Text A. What is agriculture.

1. Agriculture is a human activity¹ in which people use areas of land to produce food, clothing and other necessary materials.

2. The word² "ager" is a Latin word. It means³ a field. The word "agriculture" means the cultivation of fields and growing crops. But this is the old meaning of this word. Now it also means the use of land to breed animals. At present there are two main branches⁴ of agriculture. They are crop growing and animal breeding.

3. We do not know when people began to grow crops. It was many thousand years ago. Now crop growing is a highly developed branch of agriculture.

4. The soil is the basis of agriculture. Enough food for all the people can be grown if there is sufficient good soil for crops to produce high yields. There are two ways to grow enough food. They are the increase in area of arable land and the intensification of agricultural production in the areas already used for cropping. At present the second way is more important because there is not enough experience⁵ to reclaim⁶ tropical and subtropical lands.

5. The intensification of production in the traditional agricultural areas is based on the knowledge of climate, soils and their use, and on a large collection of high-yielding varieties and hybrids of agricultural crops.

6. All intensification factors, such as full mechanization, high application of fertilizers and extensive use of herbicides must be used in such a way as not to disturb⁷ the biological equilibrium⁸ of the soil.

Notes and Commentaries:

¹activity – діяльність

²word – слово

³to mean (meant) – означати

⁴branch – галузь

⁵experience – досвід (життєвий)

⁶to reclaim – освоювати

⁷to disturb -порушувати

⁸equilibrium – рівновага

 

Comprehension Check-Up

 

Read the text once more and translate it with the help of a dictionary.

 

1. 6. In list B find synonyms to the words from list A:

A. yield, to require, sufficient, cropping, use, at present, type, plant nutrients, to start, forest, poor yield

B. to begin, wood, plant food, low yield, enough, growing, harvest, variety, now, application, to need

 

1. 7. Find in the text the nouns with the same roots as the following verbs:

To act, to mean, to cultivate, to breed, to increase, to produce, to fertilize

 

1. 8. Fill in the blanks with the necessary words (see text B). Choose from the following: proper, manures, weeds, impossible, consideration, management, diseases, nutrients

1. You should take into … the annual rainfall and the soil type.

2. Crop rotation helps to keep the soil in … condition and to control … and ….

3. It is … to obtain high yields if the soil is in poor condition.

4. … and fertilizers should be added to the soil.

5. The supply of plant … varies with the type of soil.

6. The proper … of the soil is very important for keeping it in healthy condition.

 

1. 9. In the right column find a word that doesn't correspond to the word from the left column:

1. Plant nutrients	1. Available, proper, climatic, needed, valuable
2. Soil	2. Poor, sandy, fertile, annual, loamy
3. Yield	3. High, annual, loamy, low, poor
4. Climatic conditions	4.Improper, various, optimum, agricultural, proper

 

1. 10. Below are the answers. Ask questions about them:

1. Successful farming means the best use of natural conditions.

2. Moisture conditions, available plant nutrients and the structure of the soil are the main factors of soil fertility.

3. Manures and fertilizers are added to the soil to meet some plant food needs.

4. Cotton requires higher temperatures than wheat.

5. The control of weeds, pests and diseases is necessary to keep the soil in proper condition.

1. 11. Retell the text A. Use the key-words:

human activity, to use, to produce, "ager", to mean, field, crop, to breed animals, branch, soil, basis, high yield, arable land, intensification, knowledge, high-yielding, varieties and hybrids, mechanization, fertilizer, herbicide, to disturb.

Step 2

GRAMMAR Point

(speaking-writing)

2.1. Use the following suffixes: - ment, - tion, - ure, - ist, - or, - er, - ity –to form nouns fromthe next words:

consider, fertile, moist, germinate, require, produce, active, cultivate, intensify, collect, fertilize, farm, manage, rotate.

 

2.2. Write down the plural of the nouns if they have it:

variety, type, farming, clay, condition, fertility, moisture, consideration, nutrient, temperature, herbicide, branch, basis, way, food, increase, area, climate, equilibrium, yield, germination.

 

2.3. Choose from the following: a, that/those, many/much, few/little- to usewith the nouns:

people, crop, hybrids, land, field, agriculture, equilibria, condition, livestock, machinery, seeds, rainfall, growth, cereals, cotton, cultivation, rotation, pests, work, structure, data, management.

 

2.4. Combine nouns from both lists to form attributive word-combinations and translate them: