Text a Baikal’s Pure Water

Lake Baikal is the biggest fresh water reservoir in the world. It contains 23.000 cubic kilometers of water, or over 20 per cent of all fresh water available on the globe. Its depth in some places exceeds 1.5 kilometers, its length is nearly 650 kilometers. The surface of the lake is equal to 31.5 square kilometers.

More than 350 big and small rivers flow into the lake, but only one river the Angara flows out of it. The water in the lake is constant both in composition and in temperature. It never becomes warmer than 12 degrees Centigrade. The water is so clear that an object can be seen 120 feet below the surface.

The lake is surrounded by mountains rising to a height of 2.000 meters above the lake’s surface. It makes the Baikal landscape beautiful and unique. The mountains are rich in different minerals. The slopes are covered with pine and cedar forests. There are many valuable animals and rare species of plants there. Natural resources of the Lake Baikal basin are of great importance to the national economy.

But the development of industry and rapid growth of cities has caused the danger of polluting the lake’s water by industrial and communal wastes. The whole ecological system of the lake is changing. The main source of pollution of Baikal’s water is the pulp-and paper plant¹ built on the lake in the late 1960s².

The Government has adopted a resolution on a preserving the natural resources of the Baikal Lake basin. Large-scale measures planned to protect the lake’s water and the air over it. Highly efficient purification installations are to be built in this area. They will purify the waste water both from cities and industry. The pulp-and-paper plant is to b reconstructed. It will produce not cellulose but building materials and will become a low-waste enterprise.

Baikal’s water must be kept pure. The resources of Baikal Lake, this remarkable work of natire³, should be utilized rationally.

NOTES

¹ pulp-and-paper plant – целлюлозно-бумажный завод

² in the late 1960s – в конце 60-х годов

³ the remarkable work of nature – замечательное творение природы

4. Answer the questions:

1. How much water does Baikal Lake contain?

2. What is the size of Baikal Lake?

3. How many rivers flow into the Lake?

4. What rivers flow out from it?

5. What is the main feature of the Baikal water?

6. Why is the Baikal landscape unique?

7. What is the flora and fauna of the Baikal basin?

8. What is the main source of pollution?

9. How will the pulp-and-paper plant be reconstructed?

10. How should the lake’s resources be utilized?

11. What measures are planned to protect the lake?

5. Complete these sentences with the words from the text and translate them:

1. Soils … chemical elements in different amounts.

2. The Volga River … into the Caspian Sea.

3. The height of these mountains … 2.000 meters.

4. The lake is … by industrial waste.

5. This installation can … industrial waste.

6. Find English equivalents:

- поверхность озера

- постоянный по составу

- богатый различными минералами

- ценные животные

- редкие виды растений

- быстрый рост городов

- опасность загрязнения воды

- основной источник загрязнения

- сохранять природные ресурсы

- высокоэффективная установка

- крупномасштабные меры

- строительные материалы

7. Choose words from the list:

warm, high, beautiful, pure, fresh, constant, main, low, unique, valuable, efficient, small, artificial, different, rare

1. … … water

2. … … mountains

3. … … installation

8. Read the following phrases. What do they mean?

• fresh water reservoir

• below the lake’s surface

• unique landscape

• water purification installation

• low-waste enterprises

• must be kept pure

• should be utilized rationally

Grammar

The Participle

Причастие является неличной формой глагола, в которой сочетается признаки прилагательного или наречия с признаками глагола.

В английском языке существуют два вида причастий Participle - I and Participle - II

Participle – I

Причастие I образуется путем прибавления окончания –ing к инфинитиву глагола без частицы -to

to test - testing

to put – putting

Причастие I употребляется в функции:

1. Определения (Причастие I переводится причастием действительного залога с суффиксами- окончаниями –щий, (- щийся), -щая, - щее, вший, -вшие)

E.g. the man sitting at the table is our teacher.

2. Обстоятельства (Причастие I в функции обстоятельства стоит чаще всего в начале предложения, и отвечает на вопросы как? когда? Переводится на русский язык деепричастиями несовершенного вида, оканчивающимися на –а, - я)

E.g. Going home I met an old man.