- •Reading Material Text a
- •Before reading the text try to discuss the following questions.
- •Now read the text, translate it and get ready to do the exercises after the text. Geography
- •Word Study
- •Comprehension and Discussion
- •Origin and development of geography. Early history
- •Geographic methods. Map location and measurement
- •The Round Earth on Flat Paper
- •Dialogue
- •Listening Comprehension Text “Geography”
- •Revision
- •What is science?
- •Становление географии как науки
- •Active Vocabulary
- •Additional Reading Geography and people: Ptolemy
- •Components of maps
- •Maps and graphs Maps
- •Isoline maps
- •Choropleth
- •Topological maps
- •Proportional flow maps
- •Dot maps
- •Line graphs
- •Scattergraphs
- •Pie charts
- •Reading Material Text a
- •The History of Exploration
- •Word Study
- •Comprehension and Discussion
- •Captain Cook
- •Text c The Mystery of the Franklin Expedition
- •Text d
- •The History of Maps
- •Dialogue
- •Listening Comprehension Text “Christopher Columbus”
- •Revision
- •Questions:
- •II. Первое русское кругосветное путешествие
- •Active Vocabulary
- •Additional Reading Famous Russian navigators
- •Navigation Tools
- •Unit III
- •Reading Material Text a
- •Before we start reading let’s recollect the composition of the solar system.
- •What does the solar system consist of?
- •What heavenly object is the most beautiful (mysterious, important)?
- •The Universe and the Solar System
- •Word Study
- •Comprehension and Discussion
- •Our local star
- •Text c The Evolution of the Universe
- •Text d Galaxies
- •Dialogue
- •Is the Sun Good or Bad for Us?
- •Is the sun good or bad for us?
- •Listening Comprehension Text “Stars”
- •Fill in the gaps.
- •Note down the temperature of:
- •Note down the colours of :
- •Revision
- •The Lunar Surface
- •Active Vocabulary
- •Additional Reading The Planets
- •Mercury
- •Jupiter
- •Uranus and Neptune
- •Stellar Evolution
- •Unit IV
- •Reading Material Text a
- •Before reading the passage discuss these points with a partner.
- •Is the earth a perfect sphere?
- •This Earth of Ours
- •Word Study
- •Comprehension and Discussion
- •Volcanic Eruptions
- •Text c The Earth. Size. Shape.
- •Text d The Earth
- •Dialogue Discussing the age of the earth
- •Listening Comprehension Text “The Earth’s shape”
- •1. What is the “equatorial bulge”?
- •2. Are all three models only approximations?
- •Revision
- •History of the Earth
- •Latitude and Longitude
- •Active Vocabulary
- •Additional Reading Yellowstone National Park
- •The geological setting
- •Hydrothermal features
- •Reading Material Text a
- •The Atmosphere: Properties and composition
- •Word Study
- •Comprehension and Discussion
- •Oxygen-Carbon Dioxide Cycle
- •The Ozone Layer
- •The Ionosphere
- •Dialogue
- •Listening Comprehension Text “The Atmosphere”
- •Part b. Listening activities
- •Revision
- •Air pollution
- •Active Vocabulary
- •Additional Texts Greenhouse gases
- •The air we breathe
- •Unit VI
- •Reading Material Text a
- •Before reading the text discuss these points with a partner.
- •Now read the text, translate it and get ready to do the exercises after the text. Climate
- •Word study
- •Climate
- •Comprehension and Discussion
- •The climate of the uk
- •The World’s Inconstant Climate
- •Methods of weather modification
- •Weather
- •Days of Abnormal Weather
- •Vocabulary
- •Days of Abnormal Weather Text 1
- •Interpretation
- •Weather Forecast
- •Listening Comprehension Text “The Climate”
- •Revision
- •Climate
- •Weather maps
- •Project Writing
- •Active Vocabulary
- •Additional Reading Climatic Change
- •Origin of Climatic Change
- •Ocean Currents
- •Unit VII
- •Reading Material Text a
- •Before reading the passage discuss these points with a partner.
- •Into how many parts is the earth’s surface divided?
- •How are land and sea distributed?
- •Now read the text, translate it and get ready to do the exercises after the text. Land Forms of the Earth
- •Word Study
- •The Alps
- •Comprehension and Discussion
- •The Surface of the Ground
- •Continental Drift
- •Wegener’s Theory
- •Text d The Soil Beneath our Feet
- •Dialogue Discussing the process of erosion
- •Listening Comprehension Text “Continental drift”
- •Fill in the gaps.
- •Note down the terms used by the lecturer.
- •Note down the thickness of the asthenosphere.
- •Revision
- •Relief form of the earth
- •Earthquake waves
- •Earthquakes
- •Active Vocabulary
- •Additional Reading Erosion
- •Weathering
- •1999 A bad year for earthquakes
- •Limestone in Europe
- •Vulcanism
- •Volcanic Eruptions
- •Glaciers
- •Minerals
- •What Minerals Are
- •Mineral Properties
- •The Earth’s Interior
- •Interior Structure
- •Rock Classification
- •Igneous Rocks
- •Sedimentary Rocks
- •Grammar focus the system of tenses
- •Charles Robert Darwin
- •Passive voice
- •The Greenhouse Effect
- •Participle
- •The gerund
- •Функции герундия в предложении и способы его перевода на русский язык
- •Infinitive
- •I. Образование
- •II. Функции инфинитива в предложении.
- •Complex Object
- •Complex Subject
- •Subjunctive mood
- •Subjunctive Mood Conditional Sentences
- •Modal verbs
- •(Выражение «вероятности», «предположения»)
- •The system of tenses
- •Charles Robert Darwin
Reading Material Text a
Task
а) Before reading the text try to recollect the following:
What is the atmosphere?
What are the components of the atmosphere?
What is the role of the atmosphere?
b) Read the text, translate it and get ready to do the exercises after the text.
The Atmosphere: Properties and composition
One of the most unique features of Earth is the presence of a stable atmosphere. The atmosphere is the layer of gas that surrounds the earth. Earth’s atmosphere shapes our weather, climate, and vegetation patterns and makes life possible. Without air there would be no day-to-day weather changes. It would be extremely hot during the day and very cold at night. And, there would be no colour, no weather, no fire, no sound. Without air nothing on earth could live. This ocean of gases rises upward for hundreds of miles. It can be heavy or thin, calm or stormy, hot or cold. More than 98 percent of the gases that make up the atmosphere, are found within 26 kilometers of the earth’s surface. Farther above the earth, the gases gradually thin out. And the composition of the atmosphere changes with the distance from the earth’s surface.
Air in its natural state is a colorless, odorless, tasteless mixture, which has weight. Anything that takes place has weight and exerts pressure by pushing. An Italian scientist, Evangelista Toricelly, was the first person to show that pressure of air could be measured. The body of an average man has a surface of 2, 300 square inches.1 At sea level this body will support air pressure of 34,500 pounds.2 We are not crushed by this enormous weight because the air inside of the bodies presses out just as strongly as the air outside presses in. The atmospheric pressure is measured by a barometer, and is normally registered in millibars.
Scientists speak of the atmosphere as divided into layers. The layer near the surface – the troposphere – contains the air we breathe, which is 78 percent nitrogen (N2), 21 percent oxygen (O2), 0.03 percent carbon dioxide (CO2), and 1 percent inert gases such as argon. There are tiny quantities of other gases such as helium, ozone (O3), nitrous oxide (N2 O), and methane (CH4). Water vapour is also present but to a variable extent, ranging from nearly none to about 4 per cent. The lower atmosphere also contains a considerable quantity of small solid particles of different kinds, such as soot, bits of rock and soil, salt, salt grains from the evaporation of seawater droplets, and spores, pollen, and bacteria. The troposphere we live in varies in thickness from 10 miles high at the equator to five miles high at the North and South Poles. All our weather is formed in this layer, as well as clouds, the blue colour of the sky and the winds.
The blue colour of the sky is due to the scattering of sunlight by gas molecules and dust particles in the atmosphere. Blue light is scattered most; hence skylight, which consists of scattered sunlight, is predominantly blue, and the sun itself appears a little more yellowish or reddish than it would if there were no atmosphere, the scattering is greatest, and the sun may be a brilliant red.
From 15 to 80 kilometeres above the earth is the stratosphere, an upper portion of the atmosphere. It contains thin, cold air with less oxygen and no dust or water vapor. The ionosphere contains very thin air and electrically charged particles which reflect electromagnetic waves. We use the ionosphere to send radio signals around the earth.
The lower part of the stratosphere contains a band of warm gas called the ozone layer (between 15 and 40 kilometers above sea level). Ozone absorbs very shortwave ultraviolet radiation – that is, the harmful, burning rays from the sun. These rays kill plants and cause burns, skin cancer, and cataracts in animals and man. The ozone layer protects us from these damaging effects.
Notes:
inch – дюйм (=2,5 см)
pound – фунт (=453,6 г)