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Файл:English for Environmental Engineers (Английский для инженеров-экологов). Часть 2. Учебное пособие
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about 270 million. This is the same as adding the whole population of the
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United States, the third largest country, every three years. If current rates
continue, the world's population will double in less than 50 years.
Births and Deaths. Population is increasing rapidly because of the
drop in death rates. Before World War II, both death rates and birthrates
were high in developing countries. Around 1950, better health care and
sanitation caused death rates to fall rapidly. At the same time birthrates
remained high.
Population Problems. Most population growth is in the developing
countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Many of these countries do
not have enough resources to support their growing populations. Most poor
people in these countries live in rural areas. Many of these people have to
struggle to fill the basic needs of food, clean water, and homes. Land and
Population Growth. As population grows, land is cleared for
people. As land is cleared, wildlife and their habitats disappear, usually
forever. The world's rain forests are disappearing at a rate of 100 acres (40
hectares) a minute. Asia has the highest rate of deforestation. Rates in Latin
America and Africa are almost as high. Population growth is also
responsible for the loss of farmland all over the world.
Reducing Population Growth. Many experts believe population
growth needs to be controlled. Some say the best way to do this is to make
sure the world's poor people can feed and care for themselves. They say
better family planning will help couples to have fewer children. To produce
more food, they say these countries should replace cash crops with food
crops. Cash crops, such as tobacco, tea, and coffee, do not feed the local
people. Farmers grow cash crops to sell to developed countries7.
5. Answer the questions:
1) What is the tragedy of the commons? What is the current population of
the world?
2) When did the world population first reach one billion?
3) In what year did the world population reach two billion?
4) How long did it take for the world population to go from two billion to
three billion?
5) Each year the world population increases by:
a. 25 million people
http://exchanges.state.gov/education/engteaching/
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b. 66 million people
c. 92 million people
d. 131 million people
6) At current rates, what will the world population be in the year 2050?
a. almost 11 billion
b. a little more than billion
c. a little more than 6 billion
d. almost 8 billion
7) The two most populous countries in the world are:
a. The United States and Mexico
b. China and India
c. Mexico and India
d. China and the United States
8) On which continent is population growth the fastest?
9) What percentage of the world population lives in less developed
countries?
10) How many people in the world do not have enough clean drinking
water?
11) Name 5 solutions to population control.
12) How are aids and malaria transmitted?
13) When is pneumonia extra deadly?
14) Where is malnutrition most prevalent?
15) How many people in the world are undernourished?
16) Where is malaria found for the most part?
17) What might be contributing to the high population of the country?
Government policies? The country's social structure? Its economic
situation? Something else?
18) In your opinion, is the high population of this country a "problem"?
Why or why not?
19) What it would be like if suddenly there were twice as many people
living in their home as there are now?
20) What do many experts say is the best way to control population
growth?
21) "We need that size of population in which human beings can fulfill
their potentialities; in my opinion we are already overpopulated from that
point of view, not just in places like India and China and Puerto Rico, but
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also in the United States and Western Europe"8. Do you agree or disagree
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with this quotation?
6. Retell the text from the exercise 4.
7. Translate the following English text into the Russian language:
The world's population is an important issue. For hundreds of
thousands of years, the human population grew at a low but steadily
increasing rate. Then, in less than last 200 years, the world population went
from several hundreds of millions to more than 6 billion people.
The Earth has certain limitations and in particular, there are limits
to growth of things that consume the Earth resources.
Many people believe that these resources, both the Earth and the
human intellect are endless and population growth can continue and that
there is no danger that we will ever run out of anything. "Yet, many people
had predicted catastrophic shortages of natural resources that would follow,
because of continued population growth. Countries try not to raise this
subject to the public much, because they do not want to raise panic.
Nowadays they have to do something about it before it gets out of
hand. They try to censor it and sometimes lie. Do you know that the USA
itself consumes 50 per cent of all electricity produced on the Earth? The
population of the USA is just around 285 millions people. It is an
interesting fact.
Overpopulation is like a big magnifying glass making little
problems into big ones. Overpopulation is destroying our environment,
lowering the standard of living, and generally degrading the quality of life.
Overpopulation also causes more violence, environmental pollution
that reflects on land degradation, tropical forest destruction, global
warming and destruction of coral reefs. 6 billion member society has to get
a huge food infrastructure, so society start producing genetically made
food, which is cheaper than ordinary one but might reflect in the nutrient
balance. For example, in China it is prohibited to have more than one child
for a couple. There is a very dangerous situation in India. By the year 2025
its population might reach 1.5 billion people.
The planet urgently needs population control. Birth control,
abortion and quotas need to be supported, if the planet is to remain
George Wald, 1967 Nobel Laureate in Medicine
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habitable in the long term. Every second five people are born and two
А
1) rain forests
2) tropical rain forests
3) to attract attention
4) to be burned and cut
5) to disappear
6) to save rainforests
7) to have some value
8) cancer treatment
9) evaporation
10) to reflect the sun
11) greenhouse effect
12) soil erosion
13) water pollution
14) to absorb rainfall
B
a. спасать влажные тропические леса
b. исчезать
c. влажные (дождевые) леса
d. парниковый эффект
e. загрязнение воды
f. влажные тропические леса
g. лекарство от рака
h. отражать солнечный свет
i. привлекать внимание
j. иметь некую ценность
k. абсорбировать осадки
l. быть сожженым и вырубленным
m. эрозия почвы
n. испарение
9
people die, so there is a gain of three people. At this rate, the world
population is doubling every 40 years and would be: 12 billions in 40 years,
24 billions in 80 years and 48 billions in 120 years. But the Earth could
provide food only for 20 billions people9.
Unit 4. RAIN FORESTS
1. Read and translate the international words:
student, problem, discussion, economic, global, planet, Internet, program,
aquator, expert, minute, medicine, effect, absorb
2. Read and translate the verbs:
to attract, to save, to solve, to continue, to be burned, to be cut, to stimulate,
to affect, to present, to be located, to disappear, to gain, to evaporate, to
reflect, to release, to cause, to absorb, to destroy
3. Match the English word combinations in column A to their Russian
equivalents in column B
http://slovo.ws/topic/problem/25.html
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4. Read and translate:
Rain Forests
The topic of rain forests is a controversial one that will attract
students' attention. Do we save the rain forests and help solve many of the
world's problems, or do we just let the rain forests continue to be burned
and cut so people can have jobs and farms? Such questions stimulate
discussion and the expression of personal opinions. This wide-reaching
topic not only relates to economic and political issues, but it is also a global
environmental issue that affects everyone on the planet.
The topic of rain forests cuts across all areas of the curriculum, and
information about rain forests is available from a wide variety of sources
including the Internet, books, newspaper and magazine articles, television
programs, and documentary films. It is a broad topic which presents many
opportunities for development of new vocabulary and language concepts.
Tropical rain forests are located in 33 different countries, most of
them around the equator. In the past fifty years, more than half of these
forests have disappeared. Experts say they are disappearing at the rate of
more than 100 acres per minute. Almost everyone and everything in the
world has something to gain from saving rain forests. Some areas that are
most strongly affected by rain forests include:
Medicine. Scientists already know that more than 1,300 rain forest
plants in the Amazon have some value as medicine. However, so far no
more than 10 per cent of all the plant and animal species in the world's rain
forests have been studied for their possible medical benefits. Of the few
that have been studied, less than one percent have been tested for their
value as a cancer treatment.
Weather. Rain forests help control the world's climate. In rain
forests, it rains a lot and is very hot. The heat makes the rainwater
evaporate back into the air. About 50 per cent of the rain in some rain
forests comes from evaporation. The clouds that cover the rain forests
around the equator reflect the sun and keep the rain forests from getting too
hot. When rain forests are burned and cleared, the carbon is released. This
process, called the "greenhouse effect," causes the weather to become much
hotter.
Soil Erosion. Rain forests help to prevent soil erosion and water
pollution. The roots of the forest plants hold soil in place and help to
absorb rainfall in areas that could be damaged by floods.
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These are just a few of the important benefits of rain forests. These
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benefits are often overlooked, especially in developing countries where
poor farmers often move into forestland because they have no other choice.
Also, many governments support forest clearing to make room for mining,
cattle, or export crops.
The loss of tropical forest areas affects many people: the forest
people who lose their homes, the farmers whose lands are destroyed by soil
erosion, the people whose water becomes polluted, the people who lose
their homes in floods, and others. By saving the rain forests, we are saving
a lot more than trees10.
5. Answer the questions:
1) How many plant and animal species live in the world's rain forests?
2) Why are they called "rain forests"?
3) Why are rain forests important?
4) Do people live in rain forests?
5) Are all rain forests located in hot, tropical areas?
6) Why are the world's rain forests disappearing?
7) Once a rain forest has been destroyed, can it grow back?
8) How old are the world's rain forests?
9) Where are the tropical rain forests located?
10) What did you learn from the article?
11) Do you believe saving rain forests is necessary and important? Why or
why not?
12) What efforts, if any, should be made to save the world's rain forests?
6. Retell the text from the exercise 4.
7. Translate the following Russian text into the English language:
Влажные тропические леса – одна из самых интересных и
наименее исследованных природных зон нашей планеты. Этот биом
протянулся вдоль всего экваториального и субэкваториального пояса
Земли.
http://exchanges.state.gov/education/engteaching/
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Флора и фауна тропических лесов поистине уникальна и
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неповторима. На сегодняшний день две трети известных науке
растений и животных обитают в экваториальных лесах.11.
8. Translate the following English text into the Russian language:
1) Rain forests are essential to everyone on earth. They help
control the world's climate. Burning and clearing rain forests releases
carbon, and this causes the weather to become much hotter. This is called
the "greenhouse effect". Rain forests also reduce floods and help to prevent
droughts, soil erosion, and air pollution. Rain forests are the world's most
important source of new medicines. Many medicines, such as aspirin and
heart disease treatments, come from rain forest plants. It is possible that a
cure for cancer or AIDS will be found in a tropical rain forest someday.
2) Rain forests are disappearing for many different reasons. In
some countries, especially those of South America, rich landowners own
most of the farmland. Poor farmers have to use tropical forestland to grow
food for their children. Some farmers use forestland to grow cash crops,
such as coffee or pineapples. Other activities that are destroying rain forests
include mining, logging, farming and cattle ranchingю
3) There are about 14 million people in the world's rain forests.
Some of them are indigenous people who have lived in tropical rain forests
for thousands of years. Some have never seen outsiders before. As the
forests are destroyed, the homes and culture of these people disappear.
Many die as they catch modern diseases12.
http://animalbox.ru/intresting/vlazhnye-tropicheskie-lesa
http://ran.org/
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Unit 5. WATER POLLUTION. OCEAN AND COASTS
А
1) water pollution
2) sewage disposal
3) sedimentation
4) habitat
5) destroying wildlife
6) pollutant
7) litter
8) trash
9) to be drained
10) to be dumped into
11) oil spill
12) to carry sewage
13) industrial waste
14) to empty into
15) overflow from city streets
16) fertilizer
17) pesticide
18) petroleum
19) synthetic chemicals
20) toxic metals
21) radioactive materials
B
1. разрушение живой природы
2. загрязнение воды
3. загрязнитель
4. городские и промышленные
отходы
5. удобрение
6. синтетические химикаты
7. сброс сточных вод
8. выводить, нести сточные воды
9. пестицид
10. нефтяное пятно
11. слив с городских улиц
12. мусор (2)
13. поддающийся биологическому
разложению
14. неподдающийся биологическому
разложению
15. количество
16. осаждение, седиментация
17. ареал
18. вызывать заболевания
1. Read and translate the international words:
sedimentation, construction, ocean, pollutant, material, atmosphere,
pesticide, metal
2. Read and translate the verbs:
to pollute, to change, to remain, to present, to produce, to drain, to dump
into, to enter, to end up, to come from, to carry, to dirty, to cause, to affect,
to leave, to hurt, to destroy
3. Match the English word combinations in column A to their Russian
equivalents in column B
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22) to cause diseases
23) contaminated shellfish
24) non-biodegradable
25) biodegradable
26) to hurt
27) to destroy
28) urban and industrial
waste
29) to kill animals
30) tumors
31) birth defects
32) nuclear weapon
33) amount
34) surface
19. токсичные металлы
20. ядерное оружие
21. убивать животных
22. просачиваться
23. врожднные пороки
24. впадать, высвобождаться
25. нефть
26. поверхность
27. опухоли
28. наносить вред
29. зараженные молюски
30. разрушать
31. быть сброшенным
32. промышленные отходы
33. радиоактивные материалы
4. Read and translate:
State of the World’s Coasts
Most of the world’s coasts are polluted.
The two biggest and most serious causes of coastal pollution are
sewage disposal, and sedimentation from land-clearing and construction
projects. Pollution is changing coastal habitats and destroying fish and
other wildlife.
State of the World’s Oceans
The open ocean is cleaner than the world’s coastal areas because
most pollutants come from land and remain in water near the coastal areas.
Pollution from litter and chemicals is present in all the world’s
oceans, from coastal areas to the open ocean.
Most of the trash and pollutants produced by human activities end
up in the world’s oceans. Sometimes these materials are directly drained or
dumped into the ocean, either on purpose or, as in the case of oil spills, by
accident. Some pollutants (e.g., chemicals in smoke) first enter the
atmosphere and later end up in the ocean. A lot of marine pollution comes
from rivers and streams that empty into the oceans. These rivers carry
sewage, industrial waste, overflow from city streets, fertilizers and
pesticides from farms, and sedimentation.
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Types of Marine Pollution
13
There are six major types of pollution that affect the world’s oceans
and coasts: sewage, litter, petroleum, synthetic chemicals, toxic metals, and
radioactive materials.
SEWAGE dirties the water with organisms that cause diseases.
People can become seriously ill from eating contaminated shellfish or by
swimming in polluted water.
LITTER that people leave on land is the source of most of the
plastic that ends up in coastal areas and oceans. Non-biodegradable plastics
not only hurt fish, birds, seals, and other sea animals, but they also destroy
the natural beauty of beaches.
PETROLEUM enters the oceans from oil spills or in the form of
urban or industrial waste. This oil dirties beaches, kills animals, and causes
problems for marine organisms.
SYNTHETIC CHEMICALS in the form of pesticides and
industrial chemicals affect all forms of life in the oceans, causing tumors,
birth defects and other damage.
TOXIC METALS are present in only small amounts, except in a
few remote areas.
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS are present everywhere. Most of
these are natural, but a few are caused by the testing of nuclear weapons13.
5. Read the text again. Decide whether the following statements are
true or false:
1) Without water all life ceases.
2) The surface of the globe is seven tenth water.
3) Man is two thirds water.
4) Oceans cover about 50 percent of the earth’s surface.
5) In fact, although so much of the earth’s surface is water, 97 per cent
of it is salt water.
6) The mass of the peoples on this earth is profligate in their use of
water.
7) More than 80 per cent of living organisms live in oceans.
8) Most ocean life lives in the open ocean, far away from the coastal
areas.
9) About ten percent of the world’s population lives in coastal areas.
http://exchanges.state.gov/education/engteaching/
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