Listen to Text 1. Complete the following sentences.

1. Exams give you … …. … .. ……

2. Learning is an .. ……. …..

3. You are actually going to retain all the information better than if you did it .. ……, .. …….

4. Exams are a very ……… time for many.

5. Essays written as qualification of the course allow you to be more ……. ….. … ……

6. Some students believe that a coursework puts more …… on a student than examinations.

7. What is good about a coursework is that you can always ask for …. …….. ……

UNIT 5

ENVIRONMENT

Introductory Text

The environment on our planet has been changing, for example during the Ice Age, the Earth became much colder. It is possible that such changes led to the disappearance of some of the animals we, humans, shared our world with.

The more science advanced, the worse the effect of humans on the surface of the Earth grew. When industrialization began little thought was given to its harmful effects. The balance of nature was disturbed. While human creativity and technology have blossomed, we have steadily been destroying the ecology of the planet on which we depend on our survival. Since the industrial revolution, man has burned large quantities of fossil fuel, first coal and then oil. Burning any fuel containing carbon may cause permanent changes in the world’s climate. These fuels, when burned, release into the atmosphere a gas, carbon dioxide, that is not normally considered an air pollutant. But carbon dioxide in the air acts like a “one-way” mirror; it lets the sun rays reach the earth’s surface but won’t let the heat escape from the earth into outer space. This process is called the “greenhouse effect”, because it is similar to the way glass traps heat inside a greenhouse. If, over long periods of time, large amounts of carbon dioxide accumulate in the atmosphere, global temperatures may increase by a few degrees. This increase might melt snow and ice in the polar areas, thereby raising the level of the oceans to flood coastal areas, where many people now live. A rise in temperature could bring rain to the Sahara or turn US corn-growing areas into dry prairies or, to put it differently, to lead to extreme changes in climate with more frequent droughts and heat waves.

Another problem is the loss of trees through uncontrolled deforestation which causes soil erosion and unstable climate. All over the world, wildlife is being threatened, because habitats and woodlands are being destroyed. Some species are so reduced in number that they are in danger of extinction; some of them have already died out.

One more environmental issue is nuclear power. It causes a lot of controversy in the world. People who are for nuclear power give the following arguments:

a) nuclear power should be our major source of energy in the future;

b) nuclear power plants are cheap to run;

c) they will produce energy more efficiently than gas, oil, water, and, especially, the sun;

d) nuclear power plants will be safe for workers;

e) the chance of explosion is too small to worry about;

f) radioactive materials can be kept secure;

g) pollution from nuclear power will be carefully controlled.

Still others think that gas, oil, water and the sun can produce energy more efficiently and the growing reliance on nuclear fuels could be dangerous and environmentally damaging. Opposition to nuclear power plants has led to bitter disputes over their siting (размещение) and delays in their construction.

People all over the world agree that it's only in recent years that we are waking up to the problem. With the new millennium we need a new beginning, a fresh start. We need to reverse the major threats to our environment. Above all, we need to understand that we cannot go on consuming and polluting with no thought for tomorrow. These principles have been fulfilled by Greenpeace, a non-profit organisation, with a presence in 40 countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific. To maintain its independence, Greenpeace does not accept donations from governments but relies on contributions from individual supporters. As a global organisation, Greenpeace focuses on the most crucial worldwide threats to our planet's environment. It has been campaigning against environmental degradation since 1971 when a small boat of volunteers and journalists sailed into Amchitka, an area north of Alaska where the US Government was conducting underground nuclear tests. Greenpeace speaks for 2.8 million supporters worldwide, and encourages many millions more than that to take action every day. They take the name of their flagship, the Rainbow Warrior, from a North American Cree Indian legend. It described the time when humanity's greed had made the Earth sick. At that time, a tribe of people known as the Warriors of the Rainbow rose up to defend her. One of their banners was “When the last tree is cut, the last river poisoned, and the last fish dead, we will discover that we can't eat money...”