Билет №18. Вопрос 1.

SPORT IN GREAT BRITAIN

In some form or another sport is an important part of the English­man's life. Of all sports at least two have the greatest popularity among Britons: football in winter and golf in summer. One can also mention rugby, a form of English football in which the players use their hands for carrying the ball. This game is played by teams of 15 men with an oval ball. Other sports such as tennis, cricket, and boxing are also very popu­lar in England. Young people go in for traditional athletics - swimming, rowing, running, jumping. But people who are fond of motoring, hunting or fishing continue with their sports even in middle age. Most people in England don't go in for many winter sports. Skiing in England isn't as popular as it is in other countries. Mainly because they haven't got the kind of weather which is best for skiing. However in Scotland where there are good conditions for winter sports skiing has attracted thousands of fans, particularly in recent years.

Probably the most popular sport in England is simply walking. Peo­ple would go out into the country at the weekend, whole families, and spend their time walking. Especially in the more attractive and less pop­ulated regions of England.

A lot of ice-skating is done when younger people skate at various ice­-rinks. In every big city there is at least one skating-rink.

Some years ago people thought sport developed character and team spirit. People played just for the love of the game - they were all ama­teurs. But today, big sport is professional and top players can make a lot of money.

Team games are not as popular as they were in the 1950s. The sports which grew fastest in popularity in the 1970s and 1980s were all sports for individuals, like swimming, cycling and snooker.

1. What is the text about?

2. What can you say about golf?

3. Is anything said about Scottish traditional sports?

4. What winter sports are listed in the text?

5. What unites swimming, cycling and snooker?

Билет №18. Вопрос 2.

Environmental protection

Environmental protection is one of the main problems of today. Industrial civilisation is characterised by numerous factories and power stations, automobiles and aeroplanes. Technological progress improves people's lives, but at the same time it causes numerous problems that were unimaginable in the past centuries. Through their daily activities people pollute and contaminate land, water and air. Today pollution has become a universal problem. Both the atmosphere of the Earth and the depths of the oceans are poisoned with toxic wastes created by the humans. Millions of species - animals, birds, fish have already disappeared from our planet; thousands of others will be gone tomorrow. Natural resources are exhausted; the ecology of the planet is disbalanced. The survival of our civilisation depends on the ability of mankind to find a way out. The task of protecting the nature is of primary importance now.

Big cities face the environmental catastrophe. Concentration of millions of people on a tiny area causes numerous problems. Some of them can be solved only at the expense of creating new ones. For example, air pollution is caused by the ever-increasing number of automobiles that help to cope with the transportation problem.

The need for energy generates pollution on a large scale. Energy that derives from fossil fuels contaminates the atmosphere. Nuclear power plants threaten air, water and land. The necessity to employ all the inhabitants of the city leads to the creation of new factories that produce not only consumer goods, but wastes and smog as well. Constant carbon dioxide emissions is a characteristic feature of big cities. Pollution of water by both industrial and domestic users creates the problem of water deficit. One form of pollution that is characteristic of large urban cities is noise that has destructive influence on a person's mind. Litter is another issue that people face in big cities. As a result of it big industrial centres today look more like garbage dumps.

It would be naive to think that the environmental problems are limited to big cities only. Our Earth is a living entity; land, air and water are inseparable. Water contaminated in big cities runs to the major rivers that then flow into oceans and seas, thus affecting places far from the point of origin. The atmosphere is in constant movement; the air polluted in the United States can travel the next day to Russia poisoning our people. Another source of global danger is acid rain. It is a relatively new kind of pollution. Acid rains appeared as a reaction of the atmosphere to the air contamination. Acid rains damage water, forest, and soil resources. Acid rains cause the disappearance of fish from many lakes, bring death to the forests and woods in Europe and America. One more danger comes from the depletion of the ozone layer, which absorbs ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. If it continues it will damage all living organisms on our planet. The only thing that people fail to realise is that humanity is also part of the biosphere and that people depend completely on the environment. The war on nature that mankind is waging today is a kind of collective suicide. People pollute the air that they breathe, poison the water that they drink. The most evident example of such suicidal tendencies is smoking. Smoking not only harms the health of the smoker, but also is destructive for others. That is why many countries passed laws to restrict smoking in public and at work. Beginning with the 1960s the pollution problems have received great publicity. Recently the environmental movement has gained widespread support. Environmental activists, organisations of volunteers do their best to stop pollution of our planet.