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Файл:Английский язык. Учебное пособие для аспирантов консерваторий и вузов искусств
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C. CONVERSATION AND DISCUSSION
I. Speak on ECOLOGICAL PROBLEMS:
What have we done to the earth and to the oceans?
What measures should be taken to protect wildlife?
Can nature alone fight against the destructive substances created by
modern technology?
Do you consider ecological imbalance to become a global prob-
lem?
Has our climate changed?
Do you agree with the statement that the planet’s genetic fund has
sustained irretrievable losses and hundreds of species of animals, birds,
fishes, and plants have disappeared forever?
Is it necessary to shape a new mode of thinking suitable for our
time?
II. Prepare a short monologue on the negative aspects of man’s interference in nature.
III. Make sure you know the meanings of the words and expressions
used in the slogans:
CHOOSE LIFE BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!
ECOLOGY SUGGESTS ACTIVITY!
A LOT DEPENDS ON US!
THE EARTH DOESN’T BELONG TO MAN!
RECYCLE, REUSE, REDUCE!
SAVE FORESTS!
THE EARTH IS OUR HOME!
DON’T WASTE PAPER!
ACT NOW!
LITTER SPOILS THE VIEW!
DON’T BE A LITTERBUG!
HELP AND SHARE, IF YOU CARE!
EVERY LITTER BIT HURTS!
THE NOISE IS MADDENING!
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IV. What do you know about deforestation?
Read and translate the poem:
TREES
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the Earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray.
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree
by Joyce Kilmer
V. Do you think that
No single tree
Can forest be ?
Give your comments.
D. SUPPLEMENTARY READING PRACTICE
I. Read the text and memorize words and expressions marked in the text.
Make up a summary of the text.
NEWS YOU CAN USE
A NONTOXIC CHILDHOOD
Safeguarding kids from lead, radon and other pollutants may be
easier than parents think
Yet some warnings deserve attention. Pound for pound, little bodies take in more food, water and air than adult bodies do. That makes
kids more susceptible than adults to the harmful effects of pollutants,
such as radon, pesticides and cigarette smoke. All of that infantile crawling around and taste testing doesn't help, either. Short of having the kids
hermetically sealed, the best strategy for parents may be to first tackle
those problems that are easiest to solve. This guide should help.
Lead. The stereotype depicts poor kids eating sweet-tasting paint
chips that peel off the walls of dilapidated houses. In fact, lead poisoning
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is far more pervasive – and more pernicious – than was once thought.
The latest research shows that even levels of lead in the blood once
widely believed to be too low to matter can reduce a child's intelligence,
memory, concentration and coordination – and do all of this without
producing obvious signs of poisoning. As a result, the federal Centers for
Disease Control later this year is expected to lower the threshold for lead
poisoning by more than half, to 10 micrograms of lead per 0.1 liter of
blood from the former 25 micrograms. The number of children in the
United States under 6 years old who will be considered lead poisoned
will jump from 250,000 to more than 3 million, or more than 1 in 6 kids.
How could so many children suddenly take on such an alarming
status? Because lead-based paint, the primary culprit in childhood lead
poisoning, covers the homes of millions of Americans, and not just poor
ones. Although leaded paint was banned for residential use in 1978, the
federal government estimates that 57 million residences contain toxic
paint, 10 million of them housing children under age 7. And nearly
7 million children are at risk in homes where the plumbing consists of
lead pipes or copper pipes joined with lead solder. That lead can leach
into drinking water. The Bush administration last week acknowledged
the long-neglected threat to children from lead and proposed a $1 billion
cleanup. But just where the money will come from is unclear.
The obvious way to make sure a child isn't poisoned is with a test.
The CDC recommends that all preschool children, the group with the
highest risk, be tested for lead as early as age 1. Your pediatrician or a
local health clinic can administer the simple blood test. A clean bill of
health for the kids doesn't let your house off the hook, however. It, too,
should be tested, especially before renovating or repainting. Sian and
Michael Colglazier, an art conservator and attorney, respectively, got
that message too late. Two years ago, not long after a contractor started
sanding and burning the exterior paint off the Colglaziers' 1850s Gothic
Revival house in suburban Baltimore, the family cat fell into a coma.
That tipped off Sian, who was familiar with the dangers of lead from her
work with paint. Tests revealed that 18-month-old Meriel had been seriously poisoned, most likely by paint dust tracked into the house and inhaled by family members. Her mother now fears Meriel may have problems in learning.
A house test will cost $100 to $450. You can send paint samples to
a laboratory recommended by your state or local housing authority, or
ask it to recommend a contractor who can do an on-site test. The
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U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends against do-ityourself testing kits and warns homeowners against making renovations
themselves on houses that contain lead-based paint. Contractors and
painters should follow federal safety guidelines. For inside work, these
include removing all furniture, carpets and drapes and sealing off the
work area. To prevent contaminating the soil when leaded paint is
scraped from outside surfaces, plastic sheeting should be placed close to
the foundation.
Even houses that are free of obviously chipped or peeling paint
may have a lead problem. Unlike asbestos, which is considered safe
when it is intact, perfectly sound lead paint, even when covered with
newer paint, can generate lead dust as it deteriorates. Mopping floors and
wiping window sills once a week with a high-phosphate detergent containing at least 5 percent trisodium phosphate, available at hardware
stores, can minimize exposure. Children's hands should also be washed
scrupulously before meals.
To ensure that water is safe for drinking, some local water companies or health departments will test your taps for between $20 and $100.
Otherwise, you can check under "Laboratories" in the yellow pages. Water that contains more than 20 parts per billion of lead is unsuitable for
drinking. You should consider buying bottled water or installing an alumina filter, which traps the lead, for $50 to $80.
The next best solution may be to let the tap run for a couple of
minutes. That usually will flush enough contaminated water out of the
system. Anytime a faucet has not been used for six hours or longer, run
the cold water until it becomes as cold as it will get. Use only cold water
for drinking; tends to absorb more lead.
Electromagnetic fields. Today's children may well have children
of their own before scientists know for a fact tie electromagnetic fields
generated by electric transmission wires and appliances cause childhood
cancer, as some researchers fear. In the meantime, some simple precautions will lower children's exposure to the fields. Because fields from
appliances drop off sharply with distance, just moving young addicts at
least 2 feet away from the screen can make a vital difference. TV viewers should keep their distance from the tube to at least 4 feet. Some
health experts also recommend pulling the plug on electric blankets and
heated water beds, which can expose children to magnetic fields for prolonged periods of time. A few manufacturers, including Sunbeam-
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Northern and Casco-Belton Corp., now sell electriс blankets with dramatically lower radiation levels.
Ultraconservative parents who want to know the strength of the
magnetic fields surrounding their kids can easily measure them. Handheld meters can be purchased for as little as $120 from manufacturers
such as Schaefer Applied Technology, (800) 366-5500, and Widerange
Instruments, (408) 423–1983. More-precise machines can be rented for
$150 to $300 from Industrial Resources, (800) 654-7368, or Response
Rentals, (800) 242–3910. Field strength is measured in milligauss (mG);
studies indicate that levels beyond 2 mG may be worrisome.
Unfortunately, there are no easy substitutes for overhead distribution wires or high-voltage transmission lines, but homeowners have successfully sued to prevent new power lines on or near their property.
Radon. The overwhelming majority of American homeowners
who still haven't tested their houses for radon, which is believed to cause
lung cancer, may have felt vindicated by recent reports that concern over
the radioactive gas has been overblown. Although the Environmental
Protection Agency claims that more than 8 million homes contain radioactivity above the government "action level" of 4 picocuries per liter
of air, some scientists put the number closer to 100,000. To add to the
confusion, a recent study shows that the supposed link between radon
and lung cancer may not exist. In the study, counties that had high levels
of radon actually tended to have low rates for lung cancer and vice versa.
Even so, having children around may make you extra-cautious.
Tests on young animals suggest that children's rapidly replicating cells
are at greater risk of disruption by radiation. What's more, the risk of
lung cancer is cumulative; if children smoke or live in a radon-contaminated house as an adult, their childhood exposure to radon will increase
their risk.
EPA-approved radon detectors are available for about $25 at many
stores – often for under $10, as stores try to unload the slow-moving kits.
Choose one that is left in your basement for three to seven days and then
sent to a laboratory for analysis. If the reading is above 4 picocuries, before taking action you should double-check it with a detector that takes
a reading over three to 12 months. If there still is a problem, solutions
include an exhaust fan in the basement or in crawl spaces under the
house and plugging leaks into the basement from the soil. Costs can
range from $50 to more than $1,000. In many instances, a contractor can
fix the problem in a day.
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Pesticides. Media hype over issues like Alar in apples panicked
many parents about pesticide residues in their children's food. But small
fry may be at greater risk from pesticides parents themselves choose to
keep the family pet free of fleas and the back yard clear of weeds. According to a recent congressional study, many lawn care companies
falsely claim that their products are "nontoxic" or "completely safe for
humans" when in fact the EPA has classified some of their ingredients as
potentially hazardous. One recent university study found that a crawling
infant could be exposed to five times the accepted safe limit of flea killer
after carpeting is professionally treated.
Researchers suggest that once pesticides have been applied, parents
ventilate the house with fans, not just open windows, and keep children
off treated surfaces for 24 hours. All playpens and baby mattresses
should be taken out of the house before spraying begins.
Art supplies. Some art materials may stir more than a child's creativity. Studies have shown that kids are routinely exposed to markers,
paints and other materials at home and at school that can harm their
health. Permanent felt-tip markers, rubber cement and glues, for example, may contain xylene, toluene and other toxic solvents that can irritate
the eyes, nose and throat and cause headaches and nausea. Artists' paints
and glazes may contain poisonous metals such as lead and cadmium. Not
all the harmful effects of these materials show up immediately. Inhaling
the silica in dry clay, for instance, can result in lung damage that shows
up years later. Safe substitutes are plentiful. Water-based markers and
paints, for instance, eliminate the risks of solvents. A new federal law
requires labeling of art materials for chronic or acute health risks such as
cancer or poisoning. Parents may want to check with schools and daycare centres to make sure that teachers also shun hazardous art supplies.
Passive smoking. Smokers who get dirty looks at the office may
think of home as their nicotine refuge, but their children could pay the
price. A study published last fall found that adult nonsmokers who grew
up in a house where both parents smoked were twice as likely to get lung
cancer as adult nonsmokers who grew up in smoke-free homes. Research
also shows that young children of smokers suffer from respiratory illnesses like bronchitis and pneumonia twice as often as children of nonsmokers.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has estimated that as many
as 12 million American children under age 5 are exposed to cigarette
smoke at home. Regulators say “smokeless” ashtrays, ionizers and other
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portable air cleaners are not very effective at removing either small particles or cigarette gases. Parents who cannot quit should avoid smoking
around their kids and should confine their smoking to rooms children
don’t use. In this case, at least, willpower works better than high technology.
(From U.S. News & World Report)
II. Translate into Russian. Make up 7 questions to the text
ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE OF WAR
News
31.01.2003
The environmental damage of war in Iraq
There has been much debate about Iraq – but not about the considerable environmental damage which a war would cause. Duncan McLaren and Ian Willmore of Friends of the Earth assess the evidence.
Sunday January 19, 2003
War against Iraq looms closer every day. There has been much debate about Saddam's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction
and much rhetoric from George Bush and Tony Blair about the nature of
his vicious regime.
So far, there has been official silence on the possible environmental
and social implications of an invasion of Iraq. Yet the possible damage
to the environment, to communities and above all to civilians deserve
urgent moral consideration before any decision for war is taken. Neither
the British nor the US Governments have made any published effort to
assess these risks, or to show why they are outweighed by the alleged
benefits of invasion.
Of course, it is impossible to be certain what will happen in any
war. No-one knows if it will be short or long, an easy victory for the US
or a painful and bloody struggle. All attempts to assess risks are difficult
and tentative at best. But we must still look carefully at what happened
in previous conflicts, including the damage done by the 1991 Gulf War.
First, targeting industrial and military sites such as armaments factories and oil refineries is likely to lead to acute chemical pollution.
A report on the Kosovo war by the United Nations Environment Programme concluded that military action resulted in no general 'ecological
catastrophe', but resulted in "some serious hot spots where contamination
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by hazardous substances released during the air strikes poses risks for
human health and the aquatic environment".
The UK Government has named nine sites in Iraq as involved in
the production of biological and chemical agents. It can be assumed that
these would be early targets for air strikes in the event of war.
During the 1991 war devastating damage was done to the oil industry in Kuwait. Iraqi forces destroyed more than seven hundred oil wells
in Kuwait, spilling sixty million barrels of oil. Over ten million cubic
metres of soil was still contaminated as late as 1998. A major groundwater aquifer, two fifths of Kuwait's entire freshwater reserve, remains contaminated to this day. Ten million barrels or oil were released into the
Gulf, affecting coastline along 1500km and costing more than 0 million
to clean up. During the nine months that the wells burned, average air
temperatures fell by 10 degrees С as a result of reduced light from the
sun. The costs of environmental damage were estimated at billion. Estimates of the numbers likely to die as a result of the air pollution effects
were put at about a thousand. Since Iraq has the second largest proven
oil reserves of any nation on earth, the potential environmental damage
caused by destruction of oil facilities during a new war must be enormous.
Other environmental effects of the 1991 Gulf War included destruction of sewage treatment plants in Kuwait, resulting in the discharge
of over 50,000 cubic metres of raw sewage every day into Kuwait Bay.
Secondly, specific weapons likely to be used against Iraq will also
create environmental damage. Top of the list of concern are depleted
uranium (DU) projectiles.
Depleted uranium is very dense and is used in projectiles designed
to pierce armour, reinforced bunkers and other similar targets. Depleted
uranium projectiles create fragments and dust which release uranium oxide into the air. Estimates of the amount of depleted uranium used by allied forces in the first Gulf War range from 290 tonnes to 800 tonnes.
Decontamination requires removal of contaminated soil and treatment as radioactive waste. Thousands of hectares of Iraqi land could be
contaminated. Decontaminating just 200 hectares at a US Army proving
ground cost -5bn.
According to a 'threat paper' on Kuwait produced in secret by the
UK Atomic Energy Authority and subsequently leaked, 50 tonnes of DU
inhaled could cause up to half a million additional cancer deaths over
several decades, a calculation based on International Committee on Ra-
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diological Protection risk factors. Internal DU exposure is acknowledged
to cause kidney damage, cancers of the lung and bone, respiratory disease, neurocognitive disorders, chromosomal damage and birth defects.
Thirdly, a new war would pose a serious threat to the biodiversity
of the region. Data on Iraq's biodiversity is limited. There is little information on fish, amphibians and reptiles. No major surveys have been
conducted since 1979. But Iraq's wetlands have been of major international significance, especially for wildfowl. Thirty-three Iraqi wetlands
were included on a 1993 provisional list of wetlands of international importance in the Middle East. They supported substantial numbers of at
least seven species of mammals and birds listed in the IUCN Red List of
Threatened Animals, and were of international importance as a staging
and wintering area for more than sixty species of waterfowl and nine
species of birds of prey. They were also of great cultural significance,
having provided a home for the Ma'dan or Marsh Arabs for at least five
thousand years.
Other species would be seriously threatened. According to the
Global Environment Fund, the Gulf and Sea of Oman region is "one of
the most important marine turtle habitats in the world ... and plays a significant role in sustaining the life cycle of the marine turtle populations
in the whole North-Western Indo Pacific region" due to its shallow depth
and high water temperature. Of the seven species of marine turtles in the
world five are found here. Four are 'endangered' and one 'threatened'.
In the 1991 Gulf War, fallout from burning oil products produced a
sea surface microlayer that was toxic to plankton and the larval stages of
marine organisms. Sea temperatures also fell. The World Conservation
Monitoring Society state that acute effects were experienced by birds
and marine life such as otters and dugong. Prawn fisheries were dramatically affected in the years immediately after the war. In 1991-92 spawning biomass in the Saudi Arabian prawn stock dropped to less than tenth
of pre-war levels, and total biomass to a quarter. Landings in the Bahraini prawn fisheries dropped by a half.
Of course, it would be absurd to worry about what war could do to
animal species without also setting out the worst likely effects of all: the
deaths, injuries, loss and grief the war will cause to civilians. The destruction of communities and the displacement of populations are just as
much an issue for environmentalists as the damage war does to fragile
ecosystems.
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Since the Second World War, more than four fifths of the people
killed in war have been civilians. Globally there are already 18 million
international refugees from war, and another 24 million people are displaced within their own countries. According to the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, four fifths of displaced people are
women and children. Wars typically cause the break-up of families, the
collapse of education systems and consequent widespread social and
psychological damage to civilians.
The first Gulf War in 1991, the devastating effect of economic
sanctions and Saddam's repression of his own people have already created five million Iraqi refugees and displaced up to one million people inside the country, particularly Kurds and Ma'had Marsh Arabs. Likely civilian casualties in a ground invasion of Iraq have been estimated at between thirty and forty thousand. The most vulnerable communities are
likely to be Kurds and Shi'a Moslems.
None of this evidence is certain: but it suggests what the risks of
war might be. Nor does it give a conclusive answer to the question of
whether war against Iraq can ever be justified. But one of the tests of a
just war is whether the likely damage outweighs the possible benefits.
And in a democracy we have a right to demand that our leaders consider
the possible risks as well as the possible benefits, publish the evidence
they have taken into account, and show us why the risks are worth
taking.
Where is the reasoned response to this evidence from the US
Administration, the UK Government and the advocates of war?
Source of news: Guardian
III. Read the texts. Is the information they contain new for you?
Write out words and phrases you need to speak on the problems
outlined.
Compile the facts mentioned in the articles and make up an abstract
in writing.
A.
CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS IN THE ARCTIC
The Earth's climate is changing: average global temperatures have
risen by approximately 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.6 degrees Celsius) since
the beginning of the last century. Such increases are projected to not only continue, but increase, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on
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