Use phrases:

• I am going to ask you a question.

• I’d like to know ….

• What is your opinion on the question….

• I believe that…

• In my opinion…

• As to me…

1.11. Retell Text A.

Step 2 grammar Poin

(speaking-writing)

2.1.Use the following verbs in the forms of Present (singular and plural), Past (singular and plural), and Future Continuous:

to deteriorate, to improve, to decrease, to rotate

Model: to restore – is restoring, are restoring; was restoring, were restoring; will be restoring

2.2.Translate the following verbs into English using Continuous tense forms. Pay attention to the tense and person of the verbs:

Визначали, відновлюються, покращуватимуться, знижувався, знищує, боронував.

2.3. Use proper adverbial modifiers according to the tense of the verb. Choose from the following:

Within this decade, that year, from May till September, when it rains, when the growing season comes

1. … the plant is producing specialized tools for farm work.

2. … this irrigation system was supplying water to the orchards.

3. … scientific laboratories were developing new varieties of wheat and corn.

4. … strong wind and storm are heavily damaging the crops.

5. … the growers will be supplying nutrients to the crops several times.

2.4.Transform the italicised verbs into the forms of Continuous tenses. Add corresponding adverbials if necessary:

6. Weeds compete with cultivated plants for light, moisture and nutrients. (this summer)

7. When we plough in autumn, we create a condition in which the soil will remain sufficiently open.

8. It rains and the water penetrates deep into the subsoil. (now)

9. The inter-row cultivation of root crops destroys the weeds.

10. Last year it was a barley field, now wheat grows here.

2.5.Use the necessary Continuous tense form according to the adverbial of time:

11. Next month we (dig) potatoes.

12. Last spring farmers (use) a lot of ploughing machines at the same time.

13. The selectionists (fertilize) their crops within these two weeks.

14. Last year the selective-breeders (grow) new variety of winter wheat on this field.

15. This season we (grow) rice in this humid region.

2.6.Use the construction to be going to… in the following sentences. Translate the sentences:

16. Science … find and realise new resources and reserves for increasing yields.

17. Farmers … control fertility by meliorative methods.

18. According to the plan they … use old neglected meliorative systems and raise their efficiency.

19. Modern soil science … transform soils and create their new types.

20. In order to grow crops the farmer …cultivate the field.

2.7. Ask questions about the following sentences:

1. Farmers are restoring their soils.

2. Improper use was resulting in the deterioration of soil structure.

3. Under careful treatment this field is producing good yields.

4. At this farm they are planting crops directly into sod.

5. More and more growers are using this easy method.

Step 3

Project Work

(speaking-reading-speaking-writing)

3.1. Skim Text B and arrange the following points according to its contents:

• Wrong land-use practices

• New technology of tillage

• Man's strivings about improvement of farming

• Primitive agricultural instruments

• New possibilities for agriculture of the last century.

Text B. TILLAGE

1. The earliest efforts of people were to lift themselves from primitive cultures through better tools for tilling, better methods of using the land.

2. If we took a look of our agricultural past now, we should explain why farming as an industry hasn't reached a technological state as advanced as electronics and other industries.

3. Man required some 10,000 years to learn to make bread. And, until the 19^th century, man's tools for tilling the earth remained mainly unchanged – the sharpened stick, the crude plow.

4. Had the farmers in those days known more about land they wouldn't have continued overlooking the richer farmland, and depleting the soil's fertility. The more they overworked it, the less crop they got.

5. In the middle of the 18^th century farmers tried a device to ease their lives. That was the moldboard plow¹, which was designed to eliminate weeds, by turning over a thick layer of earth.

6. It remained unchanged for the next century, although the steel plow was introduced in 1837. The cast-iron plow would рoison the soil as some farmers thought.

7. Of greatest significance, however, was the development of mechanical power for farm work. The most far-reaching² invention for agriculture was the gasoline engine mounted on a farm tractor. This combination appeared as the 20^th century opened. Today, the farmer has a wide range of tractor makes: gasoline and diesel, with engines varying from 20 h.p. ³ to 300-400 h.p. With the efficient power, the farmer has been able to plow and disk, and harrow, and plant, and fertilize, and finally harvest faster, easier and more profitably.

Notes and Commentaries:

¹cast-iron plow – плуг, відлитий з чавуну

²far-reaching – далекосяжний

³h.p.-horse power – кінська сила