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6 Unit Bacteria

Bacteria

Tiny, one-celled organisms called bacteria live on, in, and around human beings as well as many other living and nonliving things. Most of these organisms can be seen only with the aid of a microscope and millions of them would fit on the head of a pin. The study of bacteria is called bacteriology.

One often hears of the harmful things bacteria do. It is true that many of them do cause sickness. (These are popularly called germs.) Others are responsible for the spoilage of food. Many other types of bacteria, however, are helpful to humans. Indeed, without them there would be no plant or animal life on the Earth.

Bacteria have no distinct nucleus--that is, the nuclear matter is not enclosed by a membrane, or wall-and they lack most of the internal structures found in the cells of higher organisms.

All bacterial cells have a cell wall surrounding a cell membrane, inside of which lies the unbound nuclear matter and other material. Some cells are surrounded with a gelatinous capsule. The jellylike cells are almost transparent, so that it is necessary to stain them with a dye to see them clearly.

Most bacteria reproduce by dividing in the middle to form two cells. After these cells reach maturity, they in turn divide to form four. In some bacteria, such division may occur as often as every 15 minutes. Thus billions of bacteria may be formed from a single bacterium in 24 hours. Others divide only every 16 hours.

Bacteria are found in more varied habitats and environments than any other living thing. One pound (0.5 kilogram) of fertile garden soil may contain as many as 50 million. They are present on and within animals and plants. They exist in the ocean, on the desert, in hot springs, and in the snow of polar regions.

Some bacteria are smaller than yeasts, but all are larger than viruses. A unit of length called a micrometer, or micron, is used to measure bacteria. Most bacteria range from 1 to 5 microns in size.

Bacteria absorb their food and secrete their wastes through the cell wall. Many bacteria are able to move through liquids, some very rapidly, by means of hairlike

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appendages called flagella. Others are carried about on animals or insects or through the air on dust.

Like other forms of life, bacteria are attacked by smaller forms. A group of small viruses cause disease in bacteria and may kill them. Bacterial viruses are called bacteriophages.

Disease-producing bacteria may enter the body through the mouth and the nose or through cuts in the skin and the bites of animals. In the body they may multiply sufficiently to bring on an illness. Illnesses caused by bacteria and other microorganisms are called infections. Plants and animals as well as human beings may suffer from infectious diseases. The infection may be caused by the microorganisms themselves or by their poisonous waste products, called toxins. The toxins are often more dangerous than the bacteria. Fortunately the body produces defenses against both. Antibodies combat the microorganisms. Other antibodies, called antitoxins, combat the toxins.

Many kinds of bacteria can be killed by heat. Very few bacteria grow in acid foods, dry foods, salted foods, or very sweet foods. It is comparatively easy to can tomatoes because they are an acid food. Jams, jellies, and preserves are protected by the high sugar content as well as by their acid content. The amount of heat required to can nonacid foods successfully is very high because of the need to destroy the thermophilic bacteria and the very tough bacterial spores.

Bacteria are versatile helpers in the laboratory. Many of them use the same vitamins that human beings or animals require. The amount of vitamin in a given medium can be measured, under carefully controlled conditions, by the extent of the multiplication of a particular kind of bacterium. Amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, can be similarly measured. A few dozen test tubes of growing bacteria can measure in several days what would require many weeks and hundreds of animals to accomplish.

Vocabulary

germ – микроб, микроорганизм spoilage - порча

nucleus – ядро клетки to enclose – окружать

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unbound – свободный, отдельный. transparent – прозрачный

to stain – красить, окрашивать dye – краска, красящее вещество

habitat – естественная среда, место обитания yeast [ji:st, jest] – дрожжи, дрожжевые грибки micron [maikrכֿn] – микрон

secrete [sikri:t] - выделять appendage - отросток

to can - консервировать preserves – консервы, варенье tough – крепкий, прочный

versatile – многосторонний, универсальный. to аccomplish – совершать, выполнять

Learning activities

1 Answer the following questions:

1Where do one-celled organisms live?

2 How important are bacteria for a plant or an animal life?

3 Bacteria lack most of the internal structures found in the cells of higher organisms, don’t they?

4 How long does it take bacteria to divide?

5 What causes disease in bacteria?

6 What do we call toxins? Are they more dangerous than the bacteria?

7 What is required in order to destroy the thermophilic bacteria and the very tough bacterial spores?

8 What is infection?

9 Many of bacteria use the same vitamins that human beings or animals require, don’t they?

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2 Transcribe the words from the text and use one of them in the sentence of

your own: bacteriology, membrane, gelatinous, maturity, yeasts, appendages, flagella,

bacteriophages, antitoxins, thermophilic.

3 Match the words in the box to their definitions:

1 a very small, complex unit of protoplasm, usually with a nucleus, cytoplasm, and an enclosing membrane;

2 any microscopic organisms, esp. one of the bacteria, that can cause disease;

3 any subordinate or external organ or part of a plant or animal, as a branch, tail, or limb; 4 a thin, soft, pliable sheet or layer, especially of animal or vegetable tissue, serving as a covering or lining, as for an organ or part;

5 the study of bacteria, either as a branch of medicine or as a science, important in food processing, agriculture, industry, etc.;

6 an instrument for measuring very small distances, angles, diameters, etc., used on a telescope or microscope;

7 any of various small reproductive bodies, usually consisting of a single cell, produced by bacteria, algae, mosses, ferns, certain protozoans;

8 any microscopic or ultramicroscopic animal or vegetable organism;

9 a particular destructive process in an organ or organism, with a specific cause and characteristic symptoms; specif., an illness; ailment;

10 the act of causing to become diseased;

11 any of large classes of nitrogenous substances consisting of a complex union of amino acids and containing carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, frequently sulfur, and sometimes phosphorus, iron, iodine, or other elements;

12 chemical substances in food which are necessary for good health;

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13 any of various poisonous compounds produced by some microorganisms and causing certain diseases;

14 a circulating antibody formed by the body, as active immunity, to act against a specific toxin.

4 Replace the underlined words by appropriate personal pronouns:

1 The study of bacteria is called bacteriology.

2 Bacteria have no distinct nucleus--that is, the nuclear matter is not enclosed by a membrane, or wall--and they lack most of the internal structures found in the cells of higher organisms.

3 One pound (0.5 kilogram) of fertile garden soil may contain as many as 50 million. 4 A unit of length called a micrometer, or micron, is used to measure bacteria.

5 Disease-producing bacteria may enter the body through the mouth and the nose or through cuts in the skin and the bites of animals.

6 Many kinds of bacteria can be killed by heat.

5 Translate the following words and phrases into English:

одноклеточные организмы, растительная и животная жизнь, клеточная мембрана,

бактерии, вызывающие заболевание, инфекционное заболевание, аминокислоты.

6 Translate and try to use as many set expressions as you can in one sentence of

7 Ask all types of questions to the following sentences:

1 All bacterial cells have a cell wall surrounding a cell membrane, inside of which lies the unbound nuclear matter and other material.

2 A unit of length called a micrometer, or micron, is used to measure bacteria. 3 Bacteria absorb their food and secrete their wastes through the cell wall.

4 The infection may be caused by the microorganisms themselves or by their poisonous waste products, called toxins.

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5 Amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, can be similarly measured.

8 Write down the sentences in the Past Simple Tense:

1 One often hears of the harmful things bacteria do.

2 The jellylike cells are almost transparent, so that it is necessary to stain them with a dye to see them clearly.

3 The toxins are often more dangerous than the bacteria. 4 Fortunately the body produces defenses against both.

5 It is comparatively easy to can tomatoes because they are an acid food.

6 Many of them use the same vitamins that human beings or animals require.

7 The amount of vitamin in a given medium can be measured, under carefully controlled conditions, by the extent of the multiplication of a particular kind of bacterium.

9 Restore the sentences from the words:

1 responsible, others, are, for, of food, the spoilage;

2 cells, some, surrounded, are, capsule, a, gelatinous, with;

3 yeasts, bacteria, are, smaller, some than, but, viruses, larger, all are than;

4 as, plants and animals, as well, beings, human, suffer may from infectious, diseases; 5 is, comparatively, it, easy, tomatoes, to can, they, because, are, food, an acid.

10 Retell the text in details.

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7 Unit Cities and Towns

City-States

At the dawn of Western civilization, in the Tigris-Euphrates river valley of the Middle East, there arose more than a dozen self-governing communities called city-states. These societies were the first attempts of people to create independent political structures for themselves. The chief characteristic of the city-state was geographical: it consisted of a small city that was surrounded by a rural, agricultural area. Of greater significance for the residents, however, was their independence. The city-states were self-governing, owing no allegiance to any higher authority such as an empire or nation.

There have been three periods in Western history during which city-states played significant roles as political, cultural, and economic communities. The first, mentioned above, was from about 5000 BC to about 2500 BC in the region now called Iraq. These city-states eventually lost their independence and were made part of the Akkadian empire after 2300 BC. Later many of the cities themselves disappeared and are now known only from the ruins studied by archaeologists.

The second great era of city-states was in Greece, from about 700 to 350 BC, when they were overthrown by Philip II of Macedon and later ruled by his son, Alexander the Great.

In the next century the Greek states were conquered by the Romans, and they remained part of the Roman Empire for more than a thousand years. Like their counterparts in Mesopotamia, many of these cities also fell into ruins: Ephesus in Asia Minor is today no more than an uninhabited village of broken monuments. Others, such as Athens, have survived to become modern urban complexes.

The term city-state is a modern one, coined probably by historian William Warde Fowler in his 1893 book, 'The City-State of the Greeks and Romans'. For the Greeks the word was polis, which means both "city" and "state." It could as well mean "independent sovereignty." It is the word from which politics, the art of government, is derived. In the 4th century BC the philosopher Aristotle wrote a book entitled 'Politics'. It was entirely

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about the governing of the polis, because he could imagine no other type of sovereignty that could be self-governing.

The ancient city-states of Mesopotamia developed from small villages into moderate-size cities. The same was true in Greece. In Greece, however, the type of land had more to do with the course of development than it did in Mesopotamia. Greece is a country of mountains and valleys, making land communication difficult. It was an ideal locale for the growth of completely independent, geographically separated communities.

This forced separation led to great diversity in the size, prosperity, culture, and forms of government among the Greek states. Some were democracies; others were governed by kings, tyrants, or small groups. Athens, the greatest of the city-states, was at one time or another a monarchy, tyranny, and democracy. Sparta, the perennial foe of Athens, was a highly militarized society ruled by kings. What these cities had in common was their independence and the fact that they were governed by laws.

Since Athens is considered by many historians to be the model city-state and the cradle of Western democracy, its institutions have probably been more closely studied than those of any of the other Greek societies. At the height of its power, during the 5th century BC, Athens was a popular democracy in a limited sense. Only male citizens were allowed to conduct public affairs. Women had no votes, nor did the many free foreignborn residents who came to make up a large part of the population. There were also many slaves, and these of course played no role in civic life.

The strength of the city-state was that all citizens knew each other and strove to take part in the conduct of public life. Each citizen was also soldier, judge, and participant in the cultural life of the city. The weakness of the city-state was its determination to be independent. During the Greek period hundreds of city-states were founded throughout the Mediterranean region from Asia Minor to southern France. Many of these were colonies sent out from the Greek mainland. That each could maintain its independence permanently proved impossible.

The stronger cities, such as Athens and Sparta, succeeded in dominating smaller ones and forcing them to pay tribute. Only in the face of a threat from Persia could they

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close ranks and cooperate. But in the end their separateness proved their undoing, as the larger sovereignties of Macedon and Rome overcame them.

After the end of the Roman Empire in the West, about AD 476, free city-states did not emerge until late in the Middle Ages in Europe. But from the 13th to the 15th century they came to dominate the commercial and cultural life of the continent. Among the most prominent were Florence, Genoa, Pisa, Milan, Venice, and Padua in Italy; Geneva in Switzerland; the cities of Flanders; and the trading cities of the Hanseatic League in what is now northern Germany-Hamburg, Lubeck, Bremen, and others. These cities lost their independence when nation-states came to dominate the map of Europe.

The notion of the city-state may seem outmoded to 20th-century politics. But there is one striking exception: the island-nation of Singapore is a true city-state. After it was expelled from Malaysia in 1965, it became one of the vibrant and dynamic economic centres of the Far East. In a region beset by poverty and civil unrest, Singapore has used its independence to encourage the growth of industry, banking, and commerce to take advantage of being the largest port in Southeast Asia. The greatest part of this economic development has taken place only since Singapore became independent and able to run its own affairs.

Vocabulary

allegiance – верность, преданность; ист. вассальная зависимость sovereignty – верховная власть, суверенное государство

locale – место действия

perennial foe – вечный, исконный tribute – дань, подношение, награда

Learning activities

1 Answer the following questions:

1 What was the chief characteristic of the city-state? 2 The city-states were self-governing, weren’t they?

3 When and where was the second great era of city-states?

4 What city-state has survived to become modern urban complexes?

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