Write the summary of the text in Russian.

Contents

Ecology. Introduction………………………………………………………..5

Unit I. Ecological problems. Pollution………………………………………13

Unit II. Air Pollution…………………………………………………………18

Unit III. Water Pollution……………………………………………………..26

Unit IV Chemicals in the Environment……………………………………..35

Unit V. Radioactivity………………………………………………………....37

Unit VI Overpopulation………………………………………………………46

Unit VII Noise pollution………………………………………………………49

Unit VIII. Rubbish……………………………………………………………51

Unit IX.Indoor Pollution……………………………………………………..64

Unit X. Wildlife and animals protection…………………………………….68

Unit XI. Environmental Protection………………………………………....78

Unit XII. Industrial Ecology………………………………………………..102

Texts for supplementary reading…………………………………………..108

Check yourself……………………………………………………………….121

Cliches for resume and annotation…………………………………………136

Resume Example…………………………………………………………….142

English-Russian Environmental Dictionary……………………………….145

Bibliography………………………………………………………………….156

 

 

Введение

ECOLOGY. INTRODUCTION.

I. THE TERMS “ENVIRONMRNT, ECOLOGY, ECOSYSTEM”

1. Enrich your vocabulary:

1 environment, n 2 ecology, n 3 ecosystem, n (ecological system) 4 pollute, v 5 pollution, n 6 air pollution 7 water pollution 8 pollutant, n 9 survival, n 10 survive, v 11 alteration, n (change) 12 relationship, n

окружающая среда экология   экосистема загрязнять, засорять загрязнение загрязнение воздуха загрязнение воды загрязняющее вещество выживание выжить, уцелеть изменение отношение

2. Read and translate the text:

 

Ecology was, until recently, a term used by only a few of our more sophisticated citizens. Then, with the dawning awareness that air pollution, water pollution, chemical pollutants, and overpopulation may be even more menacing to survival than racial conflict, riots, or even war, the word ECOLOGY crept into everyone’s lexicon. Conservation and the quality of environment became important political issues. The year 1970 marked the beginning of a decade that may well determine whether we survive or not.

The mass media – radio, television, and the press – are now giving much greater coverage to conservation news. People turned a concerned eye on the ENVIRONMENT. “What’s it all about?”, they asked themselves. “And what can I do about it?” But what are we really talking about when we use words like ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY, or ECOSYSTEM?

In the broadest sense, our ENVIRONMENT can be defined as our surroundings; it is made up of all the physical, social, and cultural aspects of our world that effects our growth, our being, and our way of living. Humans share environment with plants and animals. Just as humans interact with their environment, so do the other animals and plants. The organized body of knowledge which deals with the interrelationships between living organisms, whether animal or plant, and their environment is a relatively new science which we call ECOLOGY.

The term is derived from two Greek words meaning a “study of the homes”, and it has been in use only since the 19^th century, though the observation of plants and animals in their natural “homes” has been going on during thousands of years.

ECOSYSTEM is a contraction of ECOLOGICAL SYSTEM. An ecosystem refers to a community of organisms and the relationships of those organisms to their environment. An ecosystem is dynamic in that its various parts are always in flux. Since each member of the ecosystem belongs to the environment of every other part of that system, any change in one alters the environment for all the others.

And as those components react to the alteration, they in turn continue to transform the environment for the others.

For example, a change in the atmosphere from sunshine to rain affects plants, soils and plant nutrients, so the plants may not be able to grow as well and the animals then may not be able to eat as much. On the other hand, the addition of moisture to the soil may help some plants grow, increasing the amount of shade beneath them and thus keeping other plants from growing.

The concept of an ecosystem can be applied at almost any scale, in a wide variety of geographic locations, and under all environmental conditions where life is possible. Hence, a farm pond, a grass-covered field, a march, a forest, or a portion of a desert can be viewed as an ecosystem. Even the earth itself may be considered one large ecosystem.

Ecosystems are found wherever there is an exchange of materials among living organisms and functional relationships between the organisms and their natural environment. Ecosystems are open systems with movement of energy and material across their boundaries. Although some ecosystems, such as a small lake or a desert oasis, have clear cut boundaries, the limits of many others are not as precisely defined. Often the transition from one ecosystem to another is obscure and occurs slowly over distance.

 

COMPREHENSION

1. Answer the following questions:

a) When did people become conscious of their environment?

b) How can the word “environment” be defined?

c) What do the terms “ecology” and “ ecosystem” mean?

d) What natural objects may be called ecosystems?

e) Can the Earth be considered one of them? Prove it.

COMPREHENSION

Risk Assessment

WARM UP

Vocabulary

· risk assessment   · versus, prep. · controversy, n · the Board of Certified Safety Professionals · an arm, n, здесь · to be over emphasized · flaws, n · forensic engineering · right-to-know laws   · caustic, n, a

· техника безопасности, обеспечение безопасности · против · спор, дискуссия, полемика · Ассоциация специалистов по технике безопасности (по охране труда) · a branch, a division · переоценивать · недостатки · судебная техника безопасности · законы, доступные широкой общественности · сарказм,саркастический, недружелюбный

 

2. Read and translate the text:

1. The very fundamental concept of risk assessment, which is the evaluation of the risks of some activity versus alternative methods, or versus the obtained benefits began in transportation safety. Engineers working there learned to prioritize highway-improvement expenditures by putting the money where it would do the most good – where there were the most frequent or the most severe accidents. Now this mode of analysis is being applied to the cleanup of hazardous waste sites (where, sometimes, risk assessment shows that it is safer to leave the contamination in place), to factory design, to situations involving the choice of chemical ingredients, and to many other applications.

2. Risk assessment has taken a much larger role in overall environmental policymaking. Risk assessment is not without controversy (the usual argument against it is that it can be used to justify no actions whatsoever on some environmental problems, since the cost is too high). But with better methodologies, the resources society commits to environmental improvements may be spent more wisely.

3. Safety engineering is taught at a limited number of schools, but it gains its identity more from professional societies and their members’ activities than from academic study. Students take courses in industrial engineering, and then obtain practical experience in industry or government. A variety of certification programs are available, such as the Certified Safety Professional, which is administered by the Board of Certified Safety Professional (an arm of the Safety of Safety Engineers).

4.These days, the importance of training as a safety function cannot be overemphasized. Manufacturers have come to realize that only through training will the majority of workers learn to use safe practices. Thus, a large part of the safety professional’s work is organizing or conducting training seminars for workers. Another part is the analysis of accidents that do occur, to trace origin back to flaws either in work practices or worked performance. This function is sometimes called forensic engineering.

5. Most large manufacturing plants have an in-house staff, which works in conjunction with security, fire protection, and health specialists. Safety professionals are employed at consulting firms, and by industrial insurance companies.

6. Community right-to-know laws have created another responsibility for safety professionals: conveying plans and information to local public officials and concerned citizens. In the aftermath of the Bhopal, India, accident of a Union Carbide Corporation subsidiary in 1984, in which thousands were killed by escaping toxic gas, these community-relations programs have taken on a much larger role. Good communication skills and a willingness to deal with sometimes caustic public opinion are necessary attributes for the safety professional employed in industry.

 

COMPREHENSION

1. Study the vocabulary and read the text.

Find information on:

a) the origin of the risk assessment concept;

b) the application of this mode of analysis at present;

c) risk assessment and environmental problems;

d) safety engineering training;

e) safety professionals and public opinion.

1. Look through the text once more and choose statements corresponding to the points above. Translate them and speak on the main points of the text.

2. Imagine you are invited to the conference at school to speak on your duties as a safety engineer. You are supposed to describe your job in detail and invite school leavers to become a safety professional.

UNIT I

Text 1.

What is pollution?

Vocabulary

1 noise pollution 2 visual pollution 3 solid waste pollution 4 waste, n (often -pl) 5 foreign material 6 tolerate, v 7 intolerable, a 8 natural pollution 9 alter, v 10 reproduction, n

шумовое загрязнение видимое (визуальное) загрязнение загрязнение твердыми отходами отходы, отбросы посторонний материал терпеть, выносить невыносимый естественное загрязнение менять, изменять воспроизведение, размножение

2. Read the text:

When examining our effect upon our environment, we cannot ignore the problem of pollution. But what exactly is pollution? There are many varieties, including air and water pollution, noise pollution, visual pollution, and solid waste pollution. But is amount considered in defining pollution? Can we say that one car in the middle of the desert or alone on a New Hampshire mountain road pollutes the atmosphere? Or would emptying the dregs of our soft drink into the Mississippi alone constitute polluting those waters? Technically, yes, but not to any significant degree, since pollution does not occur simply because of the introduction of foreign material to a system like the atmosphere or the hydrosphere.

Pollution does occur, however, when more foreign material is put into a system than the system can tolerate. Pollution is the accumulation, to a level intolerable to the ecosystem, of undesirable elements is any one of the diverse aspects of the physical environment. In the strictest sense, there is natural pollution (lime, iron, or sulfur in water supplies, smoke from forest fires, or dust from the eruption of volcanoes). But in our current usage, pollution includes those wastes in the water, air, or other aspects of the environment for which humans are responsible. It becomes especially important when it significantly alters the natural environment or when it threatens normal growth and reproduction or the normal functioning of all life forms, including human beings.

 

COMPREHENSION

Vocabulary

1 natural resources 2 renewable resources 3 nonrenewable resources 4 abuse, v 5 overuse, v 6 fossil fuel 7 threaten, damage, v 8 species, n 9 acid rain 10 be overcrowded, v 11 last, v, здесь: 12 be ill suited, v

природные ресурсы возобновляемые ресурсы не возобновляемые ресурсы злоупотреблять, неправильно употреблять злоупотреблять, чрезмерно использовать ископаемое, природное топливо угрожать, наносить вред вид, разновидность кислотный дождь быть перенаселенным хватать, сохраняться не подходить, не соответствовать

Read the text

The earth is a set of interrelated components that are vital and necessary for the existence of all living creatures. As we move through the last decade of the twentieth century, we have come to realize that important parts of our life support system, which may be called NATURAL RESOURCES, can be abused and overused, thereby threatening the functioning of the whole system.

We are aware that some of the earth’s resources, such as air and water, can be polluted to the point where they are unusable or even lethal to some life forms. By polluting the oceans, we may be killing off some important fish species, while less desirable species may increase in number. Acid rain, caused by industries, power plants, and automobiles releasing pollutants into the atmosphere, is damaging forests and killing fish in lakes.

As pollution is associated with human activity, it is not surprising that it represents a significant problem in locations with huge population densities. What some people do not realize, however, is that these pollutants are often transported by our winds and waterways hundreds or even thousands of kilometers from their source. Thus, pollution is a worldwide problem.

In addition, we may be using some resources, especially those we need for fuel, too rapidly. While we still have enough coal to last several hundreds years, we have frequently been warned about future shortages in our petroleum supplies. When NONRENEWABLE resources such as mineral fuels are gone, the ALTERNATIVE resources are invariably less desirable or more expensive.

We are learning that there are limits to the amount of space on the earth and we must use it wisely. In the search for living space, we occasionally construct buildings in places that are not safe, and many places where we live are overcrowded. Also we sometimes plant crops in areas that are ill suited to agriculture because there is not always enough good farmland to fill our needs.

 

Exercises:

1. Read the text and study the vocabulary.

2. Find in the text the sentences with the words and word combinations from Vocabulary and translate them.

3. Speak on the main problems discussed:

a) What resources can be abused or overused?

b) What is pollution associated with? Why?

c) Why is pollution a worldwide problem?

d) What resources are we using too rapidly?

4. Try to write the summary of the text in English using the above questions.

 

Text 2A

Read the text to find answers to the given questions.

Read the Notes to the text.

1) What could be said about the Everglades ecosystem a century ago?

2) Why has half of the original area disappeared? Find the reasons for that.

3) What is the result of urban and agricultural development of the Everglades?

 

As we continue to explore space, we are learning more and more about the world in which we live. Since human beings first walked the earth, they have affected each ecosystem they have inhabited. For example, a century ago the interconnected Kissimmee River – Lake Okeechobee – Everglades¹ ecosystem comprised one of the most productive and stable wetland regions on earth. But sawgrass marsh² and slow-moving water stood in the way of urban⁴ and agricultural development. Intricate systems of ditches and canals were built and, since 1900, half of the original 4 million acres of the Everglades has disappeared. The Kessimmee River has been channelized into an arrow-straight ditch, and wetlands³ along the river have been drained. Levees have prevented water in lake Okeechobee from contributing sheet flow to the Everglades, and highway construction has deviled the region, further disrupting natural drainage patterns. Fires have been more frequent and destructive, and entire biotic communities have been eliminated by lowered water levels. During excessively wet periods, portions of the Everglades are deliberately flooded to prevent drainage canals from overflowing. As a result, animals drown and birds cannot rest and reproduce. South Florida’s wading bird population decreased by 95% within a hundred years.

 

Notes to the text

1 the Everglades – национальный парк в США

2 saw grass marsh – торфяные болота

3 wetlands – заболоченные земли

4 urban – городской

 

 

UNIT II.

AIR POLLUTION

Text 1

Warm up.

The air pollution is a result of our own activity. What do you know about it?

COMPREHENSION

2.1 Explain the meaning of the following:

1) smog

2) the Clean Air Act

3) car exhausts

4) acid rain

 

2.2 Answer the following questions:

1. Why does the air around become polluted?

2. What did combine the air pollution in London?

3. What was the influence of smog on people?

4. What law was made up to reduce the air pollution in London?

5. What consequences do exhaust fumes?

6. Why are factories another source of air pollution?

7. What is the cause of the acid rain?

 

Text 3

Sources of air pollution

Vocabulary

1 emissions, n 2 sources, n 3 poisons, n 4 emit, v 5 harmful, a 6 utilities, n 7 clean up, v 8 stacks, n 9 undertaking, n 10 beneficial, a 11 be no consequence to 12 health hazards 13 air stagnation 14 hazardous, a 15 vaporized chemicals

выбросы, выделение, распространение источники (загрязнения) яды, ядовитые загрязнения выделять, излучать вредный, опасный коммунальные службы привести в порядок, очистить, вычистить промышленные выбросы дело, обязательство благоприятный, полезный не иметь последствий для ч/либо опасность для здоровья застоявшийся, неподвижный воздух опасный, вредный распыленные химические вещества

Read the text:

Only during the past 20 years or so have the people of the United States begun to understand that air is a resource that can be managed for health and environmental quality. Management of our air means gaining control over industrial emissions and the emissions from individual sources, such as cars, trucks, and temporary sources such as construction projects.

Pollution of the air by certain industrial processes, particularly by burning of coal, has been a concern for many years. However, it was not until thousands died because of air pollution, in such cities as London in the 1950s, that the first steps were taken to reduce the poisons that were routinely being emitted into the air we breathe.

Two major sources of harmful emissions became the targets for initial action: utilities and industries, and motor vehicles. Steps were first taken to clean up smokestack emissions around power plants and industrial complexes. Attention was then focused on the sulfur oxides emitted from utility, commercial, and industrial stacks. At the same time devices were developed to cut back on emissions from motor vehicles.

It took years and money, but progress was made during the 1960s and 1970s. The air is generally cleaner today than it was 20 years ago in much of the Nation.

Air quality management is a complex undertaking. It is complicated by the nature of air, and by the gases that are commonly considered its basic components. It is further complicated by the continual chemical changes that take place in the air as it moves from one location to another and by atmospheric forces. These changes can be beneficial, harmful, or of little or no consequence to the environment.

It is because of the potential health hazards associated with air pollution in large urban centers that special understanding of city air pollution is needed. This is especially true in the regions where large cities often occupy low-lying areas, and where long periods of air stagnation are common during the summer months. Sources of pollution are more abundant in major cities than in small towns or rural areas. Often there are coal-fired power plants nearby; schools, universities, hospitals, and other institutions often burn oil as their heat source; office buildings, shopping malls, etc. also use fossil fuels as their sources of heat; industries use fossil fuels as a vital part of industrial processes; each individual home, burning oil, gas, or wood, adds to the pollution entering the city’s air.

There are many other sources of pollution: motor vehicles, construction activities, dust generated in the city and from agricultural activities nearby, and thousands of vaporized chemicals, some of them toxic and hazardous.

COMPREHENSION

Text 3A.

Read the text to find answers to the given questions:

1. What institutions control the quality of urban air?

2. What is done to reduce the amount of air pollution?

 

Federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and state and local regulatory agencies are concerned with the quality of urban air across the country. State and metropolitan air quality agencies also monitor air quality in some especially troublesome locations to measure the effectiveness of antipollution measures.

Each year millions of dollars are spent to reduce the amount of pollution emitted into the atmosphere. Such control devices as electrostatic precipitators, scrubbers, and catalytic converters are already used to reduce emissions from smokestacks and automobile exhausts. However, even tighter controls may be needed in the future. It is an endless battle, one that is essential to safeguard human health and the natural environment.

 

What do you think of the quality of air in Tyumen?

What would you like to suggest to solve the problem?

Text 4.

Acid Rain.

Vocabulary

1 acid precipitation (acid rain) 2 acidic, a 3 acidity, n 4 the earth’s weathering 5 threat, n 6 alkalinity, n 7 decay processes 8 pinpoint, v 9 reproduce, v 10 crop yields

кислотный дождь кислый кислотность процессы выветривания угроза, опасность щелочность процессы распада указывать, показывать воспроизводить(ся), размножаться урожаи зерновых

 

“Acid rain” has become an issue of serious concern and a real challenge to air resource managers.

Precipitation absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and falls to earth as an extremely weak solution of carbonic acid. This is a natural occurrence that functions as an integral part of the earth’s weathering and soil-forming processes and poses no threat to the environment. However, when sulfur and nitrogen oxides from industrial pollution chemically combine with the precipitation it becomes dangerously acidic and is termed ACID PRECIPITATION or, as it is more commonly called, ACID RAIN.

To understand acid rain, we first must understand what an acid is. Acidity or alkalinity is measured on a pH scale which ranges from 1 to 14. A substance with a pH of 7 is considered neutral. Low pH values indicate acidity while high values indicate alkaline conditions, the lower the number, the stronger the acid.

Unpolluted rain slightly acidic with a pH of 5.0 to 5.2. In areas of central and northern Europe, the eastern United States, and Russia the annual average pH of precipitation is now between 4 and 4.5 which is 5 to 8 times more acidic than unpolluted rain.

The acid-forming compounds come from natural as well as manmade sources. A volcanic eruption halfway around the world can cause acidic conditions covering half the globe. Decay processes involving both plant and animal materials, which occur in marshes, swamps, and oceans, can also produce chemicals that can increase acidic deposits. Many researches, however, believe that a major source of increased acid in rainfall is such industrial activity as the burning of fossil fuels like coal, gasoline, fuel oil, and natural gas.

The effects of acid rain are difficult to pinpoint. We know that when a stream or lake becomes too acidic, fish and their food sources are effected. Acid stress can cause fish to die. Small amounts of acid can also effect the ability of fish to reproduce. In addition, acid dissolves materials like aluminum in the soil, and the combination of aluminum and acid often proves fatal to fish and other organisms.

Acid rain is also believed to reduce crop yields and deteriorate buildings and roads. There are also indications that acid precipitation also may be causing a reduction in forest production. Different agencies, industry researches, and educational institutions are pursuing studies aimed at gaining greater understanding of acid rain; however, there is much to be done in the field.

Clearly this is a complex matter, but it is one that is viewed with increasing concern by many world leaders. Since air moves without restriction from region to region, from nation to nation, and from continent to continent, any solution to the problem will require international cooperation.

 

UNIT III

WATER POLLUTION

Warm up.

What are the sources of water pollution do you know?

What can you say about the consequences of water pollution?

 

Text 1

Air pollution can become water pollution as we have seen with acid rain. Other sources of water pollution can pollute our streams, rivers and lakes directly. A little waste in a river is not dangerous; often a river can clean itself. But many towns still pour their sewage every daystraight into rivers with little treatment beforehand. This can kill the rivers' life by removing all the oxygenfrom the water. Without oxygen none of the fish in the river can live. Factories often cause water pollution by pouring poisonous wastesinto streams and rivers. Sometimes these wastes turn the river into a smelly, poisonous drain in which nothing can live.

Farming can also cause water pollution. The chemicals used by the farmers to protect crops against pests, weeds and disease sometimes get into rivers and kill fish. Some of thesechemicals can be stored in the bodies of small animals and passed intothe creatures which eat them, even tohumans. Although thesechemicals are carefully con­trolled, this still sometimes happens. The fertilizers which the farmer uses to makecrops grow sometimes cause pollution when the rain washes them into rivers. Theymake the water plants grow too quickly, so thatthey choke the river anddie. When they rot, they take all theoxygen out of the water, so thatfish cannot live in it.

Polluted water kills more than 25 million people every year. Some millions people do not have clean, safe water for drinking or washing. All over the world billions of people use rivers for washing, for drinking and as sewers to carry away their wastes.

 

COMPREHENSION

Text 2

Sea or Sewer?

 

Forecasts of what the sea will do are becoming more necessary depending on what we are doing to the sea; it has become mankind’s great sewer. Lakes, rivers and the air itself have become clogged with our wastes. The sea, in its immensity, would appear to have an indefinite capacity to hide anything that might be thrown into it.

On the face of it there does not seem to be much of a problem. The North Sea, for example, contains 54 000 cubic kilometers of water. Consequently, if 54 000 tons of any substance were dumped into this sea and perfectly dispersed, it would show up in a concentration of only one part per billion. This kind of reasoning has encouraged the use of the North Sea as a receptacle for everything from the raw sewage of the cities to the wastes of industry along the Rhine, one of the world’s busiest areas of economic activity.

Such reasoning does not stand up because the sea is not a tub of water mixed every day by wind and tide. Currents not only disperse waste, they also concentrate it. That was what happened in spring 1965 when the beach near The Hague was suddenly covered with rows of dead fish. Analysis of the water just off the beach showed that its copper content was no less than 500 times higher than normal.

It has been estimated that one or two truckloads – twenty tons in all – of copper were enough to do the trick. Dumped stealthily on some beach at low tide they were not diluted by the sea. Instead tides and currents concentrated the waste into a narrow lethal river about 200 yards wide and flowing north ever so slowly.

Another case where the inability to predict the behaviour of the atmosphere and the sea had a disastrous effect was the wreck of the Torrey Canyon in March 1967. She piled up on the Seven Stones off Cornwall dumping 117 000 tons of crude oil into the sea from her rent hull. 14 000 tons landed on the Cornish coast where it was fought with 10 000 tons of detergents that destroyed the oil but at same time killed most marine life on the shore as well. The French followed the event from a “safe distance”. They had every right to expect that the beaches of northern Brittany would be spared thanks to the south-west winds that usually prevail at that time of the year. Meteorologists and oceanographers could not forecast what wind and sea would do. It was ten to one that the wind would not back around to the north-east. But it did – and 15 000 tons of oil came ashore in a black tide that had to be fought with only shovels, buckets and bulldozers.

The problem of oil pollution grows more complex every day with new technological developments. The opening of the Northwest Passage from Alaska to the east coast of North America has drastic implications for the Arctic environment. If a giant tanker were to be wrecked in those waters, the effect would be more lasting than in the temperate zone. In a cold climate the volatile components of oil are no longer volatile and the breakdown of petroleum by bacteria in the sea occurs at much slower pace.

More and more we realize that we live on what has been called Spaceship Earth. We cannot just throw out garbage away into the environment; sooner or later we will have to go on living with it – unless we blast it off into outer space.

The most frightening case in point is the pesticides. The scientists see them to be the most immediate danger to the ocean because their threat is invisible. Chlorinated hydrocarbons of which the oldest and best known DDT were first considered to be a blessing, the all-time world champion insect killer. They have become part of our life on land.

Unfortunately, they have also become part of life in the sea. Pesticides are present in sea water in only minute quantities but they are not evenly diluted. They are taken up by plants, then by shellfish and fish. Traces of DDT have been found even in the penguins of Antarctica; heavy dozes have been observed in seals caught off the coast of Scotland. It has been blamed too, for the mysterious disappearance of sea birds colonies.

So the sea is threatened on all sides. The worst of it is that often we do not know we are polluting the environment until it is too late. To avert such a fate for the world ocean the nations that have joined the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission have recommended the establishment of a world-wide system to monitor marine pollution. Under their recommendation samples would be collected sources at regular intervals, then submitted for analysis and the results of these analyses published widely.

Finally we must learn more about the ocean itself and the life it contains so that we will be able to recognize changes, whether harmful or beneficial, when and if they occur.

 

Notes:

sewer сток, сточная труба

to clog засорять

consequently следовательно

to be dumped быть сброшенным (о мусоре)

to disperse распределять

receptacle хранилище

raw sewage сырые отходы

content содержание

truckloads грузовики

crude oil сырая нефть

drastic решительный

volatile летучий

minute незначительный

to dilute разбавлять, разжижать

to monitor контролировать

WORDS STUDY

 

3.1. Translate the following words into Russian and analyze the parts of speech:

immensity, immensely, perfectly, inability, disastrous, disappearance, harmless, reproduction, immediately, wreckage, dispersive, dispersion.

 

3.2. Give derivatives of the following verbs and translate them:

to research, to appear, to be able, to benefit, to wreck, to pollute, to harm, to develop, to establish.

 

 

COMPREHENSION

 

1. Paraphrase the italicized words and word-combinations:

1. Now that rivers and lakes have become clogged with our garbage, we begin to use the sea as a receptacle for everything from the raw sewage of cities to the wastes of industry.

2. If 54 000 tons of any substance were thrown into the North Sea and thoroughly disseminated; it would show up in a concentration only one part per billion.

3. Investigators have found that the most immediate danger to the ocean are pesticides which are present in sea water in very small quantities and are unevenly diluted.

4. To prevent the danger of water pollution we must learn more about the ocean and the life it contains to enable us to discover changes both disastrous and useful.

2. Pick out from the text sentences or parts of sentences showing:

1) why the sea has a limited capacity to hide anything we might throw into it;

2) why water pollution is especially dangerous for the Arctic environment;

3) why scientists consider pesticides to be the most immediate danger to the ocean;

4) what measures have been undertaken to avert marine pollution.

 

3. Translate into English:

1. Учёные считают, что море становится огромной сточной трубой.

2. Озёра, реки и моря засоряются нашими отходами.

3. Северное море используется как хранилище для городских и промышленных отходов.

4. 117 000 тонн неочищенной нефти попало в море и при взаимодействии с 10 000 тоннами очищающих средств убило большую часть морской жизни.

5. Пестициды присутствуют в море в незначительных количествах, но они распределены неравномерно.

6. Чтобы предотвратить мировое загрязнение океана, следует постоянно проводить контроль загрязнения воды.

 

4. Retell the text using the plan below:

1.The sea is not the sewer.

2. Oil pollution of the sea.

3. Pesticides.

4. Monitoring marine pollution.

Text 3

Text 4

Ecology of the Caspian Sea region - the last line of defense before the beginning of the " big" oil

The main center of oil development in Kazakhstan is concentrated in the western part of the country. More than 70% of the oil fields containing industrial oil resources are located on the territory of Atyrau and Mangistau regions. Atyrau region is characterized by the highest supply of perspective oil resources and their volume is more than 700 milliontons. And this is without the estimates for the Caspian Sea shelf. Kazakhstan is waiting for the "big" oil. And the ecology of the Caspian Sea region is holding the last line of defense. This is because the current situation is already considered to be close to а crisis. Atyrau region is justly considered to be among the most ecologically disadvantaged territories ап4 environmental pollution at the oil extraction sites is considered among eight priority ecological problems of the country. When oil was drilled on the ground the ecology of the Caspian Sea and surrounding territories was already sending SOS signals. Kazakhstani experts have identified five main problems related to the radioactive environmental pollution. The first place on the list is taken by radioactive pollution of the territory in Western Kazakhstan. At the 22 oil fields the experts located 267 sites of radioactive pollution thrown on the soil by the underground waters. The power of radium and torium radiation is 100-17000 microroentgen/hour. Total population affected is around 100 thousand.

Serious danger of oil pollution of Caspian Sea is.represented by the oil fields Western and East- Central Prorva, Teren-Uzek, Tazhigaly, Kokarna, Eastern Kokarna, Kara-Arna, Morskoe, Pustynnoe and other regions.

Text 5

Water crisis - poor health

Deficit of fresh clean water is а cause of many diseases and even of people' s deaths. As а result of illnesses caused by dirty water а child dies every eight seconds. In the developing countries 80 %of all diseases are spread because of consumption of dirty water. Disease-causing microorganisms living in the water and pollution annually kill 25 million people. The highest rate of deaths from lethal illnesses related to dirty water, such as dysentery, cholera, typhus is registered in tropical countries. However, developed countries also suffer from water pollution. In 1993, in the city of Milouwakee, Wisconsin, 400000 people became sick because of drinking water filled with chlorine-resistant micro organisms. After that people started to boil water. Industry uses much less water, but consequences of the use can be much more dangerous because of the following reasons. First of all, the use of water for industrial needs is not regulated by the governments and this may result in abuses. Second, industrial wastes thrown into the water can make on-the-ground and underground waters dangerous for people' s health.

The consequences of the irrational use of water resources are especially harmful if we consider the fact that it is not always ассоmpanied by increase in agricultural productivity. The unwillingness to create appropriate draining systems at the crop lands (immediate saving of funds) results in expansion of swamps and increase in the level of salt on the crop lands, which in turn leads to loosing productivity of the lands.

 

Text 6

Translate into English:

В нашей стране большое внимание уделяется вопросам охране вод. В 15 крупных городах, расположенных в бассейнах рек Волги и Камы, вводятся в эксплуатацию городские сооружения по очистке воды (treatment plants). Предусмотрено, что сброс сточных вод во всех городах, расположенных в бассейнах рек Волги и Урала, будет полностью прекращён.

Проводятся крупные мероприятия по охране водных ресурсов и животного мира в Каспийском море, озере Байкал и др.

Самое крупное озеро в нашей стране – Байкал. Оно содержит 20% всей пресной воды планеты. В прибрежных районах сосредоточены большие массивы леса, минеральные ископаемые. На предприятиях, сбрасывающих промышленные воды в реки, были построены очистительные сооружения.

Учёные за последние годы создали эффективные сооружения для очистки промышленных водных стоков. Через них сбрасываются в реки и озёра воды, пригодные для нормального развития природных процессов в водоёмах.

 

UNIT IV.

Vocabulary

Chemicals химикалии

Stem from происходить из

Sustain поддерживать

Lane тропинка, улица

Emission control контроль за выбросами

 

Text 1

Read the text below and render it in Russia or English, as you like.

Do you agree with the idea that some environmental problems have arisen from poorly controlled discharges of wastes or chemicals?

 

In recent years there has been increasing concern around the world over chemicals in the environment. Such concern has arisen in response to information on the widespread distribution of chemicals stemming from human activities and the potentially harmful effects of those chemicals on humans or on the ecological systems which sustain humans. Some environmental problems, such as contaminated lane, have arisen from poorly controlled discharges of wastes or chemicals whilst others, such as air pollution, have arisen from poor emission controls on energy generation and motor vehicles.

 

Other problems have arisen from the release of chemical into the environment over many years where insufficient attention had been given to an analysis of their behavior in soils, air and water and to their effects on humans and other species. Chlorinated organo-compounds illustrate this problem. For example, groups of chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dichlorodyphenyl trichloroethane (DDT) were developed as relatively stable substances so it is not surprising today that as a result of their widespread use and release into the environment they can be detected in Arctic and Antarctic snow and surrounding ecosystems.

 

Read the text and make the resume of it:

Text 2

UNIT V

RADIOACTIVITY

WARM UP

What do you know about radioactivity? It is safe?

 

Vocabulary:

Burial захоронение

radioactive wastes радиоактивные отходы

nuclear power stations атомные электростанции

period of semi-disintegration период полураспада

spots зд.:место

concrete бетон

Read and translate the text:

Text1.

Text 2

Paul Brown

Environment Correspondent

NORWAY has detected an eightfold increase in radioactive waste reaching its shores in the last year as a result of discharges from the Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria, and is to renew demands for the closure of the plant responsible.

The disclosure that the radionuclide Technetium-99 (T-99) has travelled 500 miles on sea currents to the shores of Norway comes at an embarrassing time for the Government, which is considering an application for new discharge licences from the Sellafield plant.

Michael Meacher, the Environment Minister, at a meeting of ministers from 15 countries including Norway, pledged that the UK would end its sea discharges of nuclear waste and chemicals as soon as possible. It was to finally remove from Britain the tag of «the dirty man of Europe».

Thirteen of the countries present at the meeting of the Oslo/Paris Commission, which controls pollution the North Sea, had expressed particular concern about T-99 because it accumulates in shellfish. Lobsters off Sellafield were caught in the summer by the Ministry of Agriculture (Maff) and found to be 32 times over the European Union safe limit for human consumption.

Per Strand, a member of the Norwegian Radiation Protection Board, said that after that Commission meeting in Brussels Norway had begun tests to see whether T-99 was reaching Norway. The board had since found an eightfold increase.

«We started this monitoring programme because somewhat raised levels had been reported in the Irish Sea. So we wanted to be on the safe side and see what the situation is in Norwegian areas,» he said.

«We traced it across the North Sea, and around Scotland almost all the-way to Sellafield.»

Mr Strand acknowledged that the levels of radioactivity were not dangerous to humans but that they could accumulate in shellfish. These were now being tested.

Another meeting of the commission is due in January. The Norwegian Environment Ministry said it would await a full report from the board before deciding how to frame its protest.

The cause of the problem is a plant opened in 1994 to process, stored nuclear waste accumulated over many years. T-99 was not thought to be 'a problem at the ime and is routinely discharged into the sea. Maff monitoring found that levels in shellfish have more than doubled every year since then.

The Department of the Environment said it would be giving a presentation at the January meeting of the Oslo/Paris Commission on the problem of T-99 and how it would be dealt with. Ministers were awaiting advice from the Environment Agency on the application by British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) for discharges.

In a statement BNFL said it was to reduce its T-99 discharges by 25 per cent. «The impact on someone who lives close to Sellafield and consumes a large quantity of seafood results in a maximum dose of 40 microsieverts — equivalent to the amount of radiation received during an eight-hour flight. Doses further afield from the UK will be smaller Any doses received in Norway will be tiny compared to the dose of 3.000-4.000 microsieverts per annum from natural background radiation.»

BNFL said in September that it did not have the technology to prevent the discharges that it was investigating.

 

COMPREHENSION

I. Match the words from the text to make word combinations:

1) eightfold a) time

2) discharge b) limit

3) embarrassing c) increase

4) sea d) consumption

5) safe e) programme

6) human f) discharge

7) monitoring g) nuclear waste

8)raised h) licences

9) level I) radioactivity

10)process j)levels

 

II. Insert the required prepositions:

1. discharges…the nuclear plant;

2. demands…the closure of the nuclear plant;

3. an application…new licences;

4. concern…T-99;

5. to be 32 times…the European Union safe limit;

6. to give a presentation…the problem of T-99.

 

III. Answer the questions:

1. Are the raised levels of radioactivity in the Irish Sea dangerous to humans?

2. What caused Norway’s fury at UK?

 

CHERNOBYL’S DEADLY LEGACY

2006 year marks the twentieth anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear accident (in its scale and comlexity), at Chernobyl in northern Ukraine. Despite the very strict systems of checks and safety measures employed at nuclear power plants, the explosion at Chernobyl in April 1986 was devastating proof of the old maxim that “accidents can happen”.

Chernobyl is not the first accident at a nuclear power plant. Serious accidental releases of radioactivity occurred at Chalk River, Ontario, Canada in 1952, Sellafield, UK in 1957, and Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, USA in 1979. But these events were overshadowed by the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station. It was the most severe accident to have occurred at a nuclear power plant, and an event which has haunted the world’s nuclear industry since.

The plant was supposed to close permanently at the end of 1993 – a date agreed between the Group of seven (G7) leading industialised countries and the Ukranian government. But, in October of that year, closer plans were called off after officials in Kiev decided the country could not function without a supply of electricity fro Chernobyl. Many believe this was inevitable since G7 offered no financial help towards the closure.

Although all four of the reactors have now been closed down (the final date for shutting them down agreed with the European Union and the US turned out to be the year 2000) it is by no means the end of the matter. Full decommissioning of the station is expected to take up to 50 years. Meanwhile, scientists will continue to monitor the accident's legacy for human and ecological health for many decades to come.

The accident

In the early hours of the morning on the 26^th of April 1986, operators at the nuclear reactor complex about 130 km north of Kiev lost control of the Chernobyl Unit 4 nuclear reactor while conducting some experiments. The Chernobyl reactors were not originally designed for civilian use. Known as RBMK-1000s their design was based on a military reactor, built to produce materials or nuclear weapons. Moreover, the RBMK-1000 had a design flaw which makes it unstable unless it is operating at full power. The Chernobyl reactors also did not conform to international safety standards: all safety mechanisms could be switched off manually (that is what had happened just before the catastrophe) and there was no protective structure around the reactors to limit the effects of the accident.

These design and operation failures caused the explosions. The reactor core erupted in a gigantic explosion, injecting huge amounts of heat and disintegrated radioactive fuel into the atmosphere. One worker who was on duty in the hall just above the reactor died instantly in the explosion. He was the only immediate victim of the blast, but the first in a death toll that is now in the thousands. Some 3.5 million other people, over a third of them children, are thought to have suffered illnesses as a result of contamination from the deadly cloud of radioactivity.

Many of the horrors of the aftermath could, however, have been avoided, or at least reduced, if the situation had been dealt with openly and properly. The authorities of the Soviet Union were slow to tell neighbouring countries of the disaster, due both to the atmosphere of secrecy that characterized the country and to uncertainties over the true scale of possible effects. The two explosions took place at 1.23 a.m. on 26 April. Moscow issued a statement that evening well over twelve hours later, saying that the measures were being taken to deal with the accident. In reality little was being done. An atomic fire burned at Chernobyl for days before Swedish authorities alerted the world to the nuclear fallout that had been injected high into the atmosphere.

Radioactive contamination from the explosion was greatest in the northern Ukraine, neighbouring southern Belarus and in the parts of the Russian Federation that are close to the Belarussian/Ukrainian borders. But Chernobyl radionuclides were also dispersed throughout the northern hemisphere in small amounts, with particular "hotspots" in areas where rainfall washed radioactive material from clouds: parts of Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Norway, Romania»,Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and Yugoslavia.

Most concern has focused on the medical dangers to humans from the deposition of radionuclides. Fruit and vegetables from fields near the plant were destroyed, as was milk from cows grazing on nearby contaminated grassland. Initial fears focused on iodine-131 but this breaks down quickly. The time taken for half its atoms to decay, its half-life, is just 8 days. Attention soon shifted to caesium-134 and caesium-137, the latter with a half-life of 30 years. Caesium accumulates up the food chain from the soil through vegetation to contaminate meat. Special measures were required as far from the accident as Scandinavia and Britain to restrict the movement and sale for consumption of livestock. Other dangerous radionuclides involved include strontium-90 (half-life 29 years) and plutonium-239 (half-life 24,000 years).

Lingering effects

Restrictions on food are still in place in some areas up to 3,000 km from Chernobyl, because radioactive caesium from the accident is lingering in the environment much longer than scientists had anticipated. A survey last year found unexpectedly high levels of radioactivity in western Europe which will last for 50 more years, 100 times longer than expected. The high levels of radioactive caesium were found in fish in lakes in Cumbria (northern England), and in Norway. During the first 5 years after Chernobyl, the concentrations of radioactive caesium measured in most foods and in water declined by ten times, but in the last few years they have changed very little.

Although the health risk to consumers is thought to be small, restrictions on foodstuffs from parts of Europe and the former Soviet Union will need to be maintained for at least another 10-15 years. Even in Britain, 389 farms still have restrictions on the sale and slaughter of sheep which will have to continue until 30 years after the accident. In more contaminated parts of the Ukraine and Belarus, bans will need to continue for longer. Restrictions on the human consumption of forest berries, fungi and fish, which contribute significantly to people's radiation exposure, will have to continue for at least a further 50 years.

Other long-term effects of the Chernobyl accident are evident in people who lived around the power plant at the time of the explosion. Of the 400,000 workers who cleaned up after the blast, an estimated 30,000 have fallen ill, many sexual or reproductive disorders. And, in the Ukraine alone, about 13,000 children are thought to have inhaled or taken with food enough of iodine 131, to risk contracting thyroid cancer. Today, rates of thyroid cancer in children have increased tenfold since the accident. In the first ten years after the accident, well over 500 cases of thyroid cancer were reported in Belarussian children. Another disease, which has become known as "Chernobyl AIDS" because it somehow depletes the killer cells of the immune system, is also a great concern. People suffering from this condition are much more susceptible to leukemia and malignant tumours, as well as heart problems and a variety of more common infections.

Environmental effects

Despite these terrible consequences, there do appear to be some aspects of the environment that have actually benefited from such a devastating human-induced catastrophe. Although local wildlife suffered from the severe irradiation immediately following the accident, when small areas of ghostly "red forest" appeared as dead pine leaves turned a rusty brown colour, the long-term impacts so far seem to be beneficial, mainly thanks to the forced depopulation of farms and villages. All inhabitants from an area of 2,800 km sq. around the power station, consisting of parts of the Ukraine and Belarus, were evacuated in the aftermath of the explosion. The evacuation of villages near the reactor began about 40 hours after the explosion. It was only by 2 May, nearly a week later, that the evacuation zone was extended to thirty kilometres around the plant. Human occupation of this exclusion zone is still banned for medical reasons.

Although the area has been subjected to some of the worst radioactive contamination in history, wildlife has proved to be remarkable resistant to the known biological effects of radiation, notably mutations and biodeformities. Scientists from the International Radioecology Laboratory just outside the exclusion zone have noted a general increase in the diversity of wild plants and animals the unexpected return of rare species area. Wild boar, moose, wolves, deer, otters and lynx have become well established in the zone, while species associated with previous human occupation — such a house mice, sparrows and pigeons –has declined. No less than 48 species listed in the international Red Book of endangered animals and plants are now thriving in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. A rich community of aquatic wildlife has even been recorded living in the contaminated cooling ponds at the power station site itself. The surprising resilience of the local ecology has led to calls for the exclusion zone to be designated a permanent nature reserve where endangered plants and animals can be free to breed as the land reverted to its original forested state thanks to the absence of human interference.

NOTES:

anniversary годовщина

scale масштаб, размер

complexity сложность

explosion взрыв

severe ужасный

inevitable неизбежный

victim жертва

radionuclides радионуклиды

long-term consequences последствия, дающие о себе знать долгое время

suffer from страдать от

decline исчезать

WORD STUDY

I. Highlight the following words and in the article and provide their definitions:

maxim (n) erupt (v) irradiation (n) haunt (v) f fallout (n) ghostly (ad j)

overshadow (v) livestock (n) thrive (v)

decommission (v) half-life (n) aquatic (adj) manually (adv) linger (v) moratorium (n)

aftermath (n) reproductive (adj) phase out (v)

II. Explain the meaning of the following words and word-combinations:

the Group of Seven (G7)

death tol