Speaking
Read the text about tYomelin Island. State your opinion regarding which country you think should have the territorial rights to the island.
TROMELIN ISLAND
Tromelin Island is located off the east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar and 480 km (300 miles) north of Mauritius. It has a few coconut palms and a weather station, but no drinking water and no inhabitants. Once important for the harvesting of bird droppings, from which fertilizer is made, Tromelin has little economic value today. Nevertheless, the pear-shaped piece of sand that measures less than 1.6 km by about 1 km is the center of an international dispute.
Ownership claims. France, Mauritius, Madagascar, and the Seychelles all claim Tromelin as part of their national territory. France presently governs Tromelin as part of the Reunion Islands, a French possession since 1638. Neighboring Mauritius claims Tromelin as well as the rest of the Reunion Islands. Mauritius was itself part of the Reunion group before gaining independence in 1968. Madagascar, the nearest nation geographically to Tromelin, insists that Tromelin and the four other uninhabited islands of the Reunion group were part of Madagascar long before the French arrived. The Seychelles also makes a claim based on geography, stating that Tromelin belongs to it as part of the Seychelles-Mauritius Plateau under the sea.
What’s at stake? At first glance a territorial dispute over such an insignificant island seems ridiculous. In today’s world, however, it appears that the nation that owns Tromelin can claim ownership of a 200-mile (320-kilometer) exclusive economic zone around the island. This claim will give the successful claimant the ownership of fishing rights and mineral resources of seafloor around Tromelin.
No settlement in sight. No settlement of the dispute is in sight, although the United Nations seeks to prevent scrambles for islands such as Tromelin. As early as 1967 the United Nations General Assembly voiced concern over potential conflicts arising from territorial sea claims. A series of UN actions led to the Third Law of the Sea Conference in 1973. At this conference general agreements were reached on a number of ocean- related issues. These agreements eventually led to the adoption of the Law of the Sea Treaty in 1982. That treaty grants ownership of territorial sea only to islands capable of sustaining life or economic activity. Of course, only nations signing the treaty feel obliged to abide by its laws. France refuses to sign the controversial treaty, so it is not bound by any of decisions made by the United Nations based on the treaty.
Find material and give a talk about other territorial disputes based on geography.
Summarizing the Unit
Make an outline of the Unit and render its content in a 4—6 min talk.
PART II SOCIO-ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
UNIT 7 THE WORLD CULTURES
l.Reading and learning
Scan each text and formulate the main ideas. Read the text again carefully and memorize it, then retell the text close to the original.
WORLD CULTURES: UNITY AND DIVERSITY
Landforms, climate, weather, vegetation, resources, and the world ocean make up parts of the earth’s physical environment. However, the study of geography involves much more than a study of the earth’s physical features. Just as important is a study of the earth’s various cultural features. Every human group leaves a distinct imprint on the earth. The earth’s cultural variety finds expression in different population trends, social characteristics, political systems, and economic systems.
Humans can be divided into many ethnic groups — that is large groups of people who have more in common with each other than they do with other peoples. Some ethnic groups differ physically from others. However, all humans are bom with certain physical differences. They differ in height, skin, eye and hair color, features of the face and other ways. Often there are no overall physical differences between one ethnic group and another. Other differences between human groups are differences in culture.
Culture is the sum of what a human group acquires through living together, including language, knowledge, skills, art, literature, law, customs, and life styles. When studying about a group’s culture, it helps to divide cultural characteristics into two categories — material culture and nonmaterial culture. Material culture includes all the physical objects that people make. Examples of material culture include buildings, clothing,
