B Wild and wonderful creatures

TEXT-1

Задание: прочитайте текст и переведите его устно на общее понимание с помощью электронного словаря. Выберите А-Н заголовки и подставьте их к абзацам 1-6. Один заголовок лишний.

MAKING A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ENVIRONMENT:

THE BOGS OF IRELAND

H

Bogs, which can also be called peatlands, are very extensive all over the world, covering 5% - 8% of the world's surface. There are bogs almost everywhere in the world, apart from Antarctica. However, peat formation is usually closely connected to climate, so most of the world's bogs are found in the northern temperate zone. Ireland has the third largest area of bog in the world in proportion to its size. Finland has the largest area and Canada comes second. Other countries with large areas of bog are Sweden, Indonesia and Scotland.

1 –

A bog is a very watery part of the countryside. It is made of a special material called peat. Peat, which is brownish- black in colour, is made from the dead remains of plants (and sometimes of animals) which have built up over thousands of years. When you look at a bog, you will see a fairly flat area with different plants growing in it, and with small hills and pools of water here and there. When you walk on a bog, you are walking on a living surface which floats on a material (peat) which is nearly all water. The depth of peat in a bog varies from 2 to 12m. Bogs are between 85% and 98% water. Bogs grow upwards and become raised above the surrounding countryside. Usually they grow at a rate of 1 mm per year.

2 –

Over the last few hundred years large areas of bog have disappeared in many industrialised countries. All the peatlands in the Netherlands and Poland have been lost. Switzerland and Germany have very few areas of bog left. In the UK there has been a 95% loss of bogs. The main reasons for this are horticulture and fuel. A large amount of peat is used for horticultural purposes: plants grow well in peat because of its ability to retain water and because it contains nutrients. In Ireland, peat has been used as fuel for thousands of years, and at the moment vast quantities are extracted every year for both commercial and home use. Other reasons for the disappearance of bogs are commercial development, pollution, drainage, waste dumping and landfills.

3 –

However, nowadays people have begun to realize that bogs are a very precious resource. Many rare and protected species of plant are found of bogs. For example, a bog has an almost continuous cover of Sphagnum moss or bog moss. This moss can be deep red, brilliant orange, orangey brown, bright green or salmon pink. Probably the most spectacular plant on the bog is the carnivorous plant, which traps and eats animals to supplement its diet. These animals are usually small insects, though the sundew carnivorous plants are able to trap large dragonflies which have wing spans as wide as a human hand. You will also find gorse, heather, bog cotton, cranberry flowers and cranberries.

4 –

A small number of animals live on the Irish peatlands, but the largest animal in Ireland today lives there: the red deer. You will sometimes see red deer having a bath in the peat in order to get rid of flies. Otters and badgers occasionally go into the bogs in search of food. Tiny, brilliantly coloured 'jewel' beetles live in the roots of the bog cotton. On a still sunny day, you will hear the buzz of dragonfly wings and the sound of many other insects, as well as the cries of the many varieties of ground nesting bird which live on the bog.

5 –

A large amount of information lies preserved in bogs. This can help us know more about people, culture, economy and climate far back into prehistory. Huge amounts of weapons, jewellery, combs and pots have been found in the bogs of Ireland. Bogs have produced some of the most spectacular finds of Irish archaeology, including some very well-preserved human bodies.

6 –

In Ireland, only 19% of the original bog area remains intact. If things continue as they are, there is a real risk that all the peatlands will be lost for ever. Countries like Ireland and Scotland must stop harvesting so much peat so quickly, and use alternative sources of fuel. Gardeners must stop using peat compost, and use peat-free compost instead. If you leave a footprint on some areas of the Irish bogs, it will still be there 15 years later. Provided, of course, that there is still some bog left.

 

A Thoughtless destruction

B Wild and wonderful creatures

C A living library

D A unique ecosystem

E Before it’s too late

F A floating carpet

G A botanist’s paradise

Н

H A worldwide phenomenon

 

 

TEXT-2

 

Задание 1: прочитайте текст и переведите с помощью электронного словаря. В вопросах 1-7 выберите ответ (A, B, C или D), который соответствует содержанию текста.

 

SAVE OUR SEEDS

Over the past four hundred years, four hundred and fifty types of plants and trees around the world have become extinct as a result of the combined effects of global warming, population growth, deforestation, flooding and the fact that deserts arc advancing in some regions at, a rate of nearly four miles a year. Scientists estimate a quarter of the world’s remaining 270,000 plant species will be under threat of extinction by 2050.

In 1997, in an attempt to try to prevent the loss of such precious resources, volunteers all over Britain began collecting seeds from Britain’s 1,400 species of wild plants, three hundred of which are already facing extinction. The seeds collected are now housed in the Millennium Seed Bank, which opened its doors in 2000. Run by the Royal Botanical Gardens department of the famous Kew Gardens in London, the bank is located in Sussex, about thirty-five miles outside of the capital.

The bank is expected to become the world’s biggest seed bank and, apart from preserving almost all the plant life in Britain, it also aims to have saved the seeds of more than 24,000 species of plant life, almost a tenth of the world’s flowering plants, in the next twenty years. If they are successful, the Millennium Seed Bank Project will be one of the largest international conservation projects ever undertaken.

In order to achieve this aim, the Millennium Seed Bank has a team of scientists who travel to remote corners of the world to find and collect seeds. They work together with local botanists and also help them to set up their own seed banks by training local scientists. They also spend a great deal of time negotiating with governments to allow them to collect the seeds and bring them back to Britain for storage in the Millennium Seed Bank.

When these seeds arrive at the seed bank, they are sorted, separated by hand from their pods, cleaned and dried and then X-rayed to make sure that they haven’t been damaged in any way that might stop them from growing into healthy plants. Finally, they are placed in ordinary glass jars and stored in three underground vaults at temperatures of -20°C. Most plant species have seeds that can be dried, frozen and stored for years and still grow into healthy plants. However, the seeds of some species cannot be dried, so they can’t be stored in seed banks in the usual way. These seeds include many rainforest tree species and plants that grow underwater.

Roger Smith, head of the Millennium Seed Bank, explains that scientists at the bank are already working on finding new ways of storing those seeds that cannot survive the drying and freezing process, and also on how to regenerate the seeds when they become extinct in their natural habitats. «At the moment, all we’re doing is preserving these plants for the future. We won’t have managed to conserve any species until we find the way to successfully regenerate them and grow new plants from them», points out Smith. «But at least this way, when the technology becomes available, and it will, we won’t have lost everything».

As well as preserving seeds for the future, the bank also receives 2000 requests per year for seeds from universities, governments and conservationist organisations for use in various types of research – for example, to find cures for diseases, to grow food in the developing world and to help in projects that restore the natural habitats of endangered animal species so they can be released back into the wild. Dr Hugh Pritchard, head of research at the Millennium Seed Bank, says: «While it’s true that many of the plants we preserve at the bank aren’t useful at the moment, that doesn’t mean they won’t become useful in the future. Something like thirty per cent of the medicines we use today are based on products or chemicals which have been from plants. So it’s easy to see why we to preserve the diversity of the earth’s plant the future».

 

TEXT-1

Задание: прочитайте текст и переведите его устно на общее понимание с помощью электронного словаря. Выберите А-Н заголовки и подставьте их к абзацам 1-6. Один заголовок лишний.

MAKING A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ENVIRONMENT:

THE BOGS OF IRELAND

H

Bogs, which can also be called peatlands, are very extensive all over the world, covering 5% - 8% of the world's surface. There are bogs almost everywhere in the world, apart from Antarctica. However, peat formation is usually closely connected to climate, so most of the world's bogs are found in the northern temperate zone. Ireland has the third largest area of bog in the world in proportion to its size. Finland has the largest area and Canada comes second. Other countries with large areas of bog are Sweden, Indonesia and Scotland.

1 –

A bog is a very watery part of the countryside. It is made of a special material called peat. Peat, which is brownish- black in colour, is made from the dead remains of plants (and sometimes of animals) which have built up over thousands of years. When you look at a bog, you will see a fairly flat area with different plants growing in it, and with small hills and pools of water here and there. When you walk on a bog, you are walking on a living surface which floats on a material (peat) which is nearly all water. The depth of peat in a bog varies from 2 to 12m. Bogs are between 85% and 98% water. Bogs grow upwards and become raised above the surrounding countryside. Usually they grow at a rate of 1 mm per year.

2 –

Over the last few hundred years large areas of bog have disappeared in many industrialised countries. All the peatlands in the Netherlands and Poland have been lost. Switzerland and Germany have very few areas of bog left. In the UK there has been a 95% loss of bogs. The main reasons for this are horticulture and fuel. A large amount of peat is used for horticultural purposes: plants grow well in peat because of its ability to retain water and because it contains nutrients. In Ireland, peat has been used as fuel for thousands of years, and at the moment vast quantities are extracted every year for both commercial and home use. Other reasons for the disappearance of bogs are commercial development, pollution, drainage, waste dumping and landfills.

3 –

However, nowadays people have begun to realize that bogs are a very precious resource. Many rare and protected species of plant are found of bogs. For example, a bog has an almost continuous cover of Sphagnum moss or bog moss. This moss can be deep red, brilliant orange, orangey brown, bright green or salmon pink. Probably the most spectacular plant on the bog is the carnivorous plant, which traps and eats animals to supplement its diet. These animals are usually small insects, though the sundew carnivorous plants are able to trap large dragonflies which have wing spans as wide as a human hand. You will also find gorse, heather, bog cotton, cranberry flowers and cranberries.

4 –

A small number of animals live on the Irish peatlands, but the largest animal in Ireland today lives there: the red deer. You will sometimes see red deer having a bath in the peat in order to get rid of flies. Otters and badgers occasionally go into the bogs in search of food. Tiny, brilliantly coloured 'jewel' beetles live in the roots of the bog cotton. On a still sunny day, you will hear the buzz of dragonfly wings and the sound of many other insects, as well as the cries of the many varieties of ground nesting bird which live on the bog.

5 –

A large amount of information lies preserved in bogs. This can help us know more about people, culture, economy and climate far back into prehistory. Huge amounts of weapons, jewellery, combs and pots have been found in the bogs of Ireland. Bogs have produced some of the most spectacular finds of Irish archaeology, including some very well-preserved human bodies.

6 –

In Ireland, only 19% of the original bog area remains intact. If things continue as they are, there is a real risk that all the peatlands will be lost for ever. Countries like Ireland and Scotland must stop harvesting so much peat so quickly, and use alternative sources of fuel. Gardeners must stop using peat compost, and use peat-free compost instead. If you leave a footprint on some areas of the Irish bogs, it will still be there 15 years later. Provided, of course, that there is still some bog left.

 

A Thoughtless destruction

B Wild and wonderful creatures

C A living library

D A unique ecosystem

E Before it’s too late

F A floating carpet

G A botanist’s paradise

Н

H A worldwide phenomenon

 

 

TEXT-2

 

Задание 1: прочитайте текст и переведите с помощью электронного словаря. В вопросах 1-7 выберите ответ (A, B, C или D), который соответствует содержанию текста.

 

SAVE OUR SEEDS

Over the past four hundred years, four hundred and fifty types of plants and trees around the world have become extinct as a result of the combined effects of global warming, population growth, deforestation, flooding and the fact that deserts arc advancing in some regions at, a rate of nearly four miles a year. Scientists estimate a quarter of the world’s remaining 270,000 plant species will be under threat of extinction by 2050.

In 1997, in an attempt to try to prevent the loss of such precious resources, volunteers all over Britain began collecting seeds from Britain’s 1,400 species of wild plants, three hundred of which are already facing extinction. The seeds collected are now housed in the Millennium Seed Bank, which opened its doors in 2000. Run by the Royal Botanical Gardens department of the famous Kew Gardens in London, the bank is located in Sussex, about thirty-five miles outside of the capital.

The bank is expected to become the world’s biggest seed bank and, apart from preserving almost all the plant life in Britain, it also aims to have saved the seeds of more than 24,000 species of plant life, almost a tenth of the world’s flowering plants, in the next twenty years. If they are successful, the Millennium Seed Bank Project will be one of the largest international conservation projects ever undertaken.

In order to achieve this aim, the Millennium Seed Bank has a team of scientists who travel to remote corners of the world to find and collect seeds. They work together with local botanists and also help them to set up their own seed banks by training local scientists. They also spend a great deal of time negotiating with governments to allow them to collect the seeds and bring them back to Britain for storage in the Millennium Seed Bank.

When these seeds arrive at the seed bank, they are sorted, separated by hand from their pods, cleaned and dried and then X-rayed to make sure that they haven’t been damaged in any way that might stop them from growing into healthy plants. Finally, they are placed in ordinary glass jars and stored in three underground vaults at temperatures of -20°C. Most plant species have seeds that can be dried, frozen and stored for years and still grow into healthy plants. However, the seeds of some species cannot be dried, so they can’t be stored in seed banks in the usual way. These seeds include many rainforest tree species and plants that grow underwater.

Roger Smith, head of the Millennium Seed Bank, explains that scientists at the bank are already working on finding new ways of storing those seeds that cannot survive the drying and freezing process, and also on how to regenerate the seeds when they become extinct in their natural habitats. «At the moment, all we’re doing is preserving these plants for the future. We won’t have managed to conserve any species until we find the way to successfully regenerate them and grow new plants from them», points out Smith. «But at least this way, when the technology becomes available, and it will, we won’t have lost everything».

As well as preserving seeds for the future, the bank also receives 2000 requests per year for seeds from universities, governments and conservationist organisations for use in various types of research – for example, to find cures for diseases, to grow food in the developing world and to help in projects that restore the natural habitats of endangered animal species so they can be released back into the wild. Dr Hugh Pritchard, head of research at the Millennium Seed Bank, says: «While it’s true that many of the plants we preserve at the bank aren’t useful at the moment, that doesn’t mean they won’t become useful in the future. Something like thirty per cent of the medicines we use today are based on products or chemicals which have been from plants. So it’s easy to see why we to preserve the diversity of the earth’s plant the future».