Федеральное агентство по образованию
Государственное образовательное учреждение
высшего профессионального образования
«Томский политехнический университет»
Институт природных ресурсов
Матвеенко И.А., Барановская Н.В.
ThE MAn and environment
Учебно-методическое пособие
по профессиональному английскому языку
для студентов ИГНД 4 курса
Издательство ТПУ
Томск 2012
УДК
ББК
Матвеенко И.А., Барановская Н.В.
The man and environment: Учебно-методическое пособие по профессиональному английскому языку для студентов ИГНД 4 курса. – Томск: Изд-во ТПУ, 2008. – 71 с.
Методическое пособие «Человек и окружающая среда» предназначено для студентов IV курса ИГНД, прослушавших курс экологии и геоэкологии на русском языке и изучающих модуль геоэкологии в рамках профессионального иностранного языка. Цель пособия – подготовить студентов к активному участию в обсуждении тематики дисциплины на английском языке в рамках вариативного компонента рабочей программы. Цель достигается путем введения и отработки основной терминологии модуля, повторения грамматического материала, закрепления навыков чтения текстов, связанных с направлением подготовки. Большое внимание уделяется также развитию умений и навыков говорения, аудирования и письма на темы, предусматриваемые модулем «Геоэкология». Пособие может использоваться как для аудиторной, так и для самостоятельной работы студентов с уровнем языковой подготовки Intermediate. Тексты составлены на основе аутентичной учебной и научной литературы.
УДК
ББК
Рецензенты
Томский политехнический университет, 2012
Оформление. Издательство ТПУ, 2012
Матвеенко И.А., Барановская Н.В, 2012
Unit 1 geoecology
The biosphere is a complex system of energy use and material cycling. This system functions on energy flowing from the Sun and it gives off energy (primarily as heat) to space.
Lead-in
Fill in the spidergram with the word associated with geoecology.
Explain these connections.
Terms and Vocabulary
biosphere |
биосфера |
concept |
концепция, понятие |
emerge |
появляться |
layer |
слой |
biotic |
биотический, живой |
abiotic |
абиотический, неживой |
biota |
биота (флора и фауна района) |
ecosystem |
экосистема |
remediation |
восстановление |
magnitude |
величина |
Pay attention to the pronunciation of the following words.
biosphere |
[יbaiə,sfıə] |
biota |
[bai′əutə] |
biotic |
[baiיəutık] |
satellite |
[′sæt(ə)lait] |
abiotic |
[,eıbaiיotık] |
ecosystem |
[,i׃kəu′sistəm] |
2. Read the text, fulfill the exercises.
The idea of biosphere appeared more than a century ago, but at first it found a little application, until it was developed by the Russian scientist V. I. Vernadsky. It is his concept of the biosphere that we accept today.
The first living cell emerged between 4 billion and 3.8 billion years ago. At present biosphere includes vast numbers of plants, animals, and other life-forms of our planet, many of them are yet to be discovered. Biosphere is a relatively thin life-supporting layer around the Earth containing living organisms, which is strongly influenced in its composition, structure and energetic by the living organisms. The part of the biosphere containing the highest concentration of living matter – the Earth’s thin and fragile “film of life” – varies from a few meters in deserts and tundra to a hundred meters in a tropical forest region and oceans.
The biosphere is a complex system of energy use and material cycling. This system functions on energy flowing from the Sun and it gives off energy (primarily as heat) to space.
We can divide the biosphere into two parts, living and nonliving, or biotic and abiotic. The biotic part of the biosphere consisting of fauna and flora is known to be called biota. We can further divide the Abiotic portion into three parts: the solid Earth or lithosphere, liquid water or hydrosphere, and the atmosphere.
Ecology is a branch of science which deals with the world of nature – including its human component – at certain levels of biological organization. It is the study of the living organisms interactions with each other and with their environment. Particular concern of the ecologists is with the “higher” levels of life organization: from populations to biosphere. The functional unit in ecology is the ecosystem because it comprises all interactions of communities with both their living (biotic) and their nonliving (abiotic) environments.
Ecology is a multidisciplinary science. Facts about ecological systems are drawn from biology, geology, chemistry, physics, and other sciences. Originally ecology was considered to be environmental biology. Modern ecology has to deal with environmental problems caused by human activities.
Geoecology is an interdisciplinary science, probably best translated as environmental sciences. Geoecology is not a synonym for physical geography. It is not dealing solely with the abiotic aspects of ecology. Geoecologists are rather “specializing in interdisciplinarity”, studying the interactions and interrelations abundant in our environment. Geoecologists work in the industry, for municipal, regional or federal authorities, in universities and research institutes, in foreign aid programs, and as freelance consultants or engineers. Broad education combined with high-quality specialized training allows geoecologists to work in fields such as environmental analytics, waste disposal, contaminated sites remediation as well as agriculture and forestry.
People have always affected the natural environment. But the population growth along with the industrial world economy during the last two centuries has increased the magnitude, complexity and rate of these modifications. Today environment is not just modified by human action: it is radically transformed. Global satellite observations of the Earth have revealed that about 60 % of land surface is to some extent damaged by industrial, agricultural, and other human activities, whereas no more than 40 % of land remains intact.
Humankind is entering a new era in its evolution characterised by a new relationship with nature. Understanding of how biosphere works, and how it reacts to the global environmental change is of fundamental importance.
From Положинцев Б. И. Introduction to ecology. СПб., 1999.
3. Find the synonyms for the following words in the text.
To influence, to include, large, to emerge, to change, mankind, to release, field of science, to be concerned with.
4. Translate the following word groups.
Global satellite observations, industrial world economy, tropical forest region, living organisms interaction, life organization levels, atmosphere layers, nature balance, population growth.
5. Suggest as many word combinations as possible.
layer (thick, of water, around the Earth, of gas, outer, thin, containing living matter);
environment (clear, physical, parts of, modified, healthy, biotic, damaged, intact);
interactions (between, humankind, nature, stable, communities, global, constant, living organisms, environment).
6. Say it in English.
a). Современная концепция биосферы была разработана русским ученым В.И. Вернадским более 50 лет назад 9 (present-day, develop).
Биосфера - это слой вокруг Земли, который преобразован живыми организмами (transform).
Биосфера – слой вокруг Земли, который содержит все живое вещество на нашей планете (contain).
Жизнь на Земле возникла около 3б8 миллиарда лет назад (emerge).
b). Биосфера – это сложная система преобразования энергии и круговорота веществ (cycling).
Биосфера «работает» на энергии, поступающей в нее от Солнца (run on energy).
Толщина слоя биосферы, содержащего наивысшую концентрацию живого вещества, варьируется от нескольких до сотен метров (film of life, vary from … to).
c). Геоэкология – междисциплинарная наука, основанная на экологии, геологии, биологии и многих других науках (interdisciplinary).
Взаимодействие человека с природой имеет глобальный и постоянный характер (interaction).
Человек воздействует на окружающую среду и изменяет ее (affect).
Биосфера реагирует на эти воздействия (react).
d). Сегодня окружающая среда коренным образом преобразована в результате деятельности человека (radically, as a result of).
Около 60 % природных экосистем суши в той или иной степени разрушено в результате сельскохозяйственной, промышленной и других видов деятельности человека (to some extent, damage).
Не более 40% суши еще осталось нетронутой (intact).