Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет

Филологический факультет

Материалы для занятий по устному переводу и разговорной практике

для студентов 3 курса кафедры английской филологии и переводоведения

Часть I

Составители: Н. В. Воронова, Е. К. Вьюнова, Е. А. Лунченкова, Е. А. Яковлева

Санкт-Петербург

2008

TABLE OF CONTENTS

UNIT 1. MAP OF THE WORLD.....................................................................................................................................3

UNIT 2. REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT: INDUSTRIES.............................................................................................12

UNIT 3. GLOBAL ISSUES. ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS................................................................................28

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UNIT 1. MAP OF THE WORLDCOMPULSORY VOCABULARY

the globe; hemisphere (northern, southern, eastern, western); the four cardinal points in the north (of), on the north, to the north, the land to the north, to lie to the north of /

100 miles north of, to be north of, to set the compass to north, northernmost (island, point)

the North / South Pole the Arctic, the Arctic circle; the Antarctic, Antarctica the equator; the tropic of Cancer/ of Capricorn; the (sub-)tropics parallel, the 30th parallel, on/at a parallel; meridian latitude, at the latitude of (St. Petersburg), at (the) latitude 20° south; longitude land/sea boundary, border to border (on) a country, to be bordered by (in the North) to be bounded by a sea mainland; island, isle; peninsula; archipelago cape (off Cape Horn, to round a cape); isthmus; strait; channel, canal; bay; gulf; fjord coast; indented coastline; shore, bank; to be above sea level, to be near sea level, to

be below sea level natural/ physical features; relief mountainous area, hilly area high land, low-lying land, flat land; plateau mountain; mountain range; pass; peak; cliff; hill; slope (steep, gentle) precipice; abyss; ravine; gorge; canyon; gully; valley; trench (Mariana trench) highland(s), lowland(s); plain (West Siberian plain) steppe; prairie; taiga; tundra; jungle; savannah; desert, semi-desert meadow, glade marsh (marshland); marshy; bog, swamp, wetlands lake; pond; creek river; the river starts / rises in, the river flows (into a sea/ ocean)/ falls into/ discharges

itself into; (un)navigable river, open to navigation source, effluxion, mouth, delta, estuary, outfall; river basin, river-bed (curved river-bed);

arm / tributary current, flow, stream, torrent; to alter the flow flood, inundation; to flood, to overflow, to overcome the banks a shallow; to grow shallow; to run aground; to set a ship afloat lock; rapid; waterfall dam, dike, anti-flood barrier glacier; avalanche; mud flow(s) landslide; to set off a landslide; to bury people alive; rescue teams volcano (dormant, active, extinct); crater to erupt – eruption lava, to disgorge lava; ashes; to gush, spurt out wood/ forest (coniferous, deciduous, mixed, broad-leaf, rain); grove trees (alder, ash. mountain ash. aspen, beech, birch, cedar, fir, larch, maple, pine,

poplar, spruce) glade, clearing; afforestation forest shelter bells

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foliage vegetation; flora; fauna soil (sandy clayey, poor, fertile, rich, virgin); black-soil, black earth (area); arable lands,

soil exhaustion; erosion; to cultivate land; uncultivated land; irrigation; drainage drought; drought-affected, drought-stricken area climate (arctic, arid, humid, frigid, maritime, Mediterranean, temperate/ moderate, mild,

damp, severe, dry, torrid, monsoon, continental, seasonal, tropical) atmospheric precipitations; fluctuations; moisture, humidity; cloudiness; rainfall

(average, monthly, high/ low, to be plentiful) permafrost earthquake: the earthquake strikes an area: the earthquake measured 7 (Richter scale) whirlpool; whirlwind; tornado; typhoon; tsunami; cyclone total area; to be (340 sq.miles) in area the population of... numbers (runs to) 3 million inhabitants to be densely/ sparsely populated; unevenly distributed; the average density of the

population birth rate; death rate to fall by an average of 20 per cent; the birth rate exceeds the death rate mineral resources (minerals); to be rich in; to exploit: to abound in, to teem with, to

swarm with (fish) coal bed, coal-field deposit pristine ecosystem

Seas The Caribbean/ Aegean/ Mediterranean/ Barents/ Laptev/ Aral/ Bering/ the sea of Japan/ the sea of Marmara/ the Arabian sea/ the Adriatic sea

Gulfs and bays The bay of Bengal/ the Gulf of Mexico/ the Gulf of Bothnia/ the Persian Gulf/ the Bay of Biscay/ the Hudson Bay

Straits the Bosporus/ the La Manch (the English channel)/ the Strait of Dover (Pas de Calais)/ the Dardanelles/ the Strait of Gibraltar

Rivers the Nile/ Rhine/ Danube/ Amazon/ Ganges/ Dnieper/ Mississippi/ Thames/ Amur/ Tigris/ Euphrates

Mountain ranges the Carpathians/ Rockies/ Orkneys/ Himalayas/ Altai/ Pyrenees/ Alps/ Caucasus/ Pennines/ Andes

Groups of islands the Bahamas/ Bermudas/ Azores/ Greater Antilles/ Lesser Antilles/ the Canary Islands/ Kuriles

Deserts the Sahara/ Great Indian desert/ Kalahari/ Libyan desert/Nubian desert/ Gobi/ Kara Kum

Peaks Ararat/ Kilimanjaro/ Everest/ Ben Nevis/ Mont BlantIslands Haiti/ Ceylon/ Sumatra/ Madagascar/ Java/ Tahiti

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Task 1. Read the abstracts and match them with the appropriate country names: Iceland, Greece, Austria, India, Cuba, Great Britain, the Netherlands, China, Japan, Egypt. Translate the abstracts into Russian.

1. It is a mountainous country of south-central Europe. It extends roughly 340 miles (550 km) from east to west. Mountains and forests give the landscape its character, although in the north-eastern part of the country the Danube winds between the eastern edge of the Alps and the hills of Bohemia and Moravia in its journey toward the Hungarian Plain. The capital of the country lies in the area where the Danube emerges from between the mountains into the drier plains.

2. The archipelago is as irregular in shape as it is diverse in geology and landscape. This diversity stems largely from the nature and disposition of the underlying rocks, which are westward extensions of European structures, with the shallow waters of the Strait of Dover and the North Sea concealing former land links.

3. The most remarkable feature of the country's relief is the vast extent of its mountain chains; the mountains, indeed, have exerted a tremendous influence on the country's political, economic, and cultural development. By rough estimate, about one-third of the total area of the country consists of mountains. The country has the world's tallest mountain and the world's highest and largest plateau, in addition to possessing extensive coastal plains. The country's complex natural environment and rich natural resources are closely connected with the varied nature of its relief.

4. The mountainous character of the country is the outcome of mountain-building forces largely during the Quaternary Period (the past 1.8 million years), as evidenced by the frequent occurrence of violent earthquakes, volcanic activity, and signs of change in sea levels along the coast. The mountains are for the most part in a youthful stage of dissection in which steep slopes are incised by dense river-valley networks. Rivers are mostly torrential, and their valleys are accompanied by series of river terraces that are the result of movements in the Earth's crust, as well as climatic and sea-level changes in Holocene times (i.e., the past 10,000 years).

5. It is now generally accepted that the country’s geographic position, continental outline, and basic geologic structure resulted from the shifting of enormous, rigid, crustal slabs called tectonic plates. Hundreds of millions of years ago, much of the country’s landmass was a fragment of an ancient southern-hemispheric supercontinent known as Gondwana, or Gondwanaland. The country’s present-day relief features have been superimposed on three basic structural units: the Himalayas in the north, the Deccan Plateau (or Deccan) in the south, and the Indo-Gangetic Plain between the two.

6. If the country were to lose the protection of its dunes and dikes, the most densely populated part of the country would be inundated (largely by the sea, but also in part by the rivers). This highly developed part of the country, which generally does not lie higher than about three feet (one metre) above sea level, covers more than half the total area of the country. About half of this area (some 27 percent of the total area of the country) actually lies below sea level.

7. The landscape is conspicuous not only for its beauty but also for its complexity and variety. Three elements dominate. The first is the sea. A glance at the map shows that the mainland is indented. Arms and inlets of the sea penetrate deeply so that only a small, wedge-shaped portion of the interior mainland is more than 50 miles (80 kilometres) from the coast. The rocky headlands and peninsulas extend out to sea as island arcs and archipelagos; indeed, islands make up roughly 18 percent of the territory of the country. Roughly 80 percent of the country is mountain terrain, much of it deeply dissected.

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8. The topography of the country is dominated by the Nile. For about 750 miles (1,200 km) of its northward course through the country, the river cuts its way through a bare desert, its narrow valley a sharply delineated strip of green, abundantly fecund in contrast to the desolation that surrounds it.

9. The country is situated just south of the Tropic of Cancer at the intersection of the Atlantic Ocean (north and east), the Gulf of Mexico (west), and the Caribbean Sea (south). The country comprises an archipelago of about 1,600 islands, islets, and cays with a combined area three-fourths as large as the U.S. state of Florida. The islands form an important segment of the Antilles (West Indies) island chain, which continues east and then south in a great arc enclosing the Caribbean Sea.

10. Glacier ice and cooled lava each cover approximately one-tenth of the country's total area. The glaciers are a reminder of the country’s proximity to the Arctic Circle, which nearly touches its northernmost peninsula. The area covered by Vatna Glacier, the country's largest, is equal to the combined total area covered by all the glaciers on the continent of Europe. The volcanoes, reaching deep into the unstable interior of the Earth, are explained by the fact that the country is located on top of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It is estimated that since the year AD 1500 about one-third of the Earth's total lava flow has poured out of the volcanoes of the country.

Task 2. Read the text and give Russian equivalents to the italicized expressions. Retell the text:

Tsunami: Anatomy of a disasterAt 0059 GMT on 26 December 2004, a magnitude 9.3 earthquake ripped apart the seafloor off the coast of northwest Sumatra. Over 100 years of accumulated stress was released in the second biggest earthquake in recorded history. It unleashed a devastating tsunami that travelled thousands of kilometres across the Indian Ocean, taking the lives of more than 200,000 people in countries as far apart as Indonesia, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Somalia.

240 kilometres off the coast of Sumatra, deep under the ocean floor, at the boundary between two of the world's tectonic plates, lies a 1,200km trench called the Andaman-Sumatran subduction zone. At about the same speed as your fingernails grow, the lower plate, carrying India, is being forced or subducted beneath the upper plate, carrying most of South-East Asia, dragging it down, causing huge stresses to build up. These stresses were released on 26 December. Shaking from this giant mega-thrust earthquake woke people from sleep as far away as Thailand and the Maldives. The shaking went on for eight minutes.

Nobody knows how many died in the actual quake itself, but scientists have since visited the nearby island of Simueleu and found something astonishing. The whole island has been tilted by the force of the earthquake.

Yet, when the shaking from the earthquake subsided, no-one had any idea that the tremors had set in motion something far more deadly - a tsunami. Deep under the Indian Ocean, at the epicentre of the quake, the 20m (65ft) upward thrust of the seafloor set in motion a series of geological events that were to devastate the lives of millions. Billions of tonnes of seawater, forced upward by the movement of the seabed now flowed away from the fault in a series of giant waves.

The only people in the world to have any idea what had happened were thousands of kilometres away on the island of Hawaii. But, relying on seismic data alone, the scientists at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had no idea the earthquake had

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unleashed an ocean-wide tsunami. It was a full 50 minutes after they first picked up the tremors that they issued a warning of a possible local tsunami.

Thirty minutes after the shaking had subsided, the first wave, travelling eastwards, crashed into Sumatra. On the shores directly facing the epicentre, the waves reached heights of 20m (65ft), stripping vegetation from mountain sides 800m (0.5 mile) inland, capsizing freighters and throwing boats into the trees. The city of Banda Aceh, just a few kilometres further round the coast was almost completely destroyed, killing tens of thousands of people in just 15 minutes. Leaving a devastated Sumatra behind, the series of waves continued across the Andaman Sea towards Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, the Maldives, Kenya.

Task 3. Find out about the following natural disasters: the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée, the 1960 earthquake in Chile, the 1988 Armenian earthquake, the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, the 2008 earthquake in China.

Describe a severe flooding situation using the given expressions:

To be moved into emergency accommodation, to wait for the waters to subside, to push dams to breaking point, to trigger landslides, to join forces in a massive sandbagging operation, to stem the flooding, to be reported missing, to submerge historic squares and palaces, to be under threat, to devastate parts of the country, to seek refuge on higher floors of the homes, flood victims, to assess the damage, to prevent further damage to, emergency aid, to be hit by violent storms, losses amount to, to be brought to a standstill, to swell a river, to be at its highest levels in over a century, a state of emergency, to reinforce flood barriers, widespread power cuts.

Task 4. Study the following article published on June 5, 2007. Give Russian equivalents to the italicized expressions:

Geysers Lost under a Mudslide Lake

It is one of the world's last natural wonders, a lunar landscape of spewing volcanic craters and gurgling eruptions. But yesterday environmentalists were assessing the damage done by a landslide to one of Russia's most famous attractions.

The Valley of the Geysers in the Kronotsky national reserve has 90 or so geysers and a dazzling array of thermal pools.

The valley is the most popular tourist attraction in the far-east region of Kamchatka - even if visitors must be rich enough to fly in by helicopter before walking beside geothermals blasting off mud and steam.

A mound covered by snow collapsed "within seconds" on Sunday and caused a huge landslide engulfing two-thirds of the valley. Millions of cubic metres of mud and stones were dumped in the landslide's path, destroying most of the geysers and springs.

"The mudslide erased the pearl of Kamchatka and a part of the UNESCO world heritage site at Geyser Valley in just three minutes," said Laura Williams, director of the Kamchatka office of the Word Wildlife Fund, in a statement on its website.

The torrent of mud blocked a river, created a dam, and the water level began to increase rapidly. The majority of geysers situated on the banks of the river were covered with water.

The scale of the disaster is striking, especially for those who saw the unique place before the disaster. Everybody is used to the fact that such disasters are normally man-made.

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In this case nature itself destroyed its own treasure. But for nature, this is only a blip in the history of the planet's evolution.

A sparsely populated peninsula, Kamchatka is 4,200 miles and a nine-hour flight from Moscow. It was completely closed to foreigners until 1990, but now attracts thousands of tourists annually. The valley is 125 miles north of Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka's main city, which looks onto a range of snow-capped mountains and two imposing volcanoes. The geyser valley was only discovered in 1941, but later in Soviet times the area was hugely popular all across Russia.

Answer the questions:

1. What happened to the 'Pearl of Kamchatka' in June 2007?

2. What is the situation with the geysers now?

3. What impact may tourists have on such places?

4. Should people meddle with nature?

Give a free translation of the article:

Долина гейзеров

В начале июня 2007 года селевой поток практически полностью уничтожил одну из главных достопримечательностей Камчатки - Долину гейзеров, уникальный природный комплекс, в котором действовало более 20 крупных гейзеров.

В течение трех минут стихия практически стерла с лица земли долину, включенную в список Всемирного природного наследия ЮНЕСКО. Долина гейзеров находится на территории Кроноцкого заповедника. Это одно из четырех мест в мире, где гейзеры пробиваются сквозь земную кору, извергая в небо фонтаны кипящей воды и пара.

Когда стало известно, что мощный селевой поток перегородил реку Гейзерная, а Долина гейзеров превратилось в озеро, уже мало кто верил, что ее удастся спасти. На долину обрушилось пять миллионов кубометров грязи, камня и льда, а в устье реки Гейзерная образовалась плотина высотой 60 метров. Большая часть гейзеров, расположенных на берегах реки, ушла под воду, некоторые из них оказались покрыты слоем грязи.

Однако через несколько дней воды реки Гейзерная достигли вершины дамбы, из-за которой Долина гейзеров оказалась затоплена, и начали ее разрушать. Речная вода унесла больше метра грязи, под которой ранее оказались погребены гейзеры. Затем вода начала спадать, и из-под нее показались гейзеры "Водопадная", "Щель", "Малахитовый грот" и знаменитая стена гейзеров.

По мнению некоторых экспертов, прорыв дамбы и спад воды доказывают, что дополнительные меры по восстановлению Долины гейзеров не нужны - природа справится сама. Если дамба будет размыта горячей водой гейзеров и уровень воды в долине понизится, гейзеры вновь будут доступны для посещения туристов.

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Task 5. Give a free translation of the article using the following expressions: to keep out the rising tides, to threaten to envelop, to remain divided about, to block the river's natural flow, to cause microbes to build up in the still water, freshly renovated, to create an obstacle for free running water to the sea/

Санкт-Петербург защищается от наводнений

В Санкт-Петербурге, жемчужине российских городов, культурной столице государства, возводят дамбу для защиты от наступающих приливов, которые, по оценкам некоторых специалистов, угрожают в ближайшие годы затопить треть города. Советское правительство начало работу над аналогичным проектом в 1980 году, однако спустя семь лет отказалось от него, опасаясь ухудшения качества воды в Неве. Сейчас строители создают массивный барьер стоимостью 262 млн фунтов для защиты от воды, уровень которой растет, как предполагают ученые, из-за глобального потепления.

Жители города на Неве пока делятся на тех, кто считает, что дамба защитит их родной город, и тех, кто убежден, что она будет препятствием для естественного течения реки и это приведет к размножению микроорганизмов в стоячей воде - такая зона образуется между дамбой и берегом - с непредсказуемыми последствиями для окружающей среды.

300 лет назад Петр Великий основал портовый город в том месте, где дельта Невы встречается с Финским заливом. С тех пор город в среднем раз в год подвергается наводнению. Самое страшное произошло в 1824 году, когда вода поднялась на четыре метра, унеся 300 человеческих жизней и разрушив множество домов. Это наводнение детально описано в поэме Пушкина "Медный всадник".

Городские власти боятся повторения трагедии 1824 года, которая может, в частности, нанести серьезный урон архитектурным памятникам города, недавно отреставрированным по случаю празднования 300-летия.

Наводнение может иметь разрушительные последствия. Если вода поднимется выше чем на четыре метра, то большая часть экономической зоны города и метро окажутся под водой. Повышение уровня воды на два с половиной метра (что более вероятно) приведет к затоплению 10% площади города. Превышение этого показателя может вызвать затопление трети всей городской территории.

Не исключено, что строительство дамбы началось слишком поздно. Наводнения становятся более частыми. Раньше было одно наводнение в год, однако начиная с 1979 года произошло уже 50 наводнений, в том числе наводнение 1999 года, когда вода поднялась на 271 см.

Дамба должна будет защитить город в ближайшие 200-500 лет.

Discuss the following issues:

1. What geographic features can influence the development of a country? Give some examples.

2. Is it possible to become a developed country with scarce natural resources?

3. What role do waterways play in trade, economy and everyday life?

4. Do the effects of landscape and regional cultures persist in a modern urban society characterized by constant mobility and instant communications?

5. Are natural disasters getting more regular?

6. What do governments of different countries do to get prepared for natural disasters?

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Revision. Translate into English:

1. Причудливо изрезанные скалы этого полуострова являются результатом движения земной коры, а также климатических изменений в голоцене. Ледники напоминают о близости Полярного круга.

2. Поскольку ученые полагались только на сейсмические данные, они не могли предположить, что землетрясение силой 8,5 баллов по шкале Рихтера вызовет мощное цунами, которое обрушится на Суматру, находящуюся в 240 км от эпицентра.

3. Потухшие вулканы и застывшая лава создают на острове типично лунный пейзаж. Здесь есть и действующий вулкан, последнее значительное извержение которого произошло в начале 20 века. По самым грубым оценкам, оно унесло жизни более 1000 человек.

4. Данные ООН показывают, что техногенные катастрофы - третьи среди всех видов стихийных бедствий по числу погибших. Статистика показывает, что число техногенных катастроф в мире резко увеличилось с конца 1970-х годов. При этом, несмотря на то, что страны Европы и Северной Америки обладают значительно более плотной транспортной и промышленной инфраструктурой, чем иные континенты, наибольшее число жертв этих катастроф проживает в Африке и Азии.

5. Для современного Санкт-Петербурга, расположенного значительно севернее других крупных столичных городов, особое природоохранное и рекреационное значение имеют именно местные хвойные деревья. В отличие от лиственных собратьев, сосны и ели продолжают выполнять свои полезные функции и в зимний период.

6. Новый ураган может привести к серьезным социально-экономическим последствиям. Американцы помнят, что когда число жертв урагана «Катрина» превысило 1000 человек, цены на нефть поднялись до отметки 68 долларов за баррель. Ожидается, что удар урагана, скорость ветра которого составляет 165 миль в час, придется к юго-востоку от Хьюстона. Официальные лица предупреждают, что даже уровень осадков в три дюйма может привести к разрушению защитных дамб. Мэр Хьюстона призвал жителей тех районов города, которые находятся в низменности и могут быть затоплены, уехать из Хьюстона.

7. На дне самой глубокой в мире Марианской впадины в центре Тихого океана японские исследователи обнаружили 13 видов неведомых науке одноклеточных, существующих в неизменном виде уже почти миллиард лет.

8. Карельский перешеек — расположен к северу и северо-западу от Санкт-Петербурга, между Финским заливом и Ладожским озером. Географически — это территория примерно между 61° и 59° северной широты и 27° и 31° восточной долготы. С севера на юг протяжённость перешейка составляет 180 км, с запада на восток — 110 км.

9. В Эгейском море потерпел бедствие круизный лайнер "Георгис", который наскочил на мель в четырех морских милях от острова Порос недалеко от Афин. На борту корабля находились 278 пассажиров, в том числе 56 россиян, 103 немца, 58 голландцев. Все пассажиры, а также 35 членов экипажа были эвакуированы. Пострадавших нет. Как сообщают очевидцы, успешной эвакуации способствовала хорошая погода и отсутствие осадков.

10.К зонам умеренного климата относятся районы с жарким и сухим летом, влажные субтропики с теплым летом, а также прибрежные районы с холодным летом. Среднемесячная температура в средиземноморских районах редко превышает 27

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°С, хотя были зарегистрированы и более высокие температуры. В самые холодные месяцы температура падает до отметки -10 °С. Годовое количество осадков небольшое - от 350 до 900 мм. Флора в основном представлена кустарниками, а также деревьями, способными переносить летнюю засуху.

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UNIT 2. REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT: INDUSTRIES

COMPULSORY VOCABULARY

capital goods industry/ consumer goods industry heavy/light industry R&D nuclear process plant; nuclear power station co-generation plant metal manufacture, metal using industry, metallurgy, steelworks; non-ferrous metal

plants aluminium smelting, iron ore smelting, iron/steel manufacture; foundry; tin mining;

castings heavy/light engineering; power engineering; mechanical engineering; aircraft

construction research-based industry; electrical and electronic engineering chemicals, petrochemicals; petrochemistry precision instruments; machine tools coalmining, coalmining works shipbuilding, ship repairing, marine engineering oil refining, oil refinery, offshore oil industry, oil-extracting, crude oil quarrying/excavating paper making, printing, publishing; pulp and paper industry salt working motor vehicle manufacturing, car assembly; automobile industry glass industries dye-stuffs, dye-ware domestic metalware production of man-made fibres china clay production; china-ware potteries tanneries FMCG consumer goods/ home durables wollen/cotton textiles, silk weaving; hosiery, knitwear pharmaceutical industry; footwear manufacture arable farming, pastures, market gardening, horticulture cattle grazing, cattle-breeding; livestock-rearing/ raising; fodder corn growing, grain milling; fertilizers forestry; timber industry food manufacture: processing, canning, freezing, packing; dairy-farming brewing, whisky distilling, brewery, distillery whaling, whale oil

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Task 1. Read the text and give Russian equivalents to the italicized expressions. Retell the text:

Russia’s Natural Resources

Russia is one of the world's richest countries in raw materials, many of which are significant inputs for an industrial economy. Russia accounts for around 20 percent of the world's production of oil and natural gas and possesses large reserves of both fuels. This abundance has made Russia virtually self-sufficient in energy and a large-scale exporter of fuels. Oil and gas were primary hard-currency earners for the Soviet Union, and they remain so for the Russian Federation. Russia also is self-sufficient in nearly all major industrial raw materials and has at least some reserves of every industrially valuable non-fuel mineral--even after the productive mines of Ukraine, Kazakstan, and Uzbekistan no longer were directly accessible. Tin, tungsten, bauxite, and mercury were among the few natural materials imported in the Soviet period. Russia possesses rich reserves of iron ore, manganese, chromium, nickel, platinum, titanium, copper, tin, lead, tungsten, diamonds, phosphates, and gold, and the forests of Siberia contain an estimated one-fifth of the world's timber, mainly conifers.

The iron ore deposits of the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly, close to the Ukrainian border in the southwest, are believed to contain one-sixth of the world's total reserves. Intensive exploitation began there in the 1950s. Other large iron ore deposits are located in the Kola Peninsula, Karelia, south-central Siberia, and the Far East. The largest copper deposits are located in the Kola Peninsula and the Urals, and lead and zinc are found in North Ossetia.

Develop a statement using the following expression:

To make industrial modernization a priority, to reach its peak, to direct resources into heavy manufacturing at the expense of consumer or light industry, to shift the emphasis to, to forestall the decay of the manufacturing sector, to urgently need a revival of , to steer the restructuring of, to undergo full or partial conversion to civilian production, to be vital in supplying heavy industries with semi-finished inputs, to keep pace with the demands of domestic industry and foreign markets, sophisticated materials, outmoded technology, to remain in full production, to call for refitting, overall economic decline, to drop sharply, payment in kind.

Task 2. Read the text and give Russian equivalents to the italicized expressions:

Indian Textile and Apparel Industry

The Indian textile industry is very large and diverse. The Indian textile sector has its roots going back several thousand years. After the industrial revolution in Europe, this sector in India also saw growth of an industrial complex. However, over the last 50 years the textile industry in India has shown a chequered performance.

Today the industry contributes around 14% to industrial production in the country, is estimated to directly employ approximately 35 million people apart from the indirect employment in allied sectors, accounts for about 27% of the country's exports, and is, in sum, an important economic engine for the nation. While accurate statistics for a comparable period don't seem to be available to compare between India and China, India certainly has among the two the second largest spinning capacities in the world.

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The Indian industry is amongst the very few in the world that is truly vertically integrated from raw material to finished products. It contains within itself, fibre-production, spinning, knitting and weaving, as well as apparel manufacture.

Among fibres, although cotton has the largest share (around 58% of the mill consumption), the Indian industry has over the years steadily diversified its raw material base to include man-made fibres such as polyester, viscose, acrylic, polypropylene etc. (accounting for around 39% of the raw material consumed), as well as other natural fibres (including silk, wool, linen etc.).

Fabrics have been a traditional area of strength not just through millennia-old traditions of weaving, but through a series of industrialisation moves beginning in the late 1800s. The Indian weaving and knitting base today includes products as diverse as fine dress fabrics, shirting, denim, fleece, jersey, flat / woollen knits, technical fabrics etc. Much of this diversification of fabric product base has occurred in the last 10-20 years as domestic consumption patterns have changed as well.

In apparel, far beyond the embroidered, beaded dresses in womenswear and bleeding madras shirts in menswear that so typified India's image in the past, India produces active sportswear, weatherproof outerwear, suits, socks, infantwear and a whole host of other products for all ages.

Task 3. Read the text and give Russian equivalents to the italicized words and expressions:

The Petroleum Industry

The petroleum industry is one of the world's largest industries. It has four major branches. The production branch explores for oil and brings it to the surface. The transportation branch sends crude oil to refineries and delivers the refined products to consumers. The manufacturing branch processes crude oil into useful products. The marketing branch sells and distributes the products to consumers. Gasoline service stations handle the largest share of these sales. Oil companies sell their petroleum products directly to factories, power plants, and transportation-related industries.

The petroleum industry plays a large role in the economy of many nations. In developed countries it provides jobs for a great many people. It also is a major buyer of iron, steel, motor vehicles, and many other products. In certain developing but oil-rich countries, petroleum exports furnish most of the national income. Petroleum is also a source of political power for such countries because many other nations depend on them for fuel.

Surface deposits of crude oil have been known to humans for thousands of years. They were long used for such limited purposes as caulking boats, waterproofing cloth, and fuelling torches. By the time of the Renaissance, some surface deposits were being distilled to obtain lubricants and medicinal products, but the real exploitation of crude oil did not begin until the 19th century. The Industrial Revolution had by then brought about a search for new fuels, and the social changes it effected had produced a need for good, cheap oil for lamps; people wished to be able to work and read after dark. Whale oil, however, was available only to the rich, tallow candles had an unpleasant odour, and gas jets were available only in then-modern houses and apartments in metropolitan areas.

The search for a better lamp fuel led to a great demand for "rock oil"—that is, crude oil—and various scientists in the mid-19th century were developing processes to make commercial use of it. Thus James Young of England, with others, began to manufacture various products from crude oil, but he later turned to coal distillation and the exploitation

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of oil shales. The Canadian physician and geologist Abraham Gessner in 1852 obtained a patent for producing from crude oil a relatively clean-burning, affordable lamp fuel called kerosene; and in 1855 an American chemist, Benjamin Silliman, published a report indicating the wide range of useful products that could be derived through the distillation of petroleum.

Thus the quest for greater supplies of crude oil began. For several years people had known that wells drilled for water and salt were occasionally infiltrated by petroleum, so the concept of drilling for crude oil itself soon followed. The first such wells were dug in Germany in 1857-59, but the event that gained world fame was the drilling of an oil well near Oil Creek, Pennsylvania, by "Colonel" Edwin L. Drake in 1859. Drake drilled to find the supposed "mother pool" from which the oil seeps of western Pennsylvania were assumed to be emanating. The reservoir Drake tapped was shallow—only 21.2 m (69.5 ft) deep—and the petroleum was a paraffin type that flowed readily and was easy to distil. Drake’s success marked the beginning of the rapid growth of the modern petroleum industry. Soon petroleum received the attention of the scientific community, and coherent hypotheses were developed for its formation, migration upward through the earth, and entrapment. With the invention of the automobile and the energy needs brought on by World War I, the petroleum industry became one of the foundations of industrial society.

During the early 1900's, foreign oil companies began to develop the petroleum industry in various countries in the Middle East, Africa, and other parts of the world. These firms, most of which were American or European, received ownership of the oil they discovered and produced. In return, they paid the host countries taxes and a share of the income from oil sales. Beginning in the 1950's, however, more and more host countries came to feel that they were not receiving a large enough share of the oil income. Today, many of these countries have acquired part or total control of the oil industry within their borders, either by negotiating with the foreign firms or by taking them over. A number of the countries belong to the powerful Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

OPEC, which was formed in 1960, consists of 12 nations that depend heavily on oil exports for their income. These nations include Libya, Nigeria, Venezuela, and the major oil-producing countries of the Middle East. OPEC members provide about 45 percent of all oil exports. Thus, the amount they produce and the prices they agree to charge largely determine the cost of petroleum. Industrialized countries are so dependent on imported oil that OPEC can use oil as an economic and political weapon. In the 1970's, OPEC raised oil prices so drastically that its members were able to increase their income from oil while restricting production.

Most experts predict that the worldwide demand for petroleum will continue to increase in the years ahead. They also predict that the world's dependence on oil from the Middle East will increase. In addition, many experts believe that oil will become scarce sometime in the mid-2000's unless large new deposits are found. However, the only long-range solution to the energy crisis is the introduction of alternative sources of fuel.

Answer the following questions:

1. What are the main branches of the petroleum industry?

2. What has been important for the development of the petroleum industry?

3. Which areas of the world have the most oil?

4. What is OPEC?

5. Why is petroleum also a source of political power? Give some examples.

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Add several statements to make the text coherent and complete using the given words and expressions, draw a conclusion:

A. Petroleum conservation

The world's supply of oil is limited and will eventually run out. Some experts predict that if oil consumption continues to rise, existing petroleum reserves will be exhausted by the early 2000's…

There are almost as many ways to conserve petroleum as there are to use its products… conservation by the oil industry/ conservation by consumers: to maximize production, to reduce waste at oil fields and refineries, to become law, to set up regulatory commissions, to restrict the number of wells drilled, heat energy used in refining, to recycle excess heat, new catalysts, furnaces and heaters, most efficient temperatures, insulating pipes, tanks and other refinery equipment, recycling waste products, to be legally enforced.

In the home, common sense is often the best guide… fuel consumption, fuel-efficient cars, driving within speed limits, storm windows, weather stripping, furnace thermostat, air-conditioning, solar energy, public transportation.

B. Recent developments

The ever-increasing use of petroleum products, especially in developed countries, has helped raise the living standards of many people…

But it has also resulted in some serious problems, which include (1) the energy shortage, (2) the rising cost of oil, and (3) environmental pollution… world oil reserves, to be offset by rising levels of consumption, political instability in the Middle East, to disrupt the flow of oil, to depend on imported oil, to worsen inflation, to drive up prices, to strain the economies of many countries, to borrow heavily, tankers and offshore drilling accidents, oil spills, to destroy wildlife, to upset the ecological balance, to reduce the pollutants in automobile exhaust, unleaded gasoline.

Task 4. Give a free translation of the article using the terms.

Начало «нефтяной империи» Рокфеллера

В начале 60-х годов прошлого века г. Кливленд, расположенный на южном берегу оз. Эри в штате Огайо, стал центром по переработке нефти, добываемой в соседнем штате Пенсильвания. От него шла к нефтяным промыслам прямая железнодорожная ветка. В Кливленде действовало несколько компаний, имеющих нефтеперегонные заводы. Компаньоном в одной из них был 24-летний Джон Д. Рокфеллер.

В начале января 1870 г. в г. Кливленде была основана «Стандард ойл компани», президентом которой стал Дж. Д. Рокфеллер. Политика «поглощения» конкурентов привела к тому, что уже к концу 1871 г. «Стандард ойл компани» стала крупнейшей в США компанией по переработке нефти. Ее капитал, увеличился с 1 до 2,5 млн. долл. Впоследствии Дж. Д. Рокфеллера назовут «машиной для выкачивания миллионов». Он прибегал к таким методам борьбы с конкурентами, которые вскоре сделала его неограниченным хозяином нефтяного бизнеса США.

Сначала Дж. Д. Рокфеллер установил контроль над местными нефтепроводами, ведущими от промыслов к центральным железнодорожным узлам. Затем, в обход законодательства, в начале 1872 г. договорился с железнодорожными компаниями о

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предоставлении «Стандард ойл компани» пониженного тарифа на транспортировку нефти. Для других компаний этот тариф был увеличен вдвое. Узнав об этой сделке, производители нефти повели энергичную борьбу с Дж. Д. Рокфеллером и объявили эмбарго на продажу нефти. Но Дж. Д. Рокфеллер вышел победителем из этой первой «нефтяной войны». Победа принесла ему огромные прибыли. В течение только одного года его капитал увеличился на 3,5 млн. долл.

В период с 1872 по 1878 г. «Стандард ойл компани» избавилась от всех 250 конкурирующих компаний, положив тем самым конец свободной конкуренции. В результате на улицу были выброшены тысячи людей, оставшихся без средств к существованию. Воспользовавшись общей экономической депрессией, постигшей США в 1873 г., Дж. Д. Рокфеллер выгодно перекупил предприятия других нефтепромышленников. В 1877 г. он присоединил к «Стандард ойл компани» крупную транспортную компанию, имевшую свои нефтеперерабатывающие заводы, нефтепроводы и цистерны. Поставщики нефти попали в полную зависимость от Дж. Д. Рокфеллера. Ни один баррель нефти не мог попасть на железную дорогу без его согласия. К 1879 г. «Стандард ойл компани» завладела более чем 90% всех мощностей американской нефтеперерабатывающей промышленности и преврати-лась в самого крупного поставщика неочищенной нефти.

Впоследствии Дж. Д. Рокфеллер приобрел монополию на нефтепроводы страны, внедрился в оптовую и розничную торговлю нефтепродуктами и постепенно стал скупать нефтяные месторождения, чтобы эксплуатировать их самостоятельно.

«Стандард ойл компани» стремилась к безраздельному господству в нефтяном мире, к распространению своего влияния на Европу, Персию и Азию. Но здесь Дж. Д. Рокфеллер встретил сопротивление опытных соперников. Нефтяные войны между ними перешагнули национальные рубежи. В этих войнах считались приемлемыми все способы борьбы: поджоги нефтехранилищ и скважин конкурирующих компаний, взрывы танкеров и др. В России конкурентами «Стандард ойл компани» стали шведы — братья Людвиг, Роберт и Альфред Нобели. Последний из них является основателем Нобелевской премии. Братья Нобели стали господствовать в Баку. Они вывозили дешевую бакинскую нефть на европейский рынок, поставляли ее через Суэцкий канал на Дальний Восток, что было легче, чем везти ее из Америки.

Task 5. Read the text and give Russian equivalents to the italicized words and expressions. Retell the text.

The Politics of Power

In 1956, when the Calder Hall nuclear reactor, in West Cumbria, was plugged into the national grid for the first time, nuclear power was seen as the fuel of the future: clean, cheap and potentially unlimited. In her dedication speech, the Queen said mankind was on "the threshold of a new age", thanks to Britain's "atomic scientists". It would have seemed incredible to the dignitaries present that day, that in the first decades of the 21st Century Britain would be looking increasingly to wind power and natural gas, imported from Russia, to provide its energy needs.

In the 1950s, coal was king. A vast nationalised industry kept the lights on, the factories running and hundreds of thousands of largely Labour-voting families in reliable work.

The arrival of North Sea oil in the mid 1970s was a welcome boost to a cash-strapped Labour government, turning the UK into a significant exporter of energy. But the

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politicians retained a tight grip on supply. Energy policy was seen as far too important to leave to the market.

All that changed in the 1980s, with the Conservative privatisation of oil, coal and electricity generation. The newly privatised power companies made a "dash for gas", building several new gas power stations and reducing their demand for coal. This heralded the start of a rapid decline of the UK's pits - leading eventually to the closure of all Scotland's mines and all but one in South Wales.

Gas was seen as a cleaner and cheaper alternative to coal, but the left suspected a Conservative plot to rein in the unions, in the wake of the 1984 miners' strike. Labour came to power in 1997 with a commitment to halt the "dash for gas" and creating a "level playing field" for coal and gas prices. But the moratorium was short-lived and the coal industry has continued to shrink.

There are currently 12 working pits - compared with 170 in 1984 - and the industry's long-term survival is under question. The government has said it remains committed to coal, which still provides about 32% of electricity production. But these days UK power stations are just as likely to get their supplies from Eastern Europe.

Consumers and energy producers will decide the future energy mix, with the government's role confined to setting long-term targets and policy. Declining reserves of North Sea gas and oil mean that by the end of the decade, the UK will be a net energy importer for the first time since the Industrial Revolution.

Ministers plan to step up imports of oil and gas, principally from Russia, in an effort to plug the gap. They also plan massively to increase investment in renewable energy, such as wind and tidal power, which ministers say will provide 20% of Britain's energy needs by 2020.

In 2003 BP signed a £3.6bn natural gas deal with Russia, transforming the UK, at a stroke, into that country's biggest foreign investor. The UK has also signed deals with Iran, Libya, Algeria and Iraq, and the government says it will "continue to engage with the Caspian, Middle East and African countries" to develop potential supplies.

But the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) has warned the UK could face power cuts in 20 years' time, because it will depend so heavily on foreign energy sources to produce its electricity. The institution says 80% of the gas needed to fuel British power stations will come from distant and "politically unstable" countries by then. UK energy policy, for so long a relatively uncontroversial area, looks set to climb back up the political agenda in the years ahead.

Match the sentences with expressions from the text above:

1. Private and charitable groups, including religious ones, should have the fullest opportunity permitted by law to compete on ______, so long as they achieve valid public purposes.

2. Magee Homes was founded in 1989 ___________ provide its customers with the highest quality homes and unsurpassed customer service.

3. Internet auction sites such as eBay are having a growing impact on the economy and could provide _________ to consumer confidence.

4. The G-8 _________ to providing assistance to the Palestinians and helping to strengthen their institutions.

5. An international group of marine experts fears many shark populations are in _______________ because of overfishing and an alarming increase in the lucrative fin trade.

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6. Accounting for around 60% of world energy demand, the APEC region is a __________________ given that its aggregate annual consumption of energy exceeds annual domestic production.

7. In theory Sir Rupert faces a _________, although similar cases have attracted penalties of up to £ 15,000.

8. For the first time in twenty years of the civil war in southern Sudan a monitoring force would be deployed ________ attacks on non-combatant civilians.

9. The post-war world was an era of innovation; we stood __________ which was ruled by sudden change. Technical advancements in medicine, science and electronics had a profound effect on the way we lived and thought.

10.The elected president has indicated he'd like to slowly liberalize the economy, but still _____________ on political power.

Task 6. Study the information about nuclear energy and give Russian equivalents to the italicised expressions:

Nuclear Energy

Nuclear energy is generated by the splitting of uranium atoms. The heat from this fission process is used to drive a turbine to generate electricity. The operation of a nuclear reactor and the related electric generating equipment is only one part of an interconnected set of activities. The production of a reliable supply of electricity from nuclear fission requires mining, milling, and transporting uranium; "enriching" uranium and packing it in appropriate form; building and maintaining the reactor and associated generating equipment; and treating and disposal of spent fuel. These activities require extremely sophisticated and interactive industrial processes and many specialised skills.

Britain took an early lead in developing nuclear power. By the mid-1950s, several nuclear reactors were producing electricity in that country. The first nuclear reactor to be connected to an electricity distribution network in the U.S. began operation in 1957 at Shippingport, Pennsylvania. Six years later, the first order was placed for a commercial installation to be built without a direct subsidy from the federal government. This order marked the beginning of an attempt to rapidly convert the world’s electric generating systems from fossil fuels to nuclear energy. The attempts faltered because of rapidly increasing costs, regulatory delays, declining demand for electricity, and a heightened concern for safety.

Questions about the safety and economy of nuclear power have created perhaps the most emotional battle yet fought over energy. The nuclear advocates believe that no realistic alternative exists to increased reliance on nuclear power. They recognise that some problems remain but maintain that solutions will be found. The most effective nuclear opponents, on the other hand, emphasise a number of unanswered questions about the environment: What are the effects of low-level radiation over long periods? What is the likelihood of a major accident at a nuclear power plant? What would be the consequences of such an accident? How can nuclear power’s waste products, which will be dangerous for centuries, be permanently isolated from the environment? These safety questions helped cause changes in specifications for and delays in the construction of nuclear power plants, further driving up costs and helping to create a second controversy: Is electricity from nuclear power plants less costly, equally costly, or more costly than electricity from coal-fired plants? Despite rapidly escalating oil and gas prices and escalating environmental problems with coal, these political and economic problems caused an effective moratorium on new orders for nuclear power plants, even before the 1979 near meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,

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and the 1986 partial meltdown at the Chernobyl’ plant north of Kiev in Ukraine. The latter accident caused some fatalities and cases of radiation sickness, and it released a cloud of radioactivity that travelled widely across the northern hemisphere. The Chernobyl’ Accident produced a plume of radioactive debris that drifted over parts of the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and Scandinavia. The accident, which took place on April 26, 1986, was the worst nuclear power accident in history. Large areas of the Ukrainian, Belorussian, and Russian republics of the Soviet Union were contaminated, resulting in the evacuation and resettlement of roughly 200,000 people. The principal environmental effect of the Chernobyl’ accident has been the accumulation of radioactive fallout in the upper layers of soil, where it has destroyed important farmland. The country most seriously affected by the accident was Belarus. Almost 20 percent of the republic’s farmland was removed from production during the years immediately after the accident. This large-scale nuclear accident caused a lot of concern about the safety of nuclear power stations.

By the late 1980s, the nuclear industry was bogged down in political and economic controversy in most countries. Few orders for new plants were being placed, and, many plants under construction were being cancelled. By the mid-1990s, there were no nuclear power plants under construction or on order in the United States. France, with its strong tradition of central control of technical issues, has been a major exception to this pattern, as was the Soviet Union.

Nuclear power plants provide about 17% of the world's electricity. Nuclear fission power plants provide about 75% of electricity in France, a quarter in the UK and 15% in the US. More than 100 of the world's 400 nuclear power plants are in the US. As might be expected, estimates of future energy that will be obtained from nuclear power vary widely. Everyone agrees, however, that it has not been the panacea its advocates once foresaw. Two advanced means of nuclear power generation—the breeder reactor and nuclear fusion technology—can make no significant contribution to energy supply until well into the 21st century.

Discuss in groups. “The nuclear debate”. Imagine that the government has decided to build a new nuclear power station near St. Petersburg, in addition to the one that is already in existence. But the use of nuclear energy is an area of great controversy. That is why this decision was met by the local people with opposition. Join one of the two groups (A or B) and prepare arguments “for” and “against” the construction of a new power station, using the following information:

Pros

Nuclear power can generate large quantities of energy without releasing greenhouse gases;

It does not depend on the weather; The UK's largest reactor generates the equivalent output of 1188 wind turbines. A

nuclear fuel pellet, about half an inch long, provides the same amount of electricity as one and a half tonnes of coal.

Cons

Spent fuel from nuclear power plants remains toxic for centuries and there is no safe permanent storage facility for it;

Dismantling old reactors safely is highly expensive; Mining and enriching uranium also produces toxic waste; Uranium is a finite resource, although there are ways of recycling spent fuel; Fears of nuclear material stolen from power facilities being used by terrorists in a so-

called "dirty bomb" have increased since the 11 September attacks;

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Nuclear power is currently generated from nuclear fission - splitting the nuclei of atoms. Nuclear fusion - combining atomic nuclei - is potentially cleaner because the fuels involved are different. But scientists have been trying to harness the energy from fusion for decades and some say a working fusion generator is still a lifetime away;

There is a close link between civil and military uses of nuclear power.

Task 7. Read the passage about the alternative sources of energy. Give Russian equivalents to the italicised expressions:

Fossil fuels still provide almost 90% of the world’s total energy needs. And as countries industrialise, and their populations increase, their energy consumption also rises. Today, more oil products are being produced worldwide than 30 years ago. But oil is a finite supply - and supplies will eventually run dry. Many experts believe that hydrogen, wind and solar power will provide most of the world’s energy in 50 years.

The most widely developed form of renewable energy in Britain is hydroelectric power. The energy of falling water is captured in pipes leading from the upper parts of rivers or from reservoirs to turbines and generators in power stations The fall of water turns the turbine blades, so generating electricity.

Solar energy — energy from the sun — might seem impossible in Britain with its particular climate. In fact careful measurement shows that the average house in Britain receives more solar energy in a year than its total annual consumption. Quite a number of houses have been designed to make best use of existing solar heating by careful choice of building materials, insulation and ventilation. Some have solar heating panels to concentrate and increase the heating effect. In other cases the solar energy is converted to electricity. None of these techniques are yet widely used.

Wind power. Windmills have been used for pumping water or grinding grain for centuries. The windmill's modern equivalent – a wind turbine – uses wind energy to generate electricity. Most wind turbines look similar to ships' propellers. Manufacturers are now producing giant turbines – 90 metres tall, with rotor diameters bigger than the wingspan of a jumbo jet. One standard-issue turbine can produce at least 1 megawatt of electricity, enough to supply at least 800 houses. The world market for wind turbines has been growing by an average of 40% a year since 1995. But wind farms still only produce a tiny fraction of the world’s energy. There are currently about 60 operating wind farms in the UK, supplying enough power for 250,000 homes each year, or about 0.3% of total UK electricity consumption.

Geothermal energy comes from the heat in the Earth’s core. In Iceland nearly all buildings are heated in this way. Geothermal power plants contribute significantly to electricity supply in El Salvador, the Philippines, Japan, Mexico, Italy, New Zealand and the western United States. In some geothermally active regions, the heat from rock and water is near enough the surface to be accessed cost-effectively. Hot water or steam is pumped from underground. Steam can be used to turn turbines directly.

The ocean offers two types of energy - thermal energy from the Sun's heat, and mechanical energy from the tides and waves. Oceans cover more than 70% of the Earth's surface, making them the world's largest solar collectors. According to some experts, if less than 0.1% of this solar energy could be converted into electric power, it would supply more than 20 times the amount of energy consumed every day in the US.

Bioenergy comes from burning biomass – organic matter such as wood or plants. It supplies more than 90% of total energy demand in Nepal and Malawi, and 25% to 50% in large industrialising countries such as China, India and Brazil. Austria uses bioenergy for 13% of all its energy needs. Burning biomass can still release greenhouse gases, although

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plants grown for fuel manufacture also absorb carbon dioxide while they are growing. Depending on the fuel and process, bioenergy can be much cleaner, and the sources more renewable, than fossil fuels.

Task 8. Read the text and give Russian equivalents to the italicized words and expressions. Retell the text.

Split Decisions

Nordic countries have chosen four different strategies to combat the energy crisis and global warming - from living the emission-free green dream to pressing the nuclear button.

As the boat approaches Hammerfest, a Norwegian port perched on Europe's northernmost tip, the view is dominated by a huge construction site. A gas plant is slowly rising from the ground, already dwarfing the two-storey wooden houses in a town centre where reindeer often roam the streets.

From next year, this place will process gas from an offshore field 90 miles north, deep under the Barents Sea. Norway believes that projects like this hold the solution to the current energy crisis. The thinking is that if the world is consuming increasing amounts of oil and gas, then more must be found. But Norway's approach is only one of four different strategies chosen by the Nordic countries. Sweden, Iceland and Finland have their own solutions. They, like all industrialised nations, are trying to cut down on carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming while trying to supply enough energy.

While Norway believes the answer is continuing reliance on fossil fuels, Sweden is attempting to become the first advanced economy that is fossil fuel free. Iceland is already the most energy efficient in the world, harnessing its unique energy resources. And, to the east, Finland is pressing the nuclear button, building the first reactor in western Europe for 15 years and the country's first in more than three decades.

All this is taking place while Britain ponders which path it should take. Gone are the golden days when the UK could rely on the North Sea to heat its homes and boil its kettles. It is already a net importer of oil, and will soon import most of its gas.

The Norwegian approach typifies the scramble to find new fossil fuels. Thanks to the riches of the North Sea, Norway has become the world's third largest exporter of oil - making it one of the world's wealthiest economies. It exports nearly all its fossil fuels. For domestic electricity for its 4.6 million people, the mountainous country relies on hydroelectric power.

But this situation is changing fast. Oil and gas from the North Sea are expected to run out within 30 years. So Norway is looking north, to the Arctic - a region that it is hoped holds a quarter of the world's untapped petroleum. The plant at Hammerfest is the first major Arctic project to see the light of day, and Norway hopes more will come. Oil companies have already drilled around 60 wells into fields under the Barents Sea, searching for oil and gas.

While Norway focuses on its fossil fuel riches, next door in Sweden things could not be more different. In October 2005, its government announced the most ambitious energy initiative by an advanced industrialised nation: attempting to wean itself off oil entirely within 15 years.

A committee, which includes scientists, business leaders and environmentalists, is investigating how the country can get rid of fossil fuels entirely. Sweden has cut its

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dependence on fossil fuels drastically since it peaked in the 1970s. For electricity, Swedes rely on nuclear and hydroelectric power. Alternative energy sources, such as geothermal energy or waste heat, are being encouraged. Fossil fuels, which account for 32% of Sweden's energy needs, are mainly used for transport.

Broadly, the strategy will be to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy and to improve energy efficiency, such as by encouraging people to use public transport. Stockholm is already trialling a scheme similar to Britain's congestion charge. There are also discussions about the possibility of producing cars that consume less petrol or that use ethanol and other biofuels.

The Swedish government has promised to increase the funding for energy research by 815m kronor (£60m) a year. It says it will also give subsidies or tax breaks to homeowners who replace their oil boilers (10% still use them), and to industries that switch from fossil fuels. The country's 9 million inhabitants appear supportive of their government's policies. According to recent research, the majority want to see more use of renewable energy, such as wind power and solar energy.

Meanwhile, far into the Atlantic Ocean, Iceland is living the green dream. If there's a paradise for environmentalists, this must be it. It is the world's most energy efficient country, with 70% of its needs covered by domestically produced renewables. The volcanic island and its 300,000 inhabitants are blessed with natural hot springs - the most extreme forms of which are the famous geysers. All of the island's electricity is produced cleanly - 84% through hydropower, while the rest comes from geothermal energy, using the heat from the earth (90% of homes already get their heating this way). Fossil fuels are used only for transport, but even here Iceland is determined to get rid of them completely.

Back on mainland Europe, Finland, with its 5.2 million people, is looking to nuclear energy. It imports 70% of its energy requirements, including all of its gas, from the neighbouring Russia. This makes it dependent on what happens next door.

Nuclear power accounts for 26% of Finland's electricity, but after the new Olkiluoto reactor is completed in 2009-10, this is expected to rise to 33%, becoming the most important source for the country's electricity. But increasing nuclear power has been controversial. Successive governments had tried to push for construction of a new nuclear reactor since the early 80s, but after the Chernobyl disaster, in 1986, the plans were shelved. The government tried again in 1993, but parliament voted against it. Another bill was presented in 2002, and it was finally passed, but only by a narrow margin: all the parties were split on the issue and the green party left the government coalition in protest.

Task 9. Give a free oral translation of the article, using the following expressions: Oil-free economy, to wean itself off oil completely, to replace all fossil fuels with renewables, to dwindle shortly, sustainable development, global economic recession, oil dependency, reducing the impact from fluctuations in oil prices, to phase out nuclear power, to power all cars with hydrogen, to abandon oil, the world green league table, to be addicted to oil, ethanol derived mainly from sugar cane, to plan a large increase in, to launch an energy review, to have a head start over, to be encouraged with green taxes, sawmills, wood chips, sawdust.

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Швеция планирует стать первой страной, которая откажется от нефти

Швеция первой среди развитых стран Запада хочет пойти на кардинальные меры в энергетической сфере, а именно – попытаться в течение 15 лет полностью отказаться от нефти, при этом не строя новых атомных электростанций.

Над планом по превращению экономики этой страны, население которой составляет 9 млн. человек, в первую и единственную в мире экономическую систему, не зависящую от нефти, работает комитет в составе промышленников, академиков, фермеров, производителей автомобилей, правительственных чиновников и представителей других сфер. Через несколько месяцев комитет представит результаты своей работы в шведский парламент.

Как сообщило вчера правительство Швеции, план заключается в том, чтобы заменить все виды органического топлива на энергию из возобновляемых источников, не дожидаясь, пока изменения климата разрушат экономические системы государств или когда нехватка нефти в мире приведет к новому скачку цен.

"Наша зависимость от нефти должна быть ликвидирована к 2020 году, – сказала министр экономического развития Мона Салин. – Всегда будут лучшие альтернативы, чем нефть, и мы добьемся того, что при отоплении любых зданий можно будет обойтись без топлива, полученного из нефти, и также исчезнет зависимость водителей от одного вида топлива – бензина".

Энергетический комитет Шведской королевской академии наук высказывает опасения, что объемы поставок нефти в мире достигли пика и вскоре пойдут на спад, а высокие цены на нее приведут к экономическому спаду в мировом масштабе.

Мона Салин назвала зависимость от нефти одной из самых больших проблем, стоящих перед миром. "Переход с органического топлива на другие виды обеспечит нам огромные преимущества, среди которых – уменьшение зависимости от колебаний цен на нефть, – говорит она. – С 1996 года цена на нефть выросла в три раза".

Один из чиновников правительства Швеции сказал: "Мы хотим подготовиться к миру без нефти, и в моральном, и в техническом отношении. Наш план – это реакция на глобальные изменения климата, на повышение цен на нефть и на предупреждения некоторых экспертов о том, что вскоре запасы нефти в мире начнут иссякать".

Швеция, которой пришлось пережить серьезный кризис после повышения цен на нефть в 1970-е годы, сегодня получает почти все электричество от атомных и гидроэлектростанций и использует органическое топливо главным образом на транспорте. За последние 10 лет почти все системы отопления Швеции были реконструированы для использования в качестве источников тепла геотермальной энергии или тепловых отходов. На референдуме 1980 года шведы высказались за отказ от атомной энергетики, но существующие атомные электростанции в стране все еще продолжают функционировать.

Решение отказаться от нефти делает Швецию лидером мирового списка "зеленых". Исландия надеется к 2050 году перевести все свои автомобили и морские суда на водород, который будет производиться на электроэнергии, вырабатываемой из возобновляемых ресурсов. Через пять лет Бразилия планирует перевести 80% транспорта на этанол из сахарного тростника.

Президент США удивил экспертов заявлением о том, что Соединенные Штаты слишком сильно зависят от поставок нефти и объемы импорта нефти с Ближнего

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Востока необходимо резко сократить. Сейчас США планируют резко расширить свой сектор атомной энергетики.

Британское правительство, которое намерено к 2012 году вырабатывать 10 процентов энергии в стране из возобновляемых ресурсов, в прошлом месяце выпустило энергетический обзор, в котором особо упоминается о планах рассмотреть вариант увеличения использования атомной энергии. Между тем в отчете аудиторской фирмы Ernst & Young говорится о том, что Великобритания пока слишком медленно продвигается вперед в реализации планов по переходу на возобновляемые источники энергии.

"В Великобритании – лучшие в Европе ветровые и волновые ресурсы, а также энергия приливов и отливов, но она все еще упускает возможность использовать их на благо своей экономики", – говорит Джонатан Джонс, эксперт по вопросам возобновляемых источников энергии Ernst & Young.

Официальные лица шведского министерства энергетики предполагают, что комитет по отказу от нефти порекомендует продолжать развивать использование биотоплива огромных лесов Швеции, а также наращивать возможности других возобновляемых источников энергии, таких как ветер и энергия волн.

Швеция имеет преимущество перед большинством других стран в плане использования возобновляемых источников. В 2003 году на базе этих ресурсов в Швеции производилось 26% всей энергии, в то время как в среднем в ЕС эта цифра составляла лишь 6%. Только 32% энергии в Швеции производилось из нефти (в 1970 году – 70%).

Шведское правительство совместно с автомобилестроительными компаниями Saab и Volvo проектирует легковые автомобили и грузовики, которые будут работать на этаноле и других видах биотоплива. В прошлом году Шведское энергетическое агентство сообщило о намерении перестать использовать нефть в государственном секторе. Больницам и библиотекам выделены гранты для того, чтобы они перевели отопление с нефтяного топлива на другие источники, а домовладельцев поощряют переходить на альтернативные источники, снижая налоги за отказ от нефти. Целлюлозно-бумажные комбинаты для производства энергии используют кору деревьев, а лесопилки сжигают с этой целью опилки и щепу.

Task 10. Be ready to talk on one of the following topics:

1. Speak about advantages and environmental problems caused by the use of nuclear energy.

2. Prepare a short account about one of the large-scale nuclear disasters.

3. Make short reports about alternative sources of energy and explain how electric power is generated in each case.

4. Do you think that one day it will become possible to stop using fossil fuels and nuclear power as sources of energy? Give your reasons.

Revision. Translate into Russian.

1. Наряду с 20-процентной экономией энергии, которой предполагается достичь к 2020 году, Евросоюз намеревается увеличить долю возобновляемых ресурсов до 20% (в настоящее время – 7%). Ядерное топливо, доля которого сокращается,

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следует использовать более активно, начиная с 2030 года, но это должно быть топливо нового, четвертого поколения, для реакторов-размножителей.

2. Мировые разведанные запасы нефти сконцентрированы на Ближнем Востоке. Пять ближневосточных стран обладают почти 2/3 глобальных запасов: Саудовская Аравия, Ирак, ОАЭ, Кувейт и Иран. Вне Ближнего Востока самые большие запасы имеют Венесуэла и Россия. Венесуэла обладает приблизительно 7%, Россия – почти 5% глобальных запасов нефти. Россия производит 10% нефти, в то время как потребляет только 4.

3. Более чем 100 компаний добывают нефть в России, но подавляющая часть добычи фактически находится в руках 10 вертикально интегрированных компаний, их объем производства составляет приблизительно 350 млн. т – 90% производства нефти в России.

4. Сырая нефть и нефтепродукты составляют примерно 40% суммарного экспорта России, нефть – существенный источник доходов бюджета. Российская Федерация выступает как один из ведущих операторов в международном нефтяном бизнесе, являясь крупнейшим чистым экспортером нефти после Саудовской Аравии. Россия, Норвегия и Мексика – единственные страны, не входящие в ОПЕК, среди 10 крупнейших чистых экспортеров мира.

5. В нашей стране металлургические комбинаты, производящие чугун и сталь из руды, традиционно располагались около месторождений железных руд в районах, богатых лесом, так как для восстановления железа использовали древесный уголь.

6. Россия сохраняет устойчивое конкурентное положение на мировом уровне в этих таких отраслях, как военное авиастроение, кораблестроение и телекоммуникации. Некоторые отрасли (черная и цветная металлургия) уже являются стабильными валютными генераторами. Ряд отраслей (железнодорожный транспорт, автомобильная промышленность и некоторые сегменты химической) достигли стадии зрелости, но нуждаются в модернизации посредством привлечения технологий, позволяющих улучшить качество конечной продукции.

7. Часть предприятий текстильной и обувной промышленности, по пошиву одежды, производству игрушек вошла в стадию упадка. Особенно ощутимо давление на них международной конкуренции, главным образом со стороны производителей из других крупных региональных рынков – Китая, Индии. Государственные субсидии могут улучшить ситуацию в этих секторах. Тем не менее, необходимо диверсифицировать сырьевую базу, а часть рабочей силы переместить в более перспективные отрасли.

8. В результате аварии на Чернобыльской атомной электростанции был полностью разрушен реактор, и в окружающую среду было выброшено большое количество радиоактивных веществ. Радиоактивное облако от аварии прошло над европейской частью СССР, Восточной Европой, Скандинавией, Великобританией и восточной частью США. Примерно 60 % радиоактивных осадков выпало на территории Белоруссии. Около 200 000 человек было эвакуировано из зон, подвергшихся загрязнению. Авария расценивается как крупнейшая за всю историю ядерной энергетики, как по предполагаемому количеству погибших и пострадавших от её последствий людей, так и по экономическому ущербу.

9. Возобновляемые источники энергии - это прежде всего энергия солнца и ветра, а также тепло земных недр, тепловая и механическая энергия океана. Активные пропагандисты этих энергоисточников не упускают случая подчеркнуть, что их суммарный объем в тысячи раз превышает все сегодняшние потребности человечества в энергии — и все разумные будущие потребности.

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10.Крупномасштабным потребителям электроэнергия нужна точно по расписанию и при стабильном напряжении. Поэтому из всех возобновляемых природных источников энергии интенсивнее всего люди используют напор падающей воды. На больших реках построено множество гидроэлектростанций. Но и в этом случае имеются отрицательные последствия. Прежде всего, плотина на большой реке означает затопление огромных территорий под водохранилище с выселением большого числа людей.

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UNIT 3. GLOBAL ISSUES. ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS

COMPULSORY VOCABULARY

environmental movement/party/pressure group; environmentalist environmental degradation/destruction; ecological damage; environmental disaster, disaster zone

to neglect the environment, to benefit the environment to pass environmental legislation to reduce life expectancy to monitor the sources of pollution biosphere

climate change, global warming greenhouse effect, greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO 2) ozone layer, ozone depletion, ozone thinning, ozone degradation ozone depleter/ ozone-depleting chemicals, CFC's (chlorofluorocarbons) ozone hole, lethal ultra-violet radiation exposure to UV rays, to be exposed to… to phase out the production of CFC's

to pollute, pollution, pollutant, polluter solid waste, liquid waste, effluent, waste gases municipal waste/household waste, industrial waste, untreated waste waste incinerator, waste treatment plant city refuse (waste) dump, rubbish piles/heaps, landfill to release pollutants into the atmosphere, to discharge toxic waste into rivers to cut emissions of... exhaust gases/fumes, combustion gases, heavy metals smokeless fuel, unleaded petrol, catalytic converter

sewage, sewage treatment works sewerage, sewer water treatment plant, water purification facilities to discharge/ pour out/ pump out ... waste into... livestock wastes, manure, organic waste, impurities fertilisers, pesticides waterborne diseases

acid rain, to acidify, acidification, acid deposition to deplete vegetation, to erode the stonework, soil erosion hydrogen sulphide; sulphur dioxide, sulphuric acid nitrogen, nitrogen oxide, nitric acid oil leak/ leakage; oil spill, spillage; cleanup

wildlife, endangered species list, to be threatened with extinction deforestation, felling of forests, rain forests habitat, habitat destruction poaching, poacher

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nuclear power/energy, nuclear power station, nuclear reactor energy consumption nuclear waste, radioactive waste nuclear waste burial/storage, nuclear contamination large-scale nuclear disaster radioactive fallout, leaks of radioactive waste

waste recycling, recyclable, waste disposal waste, rubbish, refuse, household waste; to sort out rubbish waste output foam packaging, over-use of packaging decompose, biodegradable

Match the sentences with expressions from the compulsory vocabulary:

1. Since the Industrial revolution man’s activities have had an increasingly bad effect on the environment. Our cars, power stations and other factories ____________all sorts of _________________into the atmosphere and these fumes often contain __________________which slowly poison all living beings.

2. In pursuit of ever bigger harvest we make excessive use of ________and ________ both of which find their way into the soil and then into the water systems affecting nature’s balance by killing some things and encouraging the growth of others.

3. We’ve also become too fond of using plastics for ____________. Most of the plastic carrier bags we throw away today, will take hundreds of years to _______________ and nowadays _______ _________ are growing bigger and bigger.

4. Our thirst for fuel and particularly oil has led to many_____________ ___. _____________on land or at sea cause destruction of huge areas and their effect can last for years.

5. The more "developed" we get, the more we throw away. The____________ of an average American has nearly doubled in the last 40 years. And all around the world, _______ ______ are growing as countries industrialise. In the mid 1990s, West European countries were producing almost two tonnes of ________ _______ per person each year. Africans generate less - but more than two thirds of their rubbish is not formally ________ at all.

6. Every year we _______ more than six billion tonnes of ______ ___________ into the air from burning________ _____, despite a general consensus that this contributes directly to_________ ________. Fossil fuels still provide almost 80% of the word’s total energy needs. And as countries industrialise, and their populations increase, their________ __________ also rises.

Task 1. Study the information and give Russian equivalents to the italicised expressions.

Depletion of the Ozone Layer

The Ozone Layer’s Impact on Human Health

Although it is not on the public's radar as it was a few years ago, the depletion of the ozone layer is still a serious threat to the earth's environment. Here is a brief overview concerning the depletion of the ozone layer.

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The depletion of the ozone layer represents one of the atmospheric challenges that have been traced back to human activity. Unfortunately, for many years human beings have remained ignorant about the way our atmosphere works. However, we now have a much better understanding of how the depletion of the ozone layer works

We have all heard of ultraviolet radiation. When the sun shines over the earth, part of what the sun radiates is known as ultraviolet radiation. Radiation is emitted over the earth in the form of electromagnetic waves that include many different types of energy and wavelengths. The sun shines down both ultraviolet radiation as well as visible light. Ultraviolet radiation can be dangerous. Ultraviolet radiation can be easily absorbed by biological tissues. Ultraviolet radiation is what is responsible for your summer sunburn. Now, imagine that the full spectrum of ultraviolet radiation would reach the earth. It is unlikely that most life on earth could survive if ultraviolet radiation penetrated the earth's surface in large doses.

But for now, all life on earth is protected from the potentially damaging effects of too much ultraviolet radiation by the presence of the ozone shield; also know as the stratospheric ozone layer. Unfortunately, the ozone shield, also known as the ozone layer, has experienced a lot of damage. Human activity has caused the ozone layer to break down. More specifically, human activity has released many pollutants into the earth's atmosphere that has created the so-called 'hole' in the ozone layer.

What sort of human activity and pollutants have been most responsible for the break down of the ozone layer? Halogens in the atmosphere, also known as chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, are responsible for much of the damage that has been done to the ozone layer. They have been used in the production of plastic foams, as heat-transfer fluids in the use of air conditioners and refrigerators. They have also been used in aerosol cans for their pressurizing agents.

In 1974, scientists discovered that many of these CFCs could potentially be very harmful to the ozone layer because of the chlorine atoms that are released. The important work done by these scientists also revealed that the thinning out of the so-called ozone layer would result in more UV radiation being released into the earth's atmosphere, thus causing more cases of skin cancer. Furthermore, scientists revealed in 1985 evidence for the so-called 'hole' in the ozone layer, bringing further awareness to the importance of regulating the use of CFCs and taking care to restore the ozone layer.

The depletion of the ozone layer is not some abstract scientific finding that is only of interest to scientists. The depletion of the ozone layer is important to the preservation of human health. That is, in order to preserve human health and all life on earth, it is absolutely necessary that the ozone layer be protected. Why is the depletion of the ozone layer so important to protecting human health?

The impact of the ozone layer and the depletion of the ozone layer, on human health have been felt more acutely in some areas than other. People who live south of the equator in countries such as Australia and Chile have felt the consequences of the ozone layer. In many parts of the southern hemisphere people have had to deal with the consequences of a thinning ozone layer. This strikes especially hard during the spring months when UV alerts are given to citizens during the spring months when lobes of ozone depleted stratospheric air pockets move outward from the Antarctic. In the worse times, the ozone above some of these areas can reach as low as half the normal concentration of ozone. This means that UV radiation will reach these areas by a much greater percentage.

What sort of impact does the depletion of the ozone layer have on human health? In some of these areas, it is estimated that one out of every three Australians will develop some

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kind of serious skin caner in his or her lifetime. Many of these kinds of skin cancers are serious enough that they can be fatal. Clearly, the depletion of the ozone layer can have very serious and direct effects on human health, especially to people living in ozone-depleted areas.

What about the human health of populations living in the northern hemisphere? Those of us living in the northern hemisphere are certainly not immune either. Scientists have noted a thinning ozone layer in the northern hemisphere as well.

Why should you protect yourself from UV radiation? UV radiation can be directly responsible for many human health problems, including cancer, eye damage, skin aging, cataracts, and even blindness.

The sun and UV radiation can also have many chronic effects that are caused by long-term exposure to UV rays. The normal response to UV rays over a long period of time is normal skin aging, which may include coarsening of the skin, wrinkling, yellowing of the skin, and heavily pigmented or unpigmented skin. Furthermore, regular exposure to UV rays from the sun can also cause more serious problems, including skin cancer. Skin cancer has been on the rise, and the depletion of the ozone layer has been at least partly responsible for the greater number of skin cancer cases, researchers believe.

Answer the questions:

1. What is ozone? Where can it be found? What is the main function of the stratospheric ozone?

2. What substances cause depletion of the ozone layer? What are they used for?

3. What happens when the ozone concentration in the atmosphere decreases?

4. What impact does the depletion of the ozone layer have on human health?

5. In what areas of the world can this impact be felt more acutely than in others?

Task 2. Read the article and give Russian equivalents to the italicized expressions.

A Snapshot of the Greenhouse Effect

You have probably heard a lot of the greenhouse effect, but maybe the concept remains a little fuzzy in your consciousness. So what exactly is this so-called greenhouse effect and what does it mean for you and the future of this planet? The greenhouse effect simply refers to a natural process that is part of the earth. However, because of the devastating effects wrought by global warming, the greenhouse effect has received a very bad reputation in recent years. With over 150 years of industrialization under our belt, the greenhouse effect has gradually become a menacing prospect.

First, it should be understood that the greenhouse effect is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, the greenhouse effect is a natural process that is necessary in order to sustain life on earth. Basically, life is sustained on planet earth by energy received from the sun. However, much of the sun that is reflected onto our planet is being deflected off the planet and scattered back across space—at least 30 percent of sunlight is beamed out into space to be exact. The rest of the this sunlight eventually reaches the surface of earth, but is then reflected back up to the atmosphere again as a very slow energy known as infrared radiation.

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The infrared radiation that is not carried away by air currents is absorbed by greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor. This helps to slow its escape way from the earth's atmosphere. Only about one percent of the earth's atmosphere is made up by greenhouse gases. However, they are very necessary in order to regulate the earth's climate. These natural greenhouse gases help keep the earth warm enough to sustain life. However, what happens when too many greenhouse gases are released into the earth's atmosphere?

When too many greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere, global warming occurs. Although the greenhouse effect is certainly a necessary and very essential part of our earth's environment if it is to sustain human life, too much of it is a trouble. This happens when human activity produces too many greenhouse gases and releases them into the atmosphere.

The most common human activities that are the most responsible for the effects of global warming include the burning of fossil fuels such as natural gas, oil and coal. This includes the gasoline that helps run your automobile.

Another common activity that can be responsible for too many greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere includes many common farming practices that use a lot of nitrous oxide and methane. Other activities include factories and industry that have been responsible for producing long-lasting industrial gases. Most of these industrial gases do not occur naturally in nature.

Other major factors that are responsible for causing the effects of global warming include deforestation. Deforestation is one of the major causes for global warming because trees help to absorb many of the greenhouse gases released by the human activity. However, deforestation means that many important allies—trees—are no longer around to help absorb excess gases.

Another factor is population growth, which is also responsible for the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Population growth is a major factor because it means more people are burning fossil fuels and releasing greenhouse gases into the environment. Also, population growth has caused increased farming, which has also helped increase the effects of global warming.

Match the sentences with expressions from the list below:

Fossil fuels, to affect, ice-melting, average temperature, drought, to fell, oxygen, build-up, CFCs, trapping, atmospheric equilibrium, low-lying, carbon dioxide.

Many experts agree that the most pressing problem facing all of us is that of the gradual warming of the Earth’s atmosphere caused mainly by the ___________ of carbon dioxide and CFCs in the atmosphere. It is a well-known fact that the atmosphere is getting warmer. In the past 80 years the global ______________ has increased by half of one degree Celcius.

The consequences are likely to be significant. Some experts predict that by 2090, the average temperature could be higher than today by 2-6C. Good news, you may think, but there would be a price to pay. Global warming would _________ the climate in all parts of the world. _______________ coastal regions would be flooded because of _____________. Hot countries which are already suffering from ____________ could get even hotter and drier, and more arid.

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Burning _______________ is one of the main causes of global warming. When they are burned, _________ is used and carbon dioxide is produced. Trees that are growing use __________ and produce oxygen. So there could be a healthy balance. But since the Industrial revolution the ______________ has been upset as more fossil fuels have been burned and forests _________ and burned at an unprecedented rate. The great amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere are responsible for __________ more heat – this is the so-called “greenhouse effect”.

Other important greenhouse gases are _________, some of which are thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide in _________ heat in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Task 3. Give a free translation of the article using the terms.

Когда на Земле глобально потеплеет?

По сей день ученые, а вместе с ними и простые смертные спорят, грозит ли нашей планете глобальное потепление, и если да, то чем оно обернется.

ПОКА ученые спорят, льды продолжают таять. Ими, кстати, покрыто 10% суши. Если всю массу льда распределить по Земле, толщина покрова составит около 50 м. Как утверждают ученые, для того чтобы затопить Голландию или наш Санкт-Петербург, достаточно поднять уровень моря на полтора метра. Вот только когда это произойдет? За последние 50 лет Мировой океан поднимался в среднем на 0,7 мм в год, что было вдвое меньше ожидаемых прогнозов. Если так пойдет и дальше, голландцам ничего не угрожает в ближайшие 2000 лет.

Самый неприятный момент в таянии льдов связан с Антарктидой. Восточная ее часть представляет собой множество островов, на которых лежит огромная ледниковая шапка. Если уровень моря поднимется чуть-чуть, шапка начнет всплывать и под нее пойдет вода. Ледник будет быстро таять.

Версий о том, что ждет нашу цивилизацию, множество. Кто-то считает, что Гренландия по мере своего таяния охладит Гольфстрим и в Европе наступит зима. Но оптимисты полагают, что таяние льдов никакой опасности не представляет, средняя температура воздуха в Гренландии и Антарктике никогда не превысит нулевой отметки.

Или взять миф об арктических льдах. Даже если они все растают, Мировой океан не поднимется ни на миллиметр — это вытекает из известного всем закона Архимеда. Наконец, говоря о подъеме уровня моря, нельзя забывать, что земля тоже колеблется вверх-вниз. Тектонические перемещения составляют до 20 мм в год. Так что линия берега может подниматься быстрее воды.

ПАРНИКОВЫМ эффектом в 80-е годы разве что детей не пугали. Да, цивилизация — не безотходное производство. Ежегодно она сжигает 4,5 млрд. тонн угля, 3,2 млрд. тонн нефти и нефтепродуктов. Кроме углекислоты в атмосферу мы выбрасываем метан, а это тоже парниковый газ. Концентрация углекислого газа увеличивается и за счет вырубки лесов. Потепление вызывает больше пожаров и засух, а это опять же СО2. Но ученые признают, что нельзя все сводить к выбросам парниковых газов. Климатическая система — одна из сложнейших на Земле.

«Защитники» парникового эффекта обращают внимание на то, что без него планета давно бы замерзла. А что касается углекислого газа, то его в атмосфере всего-то 0,035%. Увеличение концентрации СО2 пошло бы на пользу и лесам, и

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сельхозугодьям. Скажем, хозяйственно полезные площади в нашей стране увеличились бы в два раза. России от глобального потепления вообще выйдет одна выгода. Если льды в Северном Ледовитом океане растают, так это будет самый короткий морской путь с Дальнего Востока в Европу. Замечено, что потепление идет только в северных широтах. Значит, на юге от жары мы умирать не станем, а в Якутии, глядишь, и персики расти начнут.

Все ученые сходятся в том, что потепление происходит. Непонятно только, по какой причине — естественной или антропогенной, т. е. связанной с деятельностью человека. Чтобы ответить на этот вопрос, нужен длинный период метеонаблюдений — до нескольких тысяч лет. А температуру регулярно начали измерять всего 250 лет назад. Этого мало. Впрочем, никто не сомневается, что в ближайшие 10 лет с глобальным потеплением все станет ясно. И мы наконец поймем, чем оно вызвано и надолго ли оно пришло.

Task 4. Read the text and give Russian equivalents to the italicized expressions. Retell the text.

The Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement setting targets for industrialised countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)). These gases are considered at least partly responsible for global warming - the rise in global temperature which may have catastrophic consequences for life on Earth. The protocol was established in 1997, based on principles set out in a framework agreement signed in 1992.

Industrialised countries have committed to cut their combined emissions to 5% below 1990 levels by 2008 - 2012. Each country that signed the protocol agreed to its own specific target. EU countries are expected to cut their present emissions by 8% and Japan by 5%. Some countries with low emissions were permitted to increase them.

Russia initially wavered over signing the protocol, amid speculation that it was jockeying for more favourable terms. But the country's cabinet agreed to back Kyoto in September 2004. The deciding factor appears to be not the economic cost, but the political benefits for Russia. In particular, there has been talk of stronger European Union support for Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organization, when it ratifies the protocol. But fears still persist in Russia that Kyoto could badly affect the country's economic growth.

Industrialised countries cut their overall emissions by about 3% from 1990 to 2000. But this was largely because a sharp decrease in emissions from the collapsing economies of former Soviet countries masked an 8% rise among rich countries. The UN says industrialised countries are now well off target for the end of the decade and predicts emissions of 10% above 1990 levels by 2010. Only four EU countries are on track to meet their own targets.

Before Russia's backing, many feared Kyoto was on its last legs. But Moscow's decision has breathed new life into the protocol. The agreement stipulates that for it to become binding in international law, it must be ratified by the countries who together are responsible for at least 55% of 1990 global greenhouse gas emissions.

The treaty suffered a massive blow in 2001 when the US, responsible for about quarter of the world's emissions, pulled out. The additional uncertainty over Russia's position was

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seen as another nail in the coffin, but observers are now hopeful the 55% threshold can be reached.

US President George W Bush pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol in 2001, saying implementing it would gravely damage the US economy. His administration dubbed the treaty "fatally flawed", partly because it does not require developing countries to commit to emissions reductions. Mr Bush says he backs emissions reductions through voluntary action and new energy technologies.

Most climate scientists say that the targets set in the Kyoto Protocol are merely scratching the surface of the problem. The agreement aims to reduce emissions from industrialised nations only by around 5%, while many climate scientists believe that in order to avoid the worst consequences of global warming, emissions cuts of 60% across the board are needed. This has led to criticisms that the agreement is toothless, as well as being virtually obsolete without US support.

But others say its failure would be a disaster as, despite its flaws, it sets out a framework for future negotiations which could take another decade to rebuild. Kyoto commitments have been signed into law in some countries, US states and in the EU, and will stay in place regardless of the fate of the protocol itself.

The agreement acknowledges that developing countries contribute least to climate change but will quite likely suffer most from its effects. Many have signed it. They do not have to commit to specific targets, but have to report their emissions levels and develop national climate change mitigation programmes. China and India, potential major polluters with huge populations and growing economies, have both ratified the protocol.

Emissions trading works by allowing countries to buy and sell their agreed allowances of greenhouse gas emissions. Highly polluting countries can buy unused "credits" from those which are allowed to emit more than they actually do. After much difficult negotiation, countries are now also able to gain credits for activities which boost the environment's capacity to absorb carbon. These include tree planting and soil conservation, and can be carried out in the country itself, or by that country working in a developing country.

Some scientists disagree with the global and UK predictions for climate change, mainly because the climate had changed naturally before. In addition, predicting changes to our climate is very complex and the use of computer models has raised some criticism.

On top of that, some experts believe it is impossible to be certain about how our climate will change as it can be very unpredictable. They also believe, the climate is supposed to change and it has done before. Many believe activities from humans cannot be to blame for changes in the climate.

Explain the meaning of the following expressions and use them in the sentences of your own:

To waver over, to jockey for, to be well off target, to be on track to do smth., to breathe new life into, to suffer a massive blow, to scratch the surface of the problem, fatally flawed, obsolete.

Answer the questions:

1. What is the Kyoto Protocol? When was it signed? When did it come into effect?

2. What conditions were required for the Kyoto Protocol to come into force?

3. What are the targets of the Kyoto Protocol? Have they been achieved?

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4. Why did Russia initially hesitate to ratify the Kyoto Protocol?

5. What is emissions trading?

6. What do sceptics say about the possible effects of global warming?

Task 5. Be ready to talk on one of the following topics:

1. To what extent are Russians environmentally conscious?

2. What has the Russian government done to deal with environmental problems?

3. Speak about the environmental policies pursued by multi-national companies operating in Russia.

4. What international environmental organizations do you know? Speak about their aims and activities in Russia.

Revision. Translate into Russian:

1. Существует несколько версий возникновения «озоновых дыр». Некоторые специалисты склонны считать причиной их возникновения только природные, другие – только антропогенные факторы.

2. Несомненно, во многом виноваты хлорфторуглероды, являющиеся озоно-разрушающими веществами. Они применяются в аэрозолях, в качестве хладагентов в холодильниках, при производстве пенопластиковых упаковок для пищевых продуктов и т.д. Эти вещества не токсичны, не горючи, а об их вредных свойствах поначалу просто не знали.

3. В 1987 году был подписан Монреальский протокол – международное соглашение, целью которого является защита озонового слоя Земли путем поэтапного сокращения производства хлорфторуглеродов и ряда других веществ. Более 50 стран, подписавших Монреальский протокол, взяли на себя обязательства сократить производство ХФУ на 50% к 1998 году.

4. К середине 90-х годов в результате действия Монреальского протокола концентрация озоно-разрушающих веществ в нижних слоях атмосферы начала снижаться. Вследствие этого размеры озоновой дыры над Антарктидой также стали медленно сокращаться – на 0.1-0.2% в год.

5. Главная причина возникновения парникового эффекта – выбросы в атмосферу углекислого газа, получаемого в основном при сжигании ископаемого топлива. Половина углекислого газа, поступившего в атмосферу на протяжении истории человечества, была добавлена за последние 30 лет.

6. Как сообщают специалисты по охране окружающей среды, концентрация в атмосфере таких вредных химических веществ как углекислый газ и хлорфторуглероды, продолжает расти повсеместно в мире. Помимо того, что эти вещества разрушают озоновый слой, они также способны удерживать инфракрасное излучение, исходящее от Земли. В результате создается так называемый «парниковый эффект».

7. Если не сократить выбросы в атмосферу углекислого газа, то по предсказаниям ученых, за 50 лет температура на Земли поднимется еще на 2 градуса, а к концу века не останется ни одного ледника и многие прибрежные зоны будут затоплены.

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8. Согласно Киотскому протоколу, подписанному в декабре 1997 года, промышленно развитые страны должны сократить свои выбросы парниковых газов к 2008-2012 гг. по меньшей мере на 5% по сравнению с уровнем 1990 г. Чтобы Киотский протокол вступил в силу он должен быть ратифицирован более чем половиной подписавших его стран, на долю которых приходится как минимум 55% общих выбросов углекислого газа.

9. США, на долю которых приходится треть загрязняющих атмосферу выхлопов, наотрез отказались подписывать протокол, подсчитав, что выполнение киотских договоренности обойдется им как самой индустриально развитой державе в 300 млрд. долларов. Односторонний выход США из Киотского Протокола поставил под угрозу выполнение этого важного соглашения.

10.Кислотные дожди наносят большой ущерб окружающей природе. Содержащиеся в них соединения серы и азота – сернистый газ, азотная кислота и серная кислота – окисляют пресные водоемы, убивая живущих в них рыб, окисляют почвы, что приводит к истощению растительности.

11.Процесс перегонки нефти является очень вредным для окружающей среды, так как в атмосферу выбрасывается большое количество токсичных газов, включая сероводород. Поэтому нефтеочистные предприятия должны быть обязательно снабжены оборудованием, которое позволяло бы очищать отработанные газы от сероводорода.

12.Одним из источников выбросов в атмосферу серы – главного ингредиента кислотных дождей – являются выхлопные газы автотранспорта, а также электростанции, работающие на угле.

Task 5. Read the text and give Russian equivalents to the italicized words and expressions.

Water Scarcity

The amount of water in the world is finite. The number of us is growing fast and our water use is growing even faster. A third of the world's population lives in water-stressed countries now. By 2025, this is expected to rise to two-thirds.

There is more than enough water available, in total, for everyone's basic needs. The UN recommends that people need a minimum of 50 litres of water a day for drinking, washing, cooking and sanitation. In 1990, over a billion people did not have even that.

Providing universal access to that basic minimum worldwide by 2015 would take less than 1% of the amount of water we use today. But we're a long way from achieving that. The global water consumption rose sixfold between 1900 and 1995 - more than double the rate of population growth - and goes on growing as farming, industry and domestic demand all increase.

As important as quantity is quality - with pollution increasing in some areas, the amount of useable water declines. More than five million people die from waterborne diseases each year - 10 times the number killed in wars around the globe. And the wider effects of water shortages are just as chilling as the prospect of having too little to drink.

Seventy percent of the water used worldwide is used for agriculture. Much more will be needed if we are to feed the world's growing population - predicted to rise from about six billion today to 8.9 billion by 2050. And consumption will soar further as more people

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expect Western-style lifestyles and diets - one kilogram of grain-fed beef needs at least 15 cubic metres of water, while a kilo of cereals needs only up to three cubic metres.

The poor are the ones who suffer most. Water shortages can mean long walks to fetch water, high prices to buy it, food insecurity and disease from drinking dirty water. But the very thing needed to raise funds to tackle water problems in poor countries - economic development - requires yet more water to supply the agriculture and industries which drive it.

The UN-backed World Commission on Water estimated in 2000 that an additional $100bn a year would be needed to tackle water scarcity worldwide. Even if the money can be found, spending it wisely is a further challenge. Dams and other large-scale projects now affect 60% of the world's largest rivers and provide millions with water. But in many cases the costs in terms of population displacement and irreversible changes in the nearby ecosystems have been considerable.

Using underground supplies is another widely used solution, but it means living on capital accumulated over millennia, and depleting it faster than the interest can top it up. As groundwater is exploited, water tables in parts of China, India, West Asia, the former Soviet Union and the western United States are dropping.

New technology can help, however, especially by cleaning up pollution and so making more water useable, and in agriculture, where water use can be made far more efficient. Drought-resistant plants can also help. Drip irrigation drastically cuts the amount of water needed, low-pressure sprinklers are an improvement, and even building simple earth walls to trap rainfall is helpful.

Some countries are now treating waste water so that it can be used - and drunk - several times over. Desalinisation makes sea water available, but takes huge quantities of energy and leaves vast amounts of brine. The optimists say "virtual water" may save the day - the water contained in crops which can be exported from water-rich countries to arid ones. But the amounts involved would be immense, and the energy needed to transport them gargantuan. And affordable, useable energy will probably soon be a bigger problem than water itself.

In any case, it is not just us who need water, but every other species that shares the planet with us - as well all the ecosystems on which we, and they, rely. Climate change will also have an impact. Some areas will probably benefit from increased rainfall, but others are likely to be losers.

We have to rethink how much water we really need if we are to learn how to share the Earth's supply. For millions of people around the world, getting it right is a matter of life and death.

Give a free oral translation of the article using the terms from the text above.

Восход столетия жажды

Количество воды в мире ограничено. Ни человек, ни другие живые существа, населяющие планету Земля, не могут рассчитывать на то, что живительная влага будет всегда.

Все знают, что водой покрыто две трети поверхности Земли. Но подавляющее большинство этого гигантского объема совершенно непригодно для использования: слишком солона вода. Всего 2,5% мировых запасов влаги - это пресная вода. Правда, две трети этих процентов - это лед. Из последней трети 20% находится в

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труднодоступных районах, а большая часть того, что остается, почему-то оказывается в ненужном месте в ненужное время в виде муссонов, наводнений и прочих стихийных неурядиц. Человеку доступно менее 0,08% воды, имеющейся на Земле. И при этом в ближайшие два десятилетия, как считают ученые, потребление воды нашей цивилизацией возрастет на 40%.

200 ученых в 50 странах мира пришли к заключению, что нехватка воды станет одной из самых насущных проблем нового тысячелетия. Другой такой проблемой было названо глобальное потепление.

Около 70% имеющейся у нас воды мы используем для нужд сельского хозяйства. И Всемирный водный совет полагает, что к 2020 году, чтобы прокормить растущее население планеты, нам понадобится на 17% больше воды, чем будет в нашем распоряжении.

Сегодня в мире каждый пятый человек не имеет в своем распоряжении чистой питьевой воды. Каждый второй употребляет воду, не прошедшую адекватной очистки. А ведь главная составляющая здорового образа жизни и правильного питания - чистая вода.

У нехватки воды есть несколько причин. Одна из них - это рост населения и желание людей жить лучше. Другая - неэффективное использование тех ресурсов, которыми мы располагаем. Ирригация, к примеру, - это грандиозное расточительство: вода в буквальном смысле уходит в песок или испаряется. В Китае, например, на производство одной тонны пшеницы расходуется тысяча тонн воды. Загрязнение окружающей среды - не менее страшная проблема. Выбросы уменьшают и без того ограниченные запасы питьевой воды.

Искать выход из глобального водного кризиса можно в нескольких направлениях. Есть, к примеру, возможность культивировать менее влагоемкие сельскохозяйственные культуры. Или заняться опреснением, хотя эта процедура, как известно, требует гигантских энергетических затрат и к тому же оставляет после себя огромное количество "рассола", который после этого необходимо утилизировать.

Вероятно, в результате климатических перемен некоторые регионы станут более дождливыми, чем раньше. Другие - наоборот. Но общий исход глобального потепления пока совершенно не ясен.

И все же, если мы намерены как-то решить проблему нехватки воды, то нужно помнить о том, что у нас на всех одна планета, и мы - ее жители - все зависим друг от друга.

Task 6. Read the text and give Russian equivalents to the italicized words and expressions.

Recycling

Recycling is the process of turning used products into raw materials that can be used to make new products. Its purpose is to conserve natural resources and reduce pollution. Recycling reduces energy consumption, since it generally takes less energy to recycle a product than to make a new one. Similarly, recycling causes less pollution than manufacturing a new product, and conserves raw materials. It also decreases the amount of waste sent to landfills or incinerators. Although people have always reused

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things, recycling as we know it today emerged as part of the modern environmental movement.

During World War II, Americans experimented with conservation and recycling as a matter of national security. Afterward, 1950s middle class life unapologetically adopted the ethics of expansion and newness. As more and more middle-class Americans began to express environmental attitudes, the wastefulness of modern consumption became obvious to more and more consumers.

Such environmental concerns contributed to a new "ethic" within American culture that began to value restraint, re-use, and living within limits. This ethic of restraint, fed by over-used landfills and excessive litter, gave communities a new mandate in maintaining the waste of their population. Re-using products or creating useful byproducts from waste offered application of this new ethic while also offering new opportunity for economic profit and development.

Non-profit recycling centers began opening around the country, followed by municipal recycling programs. Today, most U.S. communities have such programs. A typical program asks people to separate their recyclables from their trash before placing them at the curb for collection. To encourage recycling, some communities also charge residents for the quantity of trash put out for collection. The most commonly recycled household items are paper and cardboard; metal, glass, and plastic containers and packaging; and yard waste. Recycling the recovered materials is simple for metals and glass; they can be melted down, reformed, and reused. Yard waste can be composted with little or no equipment. Paper, the most important recycled material, must be mixed with water, and sometimes de-inked, to form a pulp that can be used in papermaking. Plastics recycling requires an expensive process of separation of different resins.

In the US, plastics are all numerically coded according to type, including: polyethylene terphthalate (PETE or PET) - an example of these plastics are virtually all soft drink bottles; high density polyethylene (HDPE) - an example would be detergent bottles; polyvinyl chloride (PVC) - sometimes used for water or oil bottles but now rare in food beverage packaging, due to concerns about its environmental hazards; low density polyethylene (LDPE) - often used for plastic bags; polypropylene (PP) - examples are some yogurt containers and bottle caps; and polystyrene (PS) - used to make styrofoam containers.

The American Chemistry Council reports that in the US in 2005, 922 million pounds of HDPE bottles (those thick plastic bottles like milk jugs and laundry detergent bottles) were recycled, as were over one billion pounds of PET and PP bottles, although they note that this represents only about 25-30% of all recyclable bottles. The majority of this is attributed to PET, as PP recycling is rare, and a large part of the recycling of bottles comes from the 11 states with deposit legislation.

Depending on the type, plastics can be recycled into anything from fiberfill to polyester-like fibers, to blue recycling bins, or plastic lumber furniture. Fleece is an example of a textile that can be produced from recycled plastics. While many companies still rely on “virgin” polyester to produce fleece, there are now several “eco-fleece” products on the market that are made primarily or entirely from recycled bottles.

Match the following expressions with the correct definitions:

1. landfill

2. energy consumption

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3. incinerator

4. recyclable materials

5. compost

6. waste disposal

7. biodegradable

8. disposable

9. by-product

1. designed to be thrown away after it has been used

2. capable of being decomposed by bacteria or other biological means

3. a mixture of decaying plants and manure which is added to the soil to help plants grow

4. something which is made during the manufacture or processing of another product

5. a place where garbage is buried underground

6. the act of getting rid of waste

7. materials that can be processed and used again

8. a special large container for burning rubbish at a very high temperature

9. the amount of energy that is used up

Task 7. Read the text and explain in English the meaning of the italicized expressions. Retell the text.

How much do people really understand about environmental crisis?

Not much, according to the writers of this article. People know that there is a crisis – that the environment is becoming endangered at an alarming rate. However, their understanding is often confused by mistaken ideas. Many of these ideas come from television and radio, which often present information in extremely shortened form. In this article the authors attempt to replace some common “enviro-myths”, false ideas about the environment, with “enviro-facts”.

SIX ENVIRO-MYTHS YOU CAN STOP BELIEVINGby Robert M.Lilienfeld and William L.Rathje

We recently participated in an environmental festival at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, the largest indoor shopping center in America. After speaking with thousands of parents, children and teachers, we were appalled at the public's wealth of environmental misunderstanding.

We were equally chagrined by the superficiality of what we heard, and have coined a new term for this type of sound-bite-based, factoid-heavy understanding: eco-glibberish. Here are half a dozen examples.

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One: Recycling is the key

Actually, recycling is one of the least important things we can do, if our real objective is to conserve resources.

Remember the phrase "reduce, reuse and recycle"? Reduce comes first for a good reason: It's better not to create waste than to have to figure out what to do with it. And recycling, like any other form of manufacturing, uses energy and other resources while creating pollution and greenhouse gases.

Rather, we need to make products more durable, lighter, more energy efficient and easier to repair rather than to replace. Finally, we need to reduce and reuse packaging.

Two: Garbage will overwhelm us

The original garbage crisis occurred when people first settled down to farm and could no longer leave their campsites after their garbage grew too deep. Since then, every society has had to figure out what to do with discards. That something was usually unhealthy, odiferous and ugly—throwing garbage in the streets, piling it up just outside of town, incorporating it into structures or simply setting it on fire.

Today we can design history's and the world's safest recycling facilities, landfills and incinerators. America even has a glut of landfill capacity, thanks to the fact that we have been building large regional landfills to replace older, smaller local dumps.

The problem is political. No one wants to spend money on just getting rid of garbage or to have a garbage site in the backyard. The obvious solution is to stop generating so much garbage in the first place. Doing so requires both the knowledge and the self-discipline to conserve energy and do more with less stuff.

Three: Industry is to blame

No, it's all people's fault. Certainly industry has played a significant role in destroying habitats, generating pollution and depleting resources. But we are the ones who signal to businesses that what they are doing is acceptable—every time we open our wallets.

And don't just blame industrial societies. In his recent book "Earth Politics," Ernst Ulrich von Weizsacker wrote that "perhaps 90 percent of the extinction of species, soil erosion, forest and wilderness destruction and also desertification are taking place in developing countries." Thus, even non-industrialized, subsistence economies are creating environmental havoc.

Four: The earth is in peril

Frankly, the earth doesn't need to be saved. Nature doesn't give a hoot if human beings are here or not. The planet has survived cataclysmic changes for millions upon millions of years. Over that time, it is widely believed, 99 percent of all species have come and gone while the planet has remained.

Saving the environment is really about saving our environment—making it safe for ourselves, our children and the world as we know it. If more people saw the issue as one of saving themselves, we would probably see increased motivation and commitment to actually doing so.

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Five: Packaging is the problem

If you were to examine a dumpster of garbage from the 1950s and a dumpster of garbage from the 1980s, you would find more discarded packaging in the first one. Packaging has actually decreased as a proportion of all solid wastes—from more than half in the 1950s to just over one-third today.

One reason is that there was more of other kinds of wastes (old appliances, magazines, office paper) in the 1980s. But the main causes were two changes in the packaging industry.

First, the heavy metal cans and glass bottles of the 1950s gave way to far lighter and more crushable-containers—about 22 percent lighter by the 1980s. At the same time, many metal and glass containers were replaced by paper boxes and plastic bottles and bins, which are even lighter and more crushable.

Second, the carrying capacity of packages—the quantity of product that can be delivered per ounce of packaging material—increased hugely. Glass, for example, has a carrying capacity of 1.2, meaning that 1.2 fluid ounces of milk or juice are delivered for every ounce of glass in which they are contained. Plastic containers have a carrying capacity of about 30.

Six: Americans are wasting more

The myth has it that Americans are overconsumers, since the per capita creation of solid waste continues to climb. Each person generates about 4.4 pounds of garbage a day—a number that has been growing steadily. The implication is that we partake in an un-stoppable orgy of consumption.

In reality, increases in solid waste are based largely on the mathematics of households, not individuals. That is because regardless of the size of a household, fixed activities and purchases generate trash.

As new households form, they create additional garbage. Think about a couple going through a divorce. Once there was one home. Now there are two. Building that second house or condo used lots of resources and created lots of construction debris.

Where once there was one set of furniture, one washing machine and one refrigerator, now there are two. Each refrigerator contains milk cartons, meat wrappers and packages of mixed vegetables. Each pantry contains cereal boxes and canned goods Census Bureau numbers tell this story: From 1972 to 1987, the U.S. population grew by 16 percent, while the number of households grew by 35 percent. Municipal solid waste in-creased by 35 percent, too.

If Americans were really creating more trash by overindulging, we would be spending more on trash-generating items: nondurable goods like food and cosmetics. These all generate lots of garbage, since they are used and discarded quickly, along with their pack-aging. But household expenditures for nondurable goods, as measured in constant dollars, declined slightly from 1972 to 1987.

Yes, the earth's resources are finite; habitats are being destroyed; bio-diversity is declining; consumption of resources is expanding. But we must be less willing to accept glib, ideological pronouncements of right and wrong, cause and effect. To truly change the world for the better, we need more facts, not simply more faith.

Answer the questions:

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1. What did the authors discover at an “environmental festival”?

2. Why do the authors say that recycling isn’t the key to saving our environment?

3. What is in the authors’ opinion the main cause of damage to the environment?

4. Do the authors believe that the earth itself is in peril?

5. Do the authors believe that Americans produce more waste than other nations?

6. What do the authors believe to be the true environmental problems of the earth? Do you think these statements are true?

Be ready to talk on one of the following topics:

1. In your opinion, what is the most important environmental issue in the area where you live? What can be done to improve the situation?

2. Water is a precious resource and has to be conserved. Are you aware of this? Some people in the West recycle their dishwater, using it to water their houseplants or their garden. Others flush their toilets only when absolutely necessary. Do you conserve water at home?

3. What do you think about recycling various materials? Would you try to persuade your local council to provide recycling facilities? Would you ever sort out your household rubbish so that it could be recycled?

4. What can you do in your own life to save our environment?

Task 8. Read the text and give Russian equivalents to the italicized words and expressions.

Can the planet feed us?

More of us are eating more and better than ever before. The world cereal consumption has more than doubled since 1970, and meat consumption has tripled since 1961. The global fish catch grew more than six times from 1950 to 1997. None of this happened by magic, though, but only by giving Nature a massive helping hand. The World Resources Institute said a couple of years ago that half of all the commercial fertilisers ever produced had been applied since 1984.

So one question is whether the world can go on increasing its harvests at this rate - or even faster, to cater as well for the extra 75 million people born annually . Our recent achievements are impressive - while the global population doubled to 6 billion people in the 40 years from 1960, the global food production more than kept up. The proportion of malnourished people fell in the three decades to the mid-1990s from 37% to 18%. But we may not be able to go on at this rate.

For a start, much of the world's best cropland is already in use, and farmers have to turn to increasingly marginal land. And the good land is often taking a battering - soil degradation has already reduced global agricultural productivity by 13% in the last half-century. Many of the pesticides on which the crop increases have depended are losing their effectiveness, as the pests acquire more resistance.

A key constraint is water. The 17% of cropland that is irrigated produces an estimated 30-40% of all crops, but in many countries there will be progressively less water available for agriculture. Many of these are poor countries, where irrigation can boost crop yields by

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up to 400%. There are ways to improve irrigation and to use water more effectively, but it's not clear these can bridge the gap.

Biotechnology, in principle, may offer the world a second Green Revolution, for example by producing drought-resistant plants or varieties that withstand pest attacks. But it arouses deep unease, not least because of fears it may erode the genetic resources in thousands of traditional varieties grown in small communities across the world.

Nobody knows what the probable impacts of climate change will be on food supplies. Modest temperature increases may actually benefit rich temperate countries, but make harvests even more precarious across much of the tropics.

Another question concerns the huge cost to other forms of life of all the progress we've made in securing our own food supply. The amount of nitrogen available for uptake by plants is much higher than the natural level, and has more than doubled since the 1940s. The excess comes from fertilisers running off farmland, from livestock manure, and from other human activities. It is changing the composition of species in ecosystems, reducing soil fertility, depleting the ozone layer, intensifying climate change, and creating dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico and other near-coastal seas.

The sheer amount of the Earth we need to produce our food has an enormous impact. Globally, we have taken over about 26% of the planet's land area (roughly 3.3 billion hectares) for cropland and pasture, replacing a third of temperate and tropical forests and a quarter of natural grasslands. Another 0.5 billion ha has gone for urban and built-up areas. Habitat loss from the conversion of natural ecosystems is the main reason why other species are being pushed closer to the brink of extinction.

Food security comes at a high price. In any case, it is a security many can only envy.

At the moment we are not on course to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of halving world hunger by 2015. Although the proportion of hungry people is coming down, population increase means the actual number continues to rise. Hunger and malnutrition killed 10 million people a year, 25,000 a day - one life extinguished every five seconds.

The world does produce enough to feed everyone. But the food is often in the wrong place, or unaffordable, or can't be stored long enough. So making sure everyone has enough to eat is more about politics than science.

Give your opinion on the following issues:

How bad is the current state of the planet?

Is there a conflict between protecting the Earth and helping the poor?

How much faith should we have in new technologies?

What sort of lifestyles can the planet sustain for everyone – and what sort of lives should we and our children want anyway?

How big a gap between the rich and the poor is acceptable – and what is the best way of alleviating it?

Do free market policies help or hurt the poor and the environment?

Task 9. Read the text and give Russian equivalents to the italicized words and expressions.

Six key states push world to 9bn people

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By 2050, the UN says, 90% will live in a developing countryIn Europe, the proportion of children could fall to 14%

Rapid population growth and relatively high fertility levels in the world's 48 least developed countries, and rising life expectancy everywhere, will help push the world's population from 6.1bn to about 9.3bn by 2050, according to a UN report published yesterday.

It estimates that the world's population is growing by 1.2% annually, or 77m people, and six countries account for half the increase: India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Indonesia.

The population division of the UN department of economic and social affairs points to growing imbalance between the developed and developing world, the population growth concentrated overwhelmingly in those countries least able to support it. The 48 least developed countries are expected to nearly triple their population, from 658m to 1.8bn.

These increases, if realised, are certain to intensify pressure on food and water resources in many parts of the developing world, and they present an enormous challenge to international aid, poverty reduction and education programmes. They are also expected to exacerbate problems such as global warming and environmental degradation.

More international migration will be another consequence, the report says. In the EU, increased immigration will be essential if workforce levels are to be sustained as the indigenous population ages, it argues. "The population of the less developed regions is projected to rise steadily from 4.9bn in 2000 to 8.2bn in 2050," it says.

Even this startling projection is based on the assumption that fertility will continue to decline. If that failed to happen, the population of less developed regions would reach an enormous 11.9bn.

Looked at another way, the UN figures suggest that within 50 years nine out of every 10 people will be living in a developing country. One in every six will be living in India where the current population of just over 1bn is projected to rise by 600m.

By contrast, population levels in Europe and Japan are projected to decline sharply because fertility is falling below the "replacement level" - that is to say, below an average of 2.1 children a woman.

By mid-century the populations of Germany and Japan will have fallen on current trends by 14%, that of Italy by 25% and that of Russia and Ukraine by between 28% and 40%. But this trend will be mitigated to some degree by more immigration, the report says, amounting to a net average annual gain in developed countries of about 2m.

Because of low fertility, this migration has a significant impact ... Without migration, the population of more developed regions as a whole would start declining in 2003 rather than in 2025.

Britain, for example, has a fertility level of only 1.6 but its total population, currently 59m, is likely to be about the same in 2050, owing to immigration. The United States is likely to remain a prime target for migrants, giving it an annual influx of about 1m people and a projected population by 2050 of about 400m; it has 280m now.

The report suggests that Africa, one of the areas of biggest population growth, will have three times as many people as Europe by 2050 - in all, 2bn Africans against 800m now. That compares starkly with the situation in 1950, when Europe accounted for almost a quarter of the world's population and Africa only 8%.

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The population explosion in Africa, Asia and Latin America would be even more dramatic but for the impact of the HIV/ AIDS epidemic, the report says. But despite an expected 300m deaths in 50 years, the continent's population will still rise.

For the nine most HIV affected countries in Africa, the population is projected to increase from 115m in 2000 to 196m in 2050. Even in Botswana, where HIV prevalence is 36%, or in Swaziland and Zimbabwe, where it is above 25%, the numbers are projected to increase significantly; by 37% in Botswana, 148% in Swaziland and 86% in Zimbabwe. "Only in South Africa, whose fertility is lower than that of Botswana or Zimbabwe, does the growth rate of the population become negative during 2010-2025, being positive thereafter.

Although AIDS has reduced life expectancy by three years in the 45 countries worst hit, the average human life span is still increasing there and elsewhere.

Furthermore, the life expectancy gap between rich and poor countries appears to be closing. In less developed regions, life expectancy will increase by 12 years, to 75, in the next 50 years; in developed regions, it will rise by seven years, from the current 75 years to 82. In Britain, life expectancy is currently 78 years, rising to 83 by 2050.

The prospect for the industrial world is one of elderly populations and shrinking workforces ever more dependent on migrant labour. The older population of the more developed regions has already surpassed the child population and by 2050, there will be two older persons for every child.

One-fifth of all Europeans were aged 60 or more in 1998. By 2050 they may represent more than one-third of all adults, with children making up only 14% of the population.

Be ready to talk on one of the following topics:

1. What is the total population of the Earth? Is the world’s population evenly distributed within the inhabited areas of the globe?

2. What reasons caused the “population explosion” in the 20th century?

3. Is it true that the population growth problem is primarily a problem of the developing world?

4. What factors lead to the rapid population growth in the Third World countries?

5. What are the methods used by different countries to control the size of their population?

6. Speak about the demographic problems faced by the industrially developed countries.

7. What has been done by the government of Russia to solve its demographic problem?

Revision. Translate into Russian:

1. Как известно, вода занимает 2\3 поверхности Земля. Однако пресная вода составляет всего 2.5% мировых запасов воды. Даже в настоящее время многие станы испытывают серьезную нехватку воды, при этом подсчитано, что за последующие 20 лет потребление воды в мире вырастет на 20%.

2. Индии уже в ближайшие десятилетия грозит острейшая нехватка воды. В настоящий момент 95% воды в этой стране уходит на нужды сельского хозяйства, причём 60% воды расходуется крайне бесхозяйственно. Исследователи предостерегают, что если не будут приняты меры, четверть населения северных

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регионов Индии полностью лишится доступа к грунтовым водам уже в 2050 году. Уже сейчас во многих регионах Индии уровень грунтовых вод упал на несколько метров.

3. Несколько лет назад ученые-экологи из Финляндии установили, что Санкт-Петербург является крупнейшим источником загрязнения Финского Залива. В связи с этим городские власти взяли на себя обязательства по защите экосистемы Балтийского моря. В 2006 году завершилось строительство водоочистных сооружений на юго-западе Санкт-Петербурга. Правительства Финляндии и Швеции оказывали активно содействие в реализации проекта, общая стоимость которого составила 130 млн. евро.

4. Бытовые отходы – серьезная проблема для всех мегаполисов. В настоящее время существует три пути ее решения: складирование на полигоны (попросту – свалки), сжигание и переработка. Безусловно, наиболее приемлемым с экологической, да и с экономической точки зрения решением является вторичная переработка. Она не только позволяет предотвратить выбросы в окружающую среду опасных веществ, но и сохранить природные ресурсы.

5. Ежегодно жители Санкт-Петербурга производят более 1 млн. тонн бытовых отходов, и большая часть их них вывозится на свалки. Территорий под новые полигоны нет, а старые исчерпают свой ресурс уже через 5-10 лет. В таких условиях необходимо призвать население вести селективный отбор отходов и предоставить для этого раздельные мусорные контейнеры для макулатуры, стекла, пластика и металла. Это позволит отправлять на переработку большую часть городского мусора.

6. К середине 80-х годов Россия по численности занимала 4-е место в мире. С начала 90-х годов она была уже на 6-м месте. Подобная убыль населения сопоставима с периодом Первой Мировой войны. Даже в годы сталинских репрессий среднегодовой прирост населения составлял 1.5 млн. человек. Затем он замедлился и в начале 80-х годов остановился. Начался процесс старения населения России. Сейчас у нас в стране насчитывается более 30 млн. пенсионеров, что составляет 21% населения России.

7. По результатам переписи населения 2002 года в России зарегистрирована самая низкая продолжительность жизни в Европе. Средняя продолжительность жизни россиян составляла 67 лет. У мужчин она составляет всего 58 лет, у женщин – 72 года. Дольше всего в мире мужчины живут в Исландии – 79.4 года.

8. Резкое падение рождаемости в России в начале 90-х годов было обусловлено тяжелой экономической ситуацией в стране и привело впоследствии к общему сокращению населения со 148.5 млн. в 1992 году до 142 млн. чел в 2008 году.

9. В среднесрочной перспективе Земля в состоянии удвоить производство продукции, чтобы прокормить к 2050 году 9 млрд. человек, однако национальные правительства стран-производителей хотят удержать продовольствие на внутреннем рынке. Многие специалисты убеждены, что единственный выход из сложившейся ситуации – новая сельскохозяйственная революция. Внедрить новые технологии и отношения в деревне будет непросто, однако это необходимо сделать для спасения человечества.

10.Представители Всемирного банка и МВФ отметили, что политическая нестабильность, вызванная дефицитом продовольствия, уже возникла на Гаити, в Египте, на Филиппинах и в Индонезии, что вынудило некоторые государства ограничить экспорт продовольственных товаров. В то же время министры из бедных стран выразили недовольство тем, что Запад лишь усиливает проблему, поддерживая производство биотоплива из сельскохозяйственного сырья. Подобные

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действия представители третьего мира называют "преступлением против человечности".

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