Ex.1. Make up a summary of the text under headline “The Planet strikes back”

Ex.2. Read the phrase and comment on it scientifically: “Plant a tree, cool the Globe”

Ex.3. Compare the proposals given in the text D with the discussed ones in the text A. Are there any principally new and different ones? Make a statement to tell your opponent something significant.

Unit 4. The Destruction of Animal Environment as international problem number four.

Предтекстовое задание. По своему выбору выпишите предложения, перевод которых соответствует грамматическим конструкциям, приведенным перед текстом. Обоснуйте в соответствии с грамматическими правилами.

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Grammar: The Present Simple Tense.

The Present Continuous Tense.

Text A . Everything and all is in close interaction in Nature

It's easy for us to see what we are doing to the air we breathe or the water we drink, and every day we can take notice of the garbage we "throw out." But what about the habitats we don't see every day? Our destruction of rain forests, grasslands, deserts, wetlands, and oceans often goes unnoticed.

It is hard for us to understand what these "distant" areas have to do with us. We do not realize that everything on the planet is interconnected; and when something goes wrong in some other part of the world, everybody loses. Let's look at what we are doing to two environments.

The "rain" in the rain forest-name is well-deserved. This area that encircles the earth 10 degrees north and south of the equator has more than 80 inches of rain each year. With this much rain and sea sonless sunshine, thick jungles grow.

Most people do not understand the importance of these forests, which are located halfway around the world. However, their protection is very important. In Brazil alone, farmers are burning the rain forests at the rate of 3000 acres an hour. Scientists say that more than one fifth of the rain forests have already been destroyed and by the year 2000, 80 percent will be gone.

Why should we save these forests? There are many reasons. Although rain forests make up only 2 percent of the earth's surface, they contain 50 percent of all the known species of plants and animals in the world. Many of the plants and animals

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have never been seen or studied. If the forests disappear, we may never see these species.

The trees in the forests help hold the soil in place and hold water for the entire region. Without them, scientists think that drought or flooding could occur. We also get many drugs and medicines from plants that grow in the tropics. One in four pharmaceuticals comes from a plant in a tropical rain forest. Since many plants in this area have not even been studied, there are probably many more medical discoveries to be found.

With the population of the world growing, the forests represent great wealth to many developing nations. As a forest, the land is useless. However, it is cleared for farming; it can provide food for hungry mouths. How are the forests being destroyed?

Up to 20 million acres of forests—an area the size of West Virginia—are cleared each yea through a method called slash-and-burn. Farmer then uses the land for a few years and when all the nutrients are gone from the soil, they simply move on and destroy more forests. If you were looking г Earth from space, the smoke from the burning would cover an area the size of India. The adds much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and increases the green house effect.

After agriculture, logging is the mo serious threat to the rain forests. Scientists think that at least 10 million acres are destroyed each year to produce fir wood or charcoal.

Ex.1.Read and translate the text.

Ex.2. Read the proverb and comment on it in accordance with the plot of the text: “As you make your bed, so you must lie on it”

Text B. The main causes of species extinction

There are over 13.000 known species of mammals and birds, thousands of reptiles and fish, some 250,000 plants, and millions of invertebrates (i.е., insects, worms and other species that do not have a backbone). Extinction is a natural feature of the evolution of life on earth, the best-known example being the disappearance of the dinosaur.

In the last 400 years, however, human activities have been responsible for the loss of most of the animals and plants that have disappeared. Gone for ever, for example, are seventeen species or subspecies of bears, five of wolves and foxes, four of cats, ten of cattle, sheep, goats and antelopes, five of horses, zebras and asses, and three of deer. These are large mammals: there are thousands of insects, plants and small mammals which have suffered the same fate.

Some researchers report that animal and plant extinctions are occurring at present at the rate of three species a day.

Current estimates are that up to a million species will disappear by the year 2000 (including a large number that we have not yet discovered); if this is true, this means the loss of one type of animal, plant or invertebrate every six minutes. Some

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researchers predict a smaller rate of loss — one species every 30 minutes. Whichever projection is true, the current rate of species loss is appalling.

The main causes of species extinction

A crucial loss of habitat has been the destruction of the tropical rain forests, where roughly one-twelfth of the world's land area hosts an estimated half of the entire world's species. Forty to fifty per cent of these forests have disappeared, much of mass since the Second World War, with destruction continuing apace (see «Deforestation»).

Another significant factor is the loss of wetlands, a fertile habitat type. The World Wide Fund for Nature estimates that half of all the world's wetlands have disappeared this century.

A crucial loss of habitat has been the destruction of the tropical rain forests, where roughly one-twelfth of the world's land area hosts an estimated half of the entire world's species. Forty to fifty per cent of these forests have disappeared, much of it since the Second World War, with destruction continuing apace (see «Deforestation»).

Another significant factor is the loss of wetlands, a fertile habitat type. The World Wide Fund for Nature estimates that half of all the world's wetlands have disappeared this century

Countryside changes have also contributed, as semi-natural and natural land has been taken over by agriculture and pesticides have destroyed a number of habitats. In many countries, over-intensive agriculture has led to a breakdown in the vitality of the land, which becomes unable to support the plants and animals that previously lived there. The process of building roads and towns itself changes the environment, making it uninhabitable for certain species.

There is another cause of species extinction: the collecting or hunting of wildlife, and the multi-billion dollar trade that this services. The loss of plant species, however, has extremely worrying implications for the human race. 25,000 plants could be extinct by the end of the century.

The loss to medical research can only be guessed at. Currently, about onequarter of all medicines still contain components derived from flowering plants. The number of plants predicted to become extinct by the year 2000 could include 200 drug-yielding species.

This is a very human-centered way of looking at the problem of species extinction. There is a planetary dimension. We still do not understand all the complexities of the way in which the atmosphere, the sea and the land maintain their equilibrium. The biological diversity which has evolved over the centuries may be a cornerstone of this equilibrium. Humanity's extinction of hundreds of thousands of species could have undreamt-of reverberations.

Ex.1. Translate the nouns and use them in the summary of the text:

Mammals; reptiles; invertebrates (insects, worms ); dinosaur; deer; habitat; wetlands; species; dimension; complexity; equilibrium; diversity; extinction; implication

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Text C. Dinosaurs lived many years ago

Предтекстовое задание. По своему выбору выпишите предложения, перевод которых соответствует грамматическим конструкциям, приведенным перед текстом. Обоснуйте в соответствии с грамматическими правилами.

Grammar: The Past Simple Tense

Dinosaurs lived on the earth for 135 million years. They appeared 200 million years ago, and they disappeared 65 million years ago. They were the largest animals ever to live on earth, and they ruled the earth for a very long period of time.

Dinosaurs lived in North America, in Africa, and in Europe. During this time, the land in North America was under a large, shallow sea. Many dinosaurs lived in the water, which helped to hold up their great weight. The early dinosaurs walked on two feet, and they ate meat. The later dinosaurs were larger and walked on four feet. Some of the later dinosaurs ate plants only.

The Stegosaurus was very large. It was a plant eater, but it was often in danger from the meat-eating dinosaurs. It developed scales along its back to protect itself. The Stegosaurus was so large that it took a long time for messages to travel from its brain to its legs. To solve this problem, it developed a "second brain" by its back legs to control its leg movements.

Why did dinosaurs die out? Nobody knows for sure. Probably a change in the weather made serious problems for them. About 70 million years ago, the Rocky Mountains formed in North America. The plant life and the weather changed. Perhaps the dinosaurs couldn't change fast enough.

People who like dinosaurs can see fossils in Dinosaur National Park. This park is in Utah and Colorado. Fossils are bones which have become stone. Fossils have taught us a lot about these great animals of the past.

Text D. Is there only one way to save wild habitat?

By the year 2030, 25% of all animals, birds, fish and insects may be extinct. Why is this happening? Well, mere are three main reasons. The first is pollution. Millions of animals die every year because man has polluted their natural home or "habitat". A habitat contains everything a living thing needs: food, water, shelter, space, light.

Pollution and destruction change the balance of nature. Each species in a habitat - wood, jungle, marsh3 or forest - needs and helps the rest. If one animal, bird or insect disappears, all the rest suffer, too, because some plants and animals provide food for other animals. Forests help to regulate water supplies. We all need the help of all living things to maintain chemical balance of the atmosphere.

After pollution or destruction, habitats take many years (sometimes hundreds or even thousands) to grow again. This is what's happening in the rainforests of South

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