Table of contents

Unit 1 Do birds have heart attacks?

Unit 2 Diabetes Cases Projected to Double by 2030

Unit 3 Giant Tortoise Gets Help in Reproducing

Unit 4 Poliomyelitis

Unit 5 Researchers Have Developed a New Vaccine for the Ebola Virus

Unit 6 Pentagon Studies Insects and Lobsters

Unit 7 Pacific Rats

Unit 8 A novel way to help purify drinking water

Unit 9 Stress and brain size

Unit 10 Tests on Rats Suggest Promising New Treatment for Humans with Spinal Cord Injuries

Unit 11 Cloned monkey embryos produce stem cells

Unit 12 Orangutans May Become Extinct

Unit 13 Charles Darwin and Evolution

Unit 14 Alligator blood seen to have antibiotic potential

Unit 15 Ivory-billed Woodpecker

Unit 16 Diseases that Spread from Animals to Humans

Unit 17 New targets for possible AIDS drugs

Unit 18 Decoding the honeybee genome

Unit 19 Menu of king Midas

Unit 20 The Genetic Blueprint of the Malaria Parasite

Unit 21 California's majestic redwoods and their unique ecosystem

Unit 22 Human cloning

Unit 23 Animal cloning

Unit 24 Bee colony deaths continue to baffle researchers

Unit 25 Hummingbirds

Unit 26 Man and mouse

Unit 27 Rapid disruption of symbiosis on African savannah

Unit 28 New Genetically Modified Plant May Help Detect Landmines

Unit 29 Men going extinct

Unit 30 A Link between a Brain Chemical and Violent Behavior

Unit 1 Do birds have heart attacks?

Pre-listening tasks

Before listening pay attention to the following words and collocations and their translation. They will help you to understand the text.

challenging – трудный

hollow – полый

go off – зд: гнить

I. What functions of the verb to have do you know? What are they in the following sentences?

Translate the sentences into Russian.

1. He has never seen a bird fall from the sky.

2. He wants to know if birds ever have heart attacks.

3. But you think about how many other animals you haven’t seen.

4. Birds do have very high blood pressure.

II. Can you guess the meaning of the following words in the following sentences?

1. He is not very fit, he is subject to illnesses.

2. This is a very secluded place, no one will disturb you.

3. This substance decomposes very rapidly, it doesn’t do any harm to the soil.

4. The rate of this process depends on many factors

After listening tasks

I. Listen to the interview. Decide whether the following statements are true or false. Correct the false ones.

1. We very often observe the death of an animal of a heart attack

2. Birds don’t have very high heart rates

3. Birds find secluded places to die

4. Birds decompose very fast.

II. Listen again and check your answers.

III. Retell the text.

Unit 2 Diabetes Cases Projected to Double by 2030

Pre-listening tasks.

Before listening pay attention to the following words and collocations and their translation. They will help you to understand the text.

overweight – имеющие лишний вес

understate – преуменьшать

appropriate – соответствующий, подходящий

I. Can you answer the following questions?

1. What do you know about diabetes?

2. What are the causes of this disease?

3. What kind of people are at risk of getting diabetes?

4. Can it be cured?

II. Translate the following sentences into Russian, paying attention to the infinitive construction.

1. He is expected to arrive early tomorrow.

2. Scientists are known to deal with this problem seriously.

3. The problem is likely to be solved in the nearest future.

After listening tasks

I. Listen to the text and find out if you answered the questions in task I in the pre-listening section correctly. Fill in the gaps in the following sentences.

1. An international group of researchers has projected that the ________ of people with diabetes worldwide is expected to ________ by the year 2030.

2. In people with diabetes, the body does not ________ enough insulin, a ________ that is ________ to ________ sugar and other ________ into energy.

3. Dr.Wild and her colleges ________ that ________ would ________ stable.

4. Experts advise losing weight and exercising ________ the risk of diabetes.

5. But Dr.Wild ________ that the programs ________ diabetes must ________ the ________ in each country.

II. Listen again and check your answers to the questions in task I. While listening note down the sentences with the infinitive structure and translate them into Russian.

III. Work in pairs. Make up 5 comprehension questions to the text and ask your partner to answer them.

IV. Retell the text in pairs.

Unit 3 Giant Tortoise Gets Help in Reproducing

Pre-listening tasks

Before listening pay attention to the following words and collocations and their translation. They will help you to understand the text.

naturalist – естествоиспытатель

describe – описывать

require – требовать

flourish – процветать

reproduction – воспроизведение, размножение

weigh – весить

initial – начальный, первичный

infertile – бесплодный, неплодоносящий

I. Match the words in the left column with their synonyms in the right column.

flourish	deformed
batch	primary
enormous	set
misshapen	sterile
initial	thrive
infertile	tremendous

After listening tasks

I. Answer the following questions.

1. Why are conservationists so anxious to make Lonesome George reproduce?

2. What has recently happened?

3. How long does it take for the tortoise eggs to hatch?

4. What went wrong with the eggs?

5. What makes scientists feel optimistic?

II. Act out the dialogue using the following words.

to be but one – the only one

a matchmaker – a person who brings together suitable partners for marriage

to flourish – to thrive; prosper

subspecies – (pl.-cies) biology a taxonomic group that is a subdivision of a species: usually occurs because of isolation within a species

to lay eggs – to produce and deposit eggs

to hatch – to cause (the young of various animals, esp birds) to emerge from the egg or (of young birds, etc.) to emerge from the egg

a batch – a group or set of usually similar objects or people

misshapen – badly shaped; deformed

Unit 4 Poliomyelitis

Pre-listening tasks

Before listening pay attention to the following words and collocations and their translation. They will help you to understand the text.

menace – угроза

wipe out – стереть, уничтожить

make rapid strides – быстро шагать

UNICEF – UN International Children’s and Emergency Fund – Детский Фонд ООН

stubborn pockets – неподатливые очаги эпидемии

challenge – сложная задача, проблема

freeness – свобода

I. Translate the following words and word combinations into Russian.

threat, to make great progress, to destroy, to eradicate, extremely destructive, to assess, aim, to affect, great quantity

II. Do you know the equivalent of which verb “have to” is? Translate the following sentences into Russian.

1. The scientists have to take this problem into consideration.

2. We’ll have to take extreme measures.

3. I have to complete the work this week.

After listening tasks

I. Listen to the interview. While listening note down the synonyms to the words and word combinations in task I in the Pre-listening section. Which facts do the following numbers refer to?

350,000

125

550 mln

85%

10

1500

II. Listen again and check your answers.

III. Match the following questions with the answers below.

1. What helped to eliminate poliomyelitis in most developed countries?

2. Which countries remained polio endemic in 2002?

3. Was the goal of eradicating polio by the year 2000 reached?

4. What is the focus of the campaign on according to Mr. Tintsman?

5. What is the biggest challenge to eradicating polio?

a. The last stubborn pockets of polio infection in South Africa.

b. Vaccines and national immunization campaigns.

c. India, Pakistan , Afganistan and seven countries in Africa.

d. No.

e. To maintain donor support for the final push.

IV. Retell the interview, using the information in tasks I and III.