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TOPICAL VOCABULARY

Man’s Impact on the Biosphere:

· to affect the environment adversely;

· to be fraught with fatal consequences;

· to interfere in nature infinitely;

· negative effects of man’s economicactivity;

· to change the biosphere;

· to be overconcerned with technicism;

· to threaten to destroy everything onearth;

· pollution of the environment throughchemical, physical and biological agents;

· to have a disastrous effect on man;

· to become extinct;

· the disappearance of particular living species;

· to be fraught with the extinction of animalsand plants;

· to perish as a result of industrial, urban and demographic pollution of the environment;

· widespread use of insecticides;

· deforestation;

· changes in the microclimate, vegetation, fauna;

· pesticides and herbicides that destroy the flora and fauna;

· to be vulnerable to the destructive impact of man;

· to reach threatening proportions;

· to transform fertile regions into arid ones.

Protection of Atmosphere:

· to protect all living beings from harmful solar and cosmic radiation;

· disruption in the oxygenbalance;

· destruction of the ozonescreen;

· to increase ultraviolet radiation;

· corresponding effects on the sight of animalsand humans;

· to pollute the atmosphere with exhaust fumes;

· bronchial complaints;

· to die through the effects of a mixtureof smoke, fog and fumes;

· exhaust gases/fumes;

· natural pollution of theatmosphere (eruption of volcanoes, dust storms, forest fires, etc.);

· artificial pollution (industrial enterprises,automobiles, heating systems, etc.);

· emission of harmfulgases and industrial dust;

· toxic substances;

· radioactive pollution of the atmosphere;

· acid rains.

Protection of Soil:

· waste land incapable of yielding crops;

· soil erosion;

· protection of fields againstthe wind;

· retention of moisture in the soil;

· exploitation of plant resources;

· excessive cattlegrazing;

· protective forestation (waterregulating and wind blowingforest belts);

· soil acidity;

· thelayer of fertilesoil;

· soil pollution with heavy metals;

· agricultural wastes;

· domestic wastewaters;

· low fertility;

· to deplete the local flora;

· incorrect use of fertilizers andpesticides;

· to utilize agricultural wastes;

· to recultivate the lands spoiled by industry;

· the leveling of open-cut mines and pits;

· anti-erosion measures;

· to maintainthe mostfavourablesoil moistureregime.

Protection of Water:

· capacity for regeneration;

· rational use of water resources;

· chemical and biological filters;

· cleansing and recycling water;

· to dump uncleaned sewage;

· to shift to a closed productioncycle.

Noise Pollution:

· to suffer from permanent or temporary hearing loss;

· long exposures to noise;

· chronic exposure to high noise levels;

· to interfere with sleep;

· to result in a feeling of fatigue;

· to cause irreversible changes in the nervous system;

· a growing threat to our healthand happiness.

The Ways of Solving Ecological Problem:

· restoration of the unity between man andnature;

· to turn the material production from a purely technical and social element into a biosocial one;

· scientific understanding of the essence of the relation between society and nature;

· theoretical foundation for solving theecological problem;

· joint solution of pressing global problems;

· a purification plant;

· to build factories beyond city limits;

· to establish special zones between housing estates;

· to plant greenery in cities, towns and villages;

· restoration of forests;

· planning of parks.

TASKS

Task 1. Below there is a list of environmentally sound quotes. Agree or disagree with the statements below. Be sure to provide sound arguments.

· The Four Laws of Ecology:

1. Everything is connected to everything else.

2. Every thing must go somewhere.

3. Nature knows best.

4. There is no such thing as a free lunch (Barry Commoner)

· "One generation plants trees... another gets the shade" (Chinese Proverb)

· "We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape our world"

(Winston Churchill)

· "Harmony with land is like harmony with a friend: you cannot cherish his right hand and chop off his left... The land is one organism" (Aldo Leopold)

· "The most important task, if we are to save the earth, is to educate" (Peter Scott)

· "The world is a beautiful book, but of little use to people who cannot read it" (Carlo Goldoni)

· "The major problems in the world are the result of the difference between the way nature works and the way people think" (Gregory Bateson)

· "Individually, each of us can do only a little. Together, we can save the world" (Denis Hayes, Earth Day Founder)

· "The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives" (Indian Proverb)

· "The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself" (Franklin D. Roosevelt)

· "Every human has a fundamental right to an environment of quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being" (UN Conference of the Human Environment)

· "Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another" (Juvenal)

· "The environment is not only more complex than we think; it is more complex than we can think" (Unknown).

Task 2. Comment on the following. Back your opinion with life examples.

In spite of man’s growing power and his increasingly great contribution toward his own support, he still needs earth materials and earth conditions as Goethe said of the artist, so we can say also of mankind as a whole, that he “has a twofold relation to nature, he is at once her master and her slave”.

Task 3. Put the correct word from the list below in each blank. You may use some words more than once: so, so much, so many, too, too much, too many, enough.