2. Find a phrase or a sentence in text 6a which means the same as the following.

1. The environmental situation in the Urals is extremely poor.

2. There are many industrial plants in the Urals.

3. Harmful gases together with water form poisonous chemicals.

4. People suffer from different lung diseases.

5. The soil becomes worse and worse in the Urals.

6. The environmental pollution in the Urals continues to grow.

3. Decide if these statements are true or false.

1. The Ural region is an ecologically poor region.

2. There are lots of forests in the Urals, that's why the air is absolutely clean here.

3. The reason for the dangerous situation in the Urals is that industrial plants pollute the atmosphere.

4. All the industrial plants are equipped with special devices to reduce the smoke, dust, harmful substances.

5. Industrial plants pour their harmful waste into rivers and lakes.

6. Acid rain, chemical fertilizers, industrial erosion pollute the soil.

4. Complete the sentences.

1. Most of the industrial plants are old...

2. The main polluters in the Urals are...

3. Acid rain is very dangerous because...

4. The first radioactive explosion took place in...

5. Urgent measures to improve the ecological situation...

5. Look at these sentences from the text and answer the questions.

1. ‘Plants and factories of Sverdlovsk region alone produce 7 % of harmful industrial waste in Russia’. Does this mean that urgent measures to improve the ecological situation should be taken?

2. ‘The metallurgical plant in Nizhny Tagil is located in the very centre of the town’. Is it good or bad for people who live and work in Nizhny Tagil?

3. ‘Acid rain has practically ruined grass and pine forest in the suburbs of Revda and Pervouralsk’. Does this mean that people enjoy their weekends in the suburbs of these towns?

4. ‘Vast territories of Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk regions were polluted with radiation’. Are these territories suitable or unsuitable for living?

6. Study Topical Vocabulary and translate sentences.

1. Energy consumption and pollution create such problems as deforestation, acid rains and global warming.

2. Nowadays people are faced with the necessity of environmental protection.

3. People have to do their best to save our planet.

4. People should stop doing things which change nature.

5. Some scientists are of opinion that our planet can become uninhabitable.

6. The greenhouse effect is one of the greatest problems which faces every living creature.

7. The temperature of the Earth is rising, and this causes heavier rains and floods.

7. Read Text 6b and translate it. Text 6b. Air pollution

O ne of the environmental problems which the mankind faces daily is air pollution. According to the last researches two thirds of the urban population inhale unhealthy air. For the last years air pollution increased ten times; in more than fifty cities in Russia it 25 per cent exceeds the permitted limit.

Now the air in many cities all over the world is filtered with ‘smog’; it is so strong in some places that the air, which should be bright blue, looks brown. Teheran, Baghdad, Delhi, Calcutta, Athens and Madrid are among smokiest cities. The cities most affected by sulfur dioxide are Milan, Prague, Santiago and Sun Paulo. In Russia Novosibirsk, Novokuznetsk, Bratsk and Nizhny Tagil are in the list of the cities of environmental emergency. Today factories and cars are the greatest polluters of the air. Almost 400 million vehicles fill the world’s roads; over 30 million new cars come from factories every year. For example, there are 20 million cars in Britain. During the last 5 years traffic on the British roads has increased by 27 per cent.

Cars create more pollution than anything else in the world. Yearly every vehicle emits about 1 kg of Zinc (Zn) into the air. Car emissions contain carbon oxide (CO) which is very harmful for people and animals. CO from cars is making a hole in the ozone layer, which protects the Earth; carbon monoxide causes headaches; hydrocarbons – cancer; nitrogen oxide – bronchitis and lung diseases. It also causes acid rains killing trees and grass, rivers and lakes.

Every year car emissions kill up to 80,000 people in the USA; children in California, for example, have a 15 per cent reduction in lung capacity for their whole lives. Within 13 km from the source of pollution trees and bushes are very much the subjects of its influence and even grass suffers too.

Yearly industrial enterprises emit about 150 million tons of sulfur oxide, 156 million tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2). In the places where industries are concentrated the air is much more polluted: in Tokyo about 34 tons of soot falls per 1square km every month, whereas in New York – 17 tons.