6. Read the text and give its main idea in two-three sentences:

WATER FAMINE: REALITY OR ILLUSION?

The steady growth of fresh water concumption hasraised the question how water is there on earth?A modern study of the world water balance was required.

A group of scientists tackled the job. Their fundamental work has summed up and generalized data about the scale of use of world’s water resources and rise of concumption up to the year 2000. The monograph World Water Balance and Water Resources of the earth, which is unique in hydrological literature has been reprinted in english and Spanish by decision of UNESCO. Distinguished Hydrologists consider that the study is at least 40 years ahead of the level of world hydrological science.

A Lot and little Enough

Ours is a unique planet in the system. Oceans and seas cover two-thirds of its surface and perhaps it should have been named water rather than earth. Water is not a rarity even on land; lakes sparkle, ribbons of rivers wind across the continents, glaciersand the vast ice-and-snow shields of Greenland and the Antarctica glitter in the sun. In the northern hemisphere every winter snow and ice cover more than third of all land surfaces.

Scientists hold that water was born in the earth’s entrails at the dawn of its life. Somewhere inits depth the birth of water continues to this day. Today with lava, volcanoes annually eject 40 million tonnes of water. Thus, little by little, the amount of water on the earth’s surface increases.

Unfortunately, 97.5 per cent of all water reserves are claimed to be salt water. Consequently, fresh water resources account for only 2.5 per cent and the most accessible as little as o.3 per cent. Moreover, the natural distribution is extremely uneven. The annual fresh water discharge into the ocean is the greatest in Asia and South America – 31 and 25 per cent of the total amount respectively, North America accounts for 17, Africa 10, Europe 7, Antarctica 5 and Australia 4 per cent.

The river watermark is also uneven during the year. From May to October all rivers discharge 63 per cent of their annual runoff, leaving only 37 per cent for the rest of the year.

The authors of the monograph estimate that the annual satisfaction of human requirements runs to something like 2.600 cubic kilometres of water – about 6 per cent of the earth’s annually renewable fresh water resources. According to experts, by the year 2000, considering the growth of population, industry and agriculture the water requirement will reach 6.000cubic kilometres or about 13 per cent.

The conclusion would seem to be optimistic: our planet has sufficient water. Why then should scores of countries face a tight water balance/

The reason is that the unevenness of water distribution is aggravated by the still greater unevenness of the geographical distrubution of people. The shortagestrikes where there isan excess of population and industry. Besides, modern industry, with its manufacture of increasingly complex and diverse products, requires not just fresh, but exceptionally clean, freshwater, the quality of products being highly sensitive to various impurities. Many countries are short of this clean water.

Chief Treat

Unlike other natural resources water renews itself. This is due to its constant circulation in the ocean – atmosphere-earth-ocean system.No matter how much water is consumed in daily industrial life, its amount does not decrease. With time and under certain conditions water regains its properties and its fitness for drinking.

This is probably the reason why water resources for a long time appeared to be unlimited. However, this view has substantially changed in the past 30 or 40 years, when water become a factor which dictates prospects for economic development. In the economy water is a raw material like any other. Scarcely any type of product is manufactured without water taking part inthe process in one form or another. The obtaining of a tonne of paper or woolen fabric requires the use of 200 cubic metres of clean fresh water, that of a tonne of capron 5.600 cubic metres.

The use of water leaves it polluted. Newspapers report that all the large rivers in Britain, Australia, Belgium, the Federal Republic of Germany, Sweden, Italy the United States,the Netherlands, Spain and many other industrially developed countries are completely or partially polluted.

7. Make up the plan to the text and find the answers corresponding every point of the plan.

8. Say what new information have you got in this text.

9. Tell about the most interesting facts for you.

Lesson 79

1. Read and translate the given internatinal words:

ideal a, filter n, centre n, practically adv, hectare n, season n, cubic a, grandiose a, scheme n, interference n, authoritative a, accumulate v, provoke v, effective a, function n, dynamics n, operate v, iceberg n, transport v, serious a.

2. Remember the pronunciation and translation of the following words:

convince – переконувати

incorporate – включати( в склад)

record – записувати, реєструвати

claim – претендувати, стверджувати, вимагати

cautious – обережний, передбачливий

thriftly – бережливо, економно

comprise – включати, охоплювати, містити

expand – поширювати, збільшувати, розповсюджуватися

threaten – погрожувати

fail – не мати успіху, потерпіти невдачу

justify – виправдовувати

hardy – стійкий, витривалий

shift – переміщувати, зрушувати

advantage – вигода, перевага

save – економити, зберігати

rule out – виключати

tow – тягнути, буксувати

rerouting – зміна течії

contemplate – обмірковувати, намірятися

feasible – можливий, який можна виконати

enigma – загадка