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Файл:Let’s read!. Учебное пособие по чтению на английском языке
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101
Text 2
HEALTHY WAY OF LIFE
To become a healthier person, you should follow some rules:
Get a lot of sleep. Sleep is food for the brain. If you sleep little, you will look
bad, feel bad and work poorly. Teens need about 9 hours of sleep every night.
Eat healthy food. Healthy eating habits are very important for our health.
A balanced diet should include different kinds of products, such as:
1. Dairy products: milk, cheese, cottage cheese, sour-cream.
2. Meat: pork, mutton, lamb, poultry, beef.
3. Fruit: peaches, pineapples, oranges, bananas.
4. Vegetables: beetroots, cauliflower, peаs, pepper, cabbage, leek, onions.
5. Grains: bread, wheat, corn, buckwheat.
You should try to eat more homemade food and less junk food or fast food.
People, who eat fast food, can become overweight. Fast food has a lot of additives,
flavorings and preservatives.
Do exercises. To be healthy and fit a person should exercise more. It’s possible
to lose weight and become fitter just doing regular exercises. You can jog every
morning or do stretching exercises in the evening.
Say no to addictions. There are two types of addiction — substance addiction
and behavioral addiction. People can become addicted to drugs, alcohol, tobacco,
sniffing glue or petrol. They can also be addicted to gambling or playing computer
games. As for me, I have no bad habits as I understand: the more you care about your
health, the longer you will live.
Vocabulary:
sour-cream — сметана
pork — свинина
mutton — баранина
lamb — телятина
poultry — домашняя птица
beef — говядина
beetroots — свекла
cauliflower — цветная капуста
peаs — зеленый горошек
pepper — перец
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leek — мирянин
onion — лук
buckwheat — гречиха
overweight — избыточный вес
additives — добавок
flavoring — ароматизатор
preservative — консервант
sniffing glue — нюхательный клей
gambling — азартные игры
Answer the questions:
1. What rules should you follow?
2. What is food for the brain?
3. How many hours of sleep every night do teens need?
4. What should include a balanced diet?
5. Who can become overweight?
6. What should a person do to be healthy and fit?
7. Which are two types of addiction?
103
PART 3
UNIT 16. GLOBAL PROBLEMS. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Text 1
ENDANGERED ENVIRONMENT
“Speak to the earth, and it will teach thee”.
Bible
All life in our planet exists in a delicate balance. There is a system of inter
dependency among plants, animals, insects and people living on earth. The planet
supports various ecosystems in the air, water and land.
Carelessly, we have hunted animals, insects, cut away forests and released
poisonous waste and garbage into the environment. The poisoning of the world’s
land, air and water is the fast spreading disease of civilization. It is a more serious
problem than local wars, earthquakes and floods. This is a great danger to human life
on earth.
As a result of human interference the climate in the planet has changed. The
Earth faces massive deforestation, the ozone layer destruction that causes green house
effect, acid rains and global warming of the climate, drastic droughts, floods, erosion
of soil, formation of new deserts and etc.
The factors influencing the environment fall into some groups: noise, air
pollution, water contamination, vibration that may cause harm to people and their
property and soil pollution.
Rivers and seas are in danger. They are filled with poison; industrial and
domestic wastes, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Nuclear waste is being dis
charged into water as well. The air pollution is also a serious problem. In some giant
megapolices the air is a threat to life. Industrial enterprises and cars emit tons of
harmful substances every hour.
The air pollution is a dangerous factor to the health of people, animals and
plants. Thus, in Tokyo, Cairo, for example, just breathing the air is dangerous for
health. The same hold true for Mexico City and some other cosmopolitan cities.
Traffic noise is the most widely spread discomfort associated with road
transport. Noise leads to stress. Stress in its turn causes chronic diseases of the res
piratory and digestive tracks and the nervous system as well as allergic diseases.
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If present trends continue for a several following decades, our planet will
become uninhabitable.
Fortunately, people are beginning to realize that environmental problems are
not somebody else’s. They join and support various international organizations and
“green parties”, and perhaps, we will be able to avoid the disaster that threatens the
whole world: all of our children and us.
Find English equivalents to the following Russian words in the text and use
them in your own sentences:
существовать, поддерживать, охотиться / истреблять, вырубать леса,
выбрасывать вредные отходы в атмосферу, отравлять воздух, распространяться,
сталкиваться с, влиять на, заполнять, угрожать, дышать, населять, осознавать,
вступать в … / присоединяться к …, избегать, вмешиваться в законы природы,
вызывать / быть причиной, всемирное (глобальное) потепление, наводнение,
засуха, химические удобрения, загрязнение водоемов, экологический баланс.
Answer the questions:
1. What is the main reason for the great environmental disbalance?
2. What areas of the environment are endangered?
Text 2
THE GLOBAL WARMING
Nowadays we are living in the time of rapid scientific and technological
progress, which results in an increasing effect on the biosphere (1) of Earth.
I consider that the most destructive problem of nature is global warning. This
phenomenon (2) causes the increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s nearsurface air and oceans in recent decades.
Today the issue of global warming has become a question of vital (3) concern.
The global average air temperature near the Earth’s surface raised 0.742 оC during the
100 years ending in 2005. Moreover, the global warming is a terrific climate change,
which will cause the global cooling in future. Increasing global temperature will
increase the intensity of extreme weather events and change the amount of
precipitation.
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However, not all of the reasons that cause global warming are of human nature.
Natural phenomena such as solar variation combined with volcanoes (4) probably had
a small warming effect.
The Earth’s climate changes in response to variations in its orbit around the
Sun, volcanic eruptions (5), and atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. People
are responsible for the latter and have to take serious measures as increasing global
temperature will cause the level of world ocean to rise. Other effects of global
warming include the changes in agricultural yields, species extinctions (6) of flora
and fauna and increases in the range of disease vectors.
Global warming could also affect human health, harm wildlife and damage
ecosystems. Warming may enhance air pollution, particularly in urban (7) centers,
increasing the incidence of respiratory diseases. Asthma and allergic disorders result
from climate changes too. Health risks can be solved through various scientific
strategies (8) which may include improved and extended medical care services, better
housing and air conditioning, water purification (9) and public education.
Most national governments have signed the Kyoto Protocol aimed at reducing
greenhouse gas emissions. However, I don’t think that is enough to lessen the
negative influence of global warming. The next way out would be to stop using fuel
and start exploiting alternative natural resources like water, solar and wind power that
may provide us with the necessary amount of energy.
We all have to remember that this planet is our home. It gives us so many
resources to live on so we have to take care of it as well.
Vocabulary:
biosphere — биосфера
phenomenon — явление, феномен
vital — существенной, жизненно важный
volcano — вулкан
eruption — извержение
extinction — вымирание
urban — городской
strategy — план, стратегия, разработки
purification — очистка
Answer the questions:
1. What is the most destructive problem of nature?
2. What does this phenomenon cause?
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3. Why has the issue of global warming become a question of vital concern?
4. What reasons cause global warming?
5. What may warming enhance?
Text 3
NATURAL CATASTROPHES
We, humans, now dominate the Earth — and our planet is in grave danger of
suffering from our activities.
But from time to time the Earth threatens us, warns of the danger of killing the
planet and ourselves. We have to be very careful what we do with nature, provoking
to some extent natural disasters like drought, sandstorm and famine in Africa, flood
in Netherlands, hurricanes in the USA, volcanoes and earthquakes in Turkey, Japan,
Mexico, Italy, Armenia, typhoons and tidal waves, landslide and fire. Natural
disasters make big problems and people all over the world come to help the regions
where the catastrophe has happened. Different countries send to the area of the
natural disaster food and medical supplies, as well as doctors, nurses, blankets, tents
and clothes.
Natural catastrophes, being great tragedies, teach us to be merciful to the other
people and to our planet — the Earth.
Vocabulary:
dominate — властвовать
threaten — угрожать
warn — предупреждать
disaster — катастрофа
drought — засуха
famine — голод
earthquake — землетрясение
Answer the questions:
1. Why is our planet in grave danger?
2. Are we careful with nature?
3. What nature disasters do you know?
4. Do natural disasters make big problems?
5. What do natural catastrophes teach us?
107
UNIT 17. MASS MEDIA. TELEVISION. THE INTERNET
Text 1
GREAT INVENTIONS
Television (1920s).
The invention that swept the world and changed leisure habits for countless
millions was pioneered by Scottish-born electrical engineer John Logie Baird. It had
been realized for some time that light could be converted into electrical impulses,
making it possible to transmit such impulses over a distance and then reconvert them
into light.
Motor Car (late 19th Century).
With television, the car is probably the most widely used and most useful of all
leisure-inspired inventions. German engineer Karl Benz produced the first
petroldriven car in 1885 and the British motor industry started in 1896. Henry Ford
was the first to use assembly line production for his Model Т car in 1908. Like them
or hate them, cars have given people great freedom of travel.
Electricity.
The name came from the Greek word for amber and was coined by Elizabeth
I's physician William Gilbert who was among those who noticed that amber had the
power to attract light objects after being rubbed. In the 19th century such great names
as Michael Faraday, Humphry Davy, Alessandro Volta and Andre Marie Ampere all
did vital work on electricity.
Photography (early 19th Century).
Leonardo da Vinci had described the camera obscure photographic principle as
early as 1515. But it was not until 1835 that Frenchman Louis Daguerre produced
camera photography. The system was gradually refined over the years, to the joy of
happy snappers and the despair of those who had to wade through friends' endless
holiday pictures.
Telephone (1876).
Edinburgh-born scientist Alexander Graham Bell patented his invention of the
telephone in 1876. The following year, the great American inventor Thomas Edison
produced the first working telephone. With telephones soon becoming rapidly
available, the days of letter-writing became numbered.
108
Computer (20th Century).
The computer has been another life-transforming invention. British
mathematician Charles Babbage designed a form of computer in the mid-1830s, but it
was not until more than a century later that theory was put into practice. Now, a
whole generation has grown up with calculators, windows, icons, computer games
and word processors, and the Internet and e-mail have transformed communication
and information.
Aero plane.
The plane was the invention that helped shrink the world and brought distant
lands within easy reach of ordinary people. The invention of the petrol engine made
flight feasible and the American Wright brothers made the first flight in 1903.
Vocabulary:
mass media — средства массовой информации
paper / newspaper — газета
reader — читатель
shock shocking — удар, потрясение
they are twice the size — они вдвое больше по размеру
guardian — наставник
observer — обозреватель
headquarters — штаб-квартира
pastime — времяпрепровождение
authority — власти, администрация
to run a station — управлять радиостанцией
to run a shop — владеть магазином
Answer the questions:
1. Who changed leisure habits for countless millions?
2. What did German engineer Karl Benz produce in 1885?
3. Who was the first to use assembly line production for Model Т car in 1908?
4. What did William Gilbert notice?
5. What had Leonardo da Vinci described?
6. Who produced the first working telephone?
7. When did British mathematician Charles Babbage design a form of
computer?
8. Who made the first flight in 1903?
109
Text 2
HISTORY OF COMPUTERS
Let us look at the history of the computers that we know today. The very first
calculating device used was the ten fingers of a man’s hands. This, in fact, is why
today we still count in tens and multiples of tens. Then the abacus was invented, a
bead frame in which the beads are moved from left to right.
During the 17th and 18th centuries many people tried to find easy ways of
calculating. J. Napier, a Scotsman, devised a mechanical way of multiplying and
dividing, which is how the modern slide rule works. Henry Briggs and Napier
produced logarithm tables which all mathematicians use today. Calculus, another
branch of mathematics, was independently invented by both Sir Isaac Newton, an
Englishman, and Leibnitz, a German mathematician.
The first real calculating machine appeared in 1820 as the result of several
people’s experiments. This type of machine, which saves a great deal of time and
reduces the possibility of making mistakes, depends on a series of ten-toothed gear
wheels. In 1830 Charles Babbage, an Englishman, designed a machine that was
called “The Analytical Engine”. This machine, which Babbage showed at the Paris
Exhibition in 1855, was an attempt to cut out the human being altogether, except for
providing the machine with the necessary facts about the problem to be solved. He
never finished this work, but many of his ideas were the basis for building today’s
computers.
In 1930, the first analog computer was built by an American named Vannevar
Bush. This device was used in World War II to help aim guns. Mark I, the name
given to the first digital computer, was completed in 1944. The men responsible for
this invention were Professor Howard Aiken and some people from IBM. This was
the first machine that could figure out long lists of mathematical problems, all at a
very fast rate. In 1946 two engineers at the University of Pennsylvania, J. Eckert and
J. Mauchly, built the first digital computer using parts called vacuum tubes. They
named their new invention ENIAC. Another important advancement in computers
came in 1947, when John von Newmann developed the idea of keeping instructions
for the computer inside the computer’s memory.
The first generations of computers, which used vacuum tubes, came out in
1950. Univac I is an example of these computers which could perform thousands of
calculations per second. In 1960, the second generation of computers was developed
and these could perform work ten times faster than their predecessors. The reason for
110
this extra speed was the use of transistors instead of vacuum tubes. The secondgeneration computers were smaller, faster and more dependable than the firstgeneration computers. The third-generation computers appeared on the market in
1965. These computers could do a million calculations a second, which is 1 000 times
as many as the first-generation computers. Unlike the second-generation computers,
these are controlled by tiny integrated circuits and are consequently smaller and more
dependable. The fourth-generation computers have now arrived, and the integrated
circuits that are being developed have been greatly reduced in size. This is due to
microminiaturization, which means that the circuits are much smaller than before; as
many as 1 000 tiny circuits now fit onto a single chip. A chip is a square or
rectangular piece of silicon, usually from 1/10 to ¼ inch, upon which several layers
of an integrated circuit are etched or imprinted, after which the circuit is encapsulated
in plastic, ceramic or metal. The fourth-generation computers are 50 times faster than
the third-generation ones and can complete approximately 1,000,000 instructions per
second.
At the rate computer technology is growing, today’s computers might be
obsolete in a couple of years. It has been said that if transport technology had
developed as rapidly as computer technology, a trip across the Atlantic Ocean today
would take a few seconds.
Vocabulary:
abacus — счеты
invent — изобретать
slide rule — счетная линейка
calculus — исчисление
digital computer — цифровой компьютер
vacuum tube — вакуумная трубка (лампа)
unlike — в отличие от …
chip — микросхема
etch — гравировать
approximately — приблизительно
couple of years — пара лет
take a few seconds — занимать несколько секунд
Answer the questions:
1. What was the first calculating device?
2. Who produced logarithm tables?
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