BRITAIN’S NATIONAL PARKS
The first national park in Great Britain was set up in 1949. The first aim of establishing national park is to provide protection for the outstanding countryside they contain; the second aim is to provide opportunities for people to have access to them and enjoy them.
The Lake District in the north-west of England is the largest national park. It is popular with walkers, canoeists, cyclists, sailors, and climbers. Although it is quite compact – it is only 50 km from east to west – it has some of the most spectacular and varied scenery in Britain. It has Windermere, at 16.4 kilometres the longest lake in England, and Scafell Pike, at 1,000 metres the highest mountain in England. Also in the Lake District is Sty Head, the wettest place in Britain. More than 4,000 millimetres of rain a year fall on Sty Head!
The Lake District is now one of the most popular tourist destinations in Britain. In 2001 a total of 17 tourist nights (one night spent by one person) were recorded in the Lake District.
National parks are not owned by the nation. Most of the land is still in private hands. For example, the resident population of the Lake District is 41,100.
Snowdonia is the second largest National Park in the UK, after the Lake District. The English name for the area derives from Snowdon, which is the highest mountain in Wales. An estimated 6 million holidaymakers visit Snowdonia national park every year to enjoy a wide range of leisure activities. There is a walking country to suit all tastes and abilities, as well as opportunities for rock climbing, off-road cycling and water sports. The Snowdonia National Park has many buildings of architectural and historical importance, ranging from the castles built by the Welsh princes to farmhouses, tiny cottages and agricultural buildings. Over 26,500 people live and work in the Snowdonia National Park. Most of the land there is privately owned and farmed.
5.4 Look at the map of the UK and find the Lake District and Snowdonia National Park. Geographical names in the text may help you.
5.5 Complete the phrases using the words from the text.
1 the …….. countryside 6 …….. population
2 a …….. park 7 …….. activities
3 …….. scenery 8 …….. climbing
4 a …….. destination 9 …….. importance
5 …….. hands 10 a …….. cottage
5.6 Form the comparative and superlative degrees of the following adjectives.
Model: long – longer – the longest
high / wet / large / spectacular / popular / wide
5.7 Which words have the same meanings?
1 set up, v a) small, adj
2 aim, n b) establish, v
3 opportunity, n c) like, v
4 compact, adj d) not public, adj
5 spectacular, adj e) goal, n
6 scenery, n f) chance, n
7 destination, n g) view, n
8 enjoy, v h) value, v
9 private, adj i) place of arrival, n
10 estimate, v j) impressive, adj
5.8 Explain the following words. A dictionary can help you.
the countryside a resident
a holidaymaker to `record
a farmhouse
5.9 Find the odd word out.
outstanding spectacular scenic private
protection mountain population destination
cyclist sailor prince climber
Snowdonia England Wales Scotland
5.10 Which of these description best fits the Lake District and which – Snowdonia?
1 large beautiful and interesting
2 small scenic and popular
3 small mountainous and diverse
4 large sparse and agricultural
5.11 Are these statements correct or incorrect?
1 Millions of holidaymakers go to Snowdonia National Park every year.
2 Biking is the most popular leisure activity in the Lake District.
3 Snowdon is the highest mountain in England.
4 You can enjoy the beauty of royal castles in the Snowdonia National Park.
5 National Parks provide protection for the exciting countryside they contain.
6 More than 26,000 people live within the Snowdonia Park.
7 Any park is a special area of conservation.
8 Britain is a big country with beautiful and varied countryside.
5.12 Compare the two parks from exercise 5.3. Find similarities and differences in the:
● territory ● landscape
● aim ● leisure activities
● resident population
5.13 Match the two parts of the sentences.
| 1 There are 11 forest parks in Great Britain, | a) the second oldest acquiring National Park status in 1951. |
| 2 In Scotland instead of National Parks there are 40 “National scenic areas”, | b) contain the most magnificent scenery in the country. |
| 3 Snowdonia is the second largest National Park and | c) which are administrated by the Forestry Commission. |
| 4 In Welsh the area of Snowdonia is named Eryri, | d) are rich in cultural heritage and wildlife. |
| 5 Walking is the most popular activity but | e) covering about 13% of the total land area of Scotland. |
| 6 Both the Lake District and Snowdonia are the areas of outstanding natural beauty and | f) forests, mountains, villages, castles, hotels and tourist attractions. |
| 7 Picturesque and popular national parks | g) which means ‘the place of the eagles’. |
| 8 Guidebooks provide all information you require on | h) many visitors also cycle, climb, ride, sail, canoe or simply ‘sightsee’. |
5.14 Answer the following questions.
1 What is a national park?
2 How do Britain’s national parks help preserve the countryside?
3 When was the first / second national park set up in Great Britain?
4 Which is the most popular nation park in England?
5 What are the aims of national parks?
6 Can you think of any situations where these aims might be in conflict?
7 Can you name any national parks in your country?
8 Imagine that you are spending your holidays in the Lake District. Which of these activities would you choose to do and why?
● excellent fishing in the rivers or lakes
● learning to canoe on the quiet waters
● painting to capture the beauty of landscapes
● pony-trekking
5.15 Fill in the sentences with toand from.
1 Pollution …….. cars is a serious threat …….. the environment.
2 The parks were set up to protect wildlife …….. destruction.
3 National parks have been a great benefit …….. many people who have the opportunity to spend a holiday in unspoiled country.
4 The ‘hands-off’ policy means that the authorities will not try to preserve animals …….. the natural dangers …….. them.
5 Comfortable accommodation is a great advantage …….. older visitors to the parks.
6 The dams, with a holding capacity of 93 thousand million cubic metres, provide protection of farmlands …….. floods.
5.16 Complete the following text (1-8) with the correct derivation of the word in bold.
BEACHES AND PARKS
| Ocean Beach runs along the Pacific Ocean shoreline, but is not (1) …….. for swimming because the waters off the coast are cold | SUIT |
| and have (2) …….. rip currents. Baker Beach occupies | DEAD |
| a (3) …….. setting just west of the Golden Gate Bridge. | PICTURE |
| The (4) …….. and most well-known park is Golden Gate Park, | BIG |
| (5) …….. from the centre of the city to the Pacific Ocean. Once | STRETCH |
| covered only in grass and sand dunes, the park is planted with thousands of non-native trees and plants and is rich with (6) …….. | ATTRACT |
| including the Conservatory of Flowers, the Japanese Tea Garden, and other (7) …….. parks. Buena Vista Park is | REGION |
| the city’s (8) …….., established in 1867. Lake Merced is a fresh-water lake surrounded by parkland. | OLD |
5.17 Choose the correct word.
Wrangle Island is in Russia’s High Arctic. The island is well known for its large concentrations / conservation of polar bears. Polar bears in the nature reserve are counted each year, with sex, age and current physical condition. Keeping track of this information is vitally interesting / important in view of the threats facing / looking the bears, including climate variation / change, pollution and poaching. This is particularly / interestingly important on Wrangel Because the Chukchi-Alaskan population of polar squirrels / bears is exposed to legal native hunting in both Russia and Alaska and to illegal hunting on the Russian side. In addition, this population is threatened / poached by planned oil and gas exploration / examination on the continental shelf.
5.18 Read the text “The Big Five” carefully and answer the questions after it.
THE BIG FIVE
South Africa’s climate, beaches and vineyards are all popular tourist attractions. But it is the big five that people really come to see – the elephants, rhinos, lions, leopards and buffalo in the great game reserves.
Kruger National Park is visited by almost three quarters of a million tourists a year. Only five per cent of it is accessible to visitors, yet it is still not crowded. The park is home to white and black rhinos, lions, elephants, and thousands of other species of birds, animals and plants, living wild on the bushveld. Although the park is almost half the size of Denmark, the numbers of some animals, such as lions and elephants, have to be controlled by culling. This causes controversy among conservationists. Both elephants and rhino are in danger of becoming extinct in some places, because of hunting by poachers. Rather than cull herds when numbers grow too great, it is sometimes possible to move them to other parks.
There are nature reserves in all of the country’s many different geographical areas, from sub-tropical forest to the Kalahari desert. Whales can be seen off the West Coast National Park; for energetic hikers there are long trails in the semi-desert Karoo Nature Reserve, inhabited by many different species of antelope. Hippopotamus (and almost every other kind of African wildlife), can be seen in the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve, in the east of the country, north of Durban.
► 1 What / Who attracts visitors in South Africa?
2 Which of the following words are associated with Kalahari Desert, West Coast, the Karoo Nature Reserve, Durban, the Kruger National Park?
elephants / rhinos / lions / leopards / buffalo / antelopes / hippopotamus / whales / white and black rhinos / hikers
Fill in the table
| Kalahari Desert | |
| West Coast | |
| the Karoo Nature Reserve | |
| Durban | |
| the Kruger National Park |
3 What animals are in danger of becoming extinct?
4 Why are some herds of elephants culled? (to cull – to kill the weakest in a group)
5 Is it possible to solve this problem humanly?
6 What geographical areas are mentioned in the passage?
7 What other representatives of African wildlife do you know?
8 What would you like to see and do on a visit to South Africa? Make a list of things.
5.19 Study the information below and then do the exercises to check your understanding.
From large Royal parks to smaller community parks, London is a city that has lots of open spaces, and the gardens are to be admired. Almost all public gardens are free, and are a popular spot in the summer.
St James Park is probably the most beautiful and intimate of the capital’s central parks. Originally a marsh, the land was drained by Henry VIII in the 15th century to provide a deer park for St James’s Palace. In the 17th century, Charles II converted the deer park into a garden. Now the most ornamental park in London with good views of Whitehall rooftops, St James’s Park is a popular place to stroll, feed the ducks or watch the pelicans.
Popular in the summer with sunbathing office workers, a band plays throughout the summer. There is a café providing refreshments and a playground at the Buckingham Palace end.
The lake is now a wildfowl sanctuary, with ducks, geese, pelicans and black swans. The bridge over it gives a view of Buckingham Palace.
Holland Park is the most romantic of London’s parks. The park opened in 1952, on what remained of the grounds of Holland House, the rest of the land had been sold off in the late-19th century for the construction of large houses and terraces to the north and west.
The woods and formal gardens of Holland Park surround the reconstructed Jacobean Holland House.
The small, but lively, park is more wooded and intimate than the large royal parks of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park to the east.
Features include the Kyoto Japanese Garden, laid out for the 1991 London Festival of Japan, rose gardens, woodlands, wildlife ponds and an ecology centre. The park’s abundant wildlife includes tame rabbits, squirrels and peacocks.
There is also an adventure playground, café, and, during the summer, open-air theatre and opera under an elegant canopy.
Queen’s Park is in Kingswood Avenue in London. This small park offers a haven away from the hustle and bustle of a big city.
Features include a small pitch-and-putt golf course, tennis courts, a petanque rink and a good café. There are also Sunday bandstand concerts in the summer. Popular with children as it has a paddling pool, pet’s corner and playground. In the summer there are supervised play schemes, bouncy castles and children’s entertainers, such as clowns and jugglers.
In the early 17th century James I opened Hyde Park as London’s first public park. Today, despite being surrounded by some of the world’s busiest streets, Hyde Park is a peaceful haven for the capital’s office workers and tourists. At 1.5 miles long and just under 0.5 mile wide, it is central London’s largest park. There are 350 acres of woods, grasslands, lakes and gardens.
Hyde Park also has a horse riding track, a children’s playground, boating on the Serpentine, open air music concerts and a famous Speaker’s Corner.
At around 10.30 am every day the Household Cavalry can be observed riding through the park from Hyde Park Barracks to Buckingham Palace. On royal anniversaries and other important occasions a 41-gun salute is fired in Hyde Park.
► Answer the questions.
1 Which park is the biggest and which is the smallest?
2 In what parks can you: stroll / listen to music / boat / ride a horse / feed tame animals / watch birds / observe the Cavalry / sunbathe / enjoy roses / admire a salute / express your ideas? Fill in the table.
| St James Park | |
| Holland Park | |
| Queen’s Park | |
| Hyde Park |
3 Which words in the text have the same meaning as:
a) not paid, v f) visitor, n
b) swamp, n g) glade, n
c) city, n h) various, adj
d) consist, v i) shelter, n
e) official, adj j) performance, n
4 In which park can you meet a real wildfowl sanctuary?
5 Where can you meet deer, ducks, black swans, squirrels, rabbits, peacocks, clowns, jugglers, horses?
6 Which park is the oldest?
7 Where can you see Buckingham Palace?
8 Which facility is mentioned in the all four parts?
9 Explain the phrase hustle and bustle.
10 Which words in the text have the opposite meaning to:
close, v buy, v
walk, v wild, adj small, adj
11 Can you go in for sports in the parks? Which ones and where?
12 Which park has attracted your attention best? Why?
5.20 Are these statements correct or incorrect?
1 London is a city of public gardens.
2 Kensington Gardens is a large royal park.
3 The most popular with children is an ecology centre.
4 Queen’s Park offers a pet’s corner.
5 A 31-gun salute is fired in Hyde Park on important occasions.
6 Holland Park is the largest central park.
5.21 Match the two parts of the compounds.
A B
grass life
wild bathe
sun ground
play hall
wild stand
wood fowl
band land
White land
5.22 Match the descriptions with the parks above.
a) wooded, romantic, lively
b) large, famous, touristy
c) ornamental, intimate, beautiful
d) small, peaceful, popular
5.23 Write the review of the text in exercise 5.19. (See Unit 3).
5.24 Now you are going to read an article about the Siberian reserve ‘Yugansky’. Look up anything you don’t understand in a dictionary and give the review of the passage in a written form.
The nature reserve ‘Yugansky’ is located to the south from Surgut between the Bolshoy Yugan and Maliy Yugan Rivers, its territory covers 650,000 hectares.
National reserves play a very important role in preserving the landscapes and biological variety, conserving rare species of animals and plants, protecting unique natural resources. ‘Yugansky’ is not an exception, it is a model of typical Western Siberian taiga, so it plays a very important role in nature conservation.
The reserve’s territory is situated in the southern part of Middle Obskaya lowland, which occupies the central part of the Western Siberian plain. The climate of the region is continental. Air circulation in the atmosphere is very intensive that causes an intensive change of cyclones and anticyclones and leads to a sudden weather change. Daily temperature variation can reach 30-35°. The amount of precipitation almost entirely depends on the winds bringing moisture from the Atlantic Ocean. Cold arctic masses provoke light frosts and snowfalls even in summer.
The vast swamped territories keep up the stable water level in rivers because a thick layer of swamped mosses give the water back gradually. High swamps are like a natural ‘sponge’ and they not only nourish rivers but also maintain the hydrological balance of the territory. Usually freezing-over begins in November and ends in May. The ice is very thick, up to 30cm. Numerous lakes are small and shallow, different types of swamps prevail, they occupy one third of the territory. Soil overdamping causes the growth of moisture-loving plants such as bogmosses. A soft carpet of mosses is very common in the reserve and we can count 113 species of them. What is more we can count more than 200 species of fungi. They are everywhere and the most widespread are wood-attacking fungi.
Coniferous forests including a fir-tree, silver fir, pine and cedar force out deciduous (an aspen, birch) in the process of natural change. And the main factor that causes the vegetation change in the taiga zone is forest fires.
The reserve’s fauna exposes 36 species of mammals, among them a musk beaver, mouse, squirrel, hare, weasel, sable, wolf, lynx, bear and reindeer. The variety of bird’s species is limited by severely cold winters. Among adapted birds are: woodpeckers, owls, different types of grouses. In spring the population of birds increases greatly. Eagles, swans, crows, sparrows, hawks, ducks hurry to use the warmth of short summer time. And by the end of September flocks of birds leave their native places. Little by little frosts become lifeless and the weather is very cold. The taiga is covered with snow. But after long winter months, there will be spring and active life will begin again.
5.25 PROJECTWork in a group to talk / write about reserves in our country. Think about these questions:
1 Can you name any reserves (National parks, zakazniks, etc.) in our region?
2 What kind of environment do they protect – mountains, coastlines, wetlands, lakes, forests?
3 Who pays for the maintenance of the reserves?
4 What restrictions (if any) are placed on tourists?
5 Should we try to preserve nature by stopping people from going to protected areas of the country?
6 Can there be tourism without pollution and damage?
7 Have you ever been to a reserve? If so, which one? What are your impressions?