Тексты для самостоятельной работы
Степанова Т.А., Ступина И.Ю. Английский язык для химических специальностей. Практический курс. Москва, Издательский центр «Академия», 2006, стр. 12-18, чтение, перевод, пересказ текстов, выполнение всех упражнений.
Андрианова Л.Н., Багрова Н.Ю., Английский язык. Учебник для заочных технических вузов. Москва, Высшая школа, 1988, стр. 48-56, чтение, перевод, пересказ текста, выполнение всех упражнений.
Part 15. Экологические проблемы Астраханского региона, России и мира в целом.
OUR FRAGILE WORLD
Warm-up
Exercise 1. Read the poem and say which statement gives the message of the poem.
1. I am the whole world.
2. Every piece of nature is important.
3. I am a part of my planet.
4. I need the same as what the Earth needs.
Reading
trap — ловить
flood — наводнение
are concerned - o6ecпoкоены
oil spills — нефтяные пятна
access — доступ
Destroying forests
Cutting down forest damages thousands of acres of land every day. The soil can easily be blown away and there is less soil. Even if new trees are planted they cannot bring back the old forest that was part of a complex ecosystem that cleaned the air, trapped flood waters, and made a home for much wildlife.
Waste and chemicals
Most cities produce a lot of waste every day. If it is just thrown away or even dug up, it may be around for decades, and could even release dangerous chemicals into the soil. These poisons can threaten the lives of the people that are living or working near by. If toxic or poisonous, liquid chemicals are poured into the water, it is possible to put large populations of people's health at risk. Even people hundreds of miles away can be affected.
Exercise 2. Answer the questions:
Who throws it away?
Is it important to know?
Who pours chemicals?
Is it important?
Is it shown by the form of the verb?
Water and air pollution
Water and air pollution is a very serious threat to our environment. This is the result of human activities: releasing poisonous chemicals, car fumes (the number of cars on our planet has doubled in the course of the last 30 years), throwing litter, oil spills. Polluted air and water affect people's health. About 1.4 billion people have no access to safe drinking water. Polluted water also causes water animals to die.
Global warming
For millions of years, layers of gases have kept the Earth warm enough so that people, plants, and animals can live here. But some scientists are now concerned that the Earth' surface will warm up too much — to dangerous degree. This is called global warming. Factories, cars, and other things are making lots of new gases. Even when we use electricity we help to put greenhouse gases into the air. These gases are trapping more-and more of the sun's heat. If it gets too hot, weather all over the globe will change. Warm places will be too hot to live inland cold places will become warm. Polar icecaps could melt, which would make the sea level unusually high and could result in flooding.
Exercise 3. Look through the texts again and say what according to the texts is:
1. the cause / causes of damage to soils
2. the role of forests
3. the effect of water pollution
4. the cause of floods in the near future
5. the cause of global warming.
Exercise 4. Discuss the following questions:
1. Do you think these problems affect you? Why?/Why not?
2. Who is responsible for these problems? Do you think you are?
3. Which of the problems mentioned in the texts is the most important for people?
4. Which of them would you like to deal with first if you could? Why?
Exercise 5. Choose the best Russian equivalent for each of these phrases.
1 trapped flood waters (Text A)'
а) улавливали воды наводнения
б) сдерживали разливы рек
2 poisonous chemicals (Text C)
a) ядовитые химикалии
b) ядовитые химические вещества
3 put at risk (Text B)
а) подвергать риску
б) подставить под риск
4 car fumes (Text C)
а) машинные газы
б) автомобильные выхлопы
5 greenhouse gases (Text D)
а) газы, создающие парниковый эффект
б) парниковые газы
6 global warming (Text 0)
а) глобальное потепление
б) общее согревание
Exercise 6. Choose the correct translation for the words in bold in the text in Ex. 2.