English for Geographers

English For Geographers_____________________________________________

Stratus – low-level, flat, grey sheet of cloud.

NOTE!

Cloud cover is measured in oktas. On weather maps a partially shaded circle represents cover.

7. Match the word with its explanation:

Section 2

1.Think of the following questions and try to answer them:

1.What to your mind is ecological disaster?

2.What factors can lead to is ecological disaster?

3.In what way do people destroy water resources?

4.What can people do to protect themselves from ecological disaster?

2.Read and translate the following text using a dictionary:

Conflict reduces once mighty Jordan to a trickle

Once it was the mighty Jordan river, a crossroads of civilisations and continents, and a favourite of pilgrims seeking baptism in its waters. Now just about the only thing that flows for large parts of the year, keeping the river alive, is sewage.

Decades of competition for water have turned the lower Jordan river, running between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, into little more than a drainage ditch. Dams and pumping stations have diverted almost 90 % of the river’s water to leave parts of the surrounding valley and the Dead Sea on the brink of ecological disaster.

Last month Israel’s environment minister and Jordanian royalty met at a small island in the river to discuss the crisis. But the only area of agreement

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between them was that the most obvious solution – restoring the original water supply - is not even up for discussion.

The Jordan river provides Israel with nearly a third of its water supply, and Jordan relies on dams to sustain agriculture in the area. With demand ever increasing for the most precious commodity in the region, neither country is prepared to give up a drop.

“Unfortunately, environmental policies are governed by politics”, said Jordan’s Prince Hassan. ”We don’t have a comprehensive peace, but I don’t see why we have to continue with the policy of mutually assured destruction of the environment and resources”.

Fifty years ago 1.3 bn cubic metres of water flowed through the lower Jordan each year. Today environmentalists say that if 200 m cubic metres travel the lower Jordan then it is a good year, and nearly half of that is raw sewage, the effluent from commercial fish farms and other untreated waste water. Ironically, it is sewage that is maintaining what little biodiversity there is along the Jordan. Right now the sewage is the only thing keeping the river flowing at times. It feeds life there. But at the lower end of the Jordan the pollutants spill into the Dead Sea, compounding an environmental crisis there that has seen the famed sea’s level drop 25 metres.

The Jordan river crisis is a direct result of decades of conflict. Each side tried to grab as much of the resources as they can without any consideration of the consequences. It started in the 1960s with Israel ceasing the flow of the upper Jordan into the lower Jordan. Syria tried to build a dam at the same time to stop water coming down the Jordan river. Jordan in the 1970s built a canal to capture the main tributary into the river. It escalated from there.

The existing problems are compounded by Amman’s construction of a new dam on the Yarmuk river, the largest tributary of the Jordan. The straightforward solution – practically if not politically – is to divert less water, but almost everyone involved with the discussions said that was unlikely to happen because of political considerations and the sheer demand for water.

3.Put questions to the following statements:

1.Decades of competition for water have turned the lower Jordan river, running between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, into a drainage ditch.

2.The Jordan river provides Israel with nearly a third of its water supply.

3.Last month Israel’s environment minister and Jordanian royalty met a small island in the river to discuss the crisis.

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English For Geographers_____________________________________________

4.Fifty years ago 1.3 bn cubic metres of water flowed through the lower Jordan each year.

5.At the lower end of the Jordan the pollutants spill into the Dead Sea.

6.The Jordan river crisis is a direct result of decades of conflict.

7.Syria tried to build a dam to stop water coming down the Jordan river.

4.Match the word with its explanation:

5. Match a word in A with a word in B and translate the wordcombinations obtained:

A large

drainage water pumping ecological surrounding environment obvious

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6.Using words from the text, can you complete the following statements? straightforward solution, raw sewage, ecological disaster, environment, water supply, sustain, surrounding valley, crisis, effluent, river flowing, pumping stations, waste water, environmentalists, biodiversity, pollutants, dams, spill, divert, sheer demand

1.……… and ……… have diverted almost 90 % of the river’s water to leave parts of the ……… and the Dead Sea on the brink of ……… .

2.Israel’s ……… minister and Jordanian royalty met at a small island in the river to discuss the ……… .

3.The Jordan river provides Israel with nearly a third of its ……… , and Jordan relies on ……… to ……… agriculture in the area.

4.Today ……… say that if 200 m cubic metres travel the lower Jordan then it is a good year, and nearly half of that is ……… , the ……… from commercial fish farms and other untreated

……… .

5.It is sewage that is maintaining that little ……… there along the Jordan, the only thing keeping the ……… at times. It feeds life there.

6.At the lower end of the Jordan the ……… ……… into the Dead Sea, compounding an environmental ……… there that has seen the famed sea’s level drop 25 metres.

7.The ……… is to ……… less water, but that is unlikely to happen because of political considerations and the ……… for water.

7.Unscramble the following words and translate them:

iviclzsatioin, fevoiaurt, lpoitiyclal, cronssideoatin, ievrontnmeanl, lagericuutr, mlyutlua, rolniicyal, rsuironugdn, ncostcruonti, wesaeg, pedovri, camomceril, irvdet, drgaiane, llvaey, ouvibos, cmoprevenhsie, pesrcoiu, eflefunt, tiybruatr, cousesnqecne, gerstroin, idthc, ploalutnst, crpatue.

Unit 8

Section 1

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English For Geographers_____________________________________________

1. Learn the following words and their translations. Check up yourself by back translation :

lava solidify

accumulation label

delta subdivide bit by bit rock fossils glaciation

2. Read and translate the following text with the help of a dictionary:

The Earth and Time

Rocks sometimes form almost overnight, for example, when a lava flow cools and solidifies. But other rocks are deposited over thousands, even millions of years. When geologists began to realise that there is a degree of order in the massive accumulations of rocks that make up the earth's crust, they realised that it was necessary to establish a timetable according to which newly identified rocks could be permanently labelled. The geologic time scale was first developed more than a century and a half ago by British geologists. They were able to see how a geologic cross section of England involved several discrete phases of accumulation of rocks and deformation by bending and breaking of the crust. They called the oldest sequence of rocks they were able to recognise the Primary and the next two the Secondary and Tertiary. Later the very youngest rocks such as sediments now accumulating in river deltas were separately identified as Quaternary. If we used these original terms, our geologic time scale would logically look like the following:

geologic time scale produced such a vast quantity of detail that it soon became necessary to subdivide these original major units. Bit by bit, the geologic time scale became more exact, and more complicated. More was

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learned about fossils and correlations were made with discoveries in distant countries. How important the discoveries pertaining to the evolution of life were can be seen from the names in the geologic time scale now in use: Primary has become Paleozoic (era of ancient life); Secondary is now Mesozoic (era of medieval life). We can still find Tertiary and Quaternary in the modern time scale, but they are now subdivisions of a third great era, the Cenozoic (era of recent life). It has also been realised that there are rocks older than the Paleozoic (older than about 600 million years); surprisingly, this era is not called the Prepaleozoic, as would seem reasonable, but Precambrian, which means that it is older than the oldest period of the Paleozoic.

It is useful to become well acquainted with at least the eras and periods because geologists and physical geographers use these terms about as commonly as we refer to the months of the calendar and this is not surprising, for the youngest rocks tend to be closest to the surface. Some of them still are being deposited; others such as those layers left in the northern United States and Canada during a recent glaciation are fresh and have hardly changed, geologically speaking.

3.Answer the following questions:

1.Why was it necessary to establish a timetable to label the rocks?

2.How long does it take for the rock to form?

3.Who developed and when the first geologic time scale?

4.What was the sequence of rocks called?

5.What are the four main geologic periods?

6.What are modern names of the geologic periods?

7.Why is it useful to know geologic eras and periods?

4.Put questions to the following statements:

1.Rocks sometimes form almost overnight when a lava flow cools and solidifies.

2.Geologists realized that it was necessary to establish a timetable according to which newly identified rocks could be permanently labelled.

3.Field research in the decades after the establishment of the first geologic time scale produced a vast quantity of detail.

4.It is useful to become well acquainted with the eras and periods

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English For Geographers_____________________________________________

because geologists and physical geographers use these terms about very commonly.

5. Unscramble the following words and translate them:

Lava, geographers, establishment, geologists, permanently, necessary, physical, glaciation, subdivisions, surprisingly, deposit, pertaining, era, refer, time scale, ancient, unit, solidify.

6. Fill in the correct words from the list below:

igneous, molten magma, melt, solidifies, intrusive, erupts, surface, underground, constantly, crustal, hardens, surrounding, particles, metamorphose, weakened, carried off, layers, cement, environment, chipped, sharp, hand, millions, remains, limestone, fossils, constantly, creatures, unchanged, swamps, seed plants, reptiles, remade, melt, pressure, building, texture.

Igneous rocks

“Fiery” or ……… rocks such as granite and basalt originate from ……… . The magma is produced deep inside the Earth where rocks ………. in the heat of the mantle and crust. Magma that cools and ……… under the Earth’s ……… forms intrusive igneous rocks. If it ……… as lava from a volcano and then cools on the surface of the Earth, it is known as extrusive igneous rock. Sugar Loaf Mountain, Brazil formed from magma that solidified ……… Eventually, the ……… rock eroded leaving this dome shape.

Igneous Rock Facts

*Basalt makes up most of the ocean floor. *Obsidian was used in early jewellery and tools.

*Most continental igneous rocks are quartz, feldspar, and mica.

*Earth’s first rocks were igneous rocks.

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Sedimentary Rocks

Rock is gradually ……… by the weather. Particles of rock are then ………

by rain or wind. These ……… build up into ……… of sediment. Sediment combines with plant and animal debris and ……… Water in the ground can help to ……… the sediment and turn it into rock (a process known as lithification). By studying sedimentary rock layers, scientists can uncover the

………of the past. Prehistoric people fashioned tools from a sedimentary rock called flint. Flint was ……… into shape using a stone. It is a common rock that flakes easily, leaving a ……… edge. Prehistoric tools such as

………axes have been found.

Sedimentary facts

*Chalk consists of shells, visible only under a microscope.

*Mudstone forms from compressed mud grains, and sandstone from compressed sand grains.

*Oil is usually found in permeable and porous sandstones. Fossils

Plant and animals that lived ……… of years ago are preserved in rocks as fossils. A fossil is the ……… of an organism, a cast of an animal or plant made from minerals, or even burrows or tracks left by animals and preserved in rock. Sedimentary rocks such as ……… or chalk hold fossils. Paleontologists are scientists who study ……… .

Fossil facts

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English For Geographers_____________________________________________

*The earlier dinosaur, a Herrerasaurus, was found in Argentina in 1989 and dated at 230 million years old.

*The largest fossil footprint was left by a hadrosaurid. It is 1.36 m long. *Fossils of cells are the first evidence of life, 3,200 million years ago. The Ages of the Earth

The Earth’s history divides into eras, periods, and epochs. The time scale is marked by the appearance of new life forms. Life on Earth is never static – it changes and evolves ……… .

Creatures become extinct and others appear. Some ……… may be short-lived and others survive unchanged for millions of years. Using fossil evidence scientists build a picture of life in the past. Extensive ……… covered the land during the Carboniferous period (363-290 million years ago). It was during this time that forests, containing ……… and ferns, flourished. Some of these were preserved and now form coal deposits. The first ……… and giant dragonflies lived in these swamps.

Metamorphic rocks

Sedimentary, metamorphic, or igneous rocks are ……… into new metamorphic rocks. The rock doesn’t ……… but it is changed underground by ……… and heat. During mountain ……… , in particular, intense pressure over millions of years alters the ……… and nature of rocks. Igneous rocks such as granite change into gneiss and sedimentary rocks like limestone into marble.

Metamorphic facts

*The oldest rock on Earth is a metamorphic rock. It is Amitsoc gneiss from Amitsoc Bay, Greenland.

*Rubies are found in metamorphic limestone in the Himalayas. They formed during mountain building.

7. Match the word with its explanation:

_____________________________________________English For Geographers

chemical composition and crystalline structure, such as feldspar or mica;

reef - an area of undrained land which supports wet, spongy vegetation consisting mainly of mosses, sedges, rushes and some grasses.

Section 2

1.Think of the following questions and try to answer them:

1.What is an earthquake?

2.What are most earthquakes caused by?

3.What are the strongest earthquakes so far recorded?

4.What is a tsunami?

5.What are most tsunami caused by?

6.What are the most severe tsunami so far recorded?

7.Why do we need to research the mantle ant the core of the earth?

2.Read and translate the following text using a dictionary:

Journey to the centre of the Earth

Japanese scientists are to explore the centre of the Earth. Using a giant drill ship, the researchers aim to be the first to punch a hole through the rocky crust that covers our planet and to reach the mantle below.

The team wants to retrieve samples from the mantle, 10 m down, to learn more about what triggers undersea earthquakes, such as the one off Sumatra that caused 2005 December’s tsunami. They hope to study the deep rocks and mud for records of climate change and to see if the deepest regions of earth could harbour life. One of the main purposes of doing this is finding deep bacteria within the ocean crust and upper mantle.

Rocks in the upper mantle produce compounds essential for life when they react with seawater. This is a system, researchers believe, that created early life. There may be a chance that they can catch the origin of life still taking place today.

The 57,500-tonne drill ship Chikyu (Japanese for Earth) is being prepared in the southern port of Nagasaki. Two-thirds the length of the Titanic, it is fitted with technology borrowed from the oil industry that will allow it to bore through 7,000 metres of crust below the seabed while floating in 2,500 metres of water – requiring a drill pipe 25 times the height of the Empire State building.

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