XI. Look through the texts in this unit, find Participles (I&II), Infinitives and Gerunds. Try to define their functions in the sentences.

XII. Find all the international words in the text. Say what Russian words help to guess the meaning of these words.

XIII. Act out the following dialogue. Reproduce the dialogue the other way, changing heroes, their actions and intentions (in pairs).

A VISIT TI THE LABORATORY

David, a second year student, is showing the laboratory to his friend Mike.

David: Here is our laboratory. Come in, Mike.

Mike: What a variety of smells you have here!

David: No wonder, it is a chemistry laboratory.

(They go up to the bench where the analyst is working.)

Mike: David, what is the analyst doing?

David: He is making hydrogen. Look! He is putting zinc into a flask. Now he is adding sulphuric acid.

Mike: It is very interesting.

David: Now bubbles are forming on the zinc. This is hydrogen

Mike: Are you making an experiment now?

David: Yes, I am. I am analyzing a specimen of ore and determining the properties of this ore. I’m going to determine the iron content in this piece of ore.

Mike: Are you going to be a scientist?

David: Oh, yes, I am. It’s great to be a scientist.

Ecology

1. Study the list of topical vocabulary to avoid the difficulties in understanding the text in exercise III. Consult the dictionary to pronounce the words correctly.

ancestor – предок

conquer – завоевывать

decompose – разлагать, разрушать

discharge – выброс

disturb – нарушать

environment – окружающая среда

essential – существенный, важный

eternal – вечный, неизменный

fertilizer – удобрение

habitat – среда обитания

healthy – здоровый, жизнеспособный

increasingly – по возрастающей, все больше и больше

inexhaustible – неисчерпаемый

layer – слой

noxious – вредный

output – выпуск

poisoning – отравление

reach – достигать

resin – смола

sewage – сточные воды

soil – почва

standpoint – точка зрения

suffer – страдать

upset – нарушать

wastes – отходы, выбросы

II. Read the following international words and define their meaning.

Resources, ecology, balance, technology, biosphere, radioactivity, negative effect, factor, industrial, substance, synthetic materials, polymers, plastics, pesticides, circulation, bacteria, atmosphere, progress, electricity, automobile, biological, comfort, diagnosing, economic, social, technological processes, specialist, personal interest, effective, specific, integrated.

III. Answer the following questions and express your point of view on the ecological problems.

1. What is the term ecology associated with?

2. What is the definition of ecology?

3. What are the most acute problems of ecology nowadays?

4. What are the reasons of ecological problems?

5. How does modern society solve ecological problems?

IV. Read and translate the text below, say what its main points are. (Study the vocabulary notes after the text.) Give the title to the text.

Our ancestors believed that the Earth’s resources were inexhaustible and eternal. Primitive societies were based on hunting and food gathering (berries, mushrooms, roots etc.). They began to seriously disturb the balance of nature only when they started to practice farming on a large scale¹ and keep large herds of grass-eating animals. We have no right to blame our ancestors for their ecological ignorance: they fought to live.

Even in the nineteenth century when the word ecology was born people continued to use nature as customers. Man is regarded to be the lord of nature but not the child.

Later, in the twentieth century, with the advance of science and technology human achievements in conquering nature became greater. So, man’s economic activities began to produce an increasingly negative effect on the biosphere. The rise of chemicals, radioactivity and noise are the main factors of pollution.

The growth of giant cities accompanied by industrial development on a huge scale began to introduce enormous amounts of noxious wastes into the environment.

Man creates new compounds, new substances and pure chemical elements which are unknown to the biosphere. For instance, man produces fertilizers, pure iron and pure aluminium which never existed in the world before. Besides, the output of such synthetic compounds as polymers, resins, plastics, synthetic materials and pesticides has become enormous. They upset the balance of the natural circulation of matter because soil and water bacteria cannot decompose them.

So, economic growth associated with the technological progress causes the environmental pollution. By now the pollution and poisoning of the soil, water and air have reached a critical level. The discharge of dust and gas into the atmosphere returns to the Earth in the form of “acid rain”. The so-called acid rain results from the release of sulphur oxide and nitrogen oxide into the atmosphere. The main sources of such emissions are plants generating electricity (power stations), industrial boilers, large smelters and automobiles. The gases react with droplets of water and form a diluted mixture of sulphuric acid and nitric acid. This mixture returns to the Earth in the form of acid rain, mist or snow. Wind currents may take away acid rainfalls to the places far from its point of origin. Acid rains exert harmful influence upon crop, the quality and condition of forests, the amount of fish.

Noxious industrial gases unknown to the nature are able to trap the heat of the sun. So, the planet becomes covered by a layer of the gases which keep the heat from getting out. This dense layer of industrial gases produces the global warming. This is also called “the greenhouse effect”². Thus, pollution in the atmosphere prevents the heat of the sun escaping back into space. When the temperature of the atmosphere rises, the climatic conditions of different areas on Earth change.

Oil spills, effluent from factories and sewages add to pollution of rivers and seas.

The destruction of nature gradually led to the loss of the most essential element of existence – a healthy biological habitat. Man suffers from his own activity but stays careless: he continues to demand more comfort and do all his best to gain it. He forgets that he is also a part of the world ecosystem. Environmental pollution increases the number and variety of diseases, causes the difficulties in diagnosing and defining the reasons of human illnesses, reduces the life-span of a man.

Economic, social, technological and biological processes have become extremely interdependent. Young man, future specialist, must consider different kinds of activities not only according to some personal interests or from the economic standpoint but from ecological too. He must give his efforts and possessions to search effective ways of environmental protection. Although the new environmental problems seem very specific, their solution depends on the integrated efforts of specialists in different scientific fields.

Vocabulary notes:

¹ on a large scale – в больших масштабах

² the greenhouse effect – тепличный (парниковый) эффект