Text 2 parks

People have been building cities and are living in them since very ancient times but they have always been trying not to separate themselves from nature too much, as nature gives rest. That is why they have been surrounding with gardens their stone and wooden houses in cities and towns. They have been planting parks and leaving large areas of forest unchanged.

A park is an area with either planted or natural vegetation, roads, alleys and various things to help people to rest and to spend their free time usefully. Some parks are very small with only a few trees and flowers. Others have many square kilometers of territory.

Parks are of two types: regular and irregular. Regular parks are planned in geometrical proportion of alleys, roads, gardens and waters, they are usually decorated with fountains and sculptures. In irregular parks trees, roads and waters imitate natural landscape unchanged by man.

Parks were built already in very ancient time. We know of wonderful architectural parks of ancient Egypt. Everyone heard of the Babylonian suspension gardens. Beautiful landscape type parks are known in ancient China. In ancient Greece special gardens were built with space for sports.

The peculiar feature of Russian parks has always been a harmonious union of man-made design with the surrounding landscape. Famous “Summer Garden” located in the centre of St.Petersburg is a geometrically proportional park with several sculptures of Italian masters. The park occupies a little piece of land washed by the Neva, Moika and Fontanka. Large old trees grow here.

If there are many parks and trees in a city then its population will have enough oxygen to breath.

Words to remember:

1. ancient – древний

2. nature – природа

3. stone – камень

4. area – область, зона

5. vegetation – растительность

6. road – дорога

7. space – пространство

8. feature – черта, особенность

9. to occupy – занимать

10. to breath – дышать

11. population – население

Exercise 1. Answer the questions:

1. What is the reason for people to plant gardens and parks?

2. What is a park?

3. What types of parks do you know?

4. What are the famous ancient parks?

5. How do people decorate parks?

6. What are the main features of Russian parks?

Exercise 2. Choose the proper word. Read and translate the sentence.

1. People (decorate, surround, build) themselves with parks and gardens.

2. Parks appeared in (ancient, high, hard) time.

3. (Irregular, regular, special) parks are planned in geometrical proportion of roads, gardens and waters.

4. In ancient Greece special gardens were built with space for (fountains, flowers, sports).

5. Parks play a very important part in providing people with (sculptures, oxygen, water).

Exercise 3. Read, translate and learn the following sayings.

1. I've searched all the parks in all the cities and found

no statues of committees. (Gilbert K. Chesterton)

2. Parks are idealizations of nature, but nature in fact

is not a condition of the ideal. (Robert Smithson)

Text 3 a tree in a city

Tree is a very large and very old plant. We read about trees in old legends, Russian and foreign ones. Many thousand years ago man thought that there was a tree in the centre of the earth.

Trees make a garden, a park, a forest. Trees are very important for life and health, because they produce oxygen. Without trees the ecology of the earth would have no balance. Trees give timber for our industry, agriculture and our home life. They protect the fields from wind and keep water and soil in them. Trees also give protection for animals. Man gets comfort and beauty from trees. They give harmony to cities, towns and villages.

What is a tree? A tree is a high woody plant. It takes water and minerals from the soil and transports them to the leaves. Here with the help of sunlight and carbon dioxide the tree makes its food.

In cities with their large population and many industries the air is not good. It is necessary to have many trees in a city to make its air good for man. But it is difficult for a tree to grow in the city because it wants water, soil and light for its life. Water affects the form, growth and structure of the tree, but it’s difficult to give enough water to the trees in city streets. Each tree species wants its special soil, but in a city there are no different soils for each tree. High buildings in the city do not let trees have enough sunlight. So when people plant trees in the city, they should try to create good conditions for their growth.

Words to remember:

1. plant – растение

2. Earth – Земля

3. forest – лес

4. oxygen – кислород

5. ecology – экология

6. timber – лесоматериалы

7. soil – почва

8. field – поле

9. agriculture – сельское хозяйство

10. industry – промышленность

11. leaf (leaves) – листок (листья)

12. enough – достаточно

13. growth – рост

14. to create - создавать

Exercise 1. Answer the questions:

1. Why are trees important for life?

2. Hoe do trees influence people’s life?

3. What kind of plant is a tree?

4. Where does a tree get its food?

5. Why is the air not good in big cities?

6. Why is it difficult for a tree to grow in the city?

7. What conditions should people create for trees’ growth?

Exercise 2. Choose the proper word. Read and translate the sentence.

1. We can read about trees in old (parks, legends, buildings).

2. Long time ago men thought there was a (field, forest, tree) in the centre of the earth.

3. Trees produce (oxygen, hydrogen, air).

4. Trees can make (a garden, a city, a town).

5. Sunlight is (dangerous, necessary, different) for a tree.

6. Each tree species needs its special (street, water, soil).

7. Trees give (protection, balance, water) for animals.

Exercise 3. Read, translate and learn the following sayings.

1. Though a tree grows ever so high, the falling leaves return to the ground. (Malayan proverb)

2. A tree never hits an automobile except in self defense. (American proverb)

3. Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven.

(Rabindranath Tagore)

Exercise 4. Read and translate the text:

The underground part of a forest

The underground part of a forest is made up of the roots of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, those having little or no woody tissue and usually singled-seasoned. Roots of trees are seldom dug up except where land is being reclaimed for agricultural or construction purposes, where the roots are to be used for medical or artistic purposes, or where residual stumps and taproots of old-growth longleaf and slash pines are used to make turpentine, rosin, and various pine oils.

The root system of a tree may consist of four parts: (1) a tap root, which when present anchors the tree firmly in the ground and supplies the main support for the tree; (2) lateral roots, which usually extend beyond the crown spread and help keep the tree in an upright position; (3) fibrous roots, a mass of fine roots most found in the upper soil; and (4) thin-walled root hairs, which grow from the smaller fibrous roots and absorbs water and minerals. They may live only a few days.