- •Unit 1 geoecology
- •Terms and Vocabulary
- •Pay attention to the pronunciation of the following words.
- •2. Read the text, fulfill the exercises.
- •7. Read the text below, use the word given in capitals at the end of each line to form a word that fits in the space in the same line.
- •8. What are the subjects of the following sciences?
- •9. Here are some definitions. What are they? Complete the sentences.
- •10. Answer the questions.
- •11. 9 Listen to the interview with a senior research engineer called Dr. Michael Blomberg. Dr. Blomberg gives his opinions on future trends in science and technology.
- •12. Read the text, do the tasks after it. Science and values
- •13. Work in pairs. Discuss the following quotations about ecological problems.
- •14. Read the interesting facts about nature and tell one of them to your groupmates.
- •Wordlist
- •Unit 2 the impact of mining and oil extraction on the environment
- •Terms and Vocabulary
- •1. Pay attention to the pronunciation of the following words.
- •Read the text, fulfil the exercises.
- •Match the words with their definitions.
- •9. Answer the questions.
- •10. State whether the sentences are true or false. If true, add the information you know, correct the false ones.
- •11. Read the text through and find the answers to these questions. Remember, you do not have to understand every word to answer the questions.
- •1. Are these statements True or False?
- •2. Classify the following items into four lists according to their role in environmental engineering. Then find a heading for each list.
- •3. Discuss the following points
- •12. 9 You will hear a lecture on impact of some trace elements of ore mineral on the environment. For questions 1-5, choose the best answer a, b, or c.
- •13. Read the text, tell about the impact of different stages of oil extraction on environment Environmental effect of Extracting Delivering, and Using Petroleum Products
- •14. Say in what content these figures are mentioned in the text.
- •15. Complete the sentences according to the text.
- •16. 9 You are going to hear a report about tanker disasters. Work in pairs. List possible causes of tanker disasters. Do you think that most accidents could be avoided or are some inevitable?
- •17. 9 You will hear various people talking about a tanker disaster. You will hear the people twice.
- •18. Imagine you are people from the list in Ex. 17. Act out interviews. Before you begin, decide what attitude you wish to convey by the tone of your voice and the way you speak.
- •19. Imagine you are fisherman or local hotel owners. Plan and write a letter demanding compensation for loss of trade caused by the oil spills.
- •20. Discuss the following facts and figures.
- •21. Discuss the following quotation from the standpoint of the ecological problems in mining and oil production
- •Deepwater Horizon oil spill
- •23. Write a paragraph on one of the topics, be ready to discuss it in group.
- •Wordlist
- •Unit 3 the problems of power generation
- •Terms and vocabulary
- •A) Pay attention to the pronunciation of the following words.
- •2. Read the text, fulfil the exercises.
- •3. Give Russian equivalents to the following words and set-expressions.
- •4. Match the synonyms.
- •5. Match the antonyms.
- •6. Fill in the correct word from the list below.
- •7. Fill in the necessary preposition.
- •8. Read the examples, join the sentences in every possible way.
- •Join the sentences using the words in brackets. Think of other ways of joining them.
- •Translate the sentences, mind Subjective Infinitive Construction.
- •11. Translate the sentences using Subjective Infinitive Construction
- •12. Complete the sentences according to the text.
- •Answer the questions.
- •Read the text, suggest the title to it.
- •Answer the questions.
- •18. Understanding a lecture
- •19. Read the text attentively, do the task after it. Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
- •20. Working in pairs, discuss one of the energy source, its advantages and disadvantages, its perspectives:
- •21. Read the article and answer the questions below: The Truth about Chernobyl
- •22. Organize a students’ conference “The modern problems of energy generation.
- •Wordlist
- •Unit 4 the greenhouse effect
- •Terms and vocabulary
- •1. Guess the meaning of the words and remember the pronunciation.
- •2. Read the text, fulfill the exercises.
- •3. Complete the table with the appropriate word-formations.
- •5. Translate from Russian into English.
- •Fill in each gap with only one word.
- •7. Match the definitions.
- •8. Complete the following sentences:
- •9. Answer the questions.
- •10. Put the sections of the article from the New Scientist into the correct order. The first section is “ a” and the last is “g”. Looking on the Dark Side of Global Warming
- •11. 9 You will hear a lecture on global warming. For questions 1- 15 fill in the missing information.
- •Read the text without using a dictionary. Speak on the properties and practical applications of ozone
- •13. Tell about the greenhouse effect using this picture
- •14. 9 You will hear a man talking about a climatic phenomenon called El Niňo. For questions 10-14, choose the best answer (a, b, c or d) which fits best according to what you hear.
- •15. Discuss the following facts and figures.
- •16. Discuss the following problems. Find some additional information to prove your point of view.
- •Wordlist
- •Unit 5 the impact of chemical elements on human organism
- •Terms and Vocabulary
- •Read the words and remember their pronunciation.
- •Try to recognize the following words, remember their pronunciation.
- •3. Read the text, fulfil the exercises.
- •8. Fill in the necessary prepositions:
- •9. State whether each of the following sentences are true or false, if false, explain why.
- •10. Read the text again and make notes under the following headings. Find some additional information on each of the topics. Talk about the process of toxicokinetics. Use the scheme.
- •11. Read the text and answer the questions. Toxic heavy metals
- •Mechanisms of toxicity
- •Some principle processes of toxicity
- •Some other reaction of human organism to xenobiotic
- •Dose in the Exposure-Response relationships
- •Interaction of xenobiotics with each other
- •Carcinogenesis
- •More on carcinogenesis
- •Toxicity testing
- •Wordlist
- •Final tests
- •Variant 1
- •Variant 2
- •Glossary
- •Practical part
- •The result processing
- •Questions
- •Laboratory work № 2
- •Investigation of physiological characteristics of organism adaptation to low temperature
- •Theoretical introduction
- •Practical part
- •Questions
- •Laboratory work № 3 Study of calculation method of depletion time for non-renewable resources
- •Theoretical introduction
- •Practical part
- •Questions
- •Project work Types of Anthropogenic Impact in Tomsk Territory
- •References
Unit 5 the impact of chemical elements on human organism
Serious health problems and diseases may arise from toxic elements in water, air, soil, and even the rocks on which we build our homes. Almost every part of the human body is affected by one pollutant or another. The same is wildlife.
Lead-in
1. Once the famous physician and alchemist Paracelsus said: “Everything is poisonous, yet nothing is poisonous”. What did he mean? Give your examples.
2. How can harmful substances get into organism? Enumerate all possible pathways.
3. The impact of what substances on human organism do you know? Can you describe it?
Terms and Vocabulary
Host |
организм-хозяин, реципиент |
Hazard |
опасность, риск |
Exposure |
подвергание воздействию, экспозиция |
Excretion |
выведение, экскреция |
Tissue |
ткань |
Ingestion |
прием пищи, глотание |
Uptake |
поглощение, ввод |
Bolus |
пищевая масса, кусок пищи |
Scope |
рамки, границы |
Host defences |
иммунная защита организма |
Risk assessment |
оценка рисков |
Read the words and remember their pronunciation.
[i:] convenience, excretion, breathing, intravenous
[oυ] process, scope
[u:] rout, include, remove, evolution
[ai] biology, kinetics, xenobiotics
[dʒ] geology, agent, ingestion
[k] mechanism, chemicals, characterize
[ks] toxicity, xenobiotics, acceptable
[ʒ] exposure
Try to recognize the following words, remember their pronunciation.
Immunology [ımјυ′nolodʒı] Xenobiotics [٫kѕeno′baıotık]
Terminology [tə:mı′nolədʒı] Implantation [٫ımpla:n′teı∫(ә)n]
Anthropogenic [ænθrəpə′dʒenık] Steroid [′steroıd]
Enzyme [´enzaım] Hormone [′ho:mәun]
3. Read the text, fulfil the exercises.
Toxicology has expanded its scope to include biological mechanisms of toxicity and host defences (or resistance) against toxicity from its early preoccupation with particularly toxic chemicals, from which it gained its essential definition as a science of poisons. In the 20th century, momentum for its development as an independent discipline has come from food safety, chemical warfare defence, product safety, radiation biology, pesticide research, environmental medicine, and immunology. Toxicology has become highly specialized in the area of risk assessment, which identifies the level of hazard peculiar to a particular chemical exposure and the limits of acceptably safe exposure.
For convenience in terminology, all substances not normally present in the body and introduced from outside are referred to as “xenobiotics” (from the Greek xeno-, meaning foreign). Xenobiotics may be drugs, food constituents, natural chemical exposures, or anthropogenic environmental chemical exposures.
Toxicology plays a central role in medical geology. The scientific principles of toxicology are applied to medical geology in three broad areas: clinical toxicology, risk assessment, and hazard control and monitoring. Risk assessment is the identification and characterisation of the level of risk resulting from exposure of hazards, including the uncertainties. Toxicology plays an essential role in risk assessment both in characterising the potential toxicity of a chemical hazard, the first step in the process, and in proving the conceptual framework upon which quantitative risk assessment is based.
Regardless of their effect or origin, the behaviour of xenobiotics in the body can be described by general terms and models reflecting the mechanisms by which exposure occurs and the body handles the chemicals. From the standpoint of evolutionary biology, it is supposed that these mechanisms developed in response to selection pressures indicating either of two biological needs: to detoxify and excrete harmful substances ingested in foods and to metabolize endogenous chemical compounds (such as steroid hormones).
Four terms describe the disposition of xenobiotics: absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion. Modelled together, the terms indicate the entry, local and overall accumulation, transformation, and removal from the body of the xenobiotic. Because tissue level depend on transport of the xenobiotic to the target organ and the degree to which the xenobiotic partitions or is sequestered into the tissue, the kinetics of the xenobiotics determines the presentation of the xenobiotic to the target organ at the receptor level, where the toxic effect occurs (see Fig.).
Xenobiotics may enter the body through any of several “portals” or routs of entry. By far the most common opportunities for exposure are skin contact and breathing in the agent. Ingestion, resulting from eating or placing objects (e.g. cigarettes) in the mouth in a situation where the object or the hands may have been contaminated, or in suicide attempts, is not a common problem in environmental medicine, but appears from time to time. Other routs of exposure, such as intravenous infusion or implantation of soluble agents, are artificial and seldom seen outside of medical care and experimental studies.
Once the xenobiotic is absorbed and enters the organism, it is transported to capillary level in tissues of the body where it becomes available for uptake by the target organ. After one pass through the circulation the xenobiotic is uniformly mixed in arterial blood regardless of its entry. When a bolus is absorbed, the peripheral tissues are therefore presented with an increasing concentration in the blood which peaks and then declines as the xenobiotic is distributed to tissues throughout the body and removed by metabolism, excretion, or storage.
Many xenobiotics are substrates for intracellular enzyme systems which transform it from the original compound to a series of stable metabolites, often through intermediate unstable compounds. These transformations may have the effect of either “detoxifying”, by rendering the agent toxicologically inactive, or of “activation”, by converting the native agent into a metabolite that is more active in producing the same or another toxic effect.
The xenobiotic or its metabolite would accumulate and remain within the body, if there were no mechanisms for excretion. Elimination is the term used for removal of xenobiotic from the bloodstream, whether by excretion, metabolism, or sequestration (storage).
From Essentials of Medical Geology. Elsevier Inc., 2005.
4. Read the following word-formations, translate into Russian.
Toxicology – toxicity – detoxify – toxic – toxicologically
To act – active – inactive – activity – activation
To produce – product – production
To absorb – absorption – absorptive
To transport – transportation – transportive
To metabolize – metabolite – metabolism
5. Give Russian equivalents to the following words and set-expressions.
To play an essential role
To result from
To expand the scope
To provide the framework
Regardless of smth.
In response to
From the standpoint of
Peculiar to
Compose your own sentences with two of the expressions.
6. Match the synonyms.
1. response |
a. eliminate |
2. defence |
b. contaminate |
3. show |
c. route |
4. remove |
d. indicate |
5. occur |
e. reaction |
6. portal |
f. resistance |
7. pollute |
g. take place |
7. Match the words with their definitions.
1). xenobiotic |
is |
a). the process of removal of xenobiotic from the organism |
2). absorption |
b). a substance involved in metabolism, being either synthesized during metabolism or taken in from the environment |
|
3). excretion |
c). a science dealing with biological mechanisms of toxicity and host defences against toxicity |
|
4) toxicology |
d). the process for xenobiotic to enter the body |
|
5). metabolite |
e). a substance alien to an organism |