Английский язык

The sea is polluted by oil drilling and frequent leaks and accidents during transportation. Every year 288,000 ton of oil products are dumped into the sea, covering the entire surface with an oily film. The film blocks the passage of oxygen and light into the water, damaging seaweed and phytoplankton that depends for their existence on photosynthesis and killing fish and zooplankton. The oil film also washes up on the beaches, affecting all those who live along the shore and disturbing migratory birds.

In recent years numbers of foreign oil companies have come to exploit the oilfields of the Caspian. These companies guaranteed that they would use the latest, cleanest technologies in their operations. But their efforts are of limited worth because the Caspian Sea is a closed reservoir with no outlet to any other body of water with no possibility to clean itself.

Large agroindustrial complex is another major source of the Caspian Sea pollution. Vast quantities of pesticides, poorly stored, transported and used have poured into the rivers and penetrated the underground water system, thence finding this way into the sea.

Untreated sewage and wastes create another serious problem for a country whose sewage treatment plants are outdated and which is too poor to purchase new equipment. Large amount of sewage containing oil products, heavy metals, sulphates, chlorides, synthetic surface active compounds, phenols and other toxic substances are dumped in the sea.

The sea is a living organism that is slowly losing its ability to regenerate. Our scientists calculate that the sea will be dead by the beginning of the 21st century if the onslaught of pollutants does not come to an end.

Little attention is being paid to the environment in our country. We are trying to build our future by destroying the natural wealth upon which our future depends.

All five countries that border the sea need to cooperate to solve these problems, they need international support as well. The Earth is a single, living organism. The organism is ill. We must heal it together.

From «Surviving Together».

EXERCISES:

1. State to what part of speech the following words belong according to their suffixes and translate them into Russian:

attention, environment, future, natural, cooperate, international, organism, contamination, serious, equipment, toxic, substance, largely, action, economy, valuable, transportation, ability, scientist, product, evaporate.

2. Find in the text the English equivalents for the following words and word-combinations:

тонны нефтепродуктов, масляная пленка, гарантировать, агропромышленный комплекс, главный источник загрязнения, огромное количество, серьезная проблема, приобрести новое оборудование, тяжелые металлы, токсические вещества, живой организм, решать проблемы, международная поддержка.

3. Form verbs from the following nouns and translate them into Russian:

state, part, translation, cooperation, organization, contamination, support, solution, equipment, product, transportation, action, building, dependence, creation, loss, regeneration, storage, penetration.

4. Form nouns from the following verbs and translate them into Russian:

combine, produce, guarantee, situate, border, decide, base, develop, find, water, face, dump, cover, block, pass, damage, exist, affect, exploit, use.

5. Answer the following questions:

1) What three sections of the Caspian Sea do you know?

2) Why is the salinity of the Caspian Sea weak?

3) Why do we call this sea an inland sea?

4) What countries is the Caspian Sea bordered by?

5) Why is the sea polluted? Name two main sources of pollution.

6) In what way does the oily film damage the seaweed?

7) Why does the Caspian Sea have no possibility to clean itself?

8) Why are large amount of sewage dumped in the sea?

6. Translate this text in written form.

7. Copy out of each paragraph the sentences containing the most important information.

8. Express the main idea of the whole text in English.

9. Read the texts again and make a report on the environmental problems of Kazakhstan.

SECTION II

UNIT X

New words and expressions.

to encourage (v.) – поддерживать, поощрять

concession (n.) – уступка

sustainable (adj.) – жизнеспособный

to benefit (v.) – получить, извлекать выгоду

incentive (n.) – побуждение