2. Read and translate the text, find the unknown words in it and write them down into your vocabularies: The Fragile Planet

The word environment means simply what is around us. Some people live in a town environments, for others their environment is the countryside. But the air we breathe, the soil on which we stand and walk, the water we drink are all parts of the environment.

Nowadays people understand how important it is to solve the environmental problems that endanger people’s lives. The most serious environmental problems are:

-pollution in its many forms;

-noise from cars, buses, planes, etc;

-destruction of wildlife and countryside beauty;

-shortage of natural resources (metals, different kinds of fuel);

-the growth of population.

There is no ocean or sea which is not used as a dump. The Pacific Ocean, especially, has suffered from nuclear pollution because the French Government tests nuclear weapon there. Many seas are used for dumping industrial and nuclear waste. Britain alone dumps 250 000 tons of industrial waste straight into the North Sea. This poison kills fish and sea animals. Nuclear-poisoned fish can be eaten by people.

Many rivers and lakes are poisoned too. Fish and reptiles can’t live in them. There is not enough oxygen in the water. In such places all the birds live their habitats and many plants die. If people drink this water they can die too. It happens so because factories and plants produce a lot of waste and pour it into rivers. So they poison the water. Factories use clean water. After the water is used it becomes poison which goes back into rivers, lakes and seas.

3. Translate the words from the brackets into your language and use them in the definitions below:

(tornado, drought, forest fire, volcano, flood, earthquake, hurricane, tidal wave)

1. _________________ a long period with little or no rain.

2. _________________ a violent movement of the surface of the earth, caused by the shifting of the tectonic plates.

3. _________________ when huge areas of woodland are alight caused by someone’s cigarette.

4. _________________ when an area of dry land becomes covered in water, forcing people to leave their homes.

5. _________________ very strong circular winds which suck things up into them.

6. _________________ a huge wave which builds up in the sea over thousands of miles.

7. _________________ a very powerful storm, often at sea.

8. _________________ a large mountain which erupts from time to time and sends rocks up into air

4. Use the words from the brackets to complete the text:

(Rainfall, rescued, affected, stranded, impassable, warnings, evacuate, flooding)

1. ____________________ has returned after the equivalent of a month’s ________ fell in just 48 hours.

2. In the worst _____ area, soldiers have been called in to help _______ homes in water.

3. Thirty children had to be ______________ from a school bus after they were ______ in flood water.

4. Many roads in the country are ________.

5. Weather forecasters have issued 25 flood ___________ in other parts of the west of England.