polunina_ln_bobrovskaia_im_priroda_nauka_tekhnologii

4. Find the word closest to the meaning of the italicized word from the reading.

1. From space Earth resembles a big blue marble with swirling white clouds floating above blue oceans.

2. Near Earth’s surface, the atmosphere consists almost entirely of nitrogen (78 percent) and oxygen (21 percent).

3. At an altitude of about 90 km, temperatures begin to rise.

4. The region beyond the thermosphere is called the exosphere.

a. inside b. outside c. below

5. The biosphere includes all the areas of Earth capable of supporting

5. The following words are verbs. Give the corresponding nouns.

6. Put questions to the words or word expressions in the bold type.

1.From space Earth resembles a big blue marble with swirling white clouds floating above blue oceans.

2.About 71 percent of Earth’s surface is covered by water, which is essential to life.

3.The hydrosphere consists of the bodies of water that cover 71 percent of Earth’s surface.

4.In the 1970s, however, scientists discovered various forms of life around hydrothermal vents on the floor of the Pacific Ocean where no sunlight penetrated.

5.Some scientists believe that the biosphere may extend relatively deep into Earth’s crust.

LANGUAGE IN USE

7. Complete the following text with the appropriate words in brackets.

Ice Ages

Ice Ages, periods in Earth’s history when sea ice or glaciers have covered a (1) … (signify/signification/significant) portion of the planet’s surface and significant cooling of the atmosphere has occurred. Earth has existed for about 4.5 billion years. During that time it has experienced several ice ages, each lasting tens of millions of years. The total of these episodes may (2) … (accountant/account/accountable) for as much as 15 to 20 percent of the planet’s history. The icy cover has ranged from about 10 percent to about 30 percent of the (3) …

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(entirely/entire/entirety) surface of the planet.

The most (4) … (recent/recently/recentable) ice age, the Pleistocene Epoch, lasted from about 1.6 million years to 10,000 years before present. During that time at least 20 glaciations, or periods when the ice (5) … (covered/coverage/cover) increased, occurred. Each of these periods was followed by an interglaciation, or a period when the ice cover shrank. The most recent glaciation in North America, called the Wisconsin glaciation, lasted from about 115,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago. The climate during that time was much (6) … (difference/differ/different) from what it is today, with temperatures on the continents as much as 15° C (27° F) colder. In areas that are (7) … (currently/current/currency) occupied by subtropical deserts, cooler and wetter climates caused large lakes to form from increased rainfall and glacial runoff. The past 10,000 years have been part of a relatively warm interglacial period. However, the (8) … (present/presence/ presentable) of massive continental ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica, along with numerous smaller glaciers in mountainous regions throughout the world, indicates that Earth is still in the grip of an ice age.

(Adapted from Goldstein, B. Ice Ages, Microsoft Encarta, 2008)

8. Read the text and fill in the gaps with the correct prepositions.

Hurricane

Hurricane is the name given (1) … (to/at/from) violent storms that originate over the tropical or subtropical waters (2) … (by/of/on) the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, or North Pacific Ocean east of the International Date Line. Such storms (3) … (above/on/over) the North Pacific west of the International Date Line are called typhoons; those elsewhere are known as tropical cyclones, which is the general name (4) … (from/for/with) all such storms including hurricanes and typhoons. These storms can cause great damage to property and loss of human life due (5) … (on/upon/to) high winds, flooding, and large waves crashing (6) … (against/at/to) shorelines. The deadliest natural disaster in United States history was caused (7) … (for/of/by) a hurricane that struck Galveston, Texas, in 1900. The

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costliest and most destructive natural disaster (8) … (at/in/on) U.S. history was caused by the storm surge and winds created (9) … (by/of/from) Hurricane Katrina along the Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama coasts. The hurricane’s storm surge burst some levees protecting New Orleans, flooding the city and forcing a complete evacuation.

(10) … (at/in/on) the tropics, hurricanes move generally east to west, steered by global-scale winds. Hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones usually ‘recurve’ (11) … (in/on/for) the direction of either the South Pole in the Southern Hemisphere or the North Pole in the Northern Hemisphere. Eventually the storms move toward the east in the middle latitudes, but not all storms recurve.

(Adapted from Williams, J. Hurricane, Microsoft Encarta, 2008)

9. Use the word given in capitals to form a word that fits in the space in the sentence.

water found is in the deep North Pacific, which has an age of up to 1,500 years.

(Adapted from Shykind, E.B. and Wehmiller, J.F. Ocean and Oceanography, Microsoft Encarta, 2008)

SPEAKING

10. The so-called world ocean refers to all of the earth’s major bodies of water combined. Answer the following questions about the world ocean. Use the information in task 9.

1. What are the three major subdivisions of the world ocean? 2. What are the two minor subdivisions of the world ocean?

11. The world’s oceans and seas vary greatly in their average depth, area, and volume. Study the table below. Work in pairs. Ask your partner what the deepest ocean/sea/channel is; which ocean/sea/channel covers the largest area; which ocean/sea/channel has the greatest volume; what the average depth of the world ocean is.

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12. Read the text and answer the questions after it.

Earthquake

Earthquake is shaking of the Earth’s surface caused by rapid movement of the Earth’s rocky outer layer. Earthquakes occur when energy stored within the Earth, usually in the form of strain in rocks, suddenly releases. This energy is transmitted to the surface of the Earth by earthquake waves. The study of earthquakes and the waves they create is called seismology (from the Greek seismos, “to shake”). Scientists who study earthquakes are called seismologists.

The destruction an earthquake causes depends on its magnitude and duration, or the amount of shaking that occurs. A structure’s design and the materials used in its construction also affect the amount of damage

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the structure incurs. Earthquakes vary from small, imperceptible shaking to large shocks felt over thousands of kilometers.

Earthquakes, or seismic tremors, occur at a rate of several hundred per day around the world. A worldwide network of seismographs (machines that record movements of the Earth) detects about 1 million small earthquakes per year. Very large earthquakes, such as the 1964 Alaskan earthquake, which caused millions of dollars in damage, occur worldwide once every few years. Moderate earthquakes, such as the 1989 tremor in Loma Prieta, California, and the 1995 tremor in Kōbe, Japan, occur about 20 times a year. Moderate earthquakes also cause millions of dollars in damage and can harm many people.

In the last 500 years, several million people have been killed by earthquakes around the world. Adequate precautions, such as education, emergency planning, and constructing stronger, more flexible, safely designed structures, can limit the loss of life and decrease the damage caused by earthquakes.

The Richter scale is based on measurement of seismic waves, used to determine the magnitude of an earthquake at its epicenter. The Richter scale was named for U.S. seismologist Charles Richter (1900– 1985).

(Adapted from Bolt, B. Earthquake, Microsoft Encarta, 2008)

1.Explain what ‘earthquake’ is. When do earthquakes occur?

2.What is the study of earthquakes and the waves they create called?

3.What does the destruction an earthquake causes depend on?

4.How many people have been killed by earthquakes around the world in the last 500 years?

5.What is the Richter scale based on?

WRITING

13. Complete the table giving examples of the earthquakes.

4

5

6

7 1999, Taiwan (7.6)

8

14. Choose one of the earthquakes and describe it briefly using the following scheme:

-date, place;

-magnitude;

-destruction

KEYWORDS

altitude, atmosphere, biosphere, climate, consist of, contain, cover, crust, current, damage, depend on, depth, disaster, duration, earthquake, exosphere, extend, flooding, glacial period/ice age, high wind, hurricane, hydrosphere, include, layer, magnitude, mesosphere, occur, ocean, planet, polar cap, seismic waves, seismology, solar system, space, storm, stratosphere, surface, temperature, thermosphere, troposphere, typhoon

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

Weather

(1)The state of the atmosphere at a particular time and place is called weather. The elements of weather include temperature, humidity, cloudiness, precipitation, wind, and pressure. These elements are organized into various weather systems, such as monsoons, areas of high and low pressure, thunderstorms, and tornadoes. All weather systems have well-defined cycles and structural features and are governed by the laws of heat and motion. These conditions are studied in meteorology, the science of weather and weather forecasting.

(2)All weather is due to heating from the Sun. The Sun emits energy at an almost constant rate, but a region receives more heat when

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the Sun is higher in the sky and when there are more hours of sunlight in a day. The high Sun of the Tropics makes this area much warmer than the poles, and in summer the high Sun and long days make the region much warmer than in winter. In the Northern Hemisphere, the Sun climbs high in the sky and the days are long in summer, around July, when the northern end of Earth’s axis is tilted toward the Sun. At the same time, it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere. The southern end of Earth’s axis is tilted away from the Sun, so the Sun is low in the sky and the days are short.

(3)Since the early 20th century, great strides have been made in weather prediction, largely as a result of computer development but also because of instrumentation such as satellites and radar. Weather data from around the world are collected by the World Meteorological Organization, the National Weather Service, and other agencies and entered into computer models that apply the laws of motion and of the conservation of energy and mass to produce forecasts. In some cases, these forecasts have provided warning of major storms as much as a week in advance. However, because the behavior of weather systems is chaotic, it is impossible to forecast the details of weather more than about two weeks in advance.

(4)Human beings can change weather and climate. Water-droplet clouds with tops colder than about -5°C (about 23°F) can be made to produce rain by seeding them with substances such as silver iodide. Cloud seeding causes ice crystals to form and grow large enough to fall out of a cloud. However, although cloud seeding has been proven effective in individual clouds, its effect over large areas is still unproven.

(Adapted from Gedzelman, S.D. Weather, Microsoft Encarta, 2008)

1. Read the text and decide whether the following statements are TRUE, FALSE or there is NO such INFORMATION in the text.

2. Decide which part of the text contains the following information.

1.The science of weather and weather forecasting is called meteorology.

2.Sometimes weather forecasts have provided warning of major storms as much as a week in advance.

3.Give the answer to the following question.

What do the elements of weather include?

1.The elements of weather include high temperature, humidity, cloudiness, precipitation, wind, and pressure.

2.The elements of weather include temperature, humidity, cloudiness, precipitation, wind, and blood pressure.

3.The elements of weather include temperature, humidity, cloudiness, rain, snow, sleet, hail, wind, and pressure.

4.The elements of weather include temperature, low humidity, cloudiness, precipitation, wind, and pressure.

4. What is the main idea of the text?

1.All weather systems have well-defined cycles and structural features and are governed by the laws of heat and motion.

2.The behavior of weather systems is chaotic.

3.Since the early 20th century, great strides have been made in weather prediction.

4.Human beings can change weather and climate.

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