6. Vocabulary:

to endow, unalienable, to pursuit, by virtue of, to regard, abundant, to relate, to infer with, scattered passages, evidence, prohibition, Ten Commandments, murder, theft, to give implicit recognition, to elaborate, passionate discourses, prophets, validity, to fail, to imply, the supremacy of, valid instances, the Renaissance, resistance to, to surface, the Enlightenment, to interfere with, turnaround, to dispense, to assert, to institute, outspoken, to denounce, to derive from, disciple, jurist, to exalt, abuse, appalling, extermination, concentration camps, to horrify, widespread fundamental assumptions, for the sake of, umbrella term, related obligations, eternal vigilance, to guard, to lessen, to come into prominence.

to spell out, amendments, to shield, encroachment, safeguarding, challenges, dissenters, comprising, to tolerate, dissidents, ruthlessly persecuted, to reached its pinnacle, self-published literature, to crack down, to transmit, controversial, political prisoner, to depict, inmate slave labor camps, to ban, recipient of the Nobel prize, to expel, memoir, to permeate, to echo, to play a crucial role, proliferation, to sentence, internal exile, to release.

to increase opportunities, to accomplish, squeamish, to relegate, domestic chores, sustained tolerance, resistant to, maternity, abortion, to prevent from, to pursue career, scholastic, to estimate, resident, to obtain, to earn, transient, influx, to account for, markedly, to shun, overwhelming.

Unit 7

Ecology

Reading and translating.

T ext 1

Ecology

The science that deals with the ways in which plants and animals depend upon one another and upon the physical settings in which they live is called ecology. Ecologists investigate the interactions of organisms in various kinds of environments. In this way they learn how nature establishes orderly patterns among a great variety of living things. The word ecology was coined in 1869. It comes from the Greek oikos, which means “household.” Economics is derived from the same word. However, economics deals with human “housekeeping,” while ecology concerns the “housekeeping” of nature. Interdependence in Nature Ecology emphasizes the dependence of every form of life on other living things and on the natural resources in its environment, such as air, soil, and water. Before there was a science of ecology, the great English biologist Charles Darwin noted this interdependence when he wrote: “It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and so dependent upon each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us.” Ecology shows that people cannot regard nature as separate and detached—something to look at on a visit to a forest preserve or a drive through the country. Any changes made in the environment affect all the organisms in it. When vehicles and factories hurl pollutants into the air, animals and plants as well as humans themselves are harmed. The water they foul with wastes and silt threatens remote streams and lakes. Even ocean fisheries may experience reduced catches because of pollution. (See also Conservation; Pollution, Environmental.) ⁽²⁾