BRAINSTORMING: What is your understanding of the phenomena below? Give examples.
| § global warming | § air pollution | § acid rain |
WORD BUILDING
7. Guess the meaning of the words in bold type:
to conceive — conceivable – conceivably — inconceivable – inconceivably; to transform – transformation — transformer; to react – reactive – reactivate – reactivator — reactivation – reaction – reactionless — reactionary; to circulate – circulation; to develop – development – undeveloped — underdeveloped; to grade — gradual– gradually – to upgrade; to notice – noticeable – noticeably; to relate – relationship; to create – creature – creation – creative – creator — creativity
8. Choose the correct translation of the following English words:
| eventually | конечный | в конце концов | событие |
| helpful | полезный | бесполезный | полезно |
| consciously | сознательный | осознанно | неосознанно |
| significantly | существенно | существенный | значение |
| tolerant | терпимость | терпимый | нетерпимый |
| divergent | различный | различие | различно |
| impossible | возможный | возможно | невозможный |
| impractical | непрактичный | практичный | непрактично |
9. Form nouns from the following words using suffixes –ment, -ance/
-ence, -tion,-ion, -ation. Translate them into Russian:
Maintain, require, perform, differ, develop, achieve, fulfil, equip, move, construct, produce, transform, exist, generate, circulate, contaminate, preserve, interfere, destruct, prevent, evaluate, protect, create, reproduce, pollute, require, purify
10. Add the prefix to form words with the opposite meaning:
| an ___resistible temptation | an ___responsible student | an ___legal business agreement |
| an ___accurate calculation | an ___mature young poet | an ___convenient arrangement |
| an ___moral action | an ___logical answer | an ___possible idea |
| an ___patient driver | an ___secure feeling | an ___polite answer |
| an ___literate person | ___legible handwriting | an ___regular train service |
| an ___dependent person | ___formal clothes | an ___expensive present |
11. Find a noun in each line:
a) enlarge b) precaution c) take d) write
a) bend b) deepen c) destroy d) density
a) operate b) operator c) together d) alone
ACTIVE VOCABULARY
12. Read and memorize the following words and word combinations:
| to absorb — поглощать acid rain — кислотный дождь to affect — воздействовать circulation — круговорот, циркуляция compared to — по сравнению с … to contaminate – загрязнять; contamination — загрязнение to create – создавать to be of crucial importance — иметь критическое значение depletion — истощение destruction — разрушение to deteriorate – ухудшаться to emit – испускать environment — окружающая среда to evaluate — оценивать to exist – существовать fossil fuel — ископаемое топливо from a perspective — с точки зрения to generate — производить global warming — глобальное потепление greenhouse effect — парниковый эффект harmful —вредный hazardous — опасный, рискованный | impact — влияние, воздействие in a sense — в некотором смысле interference — вмешательство living things — живые существа nuclear power source — источник ядерной энергии on the one hand … , on the other hand – с одной стороны …, с другой стороны ozone layer — озоновый слой petroleum — нефть pollution – загрязнение poisonous — ядовитый preservation — сохранение to prevent — предотвращать to protect – охранять, защищать to provide – обеспечивать purification – очистка renewable natural resources — возобновляемые природные ресурсы reproduction — воспроизводство to require – требовать significance значение to survive – выживать to transform — преобразовать vegetation — растительностьwildlife — живая природа |
13. Read and translate the text below focusing on the Earth’s relationship with the sun:
Text 6 A
Our Planet – the Earth
Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is part of the universe, which includes millions of other galaxies and their stars and planets. Compared to the rest of the universe, the Earth is very small. Compared to a person, on the other hand, the Earth is enormous. It has a diameter of 12,756 kilometers at the equator, and it has a mass of about 6 x 1024 kilograms. The Earth orbits the sun at a speed of about 29.79 kilometers per second.
From our perspective on Earth, the sun looks very small. This is because it is about 93 million miles away from us. The sun’s diameter at its equator is about 100 times bigger than Earth’s, and about a million Earths could fit inside the sun. The sun is inconceivably bigger. But without the sun, the Earth could not exist. In a sense, the Earth is a giant machine, full of moving parts and complex systems. All those systems need power, and that power comes from the sun.
The sun is an enormous nuclear power source — through complex reactions, it transforms hydrogen into helium, releasing light and heat. Because of these reactions, every square meter of our planet’s surface gets about 342 Watts of energy from the sun every year. The only way the Earth could generate more power than the sun would be if every three people had a power plant of their own. When this energy reaches the Earth, it provides power for a variety of reactions, cycles and systems. It drives the circulation of the atmosphere and the oceans. It makes food for plants, which many people and animals eat. Life on Earth could not exist without the sun, and the planet itself would not have developed without it.
As the Earth spins on its axis, parts of the planet are in the sun while others are in the shade. In other words, the sun appears to rise and set. The parts of the world that are in daylight get warmer while the parts that are dark gradually lose the heat they absorbed during the day. You can get a sense of how much the sun affects the Earth’s temperature by standing outside on a partly cloudy day.
When the sun is behind a cloud, you feel noticeably cooler than when it is not. The surface of our planet absorbs this heat from the sun and emits it the same way that pavement continues to give off heat in the summer after the sun goes down. Our atmosphere does the same thing — it absorbs the heat that the ground emits and sends some of it back to the Earth.
The Earth’s relationship with the sun also creates seasons. The Earth’s axis tips a little — about 23.5 degrees. One hemisphere points toward the sun as the other points away. The hemisphere that points toward the sun is warmer and gets more light – it’s summer there, and in the other hemisphere it’s winter. This effect is less dramatic near the equator than at the poles, since the equator receives about the same amount of sunlight all year. The poles, on the other hand, receive no sunlight at all during their winter months, which is part of the reason why they’re frozen.
Most people are so used to the differences between night and day (or summer and winter) that they take them for granted. But these changes in light and temperature have an enormous impact on other systems on our planet. One is the circulation of air through our atmosphere.
For example: The sun shines brightly over the equator. The air gets very warm because the equator faces the sun directly and because the ozone layer is thinner there. As the air warms, it begins to rise, creating a low pressure system. The higher it rises, the more the air cools. Water condenses as the air cools, creating clouds and rainfall. The air dries out as the rain falls.
The result is warm, dry air, relatively high in our atmosphere. Because of the lower air pressure, air rushes toward the equator from the north and south. As it warms, it rises, pushing the dry air away to the north and the south. The dry air sinks as it cools, creating high-pressure areas and deserts to the north and south of the equator.
This is just one piece of how the sun circulates air around the world — ocean currents, weather patterns and other factors also play a part. But in general air moves from high-pressure to low-pressure areas, much the way that high-pressure air rushes from the mouth of an inflated balloon when you let go. Heat also generally moves from the warmer equator to the cooler poles. Imagine a warm drink sitting on your desk — the air around the drink gets warmer as the drink gets colder. This happens on Earth on an enormous scale.
TEXT AND VOCABULARY EXERCISES
14. Find in the text the words or phrases which mean the same as:
| § ставить наравне, уподоблять | § большой |
| § существовать | § ухудшаться |
| § источник энергии | § преобразовывать |
| § производить | § обеспечивать |
| § развивать(ся) | § постепенно |
| § терять (что-л. ) | § получать |
| § считать само собой разумеющимся | § циркулировать, двигаться по кругу |
| § относительно, сравнительно | § иметь огромное воздействие |
15. Find in the text the synonyms to the following words:
| § to liken | § large |
| § to subsist | § to worsen |
| § to produce | § to evolve |
| § comparatively | § to revolve |
16. Find Russian equivalents to the following word combinations:
Nuclear power source; to release light and heat; power plant; a variety of reactions; the circulation of the atmosphere; to absorb heat; over the equator; a low pressure system; high-pressure areas; in general; an enormous scale
17. Find the English equivalent to the following Russian words:
| 1. вселенная | a) university | b) universal | c) universe |
| 2. изменять(ся) | a) to transform | b) to transfer | c) to translate |
| 3. поверхность | a) surfing | b) surface | c) surfusion |
| 4. круговорот | a) circulation | b) circuit | c) circus |
| 5.подвергать воздействию | a) to affiliate | b) to affect | c) to effect |
| 6. излучать | a) to emit | b) to permit | c) to mitigate |
| 7. получать | a) to recede | b) to receive | c) to recess |
18. Fill in the gaps with a suitable word:
1. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is part of the universe, which ___ millions of other galaxies.
| § includes | § included | § were included | § is including |
2. Compared to the rest of the universe, the Earth is very ___.
| § small | § the smallest | § more small | § smaller |
3. Most people ___ so used to the differences between night and day that they take them for granted.
| § is | § are | § was | § were |
4. The only way the Earth ___ generate more power than the sun would be if every three people had a power plant of their own.
| § could | § can | § must | § may |
5. When the ___ is behind a cloud, you feel noticeably cooler than when it is not.
| § Moon | § Earth | § Sun | § Venus |
19. Complete these sentences with information from the text and put them in the right order:
1. The Earth’s relationship with the Sun also creates ___.
2. The sun shines brightly over the ___.
3. The sun is an enormous nuclear ___.
4. The only way the Earth could generate more power than the sun would be if ___.
5. Because of the lower air pressure, air rushes toward ___.
6. Life on Earth could not exist without the Sun, and the planet itself would ___.
7. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is part of the universe, which includes millions of other ___.
8. From our perspective on Earth, the Sun looks very ___.