Text 4. Trees

Vocabulary

valuable — ценный

environment — окружающая среда

reason — причина

to improve — улучшать

shade — тень

shelter — убежище, кров

in turn — в свою очередь

to reduce — уменьшать

amount — количество

to remove — удалять

impurity — нечистота, грязь,

to breathe — дышать

urban — городской

to provide — обеспечивать

the only — единственный

butterfly — бабочка

scale — масштаб

carbon dioxide — двуокись углерода

oxygen — кислород

rainforest — тропический лес, джунгли

to supply — снабжать

fresh — свежий

wild — дикий

to contain — содержать

to include — включать

unfortunately — к сожалению

to disappear — исчезать

hardwood — твердая древесина

to break — нарушать

to deprive of — лишать

extinct — вымерший, вымира­ющий

protection — защита

Trees are amongst the biggest and longest-living things on Earth, some dating back longer than the oldest buildings. Trees are one of the most valuable parts of the environment. People like trees for a lot of reasons.

As well as being nice to look at, trees also play an important role in improving the quality of our life. They offer shade and shelter, which in turn reduces the amount of energy needed to heat and cool nearby buildings. They also give us a lot of fruit to eat and the place for children to play. Besides they remove impurities from the air we breathe.

Urban trees are especially important because for many people they provide the only daily contact with the natural world. What's more, urban trees also provide a home for birds, small animals and butterflies. Without the trees we would lose the pleasure of seeing these creatures in our cities.

Regrettably, however, trees in cities are now coming under | threat. There is a limit to the level of pollution they can put up with, and down at street level their roots are being seriously disturbed by digging needed to make a way for modern telephone, television and other cables.

On a world-wide scale forests help to slow down the effects of global warming by using up the gas known as carbon dioxide and giving out the oxygen we need to breathe. The world's largest rainforests (in Brazil, Africa and South East Asia) supply about 80 percent of the oxygen for the world's fresh air.

Rainforests also give us thousands of valuable wild plants. One square kilometre of rainforests sometimes contains 250 different types of plants, including 125 different trees. These plants and trees are valuable because scientists use them to make a lot of medicines.

Unfortunately, every year an area of rainforest as big as England and Wales disappears. Large companies cut down the trees for valuable hardwood and for wood for making paper. There are also forest fires. This breaks the ecological balance and deprives lots of animals of places to live. Every day about 50 kinds of rainforest plants and animals become extinct. Whole systems of plant and animal life are disappearing forever.

If nothing is done about it, soon there will be very few trees and animals on Earth. Environmental protection is more than just picking up litter. We must take into consideration all factors that people's survival depends upon.

Answer the following questions:

Questions

1. Why do people like trees? 2. Why are trees one of the most valuable parts of the environment? 3. How can trees and wild plants help to cure people? 4. What is happening to rainforests now? 5. Are trees in cities in safety now? Why? 6. How does the disappearance of forests influence animals and birds? 7. What can people do to protect plant and animal life?