Завдання № 1

Read and translate orally the chapters of the book on Ukraine: “Land”, “Pollution”, “Chornobyl Nuclear Accident”. Write out the meanings of the following words from the dictionary and memorize them:

to attain

to overwhelm

to supply

to apply

to experience

to occur

to claim

pollution

environment

contamination

lack

density

fertilizer

explosion

threat

maintenance

harmful

substantial

shallow

horrible

Завдання № 2

Match the years with the events, as shown below, and translate each sentence in a written form:

1899 – Mykola Kostomarov, Mykola Hulak and Vasil Bilozersky founded the Brotherhood of Sts. Cyril and Methodius.

19^th c. –

1950s –

1970s –

1986 –

8 thousand years –

Завдання № 3

Put the verbs in brackets into Past Simple, Present Perfect or Past Perfect (Active or Passive):

1. The Chornobyl region (to become) “a living laboratory” for the study of nuclear contamination.

2. Last years the absence of the proper environmental protection (to give) rise to water pollution throughout Ukraine.

3. My friend knew that the sea’s salinity (to increase) by more than 40%.

4. Press reports claimed that levels of stillbirth and birth defects (to elevate) by significant numbers of deaths by radiation sickness.

5. The students were told that water pollution (to cause) by chemical fertilizers washed off into rivers.

Завдання № 4

Answer the following questions on the text:

1. How can we describe the land on which Ukraine is situated?

2. Why does Ukraine contain some of the most polluted landscapes in Eastern Europe?

3. What is pollution?

4. What does contamination originate from?

5. Where is air pollution especially severe in Ukraine?

6. What are major sources of pollution?

7. What is water pollution caused by?

8. What effect did a nuclear reactor explosion at the Chornobyl electric station make on the environment?

9. What claims and other concerns are being researched by scientists and medical professionals in Ukraine?

10. What help did Ukraine receive from a number of foreign countries after the Chornobyl Nuclear Accident?

Завдання № 5

Translate in written form marked in the text passages:

Land

Ukraine consists largely of a flat, fertile plain with no natural boundaries except the Carpathian Mountains in the southwest and the Black Sea in the south. Great areas are occupied by steppes and forest-steppe regions.

Lowlands occupy a considerable part of the country. In the north lies the Polissia Lowland. On the Left Bank, the Dnieper Lowland runs along the Dnieper River. The Black Sea Lowland skirts the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Between the Southern Buh and the middle reaches of the Dnieper lies the Dnieper Plateau. At its highest point it is 321 m. The Volhynia Plateau is 200-300 m in elevation. The Podillia Plateau lies between the Dnieper and Southern Buh. Its surface is cut by valleys of 150-200 m. In the southeast of the country lies the Donets Ridge and the Azov Plateau.

Within the borders of Ukraine we find the Carpathian Mountains with the highest peak Hoverla (2061 m) which is located in the Chornohora massif. The Carpathians are young folded mountains, so they have flat summit and gentle slopes. The flat area of the treeless summit is called a polonyna.

The Crimean Mountains stretch in three parallel ranges. Their southern slopes are steep, the northern ones more gentle. The Main Range is the highest, rising to 1500 m above the sea level. Its highest peak is Roman Kosh (1545 m).

Pollution

Pollution is the contamination of the environment, including air, water, and land, with undesirable amounts of material or energy. Such contamination originates from human activities that create waste products. An industrial and intensively farmed country, Ukraine contains some of the most polluted landscapes in Eastern Europe. Pollution became evident in Ukraine with industrial development in the 19th century.

Air pollution is especially severe in many of the heavily industrialized cities and towns of southeastern Ukraine, notably in Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhia. Coal-using industries, such as metallurgical coke-chemical plants, steel mills, and thermal power plants are major sources of high levels of uncontrolled emissions of sulphur dioxide, dust, unburned hydrocarbons, and other harmful substances. Other Ukrainian cities with major chronic air pollution problems include Kyiv, Komunarsk, Makiivka and Odesa.

Over one-third of the emissions into the atmosphere originate from automobile transport. That source, which attains overwhelming proportions in cities with little industry, such as Uzhhorod, Yalta, Poltava and Khmelnytskyi, is aggravated by the use of leaded gasoline and inefficient engines as well as a lack of catalytic converters.

Almost all surface waters of Ukraine belong to the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov basins. The high population density, heavy industrial development, and relatively low freshwater endowment of those basins, and the low governmental priority placed upon environmental protection until very recently, have given rise to chronic and serious levels of water pollution throughout Ukraine. The Dnister and the Danube are included among the most polluted bodies of water in the territory of the former Soviet Union. Hundreds of small rivers supply water for three-quarters of the villages and half of Ukraine's cities. Widespread fear is growing in Ukraine that a substantial fraction of those water arteries are so polluted as to pose fatal health risks to the people who depend on them. About half of the chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides applied in the fields are washed off into rivers. Moreover, surface runoff from industrial territories is highly contaminated.

One of the areas suffering most from serious and chronic coastal water pollution is the sea of Azov.That shallow and previously biologically rich and commercially productive body of water has experienced serious problems of industrial and municipal waste­water contamination and increased levels of salinity since the early 1970s. A primary cause of the sea's ecological deterioration has been the diversion for purposes of irrigation (up to 80 percent) of fresh, but not necessarily pure, water inflow from the Don and the Kuban rivers. As a result the sea's salinity has increased by more than 40 percent since the 1950s.Combined with pollution that increase has resulted in a dramatic drop in fish catches ( by 60-90 percent). Despite repeated warnings and special government antipollution resolutions, the conditions in the Sea of Azov continue to deteriorate.

Chornobyl Nuclear Accident

The 26th of April is a special day for the people living in Ukraine and regions situated not far from it. On that day in 1986 a horrible accident occured at the Chornobyl nuclear station. There was a nuclear reactor explosion which had far reaching consequences.

Contamination by various radioactive isotopes, such as caesium-137, iodine-131, strontium-90, plutonium-239, and plutonium-240, from the Chornobyl nuclear accident have affected the air, land, and water of Ukraine and vast areas beyond it. Recorded but unreported radiation levels in Kyiv a few days after the accident exceeded the maximum allowable levels by a hundredfold.

Press reports claim that significant numbers of deaths by radiation sickness, elevated levels of stillbirth and birth defects and highly elevated rates of childhood leukemia have occured in the affected areas. Those claims and other concerns are being researched by a host of scientists and medical professionals from Ukraine and other countries.

Recent detailed field studies indicate that significant areas of agricultural and forest lands of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia will remain unsafe for human occupancy and food production for upwards of eight thousand years. Nevertheless, thousands of people who were evacuated after the accident have returned to live and farm in these highly contaminated regions. Thus, the Chornobyl region, in fact, has become something of a living laboratory for the study of nuclear contamination.

A number of foreign countries offered specialized medical equipment and drugs for biological elimination of isotopes of different chemical elements from human body. Later on thousands of children were taken to other republics of the former USSR and abroad for corresponding medical treatment.

Such accidents like that in Chornobyl must never be repeated again, because the very existence of millions of people may be under a threat. The safe maintenance of nuclear power stations depends on proper work and sufficient technical knowledge of every worker and engineer.

The Ukrainian people are very grateful to all those who helped and continue to help them.

ВАРІАНТ № 14