XII. Make up a plan of the text in the form of special questions. Retell the text using your plan.

TEXT 5.

Read and translate the following words:

microbe, bacteria, pesticides, enzyme, fermenter, biotechnology, heady, flourish, wondrous, coach, domesticate, ore, convert, invisible, scourge, germ, get rid of, sample, hairy, fungus, decompose, amoeba, prey on, notorious, thrive, abundant, versatile.

Bacteria: the Workhorses of Biotechnology

This is a heady time to be a microbe. "Microbe" is merely a convenient name for any of hundreds of thousands of species of microscopic organisms that flourish on earth. The most numerous are the ones we call bacteria.

Some microbes serve as factories — making pharmaceuticals, pesticides, solvents, and plastics. Some help make the snow at your ski resort. Some separate gold and copper from ores, reducing the need for chemicals like cyanide. Some rejuvenate tired oil wells. Some make the enzymes for snipping DNA, the first step in genetic engineering. Some are our fermenters, converting sugars into bread, beer, sauerkraut, cheese, yogurt, vinegar, wine.

And some microbes, of course, are age-old enemies, the invisible messengers of tuberculosis and cholera and other scourges. But those are relatively few. Only one microbe in a thousand is a pathogen — what we think of as a germ. The rest, neither we nor the planet could live without. They make what we want, and they get rid of what we don't want. They are the workhorses of biotechnology.

These tiny workhorses share a common characteristic: They can live as a single cell. Scoop up a teaspoon of garden soil, put it un­der a microscope, and you'll find several types of microbes — three of which you know already by their deeds.

The plump spheroids you see are yeasts, the fermenters that leaven our bread and-brew our beer.

The hairy cells are molds. These fungi are master decomposers. Those hairlike filaments hold powerful chemicals whose probings decompose our compost and the litter of the forest — and can lead to crop diseases and human cancer.

The amoeba-like organism you see is a protozoan — and in fact may be an amoeba. Many protozoans prey on soil bacteria, keeping their population in check.

The rest you see are bacteria. Old­est of life-forms, they are structurally the simplest, lacking the cell nucleus found in other microbes. Most reproduce by fission: they multiply by dividing. Bacteria thrive as the planet's most abundant, most varied, most versatile, and most useful organisms. These microbes dwell among us — and within us — in astro­nomical numbers.

At the moment you were born your body harbored no bacteria. But in hours they colonized this inviting eco­logical niche, arriving on the air, on doctors' hands, in mother's milk. Today you carry about a quarter of a pound. Billions are help­ing digest your last meal and, perhaps, excavating a cavity where your toothbrush fails to reach.

Wordlist:

pharmaceuticals - фармацевтические препараты

solvent - раствори­тель

scoop up - сгребать, собирать

yeast - дрожжи, заква­ска

filament - нить, волокно

keep in check - сдерживать

LEARNING ACTIVITIES