3.Tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock farmers (to listen) to the report on minimizing runoff of fertilizers from agricultural land.

4.Domestic consumers (not to dispose) of household waste carefully nowadays.

5.When I saw you yesterday you (to plant) some trees.

6.Peat swamp forest in Malaysia (to provide) reliable source of water

UNIT 11

PRESERVATION OF NATURE

For many centuries the people who lived on our planet before us had been trying to make their life easier and more comfortable. They thought that resources of the Earth were endless. They used those resources without thinking about the generations that would come after them. Our ancestors chopped down the forests, killed animals that lived there and invented machines and instruments that polluted the water, the air and the soil.

In the 19th century the word «ecology» was born, but the idea of environmental protection was not clear yet, and did not seem urgent for either the majority of the governments or common people. People still considered themselves «lords and kings of nature» and used its riches only as consumers.

Preservation of nature has become a serious issue by the end of the 20-th century. In the 20-th century, the rapid growth of science and technology resulted in an increasing negative effect on the biosphere of the Earth. Huge industrial enterprises pollute the air we breathe, the water we drink and the land which gives us bread, vegetables and fruit. Their discharge of dust and gas into the atmosphere returns to the Earth in the form of acid rains. Oil tankers dump oil into seas and oceans. Many countries use cheap electricity from nuclear power plants which, besides being unsafe and dangerous, also account for polluting nature. Forests are felled including rain forests. It also destroys the ozone layer of the Earth and causes «greenhouse effect». It effects forests, rivers, crops and people's health.. Life in big cities is also affected by big industries and transport. This leads to the reduction of the life-span of man. People die younger because of cancer, AIDS and other diseases which are directly connected with the polluted environment they live in. Many species of animals and birds face extinction due to the pollution of the biosphere.

The world's oceans are in danger too. They are filled with poisonous industrial and nuclear waste, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The Aral Sea in Russia is already dead, the Mediterranean and the North Sea are slowly dying.

Let’s take for example acid rains. What do a forest in Germany, a lake in Sweden and the Great Lakes on the borders of Canada and the United

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States have in common? They are all threatened by acid rain. All over Europe, particularly in Russia, and in North America, there are lakes and forests which are dead or dying, and the cause is acid rain. All fossil fuels, that is oil, coal, and gas, contain sulphur. When these are burnt, for example, in motor vehicles, they form sulphur acid. This acid goes up into the air, and soon it falls back to earth, into lakes and onto trees in forests. As a result, lakes become acidic, fish disappears and trees are killed. The pollution is carried great distances by the wind, so sulphuric acid produced in Britain can travel as far as Scandinavia.

The main source of acid rain is electrical power stations. Some countries have passed laws requiring power stations to install filters that prevent the acid getting into the air.

There are very good examples of nature preservation. The river Rhine in Germany was known to have been seriously polluted some years ago by industrial plants and sewage water. The government of Germany took very decisive and serious steps punishing those responsible for the pollution. The result is striking: fish men can be seen catching fish in the Rhine. But such results can only be achieved if there is a government which seriously thinks of its people and of its country.

Notes on the text

issue – проблема extinction - зникнення urgent - необхідний generation - покоління discharge - викиди account - причина punish - карати

threat - загроза prevent - запобігати

Post-text exercises

I. Answer the questions:

1.When has preservation of nature become a serious issue?

2.What do big industrial enterprises do?

3.Who keeps polluting water in rivers, lakes, and seas?

4.What countries use cheap electricity from nuclear power plants?

5.Are these nuclear power plants unsafe and dangerous?

6.What are the results of polluting nature?

7.Present an example of acid rains.

8.Where one can find dead or dying lake or forest?

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9.By what means the pollution is carried great distances?

10.What is the main source of acid rain?

11.What example can you present on nature preservation?

2. Translate word combinations into Ukrainian in written form.

huge industrial enterprises nature preservation

the idea of environmental protection the majority of the governments

a serious issue great distances

the main source of acid rain unsafe and dangerous

reduction of the life-span of man sewage water

responsible for the pollution

3. Match the following English words with their Ukrainian equivalents:

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