Lesson 4. Agricultural production and land resources

I. Выучите новую лексику урока:

chemical n химическое удобрение entire а полный

consequence п последствие joint n соединение, узел;

accumulate v накапливать общий, объединенный

advanced а передовой purpose n цель

diminish v уменьшать; ослаблять restrictive а ограничительный

formerly adv прежде, раньше ограниченный

improvement n улучшение link n связь, соединение;

implement n инструмент, орудие; v связывать, соединять

v выполнять; приводить elevation n повышение; высота

в исполнение investment n капиталовложение

predict v предсказывать, прог- suit v подходить; приспособить(ся)

нозировать suitable а подходящий

II.Прочитайте и переведите текст: Text a. Progress in Farming and Land Resources

Farming has today new chemicals and machines to work with plants and animals with new capabilities. Farmers have developed new skills in planting, care and harvesting. The land use planners help them. They have accumulated much new knowledge about land. They know how it varies from place to place. If land is used wisely it increases its productivity. If it's used on the basis of advanced science and technology land does not diminish its fertility.

The decision to take a concerted action through irrigation has brought water to millions of hectares of land that formerly produced but a scattering of grass. Power units with large implements have given new opportunities to raise land productivity. Improvements in the genetic make-up of cгор varieties have raised output ceilings of land resources best suited for growing them. Soils that produced "poor" yields only because they lacked fertility are not nearly so "poor" today as they were before. Science and chemical industry developed suitable fertilizers.

Farming today is a highly commercialized and often highly specialized production of food and raw materials. The entirely new set of input factors that farms have to work with has changed greatly the significance of many differences in land. The joint efforts of farms, scientists and industry in developing and adopting new technology have produced progress in agricultural land uses.

III. Прочтите и переведите текст: Text b. Factors that Influence Land Uses in Agriculture

Land occupies the leading place among the resources used in farming. Its central place has not diminished with the progressive advance of technology and the greater use of machines and fertilizers.

Land use planners now are no more captives of the natural environment. They are able to control and direct natural forces in many ways. This means that farmland can be used for more different purposes than ever before. The properties inherent in the land are now less restrictive. Many factors determine the proper, sound and full land uses in agriculture.

Nevertheless, the characteristics of land resources still set limits that influence the patterns of land uses. The successful land use planner is the one who learns to cooperate with the natural and biological processes that are linked to land.

What determines how farmland shall be used in any area or region? Why are certain combinations of crops and live stock grown in one region, but not in another? Questions like these seek answers of land use planners.

In general terms, two groups of forces- physical and economic- influence the use of land for agricultural production. Physical factors are the climate, soil, topography elevation, water supply, and the like. They are the properties that are naturally a part of land resources.

Economic factors have to do with man and his relation to land resources and his facilities, investments, nearness to living centres, patterns of management, and other significant elements. Technological change, economic and physical factors determine land uses in agriculture.