II. Переведите письменно следующие тексты на русский язык.

TEXT 1

Is global warming harmful to health ?

Scientific American August 2000

Today few scientists doubt the atmosphere is warming. Most also agree that the rate of heating is accelerating and that the consequences of this temperature change could become increasingly disruptive. Computer models indicate that many diseases will surge as the earth’s atmosphere heats up. Heating of the atmosphere can influence through several routes.

Most directly, it can generate more, stronger and hotter heat waves, which will become especially treacherous if the evenings fail to bring cooling relief. In some places, the number of deaths related to heat waves is projected to double by 2020. Prolonged heat can enhance production of smog and the dispersal of allergens. Both effects have been linked to respiratory symptoms.

Global warming can also threaten human well-being by pumping up the frequency and intensity of floods and droughts and by causing rapid swings in the weather. Aside from causing death drowning and starvation, these disasters promote by various means the emergence, resurgence and spread of infectious disease.

That prospect is deeply troubling, because infectious illness is a genie that can be very hard to put back into its bottle. It may kill fewer people in one swoop than raging flood or an extended drought, but one it takes root in a community, it often defies eradication and can invade other areas.

In these days of international commerce and travel, infectious disorder that appears in one part of the world can quickly become a problem continents away if the disease-causing agent, or pathogen, finds itself in a hospitable environment.

Floods and droughts associated with global climate change could undermine health in other ways as well. They could damage crops and make them vulnerable to infection and infestations by pests and choking weeds, thereby reducing food supplies and potentially contributing to malnutrition.

Weather becomes more extreme and variable with atmospheric heating. The troubling changes are coming into our life. Disturbingly, signs of predicted troubles have begun to appear.

Ответьте на вопросы

1. What are the problems the text is telling about?

2. How can the global warming influence our health?

3. Do you see any signs of these problems in your everyday life?

4. Do these disasters threaten the developing countries only?

TEXT 2

Water as a risk factor

Moscow News April 2002

The liquid that Russians drink from the tap can be life-threatening, says Boris Yatskevich, RF minister of the environment and natural resources. Every second person in this country has to drink water that is not quite up to safety standards. Less than 60% of water supply is equipped with proper water treatment facilities. The government developed a program to provide drinking water to the population. The program, however, has remained on the paper. According to the minister three things are needed: money, money and even more money.

Humankind learned to chlorinate drinking water about 100 years ago. But it was not until recently that experts suddenly realized that, apart from purifying water of microbes, chlorine compounds also triggered unpredictable reactions with many substances diluted in water, producing new potentially dangerous compounds which can cause allergies, cancer, and heart problems.

Today most countries of the world have stopped chlorinating water and adopted state-of-the-art systems of treating water with ozone and ultraviolet rays. Russia has only one ozone treatment facility – in Moscow’s southeast district. It costs $120 million. Given Russia’s financial situation it may be years until water in this country is chlorine-free. After all, the risk of getting cancer from drinking water is incomparable with the risk of infection which has been on the rise over the past few years.

True, chlorination is not the most acute problem in Russia’s water supply system. According to the State Committee for Sanitary and Epidemiological Supervision, one water sample in five in the RF does not meet sanitation standards. In some areas up to 70% of potable water has a germ count. Owing to a shortage of fluorides in water, nearly 90 % of children in central Russia suffer from dental caries. Meanwhile, 50 million Russians daily use water with a higher-than-average content of iron, which tends to cause allergy.

Ответьте на вопросы

1. What is the text about?

2. What did you know about this problem before reading the article?

3. Do you think that the problem of clean water is one of the most important for you? Why?

4. What are the factors that make our water dangerous?

5. How can we make the water safe?

TEXT 3