English for Geographers

English For Geographers_____________________________________________

1.The residents were opposed to the construction of a nuclear power station in their ……... (area).

2.To be a successful manager you need to have ……… experience

(varied).

3.The ……… on the hill is home to numerous birds and animals (tree covered area).

4.When asked, Jane is always ready to ……… good ideas (suggest).

5.To avoid ……... Wash light and dark coloured clothes separately

(spoiling the colour).

6.The President said that he ……... the practices of military regimes

(found unacceptable)

7.Educational ……… are trying to improve the standards in schools

(specialists).

8.My holiday had to be cancelled because of work ………

(obligations).

9.There are special ticket ……… for students (discounts).

10.The government ……… positively to the demand for new antipollution laws (answered).

4.Fill in the correct word derived from the words in brackets:

World’s Wildlife in danger

1) ……… (conserve) are very concerned about the ever-growing number of 2) ………. (danger) species in the world. 3) ……..…

(environment) problems such as freak weather conditions, fire and acid rain are resulting in the 4) …….… (destroy) of vast area of woodland and forest.

These areas are home to large numbers of animals and, as the land is vital to their 5) …….… (survive), this is having 6) …….… (alarm) effects.

7) ……..… (ecology) advocate the use of ozone-friendly products and, of course, recycling to achieve a 8) ……… (reduce) in environmental damage. Safari parks have also been established in an attempt to give 9)

…….… (protect) to animals from big-game hunters. Numbers are slowly beginning to increase and will 10) …….… (hope) continue to do so in the future.

5.Choose the correct item:

1.Zoologists work hard to ……… endangered species.

a. protect

b. shelter

c. cover

d. support

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2.	Greenpeace is going to release a(n) ……… on water pollution.
	a. edition	b. issue	c. publicity	d. report
3.	The tropical ……… of Africa need to be protected from
destruction.
a. regions		b. states	c. places	d. sites
4.	To improve the ……… of the water, use a water-purification
tablet.
	a. standard	b. amount	c. quantity	d. quality
5.	Acid rain has caused a lot of ……… to Europe’s trees.
	a. wreck	b. ruin	c. damage	d. disaster
6.	Five world leaders are due to attend the ……… meeting in
London.
	a. tip	b. top	c. summit	d. peak

6. Fill in the appropriate idiom from the list below:

backup, backbreaking, backbone, sign of the time, shows signs of, sign language

1.The ever increasing crime rate is a …….…(typical characteristic of the present).

2.Picking strawberries in the summer heat can be ……… work

(physically exhausting).

3.The policeman called for ……… when they spotted a house being burgled (reinforcements).

4.Your work …….… improvement; keep it up! (has evidence of)

5.Deaf people communicate by using ……… (hand movements and gestures).

6.The fishing industry is the ……… of the island’s economy (most essential element).

7.Read the text again and give a brief summary of what you have read, using the following headings:

*Dangers that forests are facing. *Consequences of damaging the woodlands.

*Action being taken by the European Community.

8.Match the word with its explanation:

experts	- a bad effect on something;
damage	- someone who has a special skill or special knowledge of a
	subject;
summit	- a rule or an agreement that is intended to protect smth from
	possible dangers;
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- завойовник - благословення - прокляття

- такий, що прямує від берега - учені - підняття

- риболовні угіддя - величезний - свідоцтво

English For Geographers_____________________________________________

safeguard - an important meeting between the leaders of several governments.

Unit 4

Section 1

1. Learn the following words and their translations. Check up yourself by back translation:

conqueror blessing curse offshore scholars upwelling

fishing grounds huge

evidence

2. Read and translate the following text using a dictionary:

Climate

When the Spanish conquerors sailed southward along the west coast of the Americas, they saw ocean currents that were a blessing and a curse. A curse because the waters moved in the opposite direction: northward and offshore. A blessing because in the tropical heat those waters were cool, even cold.

Soon scholars were asking the obvious questions: why are the waters off Ecuador and Peru so cool under the heat of the equatorial sun? From the northward movement of the current, it was concluded that this was Antarctic cold, carried to the tropics. Alexander von Humboldt, the great explorergeographer, measured water temperatures that seemed to confirm that idea; for a time, his name was associated with the phenomenon: the Humboldt Current. Today we know that something else contributes more significantly to the coolness of the ocean off tropical western South America: an upwelling of cold water from hundreds of feet below the surface. And the current is now called the Peru Current. Between them, the Peru Current and those upwelling, cold waters, produce the temperatures that Humboldt recorded.

As time went on, it was found out that those cold waters near Peru and Ecuador contain huge amounts of marine life. In fact, they were the richest fishing grounds anywhere in the world, and from Peruvian and Ecuadorian

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ports, fleets of fishing boats brought back millions of tons of fish over the years. The boat captains noticed, however, that something happened every year around Christmas or very early in the new year: their catch shrank to only about 10 to 20 percent of the average for other periods. The fish seemed to disappear. Then, a couple of months later, the fish would come back and the catch would be back to normal.

It was known that the scarcity of fish, beginning in late December, had something to do with another phenomenon: the water that was usually so cool, warmed up. And the direction of the current changed. Warm water started to flow southward along the coast, always around Christmas time. So, the locals called this annual event El Nino (The Little One), a name given to the Christ child whose birthday coincides very nearly with the onset of the warming trend.

Soon scientists began to realise that this El Nino might be more than a local phenomenon. As more became known about the prevailing winds in the area, the mechanism was revealed: when winds blow from east (land) to west (toward water, the Pacific), surface water is moved from the coast into the farther ocean. Taking the place of this windblown water is water from the deep-cold, nutrient-rich water that rises to fill the now-available space.

Another question proved much more difficult to answer. How does El Nino overcome this mechanism, replacing the cold upwelling water with a warm southward-flowing current? And why is El Nino so much stronger in some years than in others?

As climatologists and meteorologists studied these problems, they realised that they had come upon something much more important than a mere local phenomenon. When El Nino was particularly strong, as in 1891 and 1925 and in 1982-83, it caused more than just a drop in the fish catch. Climatic events elsewhere in the world seemed somehow connected to it: monsoon failure in India, famine in Africa, typhoons in unusual Pacific locations. El Nino appeared to be a manifestation of global climatic irregularity, evidence that something was out of balance.

3.Answer the following questions:

1.What was a blessing and a curse for the Spanish conquerors?

2.Why were the currents a blessing?

3.Why were the currents a curse?

4.Who was the first explorer to describe El Nino?

5.What does the name El Nino mean?

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English For Geographers_____________________________________________

6.When does it happen?

7.What are the climatic events of El Nino?

4.Put the questions to the following statements:

1.When the Spanish conquerors sailed southward they saw ocean currents.

2.Soon scholars were asking the obvious questions.

3.Alexander von Humboldt, the great explorer-geographer, measured water temperatures.

4.Today we know that an upwelling of cold water from hundreds of feet below the surface contributes significantly to the coolness of the ocean.

5.Climatologists and meteorologists studied these problems.

6.Cold waters near Peru and Ecuador contain huge amounts of marine life.

7.From Peruvian and Ecuadorian ports, fleets of fishing boats brought back millions of tons of fish over the years.

8.Warm water started to flow southward along the coast, always around Christmas time.

9.Soon scientists began to realise that El Nino might be more than a local phenomenon.

5.Fill in the correct word(s) from the list below:

long-term, absorb, zones, ice-covered, distance, share, same, nearer, altitude, three, differ, dense vegetation, factor, tundra, falls, low slopes, a pattern, conditions, reach.

Typical ……… weather conditions for an area are known as its climate. There are ……… broad climate zones: tropical, temperate, and polar. One ……… that affects climate is ……… from the equator (latitude). Different areas of the planet can ……… the ……… climate because they share the same latitude. The ……… the equator, the warmer the climate, and the nearer the poles, the colder. Distance from the sea and ……… also affect climate.

The temperate climates of North America and Northern Europe have seasons and a ……… of seasonal rainfall.

In a city, such as Paris, the weather may ……… from that of outlying areas. Roads and buildings ……… heat to create a local or microclimate.

The climate in regions of ……... Near the equator is hot and wet all year round. The temperature stays constant at about 80-820F (27-280C).

At the ……… poles, temperatures only rise above freezing for a few months of the year. The cold, dry ……… region surrounds the north pole.

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The temperature ……… the higher up a mountain you go. Trees and plants grow on the ……… but little grows above the snowline.

Few animals and plants can live in the hot, dry ……… of the desert. The temperature can ……… 380C (1000F) and it may not rain for several years.

6. Match the word with its explanation:

scholar	- connected with the sea and the creatures and plants that
	live there;
phenomenon	- not enough and difficult to obtain;
marine	- a person who knows a lot about a particular subject
	because they have studied it in detail;
famine	- a fact or an event in nature or society, especially one
	that is not fully understood;
scarcity	- a lack of food during a long period of time in a region;
curse	- some approval or encouragement for a plan, activity,
	idea;
blessing	- something that causes trouble, harm;
evidence	- a scientist, which deals with climate;
coast	- a scientist, which deals with weather conditions;
climatologist	- the area where land meets the sea;
meteorologist	- facts or signs that show clearly that something exists or
	is true.

Section 2

1.How many different types of weather can you name? What is your favourite type of weather? How can you find out what the weather will be like?

2.Name some jobs for which a weather forecast is important. Now listen to the text and list any other jobs in which the weather plays an important role.

3.You are going to read a newspaper article about the weather. Seven sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences (A-H) the one which fits each gap. There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use. There is an example at the beginning.(0)

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English For Geographers_____________________________________________

Weather from the West

For many years I used to think that the national interest in weather was as much a British obsession as the state of their lives was a French one, but

I’ve realised it’s not really like that (0 – C).

When other subjects could be controversial, embarrassing or too personal, the British prefer to resort to unimportant observations: “Rather cold today, isn’t it?” they say. In these damp and misty off-shore islands, the weather and its comparative unpredictability is quite an interesting subject (1)

Once our regional television weather presenter showed me around. He is, like other forecasters, actually an employee of the Meteorological Office. Doing the televised forecast, although a high profile activity, is only part of the work of those employed by the Met Office.

A wide variety of people have a serious interest in the weather and will pay for an early insight. It’s not just the obvious ones like the national Rivers

Authority, which can usefully learn about rainfall, but the police, the highway authorities, the airports, and the like.

(2) The power generators and the fuel industries take advice on expected temperatures which dictate demand and, for the gas industry, the need for storage capacity. I was intrigued by the range of information inputs which provide the basis of the forecast from the Bristol Weather centre (3).

There are other satellites, either orbiting the earth or in a fixed position. Weather stations, wireless operators on ships in the Atlantic, radar – which shows exactly where the rain is – and computer modeling add to the flow of information.

At the Met Office we were able to look at readings from weather stations in eastern Canada and the United States. There, it was the middle of the night (4). We watched as the computer graphic zoomed into a weather station in Vermont to take a reading of temperature, cloud cover and wind direction.

Most of the British weather comes from the west, so knowing what is happening on the eastern seaboard of North America will often prove relevant more than 24 hours later (5). But the Met Office is pleased to say they are 85 per cent accurate in their forecasts.

I have observed that when the local authorities in Boston forecast rain, it really does rain. The reason is, of course, that on the coastal edge of a populated continent, the weather systems have been recorded by information points for some time and so accuracy is to be expected (6).

A: Would you believe that supermarkets buy weather advice in order to change their window display on the basis of what will sell more?

B: This led me to the question of the accuracy of short-term

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forecasting, since it takes so long for the information to become significant.

C:The British use the weather as a support in conversations.

D:In the UK, on the other hand, the weather systems which influence us most frequently usually come across the Atlantic, which does have information points, but not many of them.

E:Seeing these readings felt almost like eavesdropping over a silent, still-sleeping continent.

F:The Weather Centre provides a computer prediction of when precisely ice will form.

G:So when I was invited to visit the Bristol Weather Centre, I was pleased to accept.

H:Two satellites provide on-screen information direct to PCs.

4.Fill in the appropriate idiom related to weather from the list below: weather permitting, weather beaten, under the weather,

in all weathers, weather the storm.

1.The old sailor’s face was ……… from all the years he had spent at sea. (aged by the weather).

2.The stadium can be used ……… because the roof can be closed when it rains (no matter what the weather is like).

3.We’ll go for a picnic on Sunday, ……… . Let’s hope it’s sunny!

(if the weather is good).

4.Together we’ll ……… until things get better (get through difficulties).

5.I didn’t go to school because I was feeling ……… (not very well).

5.Fill in the appropriate word from the list. Use the word only once: local, a wide, the flow, orbiting, power, to take, a high profile,

showed, a populated.
1.	……… around the earth	6.	……… generators
2. He ……… me around.		7.	….….. advice
3. .…….. variety of people		8.	……… activity
4. .……… continent		9.	……… authorities
5. .……… of information

6. Insert the missing letters:

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English For Geographers_____________________________________________

int…r…st, ob…es…ion, obse…va…ions, …egi…nal, c…asta…, fo…ecas…s, …dge, sate……ites, acc…ra…y, si…nifi…ant, c…paci…y, au...h...rities, gen...rato...s.

7. Unscramble the following words and translate them:

cotonrverisal, mcopeutr, wertahe, foecrasntig, veaesppdroing, ysstmes, sbeoaard, rinalfal, ragne, reelvnat, ostrgae, bosesoins, fof-hsore, rdeingsa, iwrelses, erorst, casotla, mdoelngi.

8.The following words are related to WEATHER. Decide which ones go with GOOD WEATHER and which with BAD WEATHER:

Gloomy, damp, hot, windy, sunshine, bright, lightning, cloudless sky, stormy, snowy, dark sky, gentle wind, sunny, cloudy, blue sky, overcast, warm breeze.

9.Underline the adjective which best describes the following weather nouns:

1.	fine/heavy drizzle	7.	strong/thick fog
2.	strong/heavy shower	8.	loud/thick thunderstorm
3.	sudden/light downpour	9.	powerful/mild hurricane
4.	brief/unending cloudburst	10.	brief/destructive typhoon
5.	powerful/freezing sleet	11.	heavy/thin snowfall
6.	violent/hard hailstorm	12.	dense/light rain

10. Fill in with the correct word: snow, showers, temperature, fog, sleet, sunny, ice, sunshine.

“ …Good evening, my name is Ian Fish.

The good news today is that the weather will be better than yesterday, with less rain and more 1) …..…. . The 2) ……… will be a few degrees higher, but will drop again from the early evening onwards, getting as low as 2 degrees Celsius.

The weather tomorrow will continue to be unsettled, with 3) ………

throughout the day. There should be a few 4) ……… periods, but later in the afternoon the showers will be replaced with heavier, more prolonged rain, which will die out later in the evening.

Drivers on Sunday will be hampered by thick 5) …….. and very poor visibility. As the temperature drops, there may also be patches of black 6) ……… on the roads, and the AA advises against travelling unless it is

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absolutely necessary. Later, rain will turn to 7) ……… and possibly

8) ……… on higher ground.

Have a good weekend, whatever the weather, wherever you are!”

11. How can the weather affect our moods? Do you know any old fashioned ways of predicting the weather?

12.Imagine you are a TV weather forecaster. Prepare and write the weather forecast for your country for the coming weekend saying that the weather will get worse. Follow the outline below:

Greet viewers – Weather description – Advice – Salutation

Unit 5

Section 1

1. Learn the following words and their translations. Check up yourself by

back translation:
solar radiation	- сонячна радіація
tiny	- крихітний
fraction	- частинка
penetrate	- проникнути
protective layer	- захисний шар
interfere	- перешкоджати
scattered	- розсіяний
considerable	- значний
to head	- направлятися
albedo	- альбедо
forest-clad	- покриті лісом
greenhouse effect	- парниковий ефект
axis	- вісь

2. Read and translate the following text using a dictionary:

Earth and Sun

The earth receives solar energy from the sun. This solar radiation comes chiefly in two forms: short-wave, consisting of light rays we are able to see, and infrared rays, thermal rays whose wavelength is beyond the visible spectrum. As the earth orbits around the sun, 93 million miles (150 million

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