6.4. Writing

Write a discursive essay on the suggested topics (250-300 words). Follow the guidelines for discursive essays in your textbook.

1. Overpopulation is perhaps the biggest global problem that our generation will face.

2. Smoking is the cause of millions of deaths and pollution. Therefore, there should be a worldwide ban on smoking. To what extent do you agree?

3.In recent years our diet has become increasingly poor.

4. Environmental problems are really social problems anyway.

5. The 21^st century: for better or worse?

6.5. Listening and speaking

Ex.1. You are now going to hear an interview between Peter Whitehead, the presenter of a current affairs programme, and Frances Kelly, the leader of the Campaign for Clean Air. While you listen, decide if the following statements are True or False (1-8).

1. The government is acting too slowly for Frances.

2. Sulphur dioxide is produced by power stations.

3. Britain is one of the worst polluters.

4. Carbon monoxide causes heart problems in adults.

5. In the short term, carbon dioxide isn’t dangerous.

6. There is little evidence to show these gases have a bad effect on the development of children.

7. The greenhouse effect will cause droughts.

8. Frances believes that the government has a limited responsibility.

Ex. 2. Choose one of the suggested topics and comment on it or discuss it with your partner.

1. Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future? What makes you think so?

2.Protecting the environment is the most important problem facing the world today. Speak on all the different ways of protecting it.

3. Dwell on some natural and man-made catastrophes that threaten the world. Which are the most serious ones? Which are you most/least afraid of?

4. The energy crisis is a big challenge for each country and its government. Optimistic and pessimistic forecasts for nuclear energy and fossil fuels have been claimed.

5. Chernobyl dependency is still a priority and a severe strain to national budgets. What associations and implications does the name of Chernobyl have for you personally?

6. What evidence of climate change could you name? What are the causes?

7. What factors have been responsible for species becoming extinct? Which of the species were destroyed intentionally by man? What do you think is the best way to protect endangered species?

SELF-ASSESSMENT TEST

Ex. 1. You will hear a radio report about a wildlife holiday in the Yellowstone National Park in the USA. For questions 1-9, complete the sentences with a word or short phrase.

Michela describes the man she met in Canada as being (1) ………….. by his experience.

As a species, the wolf is now officially classed as (2) ………….. in North America.

It is thought that as many as (3) …………. visitors have seen the reintroduced wolves at Yellowstone.

On Michela’s first evening in Yellowstone, a (4) ………gave visitors a talk about wolves.

Coyotes, which have longer ears and (5) ………. colouring, are often mistaken for wolves.

Michela’s personal guide originally trained to be a (6) ……….. .

Around half the wolves in the park are now fitted with (7) ……to help people locate them.

Ken advised Michela to look for wolves on hillsides where (8)..………. could be seen through the snow.

Michela used a particularly good (9) ……….. to study the wolf she eventually saw.

Ex. 2. Match the following words with appropriate definitions (1-16).

1. calamity a. the care and management of the natural

environment

2. conservation b. the production or release of sth., light, heat, gas

3. drought c. a place where wastes are kept or stored

4. deteriorate d. not controlled or kept within limits

5. economic sticks

and carrots e. a group of Australian animals that carry their

young in a fold of skin on the mother’s stomach

6. emissions f. an event that causes great harm or damage;

7.energy consumption g. concerned with the protection of the

environment

8. erosion h. the using up sth. (fuel)

9. green/soft tourism i. an animal that kills and eats other animals

10. marsupials j. a period of continuous dry weather

11. predator k. destruction of sth. or wearing sth. аway

gradually

12. rainfall l. the state of soil containing the high

level of salt

13.repository of waste m. to become worse in quality or condition

14. spawn (of fish) n. to produce eggs

15. salinity o. the total amount of rain that falls in a certain

time period

16. unbridled (tourism) p. the reward and the threat of punishment used

together as a means of making sb. try harder

Ex. 3. Fill in the blanks (1 – 20) with the correct particle or preposition where necessary.

1. (1) … the new millennium, we need a new beginning, a fresh start. 2. Our own way of life is (2) … threat. 3. This is a global problem (3) … catastrophic implication for human health. 4. Coastal habitats (4) … coral reefs and sea grasses are smothered and the sea creatures that live there are wiped (5) … . 5. Thousands of shellfish, sea turtles and other marine creatures fall victim yearly (6) … this new ‘black death’. 6. He could visualize the dog getting skinner and skinner and finally wasting (7) … … a shadow of his former self. 7. The fate of the communities blighted (8) … Chernobyl will continue to haunt discussions (9) … energy generation for decades to come. 8. The Department’s total expenditure (10) … research related to climate change was over $14 million. 9. (11) … a metre rise (12) … sea levels, 200 million could become homeless. 10. 95 per cent of the native plants are unique, and many are (13) … the verge of extinction. 11. We should do something (14) … 240 species currently threatened (15) … extinction. 12. (16) … American national bird, the bald eagle has been protected (17) … various ways (18) … 1940. 13. Students sometimes drop (19) … while they are in class or at the lecture. 14. Many governments have signed (20) … … measures, which will help to minimize climate change, to cut carbon dioxide emissions.

Ex. 4. For questions 1– 9, read the following text and then choose, from the list

(A – J), the best phrase given below. Each correct phrase may be used once. Some of the suggested answers do not fit at all.

GENETIC ENGINEERING

When Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859, the Bishop pf Worcester’s wife was most distressed. ‘Let us hope it is not true,’ she remarked. ‘But if it is, let us pray that it does not become generally known!’

Supposing that we had been alive a hundred years ago, would we have been repelled by the suggestion that humans and apes may have had a common ancestor? And had our ancestors been born in modern times, would they have been similarly repelled by the thought of ‘designer’ babies? I suspect that the answer to both questions would be (1) ……… . I have tried to rationalize (2) …………. to genetic engineering. I personally feel that if we were supposed to be perfect, we should have been designed that way. Surely (3)……….. is an invasion of the human self. (4) …………. , can we honestly say that human self is to be found in our genes?

From the medical point of view, genetic engineering has opened up exciting possibilities for the treatment of genetically related disorders. (5) …………. , the real problem with new science is that it threatens to undermine the categories through which we understand our world: (6) ………… .

Like the bishop of Wolcester’s wife, (7) …………… wishes to shut out the facts that might upset its moral universe.

Yet, if morality had originally been based on reason, (8) ……….. justifiable. Unfortunately, morality has its origin in prejudice, ritual and habit, and, as a result, the possibilities (9) ……….. are increasingly constrained.

A On the other hand

B our attitudes might have been

C in the affirmative

D afforded the scientific advance

E our moral and social codes

F experimenting with genes

G my own response

H any kind of activity

I the anti-science lobby

J However

Ex. 5. Put a, an or the where necessary (1 – 11).

1. Did you know that (1) … gold was discovered in Australia in (2) … 1850s?

2. Hikers in (3) … Loch Ness reported seeing (4) … large moving mass at dawn.

3. (5) … reigning monarch stayed at a plush five-star hotel in (6) … city centre.

4. (7) … Bermuda Triangle has received notoriety as (8) … area of misfortune because (9) … number of vessels have disappeared there. 5. (10) … director will chair (11) … meeting tomorrow so everybody should come prepared.

Ex. 6. Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space. Use only one word in each space (1 – 16).

DISAPPEARING WORLD

The land is not the (1) … victim. Rainforests are a richly populated habitat. In the rainforests of Madagascar there are at (2) … 150.000 individual species of plants and animals which are found nowhere (3) … in the world, and more are being discovered all the (4) … . Furthermore, approximately 50% of all endangered animal species live in the world’s rainforests. The destruction of the forests effectively represents a complete removal of all these plants and animals. Deprived (5) … their natural environments, they will disappear altogether. Again, this process is irreversible. Man, no (6) … how powerful he considers himself, does not have the power to re-establish the species he is so willfully destroying.

The destruction (7) … the rainforests is a pressing problem of our times (8) … not one that is regarded seriously by everyone. The (9) … affluent nations regard the issue as (10) … of preservation; deforestation must stop. When it comes to the poorer countries, the issue is not so cut and dried. (11) … these people, the rainforests represent a source of economic prosperity, a point that obviously takes precedence (12) … ecological concerns. A solution must be found (13) … the damage caused by the deforestation that is destroying the rainforests becomes irrevocable. Deforestation is carried out by (14) … involved in the timber industry and also by migrant farmers. The latter occupy an area of land, strip it, farm it (15) … its natural mineral supply is used up and then move on. The land is left useless and exposed and a process of erosion (16) … into effect, washing soil into rivers thereby killing fish and blocking the water’s natural course.