X. Make up a dialogue:

A: Say that the traffic on our roads has increased consider­ably during the past ten years.

B: Answer that a lot of people have private cars now and move about more easily. Add that at the same time air pollution especially in the older cities and towns with their narrow streets has increased.

A: Reply that he visited several cities in Western countries and that air pollution is much worse there.

B: Answer that this is certainly true but a lot of people in Ukraine do criticize increasing air pollution. Add that it is a big problem and that it can only be solved step by step because it is very complex and costs a lot of money.

A: Ask what is at present being done to solve the problem.

B: Tell him that there are regular checks on air pollution in the big towns, that manufacturers try to make bet­ter engines for cars, lorries, buses.

A: Suggest that improving the car engines is important, but that there are also other ways for solving the pollution problem. Add that modern city plann­ing and building wider roads could also be a great help.

B: Tell him that he is right and that more trams in the cities might be helpful and that fewer cars should be permitted to enter cities and park there.

A: Say that trams and electric trains do not emit any ex­haust gases and that in the future possibly electric pri­vate cars with batteries might be used for city transport.

B: Say you've read that such projects are under way in a few countries and that you think electric private cars might be very useful in keeping the air clean in cities.

Xl Make up your own dialogues using the following word-combinations:

waste, waste water, to continue pollution, to throw much dust into the air, electric filters, environmental protection, withdraw from the atmosphere, to influence people's health, to take measures, to move beyond the city, purifying installations.

XII. Read and retell the text as if you were a represen­tative of an international organization Greenpeace:

MAN AND BIOSPHERE

Interrelations between man and the biosphere are of a fairly complex nature. Man, like every other living organism, depends for his life on what the biosphere provides: water, oxygen, food and shelter. On the other hand, the biosphere is strongly affected by all sorts of human activity.

About 200 years ago man lived in greater harmony with his environment because industry was not developed. Pre­historic man withdrew from atmosphere only the oxygen he required for respiration. Today the situation is quite different. Modern man consumes a far greater amount of oxygen to support fires, power plants and chemical processes. The carbon dioxide produced by technological processes has greatly changed the carbon dioxide concentra­tion in the atmosphere. The technology has introduced into the biosphere man-made radio-isotopes and a wide variety of synthetic materials such as plastics, insecticides, herbicides and numerous industrial materials. These sub­stances and materials alter the biosphere.

The problem of the environmental crisis has recently assumed global proportions. Scientists say, that unless some radical steps are taken, life on our planet may be irrevo­cably damaged, if not destroyed altogether.