Words you may need

Interact V — взаимодействовать stream n — поток solid adj — твердый

Ex. 11. a) Open the brackets putting the verbs in the proper tense, b) Can you think of any other way of garbage disposal?

Another problem of our time ... (to be) how to dispose of ail the garbage and trash that... (to be produced). One way to reduce trash in the city ... (to be) to start a recycling programme. Under such a programme centres to collect paper, bottles, and other things that can he recycled must... (to be built). An­other way ... (to be) to introduce new technologies and equip kitchens with devices to process garbage.

At present, however, many people believe that the easiest way is to bury garbage and trash in landfills. The problem is that in many countries the land-fills... (toJill out).

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Unit 6

1. The World We Live In

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Words you may need

избавляться от

dispose (of smth) v

чего-л. trash n — мусор

garbage n — бытовой мусор landfill n - траншея для мусора

Ex. 12. Sura up Text В (orally/in writing).

Situation: Imagine that you read this piece of infor­mation in a magazine and were surprised to learn that London is one of The cleanest cit­ies in Ihe world. Discuss this information with your English friend (possibly through the Internet).

The decisive steps that have trans­fer med London into one of the cleanest cit­ies in the world were taken at the end of the 1950s. The change took place as a re­sult of two main improvements. Factories were compelled to install clean air equip­ment or close down, and private household­ers were not allowed to burn coal unless it was smoke-free. But the real ecological mir­acle in London occurred from 1964 on­wards when the Thames Water Authority began to pump vast quantities of dissolved oxygen into the river. As a result, all the species of fish that had gradually disap­peared from the Thames since 1800 have returned. Some are even caught by fisher­men outside the Houses of Parliament.

Text С Computers in Russia

Foreigner: Many people think that Russians tend to lag behind other countries in computer literacy of the population. Is that true?

Russian: To some extent you are right if you mean the number of com­puters. But over the last few years we have progressed enormously. Two decades ago tew people realised that computers would become part of ourdaily lives. Not only computers, many of the things that we do now were thought to be impossible 20 years ago.

R: Yes, the world has changed. In advanced countries computers are everywhere these days. Computers monitor the flow of materials in plants and factories, computerised robots take over dangerous

jobs in factories. They are widely used in business and finance, in science and medicine.

R.: They even help secretaries to get letters and contracts typed accu­rately and quickly. To be serious, the progress in computer tech­nologies is amazing.

F.: Yes, soon computers will be able to recognise voice commands, people won't be using keyboards.

R.: Undoubtedly within 20 years from now all information will be com­ing through computers even in my country. It will affect the labour market drastically.

F.: Can't agree more. Many jobs will have disappeared by, say, 2015. Besides, computers provide access to the Internet. Do young peo­ple in yourcountry use the system?

R.: I'd say an overwhelming majority of young people do use the In­ternet. They show an interest in websites relating to their occupa­tions and studies.

F,: Do you often visit Internet shops?

R.: No, I log on to the Net from my office. Many people, however, are disappointed and embarrassed by the situation. We've become too dependent on computers.

F.: That's right. Clerical staff cannot do simple arithmetic without cal­culators.

R.: Not only that, it's difficult to keep information held on computers secret.

F.: Yes, even kids can hack the computers of large corporations, they can hack into banks and transfer huge amounts of cash.

R,: Connecting to other people's computers secretly and illegally has become a problem. People may be right that the spread of comput­ers has brought us as many problems as it has solved.