Unit 2 ukraine: pollution problems

Pre-reading

Look through and remember the following words.

Contamination забруднення

Coke-chemical коксохімічний завод

Sulphur dioxide сірний газ

Hydrocarbon вуглекислий газ

Accumulation накопичення

Carbon dioxide двоокис вуглецю

Read the text

Ukraine: pollution problems

Pollution is contamination of environment, including air, water and land with enormous amount of material or energy. Pollution becomes evident in Ukraine with industrial development in the 19^th century.

Air pollution is severe especially in many of the heavily industrialized cities and towns of southern Ukraine. Coal using industries, such as metallurgical, cock-chemical plants, steel mills and thermal power plants are major sources of high level uncontrolled emission of sulphur dioxide, dust, unburnt hydrocarbons and other harmful substances.

Over the third of the emission into atmosphere originate from automobile transport. The combustion of organic fuel inevitably to the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and a decrease in oxygen. As a result we can expect increases in temperatures.

Almost all surface waters of Ukraine belong to the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov basins. The Dnieper and the Danube are included among the most populated bodies of water in the former USSR territory. Hundreds of small rivers supply water for three quarters of the villages and half of Ukraine cities. The uncontrolled use of water destruction of water-protecting forest belts have led to destruction of a lot of small rivers. About one half of the chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides applied in the fields are washed off into rivers.

One of the areas suffering from serious and chronic coastal water pollution is the Sea of Azov. That shallow (previously biologically rich and commercially productive body of water) has experienced serious problems in industrial and municipal waste-water contamination. A primary cause of the sea’s ecological deterioration was dirty water inflow from the Don and the Kuban rivers. As a result the sea’s salinity has increased by more than 40 percent since 1950’s. The influx of water into the Sea of Azov has dropped (by 13 cubic km per year). Combined with pollution it has resulted in a dramatic drop in fish catches.

A – GROUP EXERCISES

1. Write the missing forms of these verbs.

_________ ________ grown

to become ________ ________

_________ ________ run

_________ was/ were ________

_________ ________ led

_________ had ________

to find ________ ________

_________ ________ arisen

2. Underline the suffixes. Translate the nouns.

Deterioration, pollution, contamination, destruction, development, emission, accumulation.

3. Write out all verb forms, define their tense and give the infinitive

Examples:

have led – Present Perfect, Active Voice, to have led

becomes – Present Simple, Active Voice, to become.

4. Write out terminological words and word combinations and translate them into Ukrainian.

5. Write opposite to next words.

Pollution, destruction, protection, development, restriction.

HOMONYMS

6.Choose the suitable word.

1. Dust and soil fly through the air and/end make it hard to breathe.

2. Air conditioners would bum precious energy 24 ours/hours a day in the summer.

3. The firemen knew/new that they were subjected to deadly radiation and that they might not survive.

4. They performed their duty saved many lives/leaves.

5. But four/for us the nature of the region is still beautiful.

B – GROUP EXERCISES

1. Most words in English have more than one meaning. Here are two meanings of some words. Try to guess the words and translate them into Ukrainian.

Meaning	Word	Translation
to experience physical or motional pain; to be affected by a bad situation;
the process of becoming bigger, better, more important etc, or the result of this process; a new event that changes a situation;
a difficult situation that you have to deal with; a question that you must solve, connected with numbers or facts;
land that a particular country owns and controls; the area that a person or animal thinks is his or her own;
to gradually increase in quantity until there is a large quantity in one place; to gradually get more and more possessions, money, knowledge etc;

C-GROUP EXERCISES

1. Put the verbs in brackets in the correct form.

The explosion (result) in a huge cloud that soon split into two parts. One part of the cloud (move) northwestern toward Poland and Scandinavia, and then southwest across central Europe. The other part of the cloud (move) east across Asia, over Japan and the North Pacific, and eventually (reach) western North America. (The “Pollution Points” on page 400 track the movement of both parts of the cloud). And as the reactor (continue) to burn, it (release) radiation that (move) south and east of the plant. But scientists (believe) then, in most cases the amounts of radiation (deposit) outside the former Soviet Union (be) relatively low.

2. Put the words in the correct order to make sentences.

a) chronic, of, the, from, Azov, serious, and, pollution, water, coastal is, areas, the, Sea, suffering, of, One.

b) pollution, severe, in, of, heavily, Air, is, and, towns, the, especially, many, southern, industrialized, Ukraine, cities, of.

c) Primary, of, inflow, sea’s, Don, ecological, dirty, A, water, the, cause, from, the, and, the, deterioration, Kuban, was, rivers.

d) more a than the salinity has sea’s by 40 As since result 1950’s increased percent.

e) of, Sea, all, waters, of, belong, to, Black, and, the, Azov, Ukraine, surface, the, basins, Almost, Sea.

3. Change the following sentences, active to passive, passive to active.

1. The first few weeks following the Chornobyl blast were filled with confusion.

2. Some European countries ordered the destruction of millions of dollars worth of contaminated produce, milk, and livestock.

3. But in other nearby European countries, people were told that there was no danger and that it was safe to consume these products.

4. Farmers suffered huge financial losses when countries in other parts of the world refuse to import produce from Europe.

5. Two plant workers were killed by the explosion.

D-GROUP EXERCISES

1. Read the text. Fill in the gaps with one of the words from the box.

emission, oxygen, cock-chemical, plants,

coal, atmosphere, sulphur, harmful, organic, air

_____ pollution is severe especially in many of the heavily industrialized cities and towns of southern Ukraine. _____ using industries, such as metallurgical, ______ plants, steel mills and thermal power_______ are major sources of high level uncontrolled _______of _______ dioxide, dust, unburnt hydrocarbons and other _______ substances.

Over the third of the emission into _______ originate from automobile transport. The combustion of _______ fuel inevitably to the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and a decrease in ________. As a result we can expect increases in temperatures.

2. Read the following text.

Now the face of the region has changed greatly. Because of the intensive land-reclamation done during the Soviet period, many rivers and lakes disappeared from the map of the region forever, and with them disappeared many plants and animals and which is a big tragedy for the world as a whole. Land-reclamation has also influenced the climate of the region very much.

If anyone could find himself now in the region some hundred years ago, he could see the following picture. Thick green forests seemed endless. A rich variety of threes, bushes and kinds of grass gladdened the eye. Birds singing, twitting in the trees, added to the beauty of the scenery.

2.2. Translate the text in writing

2.3 Put questions to the underlined words.

3. Topics for discussion:

1. The harmful influence of urbanization on the environment.

2. The way we can improve tourism in our country.