Task 7 Make up your questions to talk about sheep.

Task 8 Scan the text once again; find the sentences containing the Ger­und. Copy them out and state their function.

Task 9 Read the text and pick out:

1) some methods of sheep treatment; 2) prevalent maladies in sheep; 3) some words about predation

Health and Sheep

Sheep may fall victim to poisons, infectious diseases, and physical injuries. Throughout history a lot of money was aimed to prevent sheep ailments. Historically, shepherds of­ten created remedies by experimentation on the farm. In the 20^th and 21^st centuries a minority of sheep owners has turned to alternative treatments such as homeopathy, herbalism and even traditional Chinese medicine to solve sheep veterinary problems.

The need for traditional anti-parasite drugs and antibi­otics is still widespread. A common form of preventative medication for sheep is vaccinations and treatments for para­sites. Both external and internal parasites are the most preva­lent malady in sheep, and are either fatal, or reduce the pro­ductivity of flocks. Worms are the most common internal parasites. They are ingested during grazing, incubate within the sheep, and are expelled through the digestive system.

A wide array of bacterial diseases affects sheep. Diseases of the hoof such as foot scald are treated with footbaths and other remedies.

A great threat for sheep is predators. Sheep have little ability to defend themselves, compared with other species kept as livestock. Even if sheep survive an attack, they may die from their injuries, or simply from panic.

Sheep producers have used a wide variety of measures to combat predation. Pre-modern shepherds used their own presence, livestock guardian dogs, and protective structures such as barns and fencing.

Task 10 Make up sentences using the vocabulary of the texts.

Task 11 What have you learned about sheep?

UNIT 28

DOG AND CAT.

1.1. CATS.

1.2. DOGS.

1.3. DOMESTIC ANIMALS

 

Task 1 Read the following words paying attention to the pronun­ciation.

feline ['fiilain], carnivorous [ka'nivaras], crepuscular [kri'pAskjula], eyesight ['aisait], inferior [in'fiaria], whisker ['wiska], mechanism ['mekanizam], squeak [skwi:k], cardiovas­cular ['ka:diau'v«skjula], endurance [in'djuarans], predatory muscle ['predatari 'mAsl], ancestral [«n'sestral], vestigial [ve'sti^ial], dewclaw ['dju:klo:], thumb [9лт].

Task 2 Read the text and define:

1) what cats are valued for by humans; 2) types of body language for communication; 3) what cat senses are attuned for hunting; 4) why cats are the most popular pets in the world.

Cats

The cat (Felis catus) is known as the domestic cat or house cat. It is a small carnivorous species of crepuscular mam­mals. It is valued by human beings for its companionship and its ability to hunt vermin, snakes and scorpions. It has been associated with human beings for at least 9,500 years.

Cat senses are attuned for hunting. Cats have highly ad­vanced hearing, eyesight, taste, and touch receptors, mak­ing the cat extremely sensitive among mammals. Cats' night vision is superior to human beings although their vision in daylight is inferior. Human beings and cats have a similar range of hearing on the low end of the scale, but cats can hear much higher-pitched sounds, up to 64 kHz, which is 1,6 oc­taves above the range of a human, and even one octave above the range of a dog.

A domestic cat's sense of smell is about fourteen times as strong as a human's. To aid with navigation and sensation cats have dozens of movable whiskers on their body, espe­cially on their face. Due to a mutation in an early cat ances­tor, one of two genes necessary to taste sweetness may have been lost by the cat family.

Some individual cats have also been known to be able to obey simple commands. Cats use a variety of vocalizations and types of body language for communication, including mewing, purring, hissing, growling, squeaking, clicking, and grunting. Cats may be the most popular pet in the world, with over 600 million in homes all over the world.