Век химии (Английский язык для студентов химического профиля). Учебное пособие

It is necessary to balance the requirements of growing population with the necessity of conserving earth′s natural assets. Improving living standards without destroying the environment is a global challenge. As population and demand for natural resources continue to grow environmental limits will become increasingly apparent. Slowing population growth would help to improve living standards and would provide time to solve the problems. Without practicing sustainable development humanity faces a deteriorating environment and may even invite ecological disaster.

4. Answer the questions.

1.What is the link between the population growth and the environmental impact?

2.What can you say about the level of consumption in the different countries of the world? Is it possible to say that it is almost the same?

3.What is the main reason of the greatest extinction of plant and animal species nowadays?

4.What industries do market systems subsidize?

5.What can technological improvements overwhelm in affecting the environment?

6.What can some of the population growth mitigate?

7.Why is it necessary to balance the requirements of growing population with the necessity of conserving earth′s natural asset?

8.What does humanity face without practicing sustainable development?

5. Complete the following sentences using some active words and word combinations (see below).

1.Natural resources are under increasing pressure, constituting a threat to ………...

2.Most developing countries with rapid population growth face the urgent need to ……..

3.A very small proportion of the population consumes…….

4.Man has interfered in nature, without taking into account…..

5.Market systems often subsidise industries such as …..

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6. Improving living standards without destroying the environment is…….

possible negative effects of his activity; a global challenge; improve their standards of living; the majority of the world′s resources; logging, mining and grazing; public health and development

6. Retell the text using the following scheme.

1.The headline of the text is…

2.The text informs on (deals with, dwells upon)…

3.At the beginning the author makes close study of (considers)…

4.Then much attention is given to…

5.The text also tells about…

6.To sum up it should be noted…

Text B

1. Match the English words and word combinations in A with

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2. Read the text trying to understand its main idea.

ECOLOGY IS A PRIORITY

The ecological problem, which is also very social one, is one of the pressing problems of our days. It is closely linked, through course- and-effect relations, to the problems of economic growth, progress in science and technology, natural resources, energy and food supplies. In many cases the environmental problem has become a dominant one in relation to many others. The pollution of the environment, the destruction of ecosystems, the destruction of many species of plants and animals have now reached dangerous proportions. An increasing influence on nature and the application of new technological processes (whose consequences are increasingly dangerous for the environment) may cause catastrophic results. Negative anthropogenic influences threaten to disrupt nature′s basic cycles. This is illustrated by the following data. By comparison with the twentieth century the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased dozens of times in many cities, and has increased globally by 20 per cent. As a result a layer of carbon dioxide is formed around the Earth. It may result in changes in unfavourable climate and transform our blue planet into a greenhouse with catastrophic effects. Those include changes in its energy balance and a gradual increase in temperature that will transform fertile regions into arid ones, raise the level of water in the oceans (through the melting of polar and drifting ice) and produce a flooding of great numbers of coastal lands and cities. Pollution of the ocean has increased at a rate that threatens to make it global. The pollution of the environment through chemical, physical and biological agents produces an increase in the mutagenic influence on individuals. It is no longer possible to escape from the effect of our own destruction of the environment. Greater demands are being made on mineral resources, which in some cases have been largely

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exhausted. More complicated chemical processing of nature′s raw materials has attacked the environment in number of new ways. It has given us pesticides and herbicides that destroy the flora and fauna on a massive scale. As a result new types of waste products pollute air, water and soil. Plastics and many pesticides and detergents remain undercomposed. All this means that at present there has arisen a pressing necessity to change the character of the interaction between man and nature.

3.Divide the text into some logical parts and entitle them.

4.Translate the following sentences into English using lexical material of the text.

достигло опасных показателей.

3.Экологическая проблема тесно связана с проблемами экономического роста, прогрессом в науке и технологии.

4.В результате новые виды отходов загрязняют воздух, воду и почву.

5.Более сложные химические процессы переработки природного сырья влияют на окружающую среду.

6.По сравнению с XX веком накопление углекислого газа в атмосфере увеличилось в сто раз.

7. Парниковый эффект приведет к повышению температуры, что повысит уровень воды в океанах.

5. Decide if the following statements are true or false.

1.The ecological problem is closely linked to many problems of

our days.

2.The only thing that has now reached dangerous proportions is the pollution of the environment

3.The application of new technological processes is not very dangerous for the environment

4.The accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased globally by 30 per cent.

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5.An increase in the greenhouse effect may give a rise to disastrous consequences.

6.Human activity may lead to global warming.

Text C

1.Pay attention to the following words and word combinations: to deteriorate – ухудшать(ся), разрушаться;

to be responsible for smth. – быть ответственным за что-либо; powerful jet aircrafts – скоростные сверхзвуковые самолеты; оn the one hand – с одной стороны;

countermeasure – контрмера; exhaust fumes – выхлопные газы; insects – насекомые;

the effect of smth. – действие, влияние чего-либо.

2.Read the text and be ready to say if the following statements are true or false. Use the following phrases:

As far as I know …

It seems to be wrong (right) …

I cant’t agree with you …

I’m afraid you are mistaken …

On the contrary …

That’s right …

1.The problem of preserving the environment has recently become a central one.

2.The quality of many people′s lives has deteriorated in some respects because of chemical progress.

3.Motor cars are responsible for the atmosphere pollution.

4.The population of rural areas and cities has increased.

5.There are two points of view on the problem of insects killing.

6.One of the first acts of Parliament to counter pollution was the Clean Water Act.

7.Industrial chemical wastes are still polluting rivers.

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PRESERVING THE ENVIRONMENT

Recently more and more attention has been focused on the problem of preserving the environment. Over the past thirty years or so the quality of many people′s lives has deteriorated in some respects because of technological progress. Those people living near airports are constantly attacked by the noise of powerful jet aircrafts taking off and landing.

The motor car has been responsible for many changes in the environment. On the one hand it has brought mobility to millions of people but on the other hand it has led to the construction of more and more noisy and dangerous roads and has polluted the atmosphere with exhaust fumes.

While towns and cities have become larger and uglier and more densely populated, the rural areas have lost of their population owing to the need for fewer workers in agriculture. The countryside has also been affected by the large-scale use of insecticides. For one thing the killing of insects has resulted in a loss of balance in the ecology. Insects, although a nuisance for farmers, provide food for birds. Many people are afraid that fruit and vegetables sprayed with chemicals may have some poisonous effect upon the people who eat them.

Certain counter - measures against the destruction of the environment have been introduced. One of the first acts of Parliament to counter pollution was the Clean Air Act, which opened the way to smokeless zones in large towns and cities. This followed a very bad winter in which many people with bronchial complaints became very ill through the effect of a mixture of smoke, fog and fumes known as “smog”. Rivers which are fouled up with industrial chemical waste are now being cleaned, and fish which could not live there a few years ago can be caught again.

3.Make up the plan to the text.

4.Give a brief summary of the text.

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Text D

1. Read the text and choose the most suitable title out of the given ones:

a)New types of weapons.

b)Nature and Nuclear War.

c)Genetic Consequences of Radioactive Affection.

Wars and preparations for them, such as tests of new types of armaments, are having a tremendous destructive effect on the natural environment. New types of weaponry, including shells with great explosive force, chemical substances and agents, used in recent wars, have produced a destructive effect on the environment. In South Vietnam, herbicides completely destroyed 1,500 square kilometres of vegetation and caused damage to 15,000 square kilometres of land. At the same time natural restoration of vegetation there is catastrophically slow.

Even greater damage to the environment may be done if the new types of weapons presently being developed are widely used. A nuclear war would destroy all the principal towns of the Northern Hemisphere. It would destroy a considerable part of the urban population as a result of blast and fire, and a considerable part of the rural population through radioactive irradiation. Even though it is difficult to foresee the long-term consequences of a nuclear war, they would globally affect the climate, causing the ozone layer to seriously deplete. Besides, radioactive affection would cause genetic consequences.

The previous experimental nuclear blasts have seriously contaminated the atmosphere with radioactive materials and caused damage to considerable areas of the Earth′s surface.

The use of the neutron bomb would also result in considerable damage to the environment. Experts have calculated that an explosion of one-kiloton neutron bomb at an altitude of 200 metres would destroy a major portion of microorganisms over 40 hectares. The use of chemical and biological weapons could also result in very serious ecological consequences. Chemical dehydration of tropical regions

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with vulnerable soils could cause rapid soil erosion and irreversible consequences.

An increase in the world stockpiles of weapons and in their destructive force presents an obvious danger to man and the environment. Even tests of these weapons could lead to serious ecological damage. The use of weapons against the environment could result in the danger of long-term or even irreversible damage to soils, farming, and ecological balance.

2. Write out:

а) key words and terms;

b) the sentences expressing the main idea of each paragraph

Unit 5

GRAMMAR: Infinitive, Infinitive Constructions.

1. a) Translate the following words and word combinations into Russian:

to concern, oil, trash, to contaminate, to get sick from smth., dirty, ozone layer, acid rain, to affect smth., in turn, mercury, cadmium.

b)Put the words in the correct order to form sentences:

1.Is, the, crisis, problem, great, millennium, Water, a, for, new.

2.Exhaust, are, of, main, health, fumes, cause, the, bad.

3.Pollution, problem, The, air, national, crosses, of, boundaries.

4.The, severely, China, is, Yellow River, polluted, in.

5.Of, includes, metals, dangerous, A list, substances, heavy, as mercury and cadmium.

2. Read the following sentences and translate them into Russia paying attention to the Infinitive. Identify the infinitive construction.

1. A nucleus that spontaneously decomposes is said to be radioactive.

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2.The ability to achieve a critical mass is essential to sustaining a nuclear reaction.

3.At present many technical problems remain to be solved, and it is not clear whether the method will prove useful.

4.For nearly two decades this area has been studied to determine its suitability for storage of high-level radioactive wastes.

5.It is crucial that European countries now do more to increase renewable energy technologies.

6.High-level pollutions in parts of Eastern Europe are known to have caused serious health problems.

7.In order to be safer, we may have to be more wiling to acknowledge how unsafe life really is.

8.We have a normal duty to look after our planet and to hand it on in good order to future generation.

9.British Government has a substantial programme of action to ensure an improvement in acidity in lochs in Southern Scotland.

Text A

3. Read the text and translate it using a dictionary.

POLLUTION

Man has been trying to make life easier for many centuries. In doing so, he invented machines and instruments. They have been working – and polluting the world we live in.

In this world around us, there two things that do not belong to any country: air and ocean water. In both the air and the water, there is much pollution. People are concerned about the air and the water used by everyone, and they are also concerned about the future of the Earth.

One of the most important pollution problems is the ocean. Many ships sail in the ocean water – fishing ships, some ships carrying people, some carrying oil. If a ship loses some of the oil in the water, or trash from the ships is put into the ocean, the water becomes dirty. Many fish are dying in the sea, others are getting contaminated. Fisherman catch contaminated fish which may be

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sold in markets and people may get sick from eating them. Fish may also move to another part of the ocean. Lakes and rivers are getting polluted, too. Some beaches are considered dangerous for swimming.

The second important problem is air pollution. Cars and factories polluted the air we use. It also destroys the ozone layer, which protects the Earth from the dangerous light of the Sun.

Another problem is that our forests are dying from acid rain. This, in turn, affects the balance of nature.

If we want out children to live in the same world we live in, or in a better or healthier world, we must learn to protect the water, the air and the earth from pollution.

4. Answer the questions:

1.What did man invent to make life easier?

2.What are people concerned about?

3.What doesn′t belong to any country?

4.What is one of the most important pollution problems and why?

5.What can you say about other environmental problems?

6.Why mast we protect the earth from pollution?

5.Complete the following sentences using some active words and word combinations (see below):

1.People are concerned about …… used by everyone.

2.Many ships lose …..in the water.

3.People may get sick from eating…..

4.Cars and factories polluted the air destroy……

5.Acid rains lead to ……

6.We must learn to protect the water, the air and the earth from … pollution, some of the oil, the air and the water, contaminated

fish, the ozone layer, deforestation.

6.Retell the text using the scheme:

1.The headline of the text is…

2.The text informs on (deals with, dwells upon)…

3.At the beginning the author makes close study of (considers)…

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