Английский язык химия и экология в современном мире. Учебное пособие

TEST

1. Translate the text and put four questions of different types to it.

There are two main uses of agricultural land: arable farming (which is land dedicated to growing crops), and pastureland (which includes meadows and pastures used for livestock rearing).

For most countries land use for livestock grazing is dominant relative to arable farming. For most countries, land dedicated to cropland is typically below 20 percent, with many countries dedicating less than 10 percent. There are some notable exceptions, however: countries in South Asia and Europe allocate a large share of land area to arable farming. India, Bangladesh, Ukraine and Denmark all dedicated more than half of total land area to cropland in 2014.

As a contrast to arable farming, land use for livestock in Europe and South Asia, in particular, is typically less than 20 percent. However, most continental regions have countries where pastureland reaches close to half of total land area. In some countries (particularly in Central Asia, including Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan) this can reach up to 70 percent. Livestock farming can take place across a range of diverse climatic and environmental regions (for example, ranging from cattle rearing in temperate regions to sheep farming in hilly and semi-arid terrain); meaning that this type of agriculture is potentially less geographically-constrained than arable farming.

2.Complete the sentences to make proper Conditionals.

1.Unless the questions of food security … , the region will remain a powder keg (пороховая бочка).

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3. Match a phrase from column A with one from column B to make a sentence.

4. Fill in suffixes and prefixes in-, de-, un-, -ity, -tion, -ment, -ly to create words

(both a suffix and a prefix are used in every word).

stable grade available suit even

5. Translate the sentences into English.

1.Если бы вы оставили эту часть земли необработанной на два года, то могли бы получить хороший урожай.

2.Не заяви французский ученый о сокращении популяции пчел в 2013году, инсектициды не были бы отменены.

3.Если земля более пяти лет используется под кормовые культуры (forage crops), ее называют пастбищной.

4.Если у вас тяжелая, глинистая земля (heavy in clay), вам нужно обработать ее и облегчить ее структуру (to loosen texture).

5.Если бы в северной Африке было бы больше обрабатываемой земли, люди бы получали больший урожай.

ADDITIONAL READING

ELIMINATING PESTICIDES FROM FARMING IS NOT REALISTIC—OR DESIRABLE

Efforts to control pests are as old as farming. With weeds at least there has always been the option of hand-pulling, hoeing, and/or small cultivators pulled by animals (more recently, tractors). Diseases and insects were worse because

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mechanical control was usually impossible and high pestilence meant extreme crop losses, and often starvation.

John Unsworth in History of Pesticides states, “The first recorded use of insecticides is about 4,500 years ago by Sumerians who used sulfur compounds to control insects and mites.” Over the millennia, lots of approaches have been tried.

A big change occurred in about 1940 with the discovery, manufacture and usage of two synthetic compounds – 2,4D for weed control and DDT for insects. Many other synthetic herbicides [ˈhɜːbɪsaɪds], insecticides and fungicides soon followed.

In years since, crop agriculture everywhere in the developed world (most developing countries too) has become highly dependent on chemicals for pest control.

This did not mean a diminished effort by plant breeders to develop new pest-resistant crop varieties. But plant breeding is slow; genetic sources of pest resistance are often hard to find or unavailable; and genetic resistance usually

‘breaks down’ (pests become resistance) with time. Plant breeding is highly important to pest management but it’s insufficient by itself.

Of course, genetic resistance of pests to pesticides also develops, and herbicide usage has meant a shift in weed populations; new species tolerant to specific herbicides become more prevalent when competition from herbicidesusceptible ones disappears.

Notwithstanding the challenge of evolving pest resistance, the combination of better plant breeding techniques and new pesticides means pests are controlled far more effectively now than in times past. That’s one major reason why yields of many crops have increased dramatically in recent decades.

The advent of chemical weed control also triggered some important changes in cropping techniques. One was no-till crop planting which now represents a very common cropping practice for many crops and regions.

The increased usage of chemical pesticides also meant growing awareness of the negatives. Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, published in 1962 was pivotal.

That event coincided with a growing public awareness of many environmental issues, and greater restrictions were soon placed on pesticide usage. Many early pesticides were banned for usage, DDT being one. Newer pesticides are safer to both human health and environment than those of earlier years.

Sustainability is a strong driver of twenty-first-century agriculture. Virtually every agricultural and food organization now lists sustainable development as a priority. Despite the common goal, sustainable agriculture has come to mean many different things.

Organic agriculture which rejects the use of synthetic pesticides and some modern crop breeding technologies often defines itself as ‘sustainable’ even though the environmental benefit is mixed and this approach generally means significantly lower productivity per hectare and higher food prices.

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Genetically engineered (GE) crops, commonly called genetically modified crops or organisms, or simply GMOs, have generally meant reductions in pesticide usage and/or the use of pesticides safer to human health. Many view this as more sustainable.

Despite their differences, a common view shared by supporters of both organic agriculture and genetic engineering is that pesticide usage is inherently bad. It’s seen as a necessary evil, with a goal of sustainable agriculture being to minimize and ultimately eliminate pesticide usage.

UK environmentalist, Mark Lynas stated, “let’s get serious about getting crop protection chemicals out of farming.” He’s not unique in equating sustainability with ‘pesticide free.’

But when you search deeper, the rationale for a goal of elimination seems vague and weak.

Yes, there are and will always be risks with pesticide usage, risks that are larger where reasonable precautions are not taken to minimize human exposure. Off-target pesticide drift is also an issue. Farmers and other pesticide users too often apply pesticides prophylactically rather than in response to specific threats. Better means of predicting need are required. Finally, pesticides cost farmers money and require the use of some energy for their production and transport to users.

Risks to health and environment with pesticide usage must be balanced against the often-larger risks associated with pests and pest-induced toxins in food which pesticides help control.

Alternatives to pesticides also have notable downsides for both health and ecology. Take soil cultivation as an example. It causes the more rapid oxidation (breakdown) of soil organic matter, renders soils more vulnerable to water and wind erosion and can be devastating to soil organisms. Pests adapt to cultural controls just as with pesticide usage and plant breeding.

Everything we do in agriculture involves a balance among competing needs for food productivity, environmental integrity, and the ability of farmers to earn a living.

A reduction in pesticide usage in agriculture makes sense where effective alternative controls are available at affordable cost, and where the health and environmental risks of the alternatives are less than that of the chemicals they replace.

But reduction is not the same as elimination.

A recent Bloomberg news article about some entrepreneurs developing robotic weeders is telling: “After months of research [with robots on nonchemical weed control] they faced a disappointing truth: There was no way around herbicides….Their challenge became applying the chemicals with precision.”

The nature of pesticides will likely change. New approaches show great promise, such as ‘RNA interference’ which involves the use of compounds

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designed to block the action of specific genes and the enzymes they code for in specific pest organisms and/or crop plants.

But even as these are introduced, the pests will inevitably evolve to develop resistance, just as occurs with plant breeding and more traditional pesticides.

So it comes down to the subtle but important distinction between low and no pesticide usage. Reductions in pesticide usage are to be applauded where possible and net beneficial, but hopes for a total elimination of all pesticide usage in crop/food production are not realistic – at least with technologies now available or on the horizon.

This assumes of course that the goal truly is sustainable agriculture – and sustainable in the sense that agricultural technology must continually evolve and improve to address ever-changing needs and pest threats.

It would not be possible to feed 7.6 billion people today without pesticides

– let alone the 9-10 billion expected by 2050. So as well as being cautious and sparing in pesticide usage, let’s also give them some praise. Let’s thank pesticides for what they have contributed to human well-being for so many years, and will in decades to come.

And let’s stop assuming that complete pesticide elimination is a laudable and realistic goal – for it is neither. https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2018/08/06/viewpoint-eliminating-pesticides- from-farming-isnt-realistic-or-desirable/

UNIT 5

Ex. 1. Read and translate the text.

Isotopes

Atoms that have the same atomic number (number of protons), but different mass numbers (number of protons and neutrons) are called isotopes [ˈaɪsəʊtəʊps]. In other words, they have different atomic weights. Isotopes are different forms of a single element.

The chemical properties of isotopes of a single element tend to be nearly identical. The exception would be the isotopes of hydrogen since the number of neutrons has such a significant effect on the size of the hydrogen nucleus. The physical properties of isotopes are different from each other since these properties often depend on mass. This difference may be used to separate isotopes of an element from each other by using fractional distillation and diffusion.

Some isotopes/nuclides [ˈnjuːklaɪds] are radioactive, and are therefore referred to as radioisotopes or radionuclides, whereas others have never been observed to decay radioactively and are referred to as stable isotopes or stable nuclides. For example, 14C is a radioactive form of carbon, whereas 12C and 13C are stable isotopes.

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There are two methods to determine the amount of various isotopes in a special material. The first is to directly measure the radioactivity of the isotope in question, by counting particles (of α, β, or γ type) that are produced by a specific decay. The prevailing way of analyzing isotopes is to make use of some kind of mass spectrometer that is designed to determine the distribution of an element’s isotopes. The working principle behind this technique is that different types of atoms or molecules can be separated according to their masses, and the ratios between the isotopes of interest can be subsequently measured.

Isotope measurements are now routinely used in many fields such as geology, medicine, heritage science, archaeology, forensics, environmental studies and in the food and beverage industry. Isotope studies may successfully be combined with analytical data for trace elements. Although not based on isotopes, the hydration method is also worth mentioning in this context. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40494-018-0192-3

Ex. 2. Write the short summary of the text.

Isotopes are atoms that have the same atomic number, but different mass numbers…

…This can be applied to many applications, such as geology, archaeology, environment, paleoclimate, food adulteration and agricultural research.

Ex. 3. Match the words with their equivalents.

Ex. 4. Translate the following sentences. Pay attention to the words in italics.

1. A hydrogen molecule consists of only two hydrogen atoms with the same atomic weight. 2. The dynamics of transportation of HTO (tritium

[ˈtrɪtɪəm] water) in a simulated tea soil ecosystem were studied on simulated pollutants using isotope tracer technique. 3. This is a dating method based on the radioactive decay of isotopes of uranium. 4. He described the ratios between the densities of gold, mercury, lead, silver, bronze, copper, brass, iron, and tin. 5. The most important reason for measuring radioactivity in the environment is to evaluate its impact on humans. 6. The isotopes are measured by counting their alpha emissions; each isotope emits alpha radiation of a characteristic frequency. 7. In any organic specimen, carbon-14 is present in tiny quantities, being swamped by the more abundant isotope, carbon-12. 8. Although such mixtures

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can not be separated by fractional distillation, they can be separated by other means. 9. The hydrogen and oxygen isotopic compositions heavy waters are calculated by the high - resolution mass spectrometer.

Простая форма герундия (Simple Gerund) используется для действия, которое происходит одновременно с действием глагола-сказуемого:

She likes visiting her friends. – Она любит ходить в гости к своим друзьям.

She likes being visited by her friends. – Она любит, когда ее посещают друзья.

Перфектная форма герундия (Perfect Gerund) используется для действия, которое предшествует действию глагола-сказуемого:

He is excited of having spoken to her. – Он взволнован от того, что поговорил с ней.

He is excited of having been spoken to. – Он взволнован, что с ним поговорили.

1. Герундий употребляется после предлогов after, before, by, on, и т.

д.

He left the hotel without paying the bill. Before going to bed, I like to have a hot drink.

2. Герундий употребляется после глаголов, выражающих начало, окончание или продолжение действия:

1. start, begin, take up - начать делать, заняться Have you finished writing?

2.stop, finish, give up - перестать делать, Keep on asking questions.

бросить

3.go on, continue, keep on - продолжать делать

3. Герундий употребляется после глаголов предпочтения:

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* Сочетание Would you mind с герундием выражает вежливую просьбу: Would you mind waiting a little? - Вы не против того, чтобы немного подождать?

4. Герундий употребляется в распространенных конструкциях c прилагательными:

He is bored with writing tests.

** Запомните два прилагательных, которые употребляются без предлога - busy и worth: I am busy reading. – Я занят чтением. The book is worth reading. – Эту книгу стоит почитать.

4. Герундий может употребляться после определенных глаголов:

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This catalyst is responsible for converting carbon monoxide and the other hydrocarbons into carbon dioxide.

● Прямое дополнение:

He said he didn’t mind making an equation instead of me.

● Обстоятельство времени:

Before conducting an experiment, you propose a hypothesis so that you can determine whether your prediction is supported.

● Обстоятельство образа действия:

Instead of using new technology to improve water quality they are discussing the costs.

● Определение:

The students liked his manner of explaining new material.

Ex. 5. Translate the sentences and compare the forms of the gerund and define its functions.

1. Reducing the costs of diffuse pollution requires much greater attention from policy makers. 2. I anticipate deriving much instruction from the lecture. 3. I remember having been given some missions. 4. They are keen on seeking alternatives to mainstream politics. 5. I suggest supplementing your diet with vitamins E and A. 6. He didn't fancy spending hours in the lab. 7. We will keep on trying and, if we get anything done, we will notify you. 8. There's no need to thank me – I enjoyed doing it. I dislike being the centre of attention. 9. Vitamin K is routinely given in the first week of life to prevent bleeding. 10. If executives fail to exploit the opportunities of networking they risk being left behind. 11. We do not permit smoking in the office. 12. You can't help being struck by her decision. 13. He was tempted to give up freelancing and get a regular job. 14. Don't be afraid of asking questions. 15. Some engineers might resent not having been informed in advance. 16. They built a wall to avoid soil being washed away. 17. The government has promised to stop dumping by the state-owned chemical plants. 18. He succeeded in purifying lysozyme [laɪˈsɒsɪmə] - лизоцим, a bacteria-destroying enzyme [ˈenzaɪm] found in tears and saliva, and characterized the substances acted upon by the enzyme. 19. Real plants should be planted with warmed water in the tank, to prevent their drying out.

Ex. 6. Complete the second sentence with Gerund so that it means the same as the first.

Why is it useful to have a car? What are the advantages of having a car?

1.I don't intend to apply for the job. I have no intention of …

2.Mark won't pass the exam. He has no chance. Mark has no chance of …

3.Did you get into trouble because you were late? Did you get into trouble for …

4.You start the engine of a car when you turn the key. You start the engine of a car by

…

5.I'm so sorry that I phone you so late, but I need to ask you something. – Excuse …

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