano Maui ___________ and the hot ___________ poured downhill. Since there are two villages located at the foot of the volcano, the local population was ___________.

2. The devastation caused by superstorm Sandy, particularly in New York and New Jersey, is tragic, but the ___________ has at least put climate change back on the map.

3. After the harshest winter in decades, the Balkans region in the southeast of Europe is now facing its hottest summer and the worst _________ across the area in nearly 40 years.

4. A powerful ____________ off the coast of Indonesia sparked a three-metre-high ______________that killed at least 113 people.

5. A landslide caused by rains in southern China left 21 people missing today, adding to a growing death toll from China's worst _________ season in a decade.

6. This summer a dozen ____________, which are more common in the US, have hit Europe. The twister which swept through Poland yesterday flattened more than 400 hectares of woodland in the area.

7. The US navy has been deployed to help avert a looming environmental __________ in the Gulf of Mexico.

Read and translate the Text A:

Natural disasters

Words to know: adverse, eruption, property, to recover, severe, vulnerable population, consequence, to last, to require, weather-related, loss, event

A natural disaster is a major adverse event resulting from natural processes of the Earth; examples include floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, and other geologic processes. A natural disaster can cause loss of life or property damage, and typically leaves some economic damage in its wake, the severity of which depends on the affected population's resilience, or ability to recover.

An adverse event will not rise to the level of a disaster if it occurs in an area without vulnerable population. In a vulnerable area, however, such as San Francisco, an earthquake can have disastrous consequences and leave lasting damage, requiring years to repair.

In 2012, there were 905 natural disasters worldwide, 93% of which were weather-related disasters. Overall costs were US$170 billion and insured losses $70 billion. 2012 was a moderate year. 45% were meteorological (storms), 36% were hydrological (floods), 12% were climatological (heat waves, cold waves, droughts, wildfires) and 7% were geophysical events (earthquakes and volcanic eruptions). Between 1980 and 2011 geophysical events accounted for 14% of all natural catastrophes.

Read the definitions of some natural disasters from the National Geographic site (http://environment.nationalgeographic.com):

Words to know: spiraling, to unleash

Hurricanes are giant, spiraling tropical storms that can pack wind speeds of over 160 miles (257 kilometers) an hour and unleash more than 2.4 trillion gallons (9 trillion liters) of rain a day. These same tropical storms are known as cyclones in the northern Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal, and as typhoons in the western Pacific Ocean.

Words to know: to inundate, excessive rain, a ruptured dam, levee, rapid ice melting, beaver dam, to overwhelm, adjacent, floodplain, coastal flooding

A flood occurs when water overflows or inundates land that's normally dry. This can happen in a multitude of ways. Most common is when rivers or streams overflow their banks. Excessive rain, a ruptured dam or levee, rapid ice melting in the mountains, or even an unfortunately placed beaver dam can overwhelm a river and send it spreading over the adjacent land, called a floodplain. Coastal flooding occurs when a large storm or tsunami causes the sea to surge inland.

Words to know: dry powdery snow, wrought, slab, to shatter, per hour within about five second

Many avalanches are small slides of dry powdery snow that move as a formless mass. These "sluffs" account for a tiny fraction of the death and destruction wrought by their bigger, more organized cousins. Disastrous avalanches occur when massive slabs of snow break loose from a mountainside and shatter like broken glass as they race downhill. These moving masses can reach speeds of 80 miles (130 kilometers) per hour within about five seconds.

Words to know: unnoticeable, to stretch, to squeeze

Earthquakes, also called temblors, can be so tremendously destructive, it’s hard to imagine they occur by the thousands every day around the world, usually in the form of small tremors. Most earthquakes occur at fault zones, where tectonic plates—giant rock slabs that make up the Earth's upper layer—collide or slide against each other. These impacts are usually gradual and unnoticeable on the surface; however, immense stress can build up between plates. When this stress is released quickly, it sends massive vibrations, called seismic waves, often hundreds of miles through the rock and up to the surface. Other quakes can occur far from faults zones when plates are stretched or squeezed.

Words to know: to bolt, strike, discharge

Cloud-to-ground lightning bolts are a common phenomenon—about 100 strike Earth’s surface every single second—yet their power is extraordinary. Each bolt can contain up to one billion volts of electricity. This enormous electrical discharge is caused by an imbalance between positive and negative charges. During a storm, colliding particles of rain, ice, or snow increase this imbalance and often negatively charge the lower reaches of storm clouds. Objects on the ground, like steeples, trees, and the Earth itself, become positively charged—creating an imbalance that nature seeks to remedy by passing current between the two charges.

Words to know: wave, surge, to reach, height, widespread, ashore

A tsunami is a series of ocean waves that sends surges of water, sometimes reaching heights of over 100 feet (30.5 meters), onto land. These walls of water can cause widespread destruction when they crash ashore.

Words to know: awesome, vent, Earth's surface, molten rock, debris, to emit

Volcanoes are awesome manifestations of the fiery power contained deep within the Earth. These formations are essentially vents on the Earth's surface where molten rock, debris, and gases from the planet's interior are emitted.

Words to know: underbrush, wildfire, to burn. to consume, path, mere

Uncontrolled blazes fueled by weather, wind, and dry underbrush, wildfires can burn acres of land—and consume everything in their paths—in mere minutes.

Add natural disasters which are not mentioned in the text and give them definitions:

Learn the grammar: Passive Voice

Общей формулой для образования пассива в английском языке выступает следующая конструкция: Subject (подлежащее) + соответствующая форма глагола ‘to be’ + Past Participle (причастие прошедшего времени). 

Время	Вспомогательный глагол + V3	Примеры
Present Simple	am, is, are + V3	Orange juice is made from oranges. Many cloths are made in China.
Present Continuous	am, is, are + being + V3	The e-mail is being sent at the moment.
Past Simple	was, were + V3	Peter was invited to report at the meeting. They were invited to John’s birthday party.
Past Continuous	was, were + being + V3	The flat was being cleaned when I returned home.
Future Simple (форма с ‘will’)	will be + V3	The letter will be send tomorrow. The contracts will all be signed by next month.
Present Perfect	has, have + been + V3	That site has been sold for 5 thousand dollars. The rights to his album have been sold for 1 million.
Past Perfect	had + been + V3	The new teacher had been hired before Emma left the school. All the workers had been hired before the plant opened.
Future perfect	will + have been + V3	The work will have been done by the time she gets home. The crates will have been loaded by then.
Модальные глаголы can/could	can, could + be + V3	An international passport can only be issued at the embassy. They said the data could be issued within three days.
Модальный глагол ‘have to’	have to, has to, had to + be + V3	A cleaner has to be arranged for this month. Peter’s plans have to be arranged by January.
Модальный глагол ‘must’	must + be + V3	Thieves must be stopped before they commit a crime.

Translate and define the tenses of the passive sentences from the Text A:

1. Overall costs were US$170 billion and insured losses $70 billion.

2. When this stress is released quickly, it sends massive vibrations, called seismic waves plates are stretched or squeezed.

3. This enormous electrical discharge is caused by an imbalance between positive and negative charges.

4. These formations are essentially vents on the Earth's surface where molten rock, debris, and gases from the planet's interior are emitted.

Active/Passive Voice Mix:

1. Put in the verbs in the passive voice.

Yosemite ____________________ (visit) by millions of people every year. We'll cross the park on Highway 120 but this road ____________________ (close) by snow in winter. We won't use our bus in Yosemite Valley because tourists ____________________ (take) to all the sights there by free park buses. In California earthquakes ____________________ (feel) by millions every year and buildings, roads and bridges ____________ sometimes ______________ (destroy) In bad earthquakes people ____________________ (kill), too.

2. Complete the gaps with the suitable passive verb.

Nowadays, action films are getting more and more spectacular and many special effects 1_______ __________________ (add) to make the action more realistic. It’s impossible to control the weather during filming. As a result, weather effects 2________ _____________________ (often create) for the film. For example, the winter scenes in Young Sherlock Holmes 3__________________ (not film) in winter, but in the middle of summer. The snow 4__________________ (make) from polystyrene! Car chases, high-speed crashes, or falls from high buildings 5__________________ (not play) by the stars themselves – they 6__________________ (do) by stuntmen. In Volcano, stuntmen 7________________________ (set on fire). However, the actors 8________________________ (protect) by several layers of special clothing, so nobody 9________________________ (injure). In the future, many stunts 10________________________ (not need). Most effects 11___________ _________________ (generate) by computer, so action films should be safer and easier to make.

3. Fill the gaps with the correct tenses (active or passive voice).

In the year 122 AD, the Roman Emperor Hadrian ___________________ (visit) his provinces in Britain. 2. On his visit, the Roman soldiers ________________ (tell) him that Pictish tribes from Britain’s north _____________________ (attack) them. So Hadrian ____________________ (give) the order to build a protective wall across one of the narrowest parts of the country. After 6 years of hard work, the Wall ____________________ (finish) in 128. It ______________ (be) 117 kms long and about 4m high. The Wall _______________ (guard) by 15,000 Roman soldiers. Every 8 kilometers there ______________________ (be) a large fort in which up to 1,000 soldiers ______________________ (find) shelter. The soldiers ______________________ (watch) over the frontier to the north and ______________________ (check) the people who ______________________ (want) to enter or leave Roman Britain. In order to pass through the Wall, people ______________________ (must go) to one of the small forts that ______________________ (serve) as gateways. Those forts ______________________ (call) milecastles because the distance from one fort to another ______________________ (be) one Roman mile (about 1,500 meters). Between the milecastles there ______________________ (be) two turrets from which the soldiers ______________________ (guard) the Wall. If the Wall ______________________ (attack) by enemies, the soldiers at the turrets ______________________ (run) to the nearest milecastle for help or ______________________ (light) a fire that ______________________ (can / see) by the soldiers in the milecastle. In 383 Hadrian’s Wall ______________________ (abandon). Today Hadrian’s Wall ______________________ (be) the most popular tourist attraction in northern England. In 1987, it ______________________ (become) a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

4. Complete the text below using the correct form of the verb, active or passive.

Santorini is a Greek island in a group which ...................................... (know) as the Cyclades Islands. Out of a total of 56 islands, only 24 of them ............................................ (inhabit). On Milos, one of these islands, the famous sculpture, ‘Venus de Milo’ ..................................... (discover). Santorini is very popular with tourists. It ................................ (form) from a volcano and petrified lava. In Fira, the main tourist center, many shops ..................................... (open) where local jewelry, pottery and leather goods .................................. (sell). Travelling north to the little town of Oia, the reds and purples of the volcanic lava ......................................... (can/see). The ancient city of Thira ....................................... (locate) in the southeast of the island. It ....................................... (found) by the Dorians in the ninth century BCE. The city is in ruins because of a volcanic eruption. Bus tours ......................................... (organize) by local companies to all these sites.

Listen to one of the video from the list below and writedown the texts of the video:

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/101-videos/droughts

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/101-videos/avalanches

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/101-videos/floods

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/101-videos/hurricanes

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/101-videos/tornadoes

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/101-videos/lightning

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/101-videos/volcanoes

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/101-videos/earthquake

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/101-videos/tsunami

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/101-videos/landslides

Prepare the presentation about any natural disaster that has ever happened. Use Appendix 1 how to make a good presentation.

Read and translate without a dictionary the Text B:

aftershock	An aftershock is a small earthquake that often comes after a big earthquake.
authorities	They are people who are in charge of a place during a disaster. They keep people safe. They can be police, firefighters or teachers.
disaster	A disaster is a something that causes lots of damage to people and places. It can be a hurricane or a tornado. It can be a storm or a flood. It can be a fire, earthquake or blizzard.
emergency	An emergency is something you do not expect. It is a time when someone could be in danger or could be hurt. It is a time to get help right away.
evacuate	To evacuate means to leave a place in a quick and organized way. We sometimes evacuate during an emergency. When there is a fire drill at your school, you evacuate the school.
hypothermia	This is a dangerous illness that can happen if your body gets much colder than normal. Hypothermia can happen if you spend a long time in a very cold place.
magnitude	The magnitude of an earthquake tells us how much power the earthquake has. A high number like 7.0 means the earthquake is strong. A low number means the earthquake is weak.
officials	These people hold important jobs in your area. They help carry out the rules we live by.
prepare	Getting prepared means getting ready. Getting prepared for a disaster means you will know what to do and where to go when a disaster happens.
storm surge	A storm surge is a large amount of water pushed on to shore by strong winds. A storm surge can be 50 to 100 miles wide. It can be 25 feet high. It can be as high as a two-story home!
warning	A warning is issued by the National Weather Service over the radio and TV. A warning lets you know that bad weather has been seen where you live or is coming soon. When bad weather is close to your home, you need to take cover or evacuate right away so you can stay safe. Warnings can be about floods, thunderstorms, tornadoes and hurricanes. A weather warning is more serious than a weather watch.