America's Last Great Wilderness

A few years ago, John and Barbara Stratton took their four children and left New York City.

They moved to a small village in Alaska. They built a wooden house, and now they lead a simple but healthy life. In the short summer, they grow their own vegetables, and John catches fish — the great Alaskan salmon — and crab to earn money. The Strattons are among the new pioneers of America's last great wilderness.

Many people have come north to the larg­est state in the U. S. to look for a more peaceful life, or to enjoy the beauty of na­ture and the freedom of Alaska's wide open spaces. Some newcomers prefer a life alone in the wilderness. Other people come to Alaska's growing cities to work in the fish­ing and lumber industries and the oil busi­ness.

There are several very large national parks in Alaska. Mt. McKinley in Denali National Park is 20,230 feet high. It is the highest mountain in North America. At Glacier Bay National Park, huge walls of ice move slowly down from the mountains into the sea. The glacier walls are about two hundred feet high at the ocean's edge. The long, narrow open­ings in the coast at Kenai Fjords National Park are like the fjords of Norway. Over 100,000 birds live along the high cliffs, and whales live in the blue waters of the fjords. Lake Clark National Park is only 150 miles from Anchorage, but there are no roads. People fly to Lake Clark to fish and watch the many kinds of wild birds.

One of the most special things about Alas­ka is the wildlife. You can see thousands of caribou crossing the flat grasslands of the north, and huge grizzly bears in the forests. In the fall, salmon swim up the Chilkat River and bald eagles gather in the trees above. Both visitors and local people hunt the great wild animals for food and for sport. And many Alaskan Natives, including Eskimos, Aleuts and Athapascan tribal people, still live in the old way and catch animals, whales and fish.

Notes:

wilderness — дикая местность ; Mt,— short for mountain; caribou ['kaeribu:] — карибу (северный канадский олень)

Exercises.

I. How much did you understand?

1. Are these statements true or false?

1. A few years ago John and Barbara Stratton took their four children and left New York City for Alaska.

2. They built a large brick house, and now they lead a healthy life.

3. They grow fruit, and John catches fish.

4. You can see huge grizzly bears in the forests of Alaska.

5. Many Alaskan Natives still live in the old way and catch animals, whales and fish.

2. Can you answer these questions?

1. Why do many people come North?

2. What do newcomers prefer?

3. What national parks are there in Alas­ka?

4. What is Denali National Park famous for?

5. Where do over 100,000 birds and whales live?

6. What national park is only 150 miles from Anchorage?

7. How do people get to Lake Clark? Why do they go there?

h) What is the most special thing about Alaska?

i) Do people hunt there?

II. Speak on:

• John and Barbara Stratton;

• new pioneers of America's last great wilderness;

• national parks in Alaska;

• the life of Alaskan Natives.

3. Say whether you would like to live in Alaska. Give your reasons.

Hawaii, Island Paradise

Hawaii was not always a green, sunny paradise. These islands were born in fire and smoke. A chain of volcanoes slowly grew up under the Pacific Ocean. After millions of years, the tops of the mountains rose above the sea to form the 132 islands of the Hawaiian group.

Five of these volcanoes can still be seen, and two of them are active. On Hawaii, the largest and youngest island, the Kilauea volcano often sends hot red ash into the sky. Lave rock covers a large part of Hawaii Island and in some places nothing grows. A third volcano, 13,796-foot Mauna Kea, is usually silent and snow-covered, but it is not dead. Maui Island is older and volcanic activity has stopped there. Tour­ists climb to the top of the quiet Haleakala volcano to see the sunrise.

People from many nations came to live in Hawaii. The newcomers brought new plants and animals. Sugar cane, pineapples, coconuts, and orchids did not always grow on the islands. These plants were brought in and grown for money. Foreign plants and animals have pushed out many local ones, and have changed Hawaii little by little. There is now a danger that many of Ha­waii's native plants may be lost forever. But you can still find rare plants and flowers on the Na Pali coast. The shore on this north­west side of Kauai Island is too steep and dangerous for boats to land. There are no roads. If you want to see Na Pali's green valleys and waterfalls, you must walk in.

Many of Hawaii's smaller islands are too small for people. The Leeward Islands are a wildlife refuge, a carefully guarded home for millions of sea birds, seals, and turtles. Visitors are few, and many of the birds have no fear of humans. Up until now, Hawaii's islands have kept their natural beauty. But travel to the smaller islands and wild areas is becoming more popular. How much long­er will paradise last?

Exercises.

I. How much did you understand?

1. Are these statements true or false?

1. Hawaii was always a green, sunny par­adise.

2. Five of the volcanoes on Hawaii can still be seen.

3. On the largest and youngest island, the Kilauea volcano often sends hot red ash into the sky.

4. Lava rock covers a large part of Ha­waii Island and in some places nothing grows.

5. Tourists climb to the top of the quiet Haleakala volcano to see the sunrise.

6. There are a lot of visitors on the Leeward Islands and many of the birds have no fear of humans.

2. Can you answer these questions?

a) How was Hawaii born?

2. Where is Hawaii situated?

3. How many islands are there in the Hawaiian group?

d) How many volcanoes are active on Hawaii?

5. Who came to live in Hawaii?

6. What do the newcomers bring to Ha­waii?

7. What has changed Hawaii little by lit­tle?

h) What danger threatens Hawaii now?

i) Where can you still find rare plants and flowers?

j) What are the Leeward Islands for wild­life?

k) Is travelling to Hawaii very popular now?

II. Speak on:

• the origin of Hawaii;

• volcanoes on Hawaii;

• plants and animals on Hawaii.

III. Work in pairs and discuss why travel­ling to Hawaii is so popular and how much longer paradise will last. Say if you would like to visit Hawaii. Give your arguments.

Wild Animals

The bald eagle is the official national bird of the United States of America. It can be seen on 25-cent coins and dollar bills. The bald eagle once lived in many of the forest areas of the U. S. from Florida to Alaska, but it is now becoming rare.

The buffalo once lived in great numbers on the central plains of America. But in the nineteenth century most of the buffalo were hunted and killed. Now there are only a few small groups of buffalo in zoos and parks.

Beavers are furry animals with large front teeth. They look rather like large rats, but have large flat tails. The smooth brown fur of the beaver was once very fashionable for hats. Hunters travelled all over the north­ern U. S. to catch beavers.

Seals were also hunted for their beautiful fur. They live in the Pacific Ocean, from San Francisco to Alaska and Hawaii. Many kinds of whales live in the oceans too. If you visit the Hawaiian Islands or Califor­nia in December, you can take a "whale-watching boat" to see groups of whales swimming to warmer southern oceans.

Some American animals are dangerous. Wolves live in the northern mountains of the U. S. and Canada. Wolves kill sheep and cows, but they seldom attack people.

The smaller coyote looks like a mixture of a fox and a dog. The coyote lives in the dry western deserts and plains, and it hunts small animals.

The cougar, or mountain lion, and the bobcat are large cat-like animals. They are found in the deserts and mountains of the United States.

There are many kinds of bears in Ameri­ca, including the brown bear, the Califor­nia black bear, and the grizzly. When it stands up on its hind legs, a grizzly bear is much taller than a man. It will attack if it is frightened.

Alligators and crocodiles live in the wet areas of the southeastern U. S. The croco­dile lives in coastal areas; the alligator lives in rivers and swamps. Alligator skin was used to make handbags and shoes, but now there is a law against alligator hunting in the U. S.

(beaver — бобр; coyote — койот ; cougar — пума; bobcat — рысь)

Exercises.

I. How much did you understand?

1. Are these statements true or false?

1. The bald eagle can be seen on 25-cent coins and dollar bills.

2. The bald eagle now lives in many of the forest areas of the U. S. from Florida to Alaska.

3. In the nineteenth century there were only a few small groups of buffalo in zoos and parks.

4. Hunters travelled all over the northern U. S. to catch beavers.

5. Many kinds of whales live in the riv­ers.

6. The coyote lives in the dry western deserts and plains and it hunts large ani­mals.

7. Alligators and crocodiles live in the wet areas of the northern parts of the U. S.

2. Can you answer these questions?

1. What is the official national bird of the U. S.?

2. Are there a lot of buffaloes in the U. S.?

3. What animals are beavers?

4. What were seals hunted for?

5. What American animals are danger­ous?

6. What are the cougar and bobcat like?

7. What kinds of bears are there in America?

8. Why is there a law against alligator hunting in the U.S.?

II. Speak on wild animals and birds of the U. S.

III. Work in pairs. Discuss the state of wild animals in the U.S. Compare it with the state of wild

animals in Russia.

PART IV. GREAT BIOLOGISTS

CHARLES DARWIN

Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England. In those days schools did not teach science as they do today. Twelve-year old Darwin, who wanted to spend his time out of doors collecting plants and watching animals, had to stay inside and learn how to write poetry. He was very bad at it — so bad, in fact, that his father once wrote him angrily — "You care for nothing, but shooting dogs and rat-catching and you. will be a disgrace to yourself and all our family".

Charles's father then decided that he should be a doctor and sent him to a medical school. But it soon became ob­vious that young Darwin was not at all interested in medicine. So his father tried to make a clergyman out of him and sent him to the University of Cambridge. Still Darwin couldn't make himself care for anything but hun­ting and natural history. As soon as he graduated, one of Darwin's professors, a scientist, who understood him bet­ter than his father urged him to apply for the job of natu­ralist aboard of the H. M. S. Beagle. The ship was to make a voyage around the world, surveying trade routes and looking for ways to improve trade for British merchants in the far-off corners of the earth. The captain was willing to give up part of his own cabin to any young man who would go without pay as naturalist. Today no one remem­bers how much the Beagle helped British merchants. The information the trip yielded about trade was far less impor­tant than the knowledge that was-to change people's way of thinking. It was during his trip on the Beagle that Darwin first began to develop his theory of evolution. Everywhere he sailed he collected facts about rocks, plants and animals. The more facts he gathered from different parts of the world, the more he became convinced that things he observed in nature could not be explained by the old idea that each species had been separately created.

The more he wandered and observed, the more he began to realize there was only one possible answer to the puzzle. If all these species of plants and animals had developed from common ancestors, then it was easy to understand their similarities and differences. At some time, Darwin thought. The common ancestors of both the island and mainland species must have travelled from the main­land to the inlands. Later, all the species in both places, through slow changes, became different from each other.

After the Beagle returned to England, Darwin began his first notebook on the origin of species. During the next twenty years he filled notebook after notebook with still more facts that he and others discovered about the world of living things. These facts all led to one conclu­sion, that all living things are descended from common ancestors.

Darwin proved the truth of evolution, the descent with change of one species from another. Where others before him have failed, Darwin succeeded in convincing the world that he was right about evolution. He succeeded for two reasons. He collected an enormous number of facts and put them together so that they told the whole story» And he not only declared that evolution occurred but {he, also explained how it worked and what caused it. This he called the theory of natural selection.

Nearly a hundred years have passed since Darwin's great book, "The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection", was published. People have found out new facts about evolution, and especially about inheritance. These facts have made more precise our ideas of how natural selection works. This does not mean the theory was wrong. On the contrary, a true theory is alive; like everything else in the world it changes and grows. Only a dead, useless theory stays the same down to the last detail.

("Men, Microscopes and Living Things" by К. В. Shippen.)

TIMIRYAZEV

Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev was born on May 22,1843 in St. Petersburg. He got his initial schooling at home. His mother was an excellent linguist and taught her children French and English which they spoke fluently. In later life Timiryazev, then a mature scientist, spoke on many occasions before audiences of French and English scientists, reading his papers in their own language and surprising his hearers by beauty of his style and the wealth of his vocabulary.

When Timiryazev reached the age of 15 his father was dismissed from his post because of his anti-monarchy views. From then on Timiryazev was obliged to earn his own living by translating from English into Russian first newspaper articles and later books by such famous English writers as Charles Dickens and George Elliot. In 1860 he entered the St.Petersburg University.

Timiryazev's views on botany and general biology were formed under the influence of eminent Russian scientist I.N.Beketov and D.I.Mendeleev. Timiryazev began to study individual biology problems during his student days. In the competition held in 1864 he was awarded a gold medal for his scientific work. He studied Darwin's book, which then was available in Russian translation, and read a paper on it at the meeting of the students' science circle, directed by Beketov. This paper served as material for his work "Darwin's book, its Critics and Commentators" published in 1864. Having graduated from the University Timiryazev became a teacher at the biology department in Petrovsky Academy of Agriculture and Forestry. This offer entirely suited the scientist's wishes. Work at the Academy meant the opportunity not only to investigate personally highly important theoretical and practical problems relating to the increase of crop yields but also to impart scientific knowledge to the younger generation.

During the whole of his work Timiryazev never ceased his research in agronomy, in vegetable physiology and in the history of science; at the same time he carried on an enormous amount of work in popularizing science.

As an experimenter Timiryazev concentrated on aerial alimentations of plants, i. e. the processes by which the green leaves of plants assimilate solar energy and carbonic acid from the atmosphere, and the formation of complex organic combinations in the cells of the leaf. This phenomenon afterwards became known in science as photosynthesis. He proved that animate nature is subject to the law of conservation and transformation of energy. His research clearly showed as he himself said, "the cosmic role of the plant". In the process of photosynthesis plant absorbs the energy of solar rays that fall on the earth. This energy is then transmitted together with vegetable food to the bodies of animals to men. It is also preserved in coal, oil, peat and other fuels and used to set in motion all the powerful technique created by man. He called the plant the intermediary between sun and life on our planet. "The green leaf, or, to be more precise, the microscopic green grain of chlorophyll, is the focus, the point in the world to which solar energy flows on one side while all the manifestation of life on earth take their source on the other side. "The plant is the intermediary between sky and earth. It is a real Prometheus, stealing fire from heavens" - wrote Timiryazev.

("Timiryazev K.A." by G.Platonov.)

LOUIS PASTEUR

With the work of Louis Pasteur, a Frenchman, and of Robert Kоch, a German, the science of bacteriology attained its golden age. Pasteur laid the basis for our knowledge of infection, while Koch discovered the exact methods by which diseases are now studied. Pasteur's imagination and laboratory skill have never been surpassed. The work of each complemented that of the other. In many cases, as in their study of anthrax, the cattle disease, each attacked the same problem without being fully aware of what the other was doing.

Pasteur's origins were humble. He was born the son of a tanner in 1822, and became a professor of chemistry at Lille, the centre of a famous French wine-growing region. Here he proved the souring of wine and of milk, as well as the rancidity of butter, was caused by the wrong kinds of microbes. His method of preventing this "sickness"- the heating process known as pasteurization -is used to the present day.

Could the sickness of animals and humans have caused similar to those of wine and milk? This was the next great question which Pasteur examined. He began with the lowly but important silkworm. The making of silk was another of France's great industries, and the silkworms were dying of a mysterious disease. Again Pasteur proved that bacteria were responsible and showed the growers how to avoid contagion. Then he went to a still more important discovery. He had grown the bacterium of chicken cholera in test tubes and by giving fresh culture to healthy chickens had caused them to sicken and die .But in one of his experiments he used an old culture and discovered that while the chickens sickened, they did not die. Later, when he gave these same chickens live cholera germs, they failed to catch the disease. Something in the weakened germs had made them immune.

Pasteur was to use this technique in preparing a vaccine which protected cattle against anthrax. Then, in a series of dramatic experiments, he used it on human beings to defeat the horrible disease known as hydrophobia or rabies. His first patient was a young boy who had been bitten by a mad dog. His name was Joseph Meiser, a name which has become well-known.

("The Amazing World of Medicine"

by H.Wright and S.Rapport.)

MICHURIN

I. V. Michurin is known to be a famous selectionist and practical gardener in our country. His scientific le­gacy is immense. "We cannot wait for favours from na­ture. We must wrest them from her"—he used to say. Boldly remaking nature in the interest of man, Michurin evolved more than 300 new varieties of fruits and berries, flowers and decorative plants. Having moved southern plants far to the North he bred new varieties of fruits. For example, Michurin remade the warmth-loving grape, adapting it to the conditions of Leningrad and Kirov, the Moscow area, and many other central and northern regi­ons, where it produces good yields. His efforts made possible fruit cultivation on a large scale in northerly areas and Siberia.

Problems of hybridization held an important place in his researches. Studying the complex biological phenomena manifested in hybridization Michurin developed new met­hods, not known before him either in biological science or in the practical work of plant or animal breeders.

Of special significance for biology is Michurin's teaching about the mentor. Its substance consists of the following: if a young plant is to be grafted on an older one, it will acquire the properties of the mentor. The mentor employed by him helped to breed new remarkable of apples and many other valuable fruits.

The subjugating of the forces of nature to the will of man was the idea to which I. V. Michurin dedicated his entire life. This idea lives and triumphs in the deeds of the millions of scientists, and had become the foundation of agriculture in our country.

LEEUWENHOEK

Anton von Leeuwenhoek lived all his life in Delft. He had hardly any education and never learnt Latin, which in those days was the mark of an educated man. He wor­ked when a boy as a clerk in a dry-goods shop. Part of his duty there was to examine textiles with a fine hand lens. Sometimes he placed the lens over other substances besides cloth — the skin of his own hand, the fiber of the wood on the table. Later on in his spare time he used to go to the spectacle makers and he learnt from them how to polish lenses. Afterwards he began making lenses himself. The lenses he made were precise and beautiful. Alto­gether he made 247 instruments and some of them would increase the size of a minute object as much as 270 times. After he had learned something about metalwork he could mount them. When he was about forty he became so inte­rested in everything seen through his lenses, that he spent much of his time looking through his microscopes.

One day he had focused his microscope on a drop of water from a. rain barrel and had found in it to his great astonishment "little beastics" as he called them, swimming about. He had found these little creatures not only in rain water, but in pond water, in the secretions of various animals, even in the saliva of his own mouth. Examining different objects he continued to find all manner of strange little organisms, although he did not realize that they might have any connection with diseases. Only in the 19th century Louis Pasteur developed and demonstrated by his experiments the germ theory. But it was Anton von Leeuwenhoek's discovery of microbes that started a new field of scientific investigation.