1.2. Answer the following questions:
1. Why are farm animals so important to man?
2. Do all farm animals supply us with food?
3. Does the pig belong to the ruminants?
4. How many classes of domestic animals do you know?
5. What do carnivorous animals live on?
6. Due to what are the cattle capable of digesting large quantities of coarse fibrous material?
1.3. Fill in the chart with the words from the text and speak about main classes of animals:
-
CLASSES OF
…
…
…
OMNIVOROUS ANIMALS
CATTLE,
…
…
LIVE
ON PLANTS,
NEED
…
CONSUME
…
UTILIZE
…
1.4. Translate the sentences into Russian:
1. Herbivores are animals that exist mainly on a diet of plants. 2. The carnivorous animals swallow their food whole because they possess cusped teeth which are incapable of grinding food. 3. Omnivores are the animals who eat and digest both animals and plants. 4. Humans are omnivorous as they take vegetables and meat. 5. Carnivores are animals whose main method of getting food is to kill and eat other animals, or to scavenge their dead flesh.
1.5. Fill in the blanks with the suitable words:
1. Rabbits, sheep, horses and goats are … animals. 2. The cats and dogs have … stomachs. 3. … animals live on plants. 4. The pig … to digest a large quantity of coarse food. 5. The cow, the ох, the sheep and the goat belong to the … which chew the cud.
1.6. Translate the sentences into English:
1. Крупный рогатый скот, овцы, козы и олени принадлежат к жвачным животным. 2. Тигры, львы, волки, змеи – плотоядные животные. 3. Травоядные животные – это те, кто питается растениями. 4. Всеядные животные питаются и растениями, и животными.
1.7. Speak on: a) herbivorous animals
b) omnivorous animals
c) carnivorous animals
2. THE COW
2.1. Read the text and translate it with a help of the dictionary:
The cow belongs to the class of ruminants. Its value as a domestic animal consists in her ability to consume and digest large quantities of roughage and to convert it into milk and meat for human food.
The cow's stomach, which is a compound one, has four distinct compartments: rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum. The stomachs of mature cows vary in capacity from 25 to 60 gallons (150 to 300 pounds) depending on the size of the animal.
To produce a large supply of rich milk, cows must be not only well fed but also be of good milking qualities. The cows that are producing milk require a much larger quantity of water than is necessary for growing animals. A milking cow requires food for the double purpose of body maintenance and milk production. Cows which are giving a high yield of milk require liberal protein feeding. While cows are on pasture or consume a considerable quantity of silage or green forage, the diet is complete for milk production.
The period of gestation in cows is about 40 weeks.
The lactation period is the period of milking after each calf and it usually lasts for about ten months. The first milk after calving is called colostrum, and it has a necessary laxative action on the calf's stomach.
Dairy cows are milked three times a day and watered twice a day. In summer the consumption of water by cattle is greater because of the greater evaporation from the skin.