9. Make questions to the underline words.

1. The Lake District is a beautiful part of Britain.

2. Passenger boats carry visitors up and down Lake Windermere.

3. The best way to explore the Lake District is on foot.

4. Ambleside is an interesting little town and a good center for a holiday.

5. People in the north of England love their brass bands.

6. Sometimes whole families join a band.

7. York has some unusual museums.

8. Hatfield House dates from 1608.

9. Some of the decorations at Hatfield House come from other countries.

10. The windows here show twelve stories from the Bible.

Topic 5: Business and environment.

1. Text a. Environmental problems.

Nature has always served Man, being the source of his life. People always polluted their surroundings. But until now pollution was not such a serious problem. People lived in uncrowded rural areas and did not have pollution – caused by machines. With the development of crowded industrial cities, which created huge amounts of pollutants, the problem has become more important. Today our planet is in serious danger. We have many environmental problems.

1. Water and air pollution. Many people live in large cities with thousands of industrial enterprises. The products of their activity pollute the air we breathe, the water we drink, the land. Every year world industry pollutes the atmosphere with million tons of dust and other harmful substances. Many cities suffer from smog. So it's very important for us to clean up the air we all breathe, to reduce traffic pollution in some cities. We can use electronic cars and buses, solar cars, bicycles. Some car companies make smaller cars because they use less petrol.

Our rivers and lakes are polluted with dangerous chemicals from oil tankers, industrial and domestic waste. As a result, sea life can die.

2. Greenhouse effect and acid rains. Factories emit tons of harmful chemicals and gases. They have formed a "blanket" around the Earth. The heat from the sun cannot escape and so the temperature is rising. The gases mix with water vapour in the air and make it acidic. Then the acid falls back to earth with rain or snow. Acid rain is harmful to everything on our planet.

3. Fewer trees. Our forests are disappearing because they are cut down or burnt. If this thing continues, one day we won't have enough oxygen to breathe. The tropical rainforests are called "the lungs" of the planet. As a result of this problem, some rare species of animals, birds, fish and plants disappear forever, a number of rivers and lakes dry up.

4. Ozone layer. Ozone is important because it stops radiation from the sun. Many aerosol sprays and factories destroy ozone and have made a very big hole in the ozone layer. The radiation now enters the Earth and it can cause cancer.

5. Naturals resources are not renewable. Coal, gas, oil, metals and minerals, for example, will finish one day. Other resources take a long time to grow, such as trees, or they are not always available, such as water. We have to reduce the amount of resources and energy that we use. We can use the sun, the wind, the sea and the heat of the Earth to make energy.

6. A great threat is nuclear power . The most horrible ecological disaster happened in Ukraine after the Chernobyl tragedy in April 1986. Byelarus, Japan were also polluted with radioactive substances. A great damage has been done to the agriculture, forests and people's health. The consequences of this explosion are tragic for all the nations.

9. Urban Problems. The population of cities is rising. The problems of this are water supply, public transport, unemployment, food, housing construction, air pollution, noise, etc. And as a result, there are ecological problems of imbalance in big cities.

Fortunately, it's not too late to solve these problems. We have the time, the money and even the technology to make our planet a better, cleaner and safer place. We can plant trees and create parks. We can recycle rubbish. Individuals and groups of people can work together to persuade enterprises to stop polluting activities. The international organization Greenpeace is also doing much to protect the environment.