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texty_na_angliiskom_yazyke_literatura / 1 / Экологический кризис

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Страница 6.

The environmental crisis – number one international problem.

We are in an environmental crisis because human beings have broken out of the circle of life and are destroying the environment. To survive, we must learn how to restore the wealth we have borrowed from nature.

A. What does the environmental crisis mean? To understand this we must begin at the source of life itself: the earth’s thin skin of air, water and soil, bathed by the radiant solar fire. Life appeared here several billion years ago and was nourished by the earth’s matter. Living things formed a global network of various habitats, where everything is directly or indirectly dependent on everything. This is the ecosphere (biosphere), the home that life has built for itself on the planet.

B. In nature all processes are in constant balanced interaction. There is no waste in nature. Nothing is created, nothing is lost. Everything is recycled endlessly. The environmental crisis means that this perfect and delicate balance has begun to break down, and the relationship between life and its earthly surroundings have begun to collapse.

C. The environmental degradation continues to accelerate. The ozone layer, vital for survival, is thinning. Acrid rain is destroying huge areas of forest and tens of thousands of lakes. We pollute our rivers, lakes and oceans, and the sky, forgetting that we need water and air to live and breathe. We destroy rainforests, picturesque landscapes, and slaughter the world’s most beautiful animals.

As a result of our new technologies of land use we lose soil, which is the basis of civilization. And, worst of all, the earth is steadily warming with potentially dangerous effects.

That is why the environmentalists of the world call for fundamental changes NOW!

Страница 13.

The planet strikes back.

The US National Wildlife magazine pointed out 1988 as the year when “Planet Earth began to strike back through drought, heat waves, soil erosion and other human-induced natural hazards”.

The environmental awareness of human kind has become task number one for scientists.

Here are two headlines of different publications dealing with human-induced natural hazards which threaten our ecosphere.

Read the sentences below and find these two publications. Decide which sentences go with headline a) and b). the first sentence is done for you.

a) GREENHOUSE EFFECT b) ACID RAIN

1. The atmosphere is a blanket of gases around the Earth.

2. A lot of dangerous gases enter the atmosphere from tall chimneys of factories and power stations.

3. For thousands of years these gases have trapped some of the sun’s heat and kept the planet’s temperatures at a steady level.

4. The present climate zones and other natural habitats have been formed under those temperatures.

5. Then they mix with water in the air and form a cocktail of acidic chemicals.

6. But now because pollutant gases accumulate in the atmosphere, they trap the heat from the Earth like the glass of a greenhouse stops the sun’s heat from leaving.

7. After that the wind carries them for hundreds or even thousands of kilometers away.

8. So, the Earth gets hotter.

9. And finally, this killing mixture falls back on Earth as acid rain.

10. It causes damage or death of forests, lakes, wildlife, humans, buildings, works of art.

11. When the Earth’s temperature rises, the weather will change everywhere.

12. The soil in parts of Scandinavia is now ten times more acid than fifty years ago.

13. Leaves and roots of trees are damaged, and they are dying all over Europe.

14. The ice at the North and South Poles will start to melt and as a result, the level of the sea will rise.

15. When scientists in Britain tried to put new fish into one lake, all the fish died in less than two days.

16. There will be serious floods in many countries.

17. This liquid killer is also attacking many of Europe’s most famous sculptures and buildings: for example, Notre Dame in Paris and St. Paul’s in London.

18. Millions of people will lose their homes.

19. Millions of living organisms will perish.

20. When the climate changes, there will be less food in the world.

21. Vast territories of America and Central Russia will become too hot for farming.

22. Medical statistics show more lung and kidney illness in countries with high levels of acid pollution.

23. Other areas may become wetter, but the soil there isn’t as rich.

24. It won’t be possible to grow the same amount of food.

Страница19.

Tropical rainforest destruction.

Tell me, where the flowers’re gone.” From a German song.

Rainforests preservation would be an investment in the future of the planet.” N.Brown, UNO.

A. Tropical rainforests are the richest habitats on earth, forming a green belt around the Equator, 20 degrees north and south, from South and Central America to West Africa and South-East Asia. While they cover only 8% of the Earth’s land area, they contain more than 50% of all species. They also secure the Earth’s most important cycles like the soil, water, air – upon which man is totally dependent.

B. Deforestation has been going on for centuries. By 1988 half of the world’s tropical rainforests were gone. Vast areas have been cut down for timber to go to Europe and Japan and also to make way for plantations and mining. Forests are being burned to the ground to make way for cattle ranches to produce cheap beef for US hamburgers.

C. 1,5 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), which is the most important greenhouse gas, comes from the burning of rainforests trees every year. So, it adds to the warming of the Earth. Normally, trees absorb CO2 and release oxygen (O2) into the air. Today, there are fewer and fewer trees. That means more and more CO2.

D. When forests are destroyed or degraded, natural habitats perish. This leads to 150 species extinctions globally every day. At present rates, 20% of all species will be gone by 2000.

Deforestation will also mean the wasting of natural resources and the elimination of tribal people.

Страница 11 №12.

Без воды, воздуха и почвы жизнь не может продолжаться на Земле.

В естественной среде обитания все процессы находятся в сбалансированном взаимодействии.

Взаимоотношения между живыми организмами и окружающими земными условиями образуют круговорот жизни.

Природа бесконечно перерабатывает свои ресурсы.

Современное производство нарушает хрупкое равновесие природных циклов.

Загрязнение окружающей среды ведет к уничтожению самих источников жизни.

Для того, чтобы выжить на земле, человек должен изменить технологии производства коренным образом.

Мы не должны превращать богатство Земли в опасные для самой жизни отходы.

Страница 16 №6.

При температуре; природные бедствия, вызванные деятельностью человека; в результате; живая природа; убийственная смесь; газовая оболочка; не пропускают; понимание важности окружающей среды.

Страница 21 №5.

1. When trees are cut down for growing agricultural products.

2. When all plants or animals of a certain species perish.

3. When all people of a tribe are gone.

4. When something is done to get future results.

5. When no trees are left where forests stood before.

6. When work is done to get minerals from earth.

The Russian Federation.

Geography and climate.

The Russian Federation is the largest country in the world in terms of area. Its territory occupies the eastern and northern parts of Europe and the northern part of Asia, stretching for 2,500-4,000km from north to south, and for 9,000km from west to east, thus accounting for one-eighth of the Earth’s land surface. The geographical position of the Russian Federation is favourable. It borders on a large number of countries and, on the east, has frontiers with the USA and Japan. The climate is predominantly continental; the exception is the southern part of the Far East region, which has a typically monsoon climate, and the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus where the climate is subtropical. The extreme north of the country and most of the islands in the Arctic Ocean have an arctic climate.

The temperatures vary widely in winter and summer. There is considerable precipitation in the western part of the Russian plain. Rainfall is also plentiful in mountainous regions, as well as in the southern part of the Far East and the south-east of the Kamchatka Peninsula. Severe frosts and insufficient snow cover in Siberia and the Far East contribute to the formation of permafrost.

Population.

The population of the Russian Federation at the beginning of 1997 was 147.5 million. The average population density is 8.6 people per sq. km and the population is very unevenly distributed, it is lowest in the Far East (0.2) and highest in the Central Economic Region (61.9). Almost three-quarters of the population is concentrated in urban areas. The largest city is Moscow, the capital, with 8.4 million inhabitants. Demographically, the 1990s have been notable for a decline in the population. However, it is partly compensated for by the still significant influx of Russian-speaking migrants from the CIS countries.

Political system and administrative structure.

The Russian Federation is a federation state with a republican form of government. In accordance with the1993 Constitution, power is exercised on the basis of subdivision into legislative, executive, and judicial branches.

Legislative power is vested in the bicameral Federal Assembly. Its upper chamber, the Council of Federation, contains 178 seats filled ex officio by the top executive and legislative officials in each of 89 Federation units.

The lower chamber, the State Duma, consists of 450 members elected for a four-year term. The President, with the approval of the State Duma, appoints a cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister.

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