- •Навчальний посібник
- •Why we should feel responsible for future generations
- •Vocabulary
- •Before you Read Reading Without Understanding the Meaning of Every Word
- •Ecology or Egology? The Role of the Individual in the Environmental Crisis
- •Analyzing Topic Sentences
- •Find the topic sentence in each paragraph.
- •Be sure you know the vocabulary:
- •Vocabulary
- •1 Choose the best answer.
- •2 Give the English equivalents to the following words:
- •3 Give the Ukrainian equivalents to the following words:
- •4 Discussion questions.
- •The Environment and Homo Sapiens
- •Vocabulary
- •1 Checking comprehension.
- •2 Match the words below with the following definitions:
- •Pollution
- •The Nuclear Disaster at Chernobyl
- •Vocabulary
- •1 Comprehension Questions:
- •2 Match the words below with the following definitions:
- •3 Choose the right answer:
- •Pollution and What We Can Do About It
- •Vocabulary
- •1 Checking comprehension.
- •2 Find the English equivalents to the following words and phrases in the text:
- •4 Think of some interesting ways of recycling each of these:
- •5 Comment on the following words by Professor Gerald Darrell of the University of California. Do you agree with these words? Justify your answer.
- •Prereading Task Reading for a Specific Purpose
- •Ecological Issues of Canada
- •Comprehension Check
- •Vocabulary
- •Using New Words
- •Vocabulary
- •1 Comprehension Questions:
- •2 Match the following words and definitions:
- •3 Choose the right answer:
- •Saving the World’s Tropical Rain Forests.
- •Vocabulary
- •Speaking
- •Translate the text orally: Ecological Solutions to Flooding and Water Supply Problems in Woodlands
- •Vocabulary
- •1 Comprehension Questions:
- •2 Match the following words and definitions:
- •3 Choose the right answer:
- •Population Explosion
- •Extinction
- •Global Warming
- •A brief history of the future
- •Read the article and find out what Stephen Hawking’s predictions for the areas in 3 are.
- •Work with a partner and answer these questions:
- •Look at these extracts from the text. Use prepositions to complete the sentences.
- •Check your answers with the text.
- •Use the expressions in italics and the prepositions from 4 to complete these sentences.
- •Compare your answers with a partner. Are any of the sentences true for you or your country?
- •1 Complete the article using the following phrases.
- •Think of five more predictions for the future of the world. Work in groups and decide which predictions are:
- •How would you like to see the world change in the future? Write five sentences using the prompts:
- •Work in small groups and share your ideas. Which are the most common, interesting or unusual ideas? references
Ecology or Egology? The Role of the Individual in the Environmental Crisis
The environmental sciences usually focus on understanding the many intricate relationships and interdependencies that have evolved between the millions of living systems inhabiting the earth. "Why are such studies necessary in the first place?"
The rapid and liberal development of technology is clearly part of the problem.
Yet it is also clear that technological might is not the sole cause of environmental mismanagement. It is ultimately human beings who choose how to use technology, and they initiate the actions that result in ecological disturbances. How is it that people can adhere to policies that by nearly all projections look suicidal?
Such behavior stems from individuals' not seeing beyond their short-term welfare and from their perceiving their interests to be different from the interests of humanity as a whole. For most people an immediate personal fulfillment is more attractive than some distant long-term benefit, and so they naturally go for the former.
In the more developed nations—those responsible for the major environmental problems today—the basic needs for food, clothing, shelter, and health care are fairly well attended to. What emerges then is the need for psychological welfare, in particular, the need to be liked. We spend considerable time and effort fulfilling this need.
One of the most common ways we try to win approval and prestige is through material possessions. We collect many of the various accoutrements of modern living—new cars, fashionable clothes, and expensive furniture—not because we need them physically but because we need them psychologically.
Some implications of this for the way we treat the environment are obvious. We gobble up irreplaceable resources, with little regard for the long-term future, partly because the various products they are transformed into may briefly satisfy our search for identity. Thus, the consumers are as much exploiters of the environment as the corporations.
Yet there is more to it than that. We do have choices in how we satisfy our misguided search for material well, initiate industrial processes with various environmental effects, and set in motion other activities that in one way or another upset the ecological balance.
Another profound consequence of our inner insecurity is a lack of true caring and compassion, either for others or for the environment. Each of us, at our core, is a compassionate being capable of deep empathy and caring. If we can get back in contact with this deeper self, we can begin to experience compassion not only for other people but also for the rest of the world.
Recalling Information
After reading the text, tell which of the following statements according to the information in the text are true and which are false. Correct the false statements to make them true.
1 Environmental science is necessary today.
2 The rapid development of technology is the main reason of ecological problems.
3 People create ecological disturbances because they think about "today" not about "tomorrow".
4 We don’t want to satisfy our short-term needs.
5 Environmental problems exist in only less developed countries.
6 The needs for food, clothes, and shelter are the basic ones in developed countries.
7 We collect new cars, fashionable clothes because we need them physically.
8 The consumers exploit the environment as much as corporations.
9 We don’t have choice in how we satisfy our need for material well-being.
10 Our need for material well-being lead to reducing of irreplaceable resources.