1. Определите, является ли утверждение:

All biologists agree with American scientist Edward O. Wilson who claims that about 27,000 species are lost each year.

1. в тексте нет информации

2. истинным

3. ложным

2. Определите, является ли утверждение:

The result of the fifth mass extinction was disappearance of 76 percent of species, including the dinosaurs.

1. истинным

2. в тексте нет информации

3. ложным

3. Определите, является ли утверждение:

The fifth mass extinction of species happened about 56 million years ago.

1. ложным

2. истинным

3. в тексте нет информации

4. Определите, является ли утверждение:

Most biologists agree that life on Earth is now faced with the most severe extinction of species.

1. ложным

2. в тексте нет информации

3. истинным

5. Укажите, какой части текста (1, 2, 3, 4) соответствует следующая информация:

Estimates of species inhabiting the Earth amount to more than 100 million.

1. 3

2. 1

3. 4

4. 2

6. Укажите, какой части текста (1, 2, 3, 4) соответствует следующая информация:

The sixth extinction of species is caused by the human transformation of the Earth.

1. 2

2. 4

3. 1

4. 3

7. Ответьте на вопрос:

How can the rate of loss of tropical rain forests be measured?

1. by analyzing some satellite photographs of continents

2. by analyzing satellite photographs of continents from various periods

3. by calculating the approximate number of species lost each year

4. by analyzing several photographs of continents

8. Определите основную идею текста.

1. The greatest threat to global biodiversity is the human destruction of natural habitats.

2. Biodiversity underlies everything from food production to medical research.

3. Scientists around the world are cataloging and studying global biodiversity.

4. The greatest value of biodiversity is yet unknown.

TEXT 7

Ocean and Oceanography

(1) Ocean is a great body of salt water comprising all the oceans and seas that cover nearly three-fourths of the surface of the earth. Oceanography is the scientific study of the physical, chemical, and biological aspects of the so-called world ocean. The major goals of oceanography are to understand the geologic and geochemical processes involved in the evolution and alteration of the ocean and its basin, to evaluate the interaction of the ocean and the atmosphere, and to describe how the biological productivity in the sea is controlled.

(2) The world ocean covers 71 percent of the earth’s surface, or about 361 million sq km. Its average depth is 5,000 m, and its total volume is about 1,347,000,000 cu km. The three major subdivisions of the world ocean are the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Indian Ocean, which are conventionally bounded by the continental masses. The two minor subdivisions of the world ocean are the Southern Ocean, bounded by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current to the north and Antarctica to the south, and the Arctic Ocean.

(3) The oceans are being looked to as a major source of food for the future. Estimates of the yearly world ocean production of organic matter amount to about 130 billion metric tons. This process begins with phytoplankton, which are photosynthetic plants that turn carbon into organic matter with the aid of sunlight; zooplankton and fish feed on phytoplankton, and each member of this part of the food web has its own predator. Most of this organic matter is recycled and reused.

(4) The harvestable amount of organic matter is a function of technology, tastes, needs, and the ability of the system to sustain this harvest. Presently, yearly harvests amount to about 82 million metric tons of fish and about 500,000 metric tons of seaweed. Estimates of the maximum harvestable amounts on a sustained-yield basis amount to about 100 million metric tons per year. Thus, predictions are that the sea can yield only about 25 percent more than the present amount of organic food resources. Food from the sea will be a good source of protein, but cannot meet the total world demand for calories in the future. The present yield of about 83 million tons per year supplies about 5.6 percent of the protein needs of the world at the present time.

(Microsoft Encarta, 2008)