Vocabulary

address [a'dres] – адрес addressee [asdre'si:] – адресат, получатель booth [bu:0] – телефонная будка envelope ['enviloup]–конверт operator - телефонист parcel ['pa:sl] – посылка

registered letter – заказное письмо air mail – авиапочта book a call ['buk] – заказать разговор printed matter ['printid '] – бандероль post order – почтовый перевод telegram form – телеграфный бланк urgent telegram – срочная телеграмма receipt [ri'si:t] - квитанция

Level II

Answer the following questions:

What kind of services does a post-office offer? Do you often go to the post-office? Why? Do you like writing letters?

What kind of communication do you prefer: by letter or by phone? Are there a lot of post-offices in your town? What new mail services do you know?

Level III

Give synonyms to the following words and word combinations:

- General Delivery

- addressee

- foreign letter

- inside the country

- clerk

Level IV

Speak about

- postal service in ancient China

- two ways of sending a telegram

- new kinds of postal services

- sending important documents

- the first stamp

Ecological Problems

Ecology is the science of how the living things are related to their environment. The crucial problem of environment protection has been recognized as a problem too big for any nation to solve.

With the development of civilization a great number of industrial enterprises, electric atomic power stations, railways appear all over the world and pollute nature.

In the search for food man has poisoned the land with chemicals. The result is disastrous for wildlife.

Large cities with smoky plants pollute the air we breathe. Vast forests are cut and burn in fire. It upsets the oxygen balance. As a result animals, birds, fish and plants disappear forever, rivers and lakes dry up.

The ozone layers round the Earth stops some of the ultraviolet radiation from the Sun which causes sunburn and skin cancer. The satellite photographs showed the hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic and it is getting bigger. Burning coal and oil contributes greatly to acid rains, dangerous for plants. As a result environment damage causes the change of the climate on our planet.

Our ancestors considered the Earth’s resources to be endless. Their greed, egoism, ignorance, lack of ecological education are responsible for creating ecological tragedies. We should never forget that we live in a single, closed and delicately balanced ecological space; we are responsible for our planet

In the result of Chernobyl tragedy the Belarusian people have faced the most horrible ecological disaster. Large territories of Belarus are contaminated with radioactive substances. They are dangerous to live in.

The Earth is our common home. The environmental protection is a universal concern. Serious joint measures to create a system of ecological security should be taken.

159 countries members of the United Nations Organization have set up environmental protection agencies. They solve problems of ecologically poor regions including the Aral Sea, the South Urals, Kuzbass, Donbass, Semipalatinsk, Lake Baikal, Chernobyl.

The international organization Greenpeace is also doing much to preserve environment.

It's impossible to save our planet unless many people join hands.