1 Checking comprehension.

1. Who called the Earth "a blue planet" and why?

2. What place is the Earth compared to in the text?

3. Why is the word "banishment" wrong to use in the context?

4. What does it mean that we are winning the war against our planet?

5. How do you understand the sentence "we shall experience the laws of nature in full force"?

6. In what way environmental degradation is similar to a cancer?

7. Do environmental changes influence only nature?

2 Match the words below with the following definitions:

apparent	a very bad accident, that causes great damage or loss of life;
desertification	the process of becoming or making something a DESERT;
disaster	the process of making something dirty;
lot	the process of being worn away or rubbed away;
pollution	clearly seen or understood; obvious;
erosion	a person’s fate, luck;

3 Which of the following themes appear in the text? Justify each of your selections with a quotation from the text.

• The beauty of our planet.

• There is no second world hanging in the sky.

• Adaptation to the pressures of one's environment.

• The emergence of life.

• The human population has grown from around one billion in the 1830s to six billion in the year 2000.

• There is some connection between our behaviour, environmental changes and illnesses.

4 Select three phrases that reveal the author's disgust and his worries about the future of our planet.

5 Give an example of the author's irony.

6 Choose the best answer.

1 What kind of place is the Garden of Eden?

a) a Russian restaurant

b) a roller-skating rink

c) a discotheque

d) a gambling den

e) Paradise

2 Who is responsible for environmental degradation?

a) man's constant attempts to control nature

b) Mother Nature

c) human nature

d) Homo sapiens

e) the present rate of "progress"

f) our silly behaviour.

3 What shows that our Earth is endangered?

a) the development of technologies and cultures

b) the laws of nature

c) freezing and starvation

d) many forms of cancer

e) erosion, desertification and pollution

7 Show that the author suggests there could have been a way out.

8 Do you consider the world to be in danger or not? Justify your answer.

9 Describe the future of our planet as you imagine it. The following may be useful:

• the amount of carbon dioxide;

• important changes in the Earth's climate;

• the "greenhouse effect";

• a harmful effect;

• to disturb the balance of nature;

• to burn more and more fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas);

• the destruction of forests;

• the polar icecaps melting.

10 Discussion questions.

1 Do you feel endangered by environmental changes? In what way?

2 Do you believe we can save our planet? How?

3 Would you change your Earth for another planet if you had a chance? Why? Why not?

UNIT 2