XI. Translate into English. Compare with the suggested variant:

Байкал это самое глубокое озеро и самое древнее озеро планеты, содержащее 20 % мировых запасов пресной воды и большое количество эндемиков, представителей флоры и фауны, чем любой пресный водоем Земли.

Уникальным является не только количество, но и качество воды, которое в значительной степени обусловлено деятельностью эндемических организмов, составляющих 90 % биомассы озера.

Чистые прозрачные воды Байкала насыщены кислородом. Он обладает удивительной способностью очищения более чем 60 км воды, приносимой более чем 300 его притоков. Возраст и неповторимые естественные характеристики Байкала создали этот своеобразный «эволюционный котел».

Воды Байкала также важны с экономической точки зрения для развития промышленности, использующей чистую воду, такой, как экотуризм, коммерческая рыбная ловля, для обеспечения населенных пунктов питьевой водой и для экспортирования бутылированной воды. Вода Байкала важнейший ресурс, использующийся для производства электричества Ангаро-Енисейским каскадом гидроэлектростанций.

The Baikal is the deepest and the oldest lake on the planet holding 20 percent of the fresh water on Earth and the largest number of endemic species of flora and fauna of any freshwater body.

Both the quantity and quality of the water are unique, to a large degree as a result of the activity of these endemic organisms which compose over 90 percent of the Lake's biomass.

The Baikal's pure, transparent waters are oxygen-rich throughout. It has a magnificent capacity for cleansing the more than 60 cubic kilometers of water a year that enter from more than 300 tributaries. The age and the inimitable natural characteristics of Baikal have created this evolutionary cauldron.

The waters of Baikal are also important economically for enterprises requiring pure water such as ecotourism, commercial fisheries, community drinking water, and the exportation of bottled water. Baikal provides much of the water used to generate electricity in the Angara-Yenisey River basin hydro­electric complex.

XII. Read the text and do the exercises: The Animal world and Plant Life

The population of animal species has been changing since prehistoric times. Some animals have died out and others have come close to extinction as a result of climatic and geographi­cal changes. This process is continuing at a faster rate because of the active interference of man.

Special steps are taken to protect rare and vanishing animal species. The case of the elk is a good example of what can be done with scientifically based and rational measures for the protection of wildlife. With the total ban on the hunting of elk its population has grown considerably and the area of its habi­tat has expanded. The same applies to the beaver, the polar bear, the snow leopard, the tiger and other animals. Also such spe­cies of marine life as whales, dolphins, walruses and sea bea­vers are protected by the state which has banned their hunting in any form.

The hunting of the now rare birds, such as the flamingo, swan, pelican, and stock are prohibited. Other measures include the establishment of reserves, the provision of feeding stations along migration routes and in the wintering places of birds, the introduction of water-fowl to new reservoirs.

As in other countries, nature reserves and national parks in Russia have been established in places where rare species of animals, birds and plants have been preserved. They have made it possible to study, preserve and renew many species of game and plants and commercially useful animals, preserve the na­tional environment.