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Unit 6 PLANET IN PERIL

LEAD-IN

What have the issues of demography got to do with the problem of climate change?In what other ways does demography affect the environment?

Demography and climate changeJan 21st 2012 the Economist print edition

There is now little doubt that climate change has become a reality. Glaciers are melting all over the world. Weather patterns are becoming more erratic. The IPPC forecasts increases of global mean temperatures of up to 5.8 degrees Celsius* this century and sea level rises of up to one meter. Half the world's people live within 50 km of seashores and their lives will be severely affected by flooding. Up to a million species of plants and animals could be extinct due to climate change.

The combination of growing populations and increasing levels of resource consumption is degrading and depleting the natural resource base. The world's population stood at 850 million at the onset of the industrial age and has grown more than eight times to 7 billion since then. At the same time burgeoning population and industry and the ensuing pollution have demonstrated how easily delicately balanced ecological relationships can be disrupted.

In recent years, the depletion of natural resources has become a major focus of governments and organizations such as the United Nations (UN). This is evident in the UN’s Agenda 21 which outlines the necessary steps to be taken by countries to ensure sustainability of their natural resources. Despite mounting efforts over the past 20 years, the loss of the world's biological diversity, mainly from habitat destruction, over-harvesting and pollution has continued. Urgent and decisive action is needed to conserve species and ecosystems, with a view to the sustainable management and use of biological resources.

*Celsius and Fahrenheit cause confusion because they are so different. 25o

Celsius is lovely, while 25o Fahrenheit is dreadful. 100o Fahrenheit is hot, while 100o

Celsius would kill you instantly.

1Продайвода Е.Д. Graduation Course+

To convert from Celsius to Fahrenheit, you multiply by 9/5 and add 32.To convert from Fahrenheit to Celsius you subtract 32 then multiply by 5/9.

Some of the figures are worth remembering:

Water freezes at 32 degrees FahrenheitWater boils at 212 degrees FahrenheitThe commonly accepted average core body temperature is 37.0 C (98.6 F). In Russia, the commonly quoted value is 36.6 C (97.9 F)

1 km is 0.6 mile (100kph=60mph)1 mile is 1.6 km (50mph=80kph)1 meter is 3.3 feet1 foot is 30.48 cm1 kilo is 2.2 pounds1 pound is 453 grams

READING 1: Global Warming vs. Global Cooling

Explain, how in your understanding global warming actually works. What is a greenhouse effect?http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

TEXT 1Climate Change Research

Stefan BronnimannInstitute of Geography, University of Bern, Switzerland

…The questions of whether and how climate changes and whether and how man influences climate have been debated by scientists at least since Theophrastus in the 4th century B.C. His works were translated into Latin in the Renaissance period and were influential to the thinking of scientists at that time. Two important lines of debate in the discussion on climatic change up into the 19th century concerned the impact of land-use changes on climate and progressive climate changes. In the early and mid-18th century, climate change was a subject treated by the philosophers of the enlightenment period such as Montesquieu and Hume. More scientific approaches to climate change research started in the second half of the 18th century, in line with efforts in agricultural, forestry and medical research and further advanced by scientific travelling and exchange and the availability of meteorological instruments.

A milestone in the history of climate change research and its public awareness was the theory of ice ages which had important implications for climate research in general. It required mechanisms able to explain a large change in mean temperature. This challenge was a trigger for many climate change theories, some of which have influenced the discussion until today. The theory of the CO2 greenhouse effect originated, at least partly, in the debate on the causes of ice ages. Some scientists


http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

speculated that lower concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide could have caused ice ages.

The processes considered in the 19th century to cause shorter-term climate changes were mainly solar influences and anthropogenic activity, but volcanic forcing and the melting of ice sheets and glaciers were also discussed. Among the anthropogenic influences on climate, the oldest topic is the effect of land-use changes. The debate on this topic became more and more popular during the 19th century when in many European countries deforestation and desertification became politically relevant. Effects of anthropogenic fossil fuel combustion on weather and climate have been considered since the 19th century. By the end of the 19th century, the debates about climate change and anthropogenic influence on climate was not confined to the scientific community, but also included political institutions and was carried out in public.

TEXT 2The Discovery of Global Warming

Spencer R.Weart The Johns Hopkins University, the Eugene Lang College and Princeton UniversityFebruary 2011

Since 2001, greatly improved computer models and an abundance of data of many kinds strengthened the conclusion that human emissions are very likely to cause serious climate change. Most scientists and ever larger number of individuals, corporate entities, and government agencies at every level decided that something had to be done. They found that effective steps could be taken right now that are not only cheap and effective, but will actually pay for themselves. For example, coal-fired power plants could be taxed in proportion to their emissions. This could be compensated by an equal decrease in other taxes, leaving government revenue unchanged. (A market-based "cap and trade" system of selling permits to emit pollution can be designed to have an equivalent effect.)

The most effective way to reduce the impact of greenhouse gas emissions and at the same time advance prosperity is to develop better technologies and practices. One of such technologies is carbon capture and storage (CCS), (carbon capture and sequestration), which is aimed at preventing the release of large quantities of CO2

into the atmosphere from fossil fuel use in power generation and other industries. It is a potential means of mitigating the contribution of fossil fuel emissions to global warming. The process is based on capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from large point sources and storing it where it will not enter the atmosphere. But a technology does not magically grow by itself - it can effectively be accelerated by direct government support.

In 2007 the IPCC reported that scientists were more confident than ever that humans were changing the climate. Although only a small fraction of the predicted warming had happened so far, effects were already becoming visible in some regions — more deadly heat waves, stronger floods and droughts, heat-related changes in the ranges and behavior of sensitive species. But the scientists had not been able to


narrow the range of possibilities. Depending on what steps people took to restrict emissions, by the end of the century we could expect the planet’s average temperature to rise anywhere between about 1.4 and 6°C (2.5 - 11°F).

It is now very nearly certain that global warming is upon us. It is prudent to expect that weather patterns will continue to change and the seas will continue to rise, in an ever worsening pattern, through our lifetimes and on into our grandchildren's. The question has graduated from the scientific community: climate change is a major social, economic and political issue. Nearly everyone in the world will need to adjust. Citizens will need reliable information, the flexibility to change their personal lives, and efficient and appropriate help from all levels of government. So it is an important job, in some ways our top priority, to improve the communication of knowledge, and to strengthen democratic control in governance everywhere. The spirit of fact-gathering, rational discussion, toleration of dissent, and negotiation of an evolving consensus, which has characterized the climate science community, can serve well as a model.

Find in the text words corresponding to the following definitions or synonymous with the following words:

not even or regular in pattern or movement; unpredictable (adj) growing or increasing rapidly; flourishing (adj) a significant stage or event in the development of something (n) things that are likely to happen as a result of sth. (n) an event that is the cause of a particular action, process, or situation (n) a very large quantity of something, plentifulness (n) make (something bad) less severe, serious, or painful (v) sensible and careful (adj) adapt or become used to a new situation (v) trustworthy (adj) ability to be easily modified to respond to altered circumstances (n) suitable or proper in the circumstances (adj) the holding or expression of opinions at variance with those commonly or

officially held (n)

Fill in the gaps with the words from the previous assignment according to the context:

1. New Hampshire's commercial development activity will continue __________ to changing supply and demand forces in 2012.

2. Geothermal electricity – generated in __________ in Iceland – would be pumped to the UK through a ‘supergrid’ of high-voltage cables laid on the ocean floor.

3. Six astronauts are celebrating two historic human spaceflight __________ today: the first human spaceflight and the risky first launch of NASA's space shuttle era.


4. Northern Ireland's only Confucius Institute is to celebrate the country’s __________ relationship with China with a week of cultural events.

5. A lawmaker on Thursday said North Korea’s rocket launch will likely have negative __________ on the geopolitics of the Asia-Pacific region.

6. Spain urged its EU peers to be __________ when making comments about its economic woes on Wednesday following criticism from France and Italy,

7. Higher temperatures, less rainfall, more __________ weather conditions: farmers are already noticing changes in the global climate.

8. Last week skirmishes between troops and rebels tested a shaky ceasefire to end a 13-month crackdown on __________ that has killed thousands.

9. Stronger global governance is needed to __________ human impacts on the earth's climate and to ensure sustainable development.

10.Mitsubishi has a long and lucrative history of producing safe, __________, affordable and fuel-efficient vehicles.

11.The Federal Reserve's ultra-easy monetary policy is __________ given high unemployment and the headwinds facing the economy.

12.China on Tuesday urged Iran and the world powers to demonstrate __________ and patience, saying it will help establish trust needed to resolve the issue peacefully.

13.Subprime mortgages and the housing bubble were the __________ that led to the financial crisis.

TEXT 3U.N. panel says weather disasters are new norm

March 29, 2012 Associated Press

Global weirding' means nations should prepare for more extreme events

Global warming is leading to such severe storms, droughts and heat waves that nations should prepare for an unprecedented onslaught of deadly and costly natural calamities, an internal panel of climate scientists says in a report issued yesterday.

The greatest danger from extreme weather, which some scientists are starting to call "global weirding", is in highlу populated, poor regions of the world, but no corner of the globe — from Mumbai to Miami — is immune. The document by a Nobel Prize-winning panel of climate scientists forecasts stronger tropical cyclones and more frequent heat waves, deluges and droughts.

In the past, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, founded in 1988 bу the United Nations, has focused on the slow inexorable rise of temperatures and oceans as part of global warming. This report is the first to look at the less common but far more noticeable extreme weather changes, which recently have been costing on average about $80 billion a year in damage. It blames the scale of current and future disasters on a combination of man-made climate change, population shifts and poverty.


While all countries are getting hurt by increased climate extremes, the over-whelming majority of deaths are happening in poorer, less developed places. That, combined with the fact that richer countries are generating more greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels, makes the issue of weather extremes one of fairness.

Some aspects of the climate situation are clear from earlier research. As the planet warms, many scientists say, more energy and water vapor are entering the atmosphere and driving weather systems. The IPCC report confirmed that a strong body of evidence links global warming to an increase in heat waves, a rise in episodes of heavy rainfall and other precipitation, and more frequent coastal flooding.

But, while the link between heat waves and global warming may be clear, the evidence is much thinner regarding some types of weather extremes. Scientists studying tornadoes are plagued by poor statistics that could be hiding significant trends, but so far, they are not seeing any long-term increase in the most damaging twisters. And researchers studying specific events, like the Russian heat wave of 2010, have often come to conflicting conclusions about whether to blame climate change.

Scientists who dispute the importance of global warming have long ridiculed any attempt to link greenhouse gases to weather extremes. They claim that the weather is very dynamic, especially at local scales, so that extreme events of one type or another will occur somewhere on the planet every year.

Meanwhile, mainstream scientists agree that global warming is a problem to be taken seriously but sometimes they are in too much of a rush to attribute specific weather events to human causes.

Some of the documented imbalances in the climate have certainly become remarkable. United States government scientists recently reported, for instance, that February 2012 was the 324th consecutive month in which global temperatures exceeded their long-term average for a given month; the last month with below-average temperatures was February 1985. This March, the United States set nearly 6,800 high temperature records. When you start putting all these events together, it's pretty hard to deny the fact that there's got to be some climate signal. No doubt, the extreme weather is one of the major and important types of what we would call 'global weirding.'

Find in the text terms relating to the topic of climate change that correspond to the following definitions:

conserving an ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources the average temperature the average weather for a particular region and time period the gradual rise in the earth's temperature caused by high levels of carbon

dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere a heavy colorless gas that is absorbed from the air by plants and does not

support combustion human activities which affect the climate


http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/tornadoes/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier

a very large body of ice moving slowly down a slope or valley the change of forested lands to non-forest uses the progressive destruction or degradation of vegetative cover, especially in

arid or semi-arid regions a fuel that is formed in the Earth from plant or animal remains the release of a substance into the atmosphere gaseous constituents of the atmosphere, both natural and anthropogenic, that

absorb and re-emit radiation from the sun the introduction into the environment of a substance which has harmful or

poisonous effects the process of removing carbon from the atmosphere and depositing it in a

reservoir

ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS QUIZ

1. What is the most common cause of pollution of streams, rivers, and oceans? a. Dumping of garbage by citiesb. Surface water running off yards, city streets, paved lots, and farm fieldsc. Trash washed into the ocean from beaches, ord. Waste dumped by factories?

2. Which of the following is a renewable resource? a. Oilb. Iron orec. Treesd. Coal

3. Ozone forms a protective layer in the earth's upper atmosphere. What does ozone protect us from?

a. Acid rainb. Global warmingc. Sudden changes in temperatured. Harmful, cancer-causing sunlight

4. Which of the following household wastes is considered hazardous waste? a. Plastic packagingb. Glassc. Batteriesd. Spoiled food?

5. What is the most common reason that an animal species becomes extinct?a. Pesticides are killing themb. Their habitats are being destroyed by humansc. There is too much hunting, or


d. There are climate changes that affect them

6. Which of the following is NOT a renewable resource?a. Ethanolb. Natural gasc. Hydrogend. Methanol

7. Which of the following accounts for the largest percentage of total waste in developed countries?

a. Organic wasteb. Paperc. Plasticd. Glass

8. Approximately how much of global electricity output is produced from renewable sources?

a. 1%b. 5%c. 8%d. 20%

9. Vegetarian diets are more environmentally friendly than meat-based dietsa. Trueb. False

10. 18% of all litter ends up in waterwaysa. Trueb. False

11. Air pollution causes 2 million premature deaths per year worldwidea. Trueb. False

12. Compared to people in many developing countries, North Americans use a. 5 times as much energy b. 15 times as much energy c. 50 times as much energy

13. How many years did it take nature to make oil? a. 2,000 years b. 2 million years c. 200 million years


14. What percent of water on earth is fresh water?a. 23%b. 15%c. 8%d. 3%

15. Hazardous waste is defined as poisonous bi-products. Which of these is NOT considered hazardous waste?

a. Batteriesb. Ethanolc. Used computer equipmentd. All of the above

16. What percentage of the earth is covered by forests?a. 50%b. 12%c. 30%

17. Earth day is observed ona. February 16b. April 4c. April 22d. September 17

18. World Wildlife Fund was founded ina. 1961b. 1965c. 1969d. 1992

SPEAKING: Use Internet sources to speak on one of the following topics:

1. Problems arising from inefficient land use2. Problems arising from land pollution and degradation3. Inefficient use of resources and energy crisis4. Nuclear development and nanotechnology5. Causes, effects and solutions of air and water pollution6. Waste recycling. Ways to deal with hazardous waste7. How ‘Cap and Trade’ system works8. Ways to prevent global warming

TOPICAL VOCABULARY:

climate change 9

Продайвода Е.Д. Graduation Course+

melting glaciers mean temperatures rising sea level flooding weather patternextinction of species (sing., pl.)degradation and depletion of natural resourcesdisrupt ecological balancesustainability of natural resources biological diversityhabitat destructionconservation of speciessustainable management and use of biological resourcesland-useforestrytheory of ice agesgreenhouse effectcarbon dioxideanthropogenic activitydeforestation desertificationfossil fuel combustion"cap and trade" systemcarbon capture and storage (CCS), (carbon capture and sequestration),heat waveflooddroughtglobal weirding'global warmingnatural calamitytropical cyclonesdelugeheavy rainfall precipitation poaching

Fill in the gaps with the words from the topical vocabulary list:

1. A __________ system is a market-based approach to controlling pollution that allows national governments to trade emissions allowances.

2. An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming __________.

3. __________ is hardly hitting the living conditions of indigenous people who consider forests as their primary habitats.


4. __________ is a naturally occurring process that aids in heating the Earth's surface and atmosphere.

5. The earth supports an incredible array of __________ - from Thailand’s tiny bumblebee bat to the ocean’s great blue whale.

6. __________ can reshape the world’s coastlines and affect some of the most densely populated areas on Earth.

7. __________ raises serious environmental concerns, particularly from greenhouse gas emissions.

8. The fact that there are too many people in the world consuming just a moderate amount of resources is the most likely reason of the__________.

9. Of all the impacts that __________ can have on the environment, one of the most complex is the effect on climate.

10.For the past 10 years, the world has witnessed some of the most devastating __________ and man-made disasters on record.

11.Beneficial __________ is more likely through the southern Prairies during the next couple of days before a drier __________ returns.

USE OF ENGLISH: Complete the text with the words from the box and do the assignments that follow

Acid, biodiversity, contaminated, deforestation, ecosystems, species, emissions, environmental, erosion, exhaust, drought, fertilizers, greenhouse, waste, pollution

The advances made by humans have made us the dominant (1) ………. on our planet. However, several eminent scientists are concerned that we have become too successful, that our way of life is putting an unprecedented strain on the Earth's (2)…………… and threatening our future as a species. We are confronting (3) ………. problems that are more taxing than ever before, some of them seemingly insoluble. Many of the Earth's crises are chronic and inexorably linked. (4) ………. is an obvious example of this affecting our air, water and soil.

The air is polluted by (5) …………… produced by cars and industry. Through (6) …………… rain and (7) ………. gases these same (8) …………… fumes can have a devastating impact on our climate. Climate change is arguably the greatest environmental challenge facing our planet with increased storms, floods, (9)


…………… and species losses predicted. This will inevitably have a negative impact on (10) …………… and thus our ecosystem.

The soil is (11) …………… by factories and power stations which can leave heavy metals in the soil. Other human activities such as the overdevelopment of land and the clearing of trees also take their toll on the quality of our soil; (12) …………… has been shown to cause soil (13) …………… Certain farming practices can also pollute the land though the use of chemical pesticides and (14) …………… This contamination in turn affects our rivers and waterways and damages life there. The chemicals enter our food chain, moving from fish to mammals to us. Our crops are also grown on land that is far from pristine. Affected species include the polar bear, so not even the Arctic is immune.

Reducing (15) …………… and clearing up pollution costs money. Yet it is our quest for wealth that generates so much of the refuse. There is an urgent need to find a way of life that is less damaging to the Earth. This is not easy, but it is vital, because pollution is pervasive and often life-threatening.

What do you think is the greatest environmental threat we face today? What can the government do to help protect the environment? What can we do as individuals?

Find words in the text synonymous with the following: unspoiled unparalleled extremely harmful insurmountable unaffected omnipresent unavoidably (x2) persistent challenging

Fill in the gaps using the correct form of the word in brackets. You will need to add prepositions to the words that are underlined .

contaminate, danger, dispose, erode, pollute, recycle, risk, sustain, threat

I think our environment is (1) ………. many different things. We have allowed too much (2) ………. to enter our ecosystem and we are (3) ………. poisoning ourselves as a result. I think soil (4) ………. and water (5) ………. are two of the most urgent problems that we need to deal with.

Clearly our current lifestyle is not (6) ……….. The government should educate people about these problems and encourage us to change our habits. They need to show everyone that we are putting the very future of our planet (7) ……….


We can make sure we don't throw (8) ………. items into our normal waste (9) ………. bins. We can also help protect our planet by not using phosphate-based detergents; this will help to keep (10) ………. out of our food chain.

Multiple Choice Lexical ClozeThe Future

The environmental (1)……….for the future is mixed. In spite of economic and political changes, interest in and (2)……….about the environment remains high. Problems of acid deposition, chlorofluorocarbons and ozone depletion still seek solutions and concerted action. Until acid depositions (3)………., loss of aquatic life in northern lakes and streams will continue and forest growth may be affected. Water pollution will remain a growing problem as increasing human population puts additional stress on the environment. To reduce environmental degradation and for humanity to save its habitat, societies must recognise that resources are (4).......... Environmentalists believe that, as populations and their demands increase, the idea of continuous growth must (5)……….way to a more rational use of the environment, but that this can only be brought (6)……….by a dramatic change in the attitude of the human species.

1. A line A outset A outcome A outlook

2. B concern B attention B responsibility B consideration

3. C wane C diminish C depreciate C curtail

4. D finite D restricted D confined D bounded

5. E make E force E give E clear

6. F on F about F off F in

TRANSLATE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES INTO ENGLISH USING YOUR TOPICAL VOCABULARY UNITS

1. Авторы исследования уверены, что сегодня Земля страдает от истощения природных ресурсов и сильного воздействия человека на окружающую среду.

2. В последние век-полтора содержание некоторых парниковых газов в атмосфере выросло очень сильно.

3. К числу приоритетных направлений организации относятся охрана живой природы и естественной среды обитания исчезающих видов животных.

4. Изменение климата приведет прежде всего к таянию льдов в Гренландии и западной Антарктиде, а также к увеличению доли углекислого газа в атмосфере.


5. Обезлесение приводит к снижению биоразнообразия, качества жизни, а также к усилению парникового эффекта.

6. Как засухи, так и наводнения стали следствием роста средней температуры в некоторых регионах.

7. С января 2005 года в странах Евросоюза вступила в действие внутренняя система торговли квотами на выбросы углерода.

8. Одним из приоритетов нашей компании является применение безвредных для окружающей среды технологий производства.

9. Новый доклад экологов свидетельствует: под угрозой полного исчезновения находятся примерно четверть млекопитающих.

10.Охрана окружающей среды и сохранение природы должны стать одним из приоритетов работы глав регионов.

READING 2: Read the text and word its message

Patient EarthThomas E. Lovejoy January 19, 2007 Even though we should know better, it is natural to regard what we grew up

with as the normal state of affairs. Indeed, every generation has a different view of "the good old days." This is particularly troublesome with respect to the environment and nature. Without some perspective of what might be "normal," it is hard to understand the impact we have had on our planet and what to do about it.

At the time I turned my hand to environment and conservation, the number of endangered species worldwide was modest. To be sure there were the first signs of more pervasive problems heralded in Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring," but they seemed amenable to straightforward and simple fixes. Hole in the ozone layer? Find a substitute for chlorofluorocarbons. Acid rain and acid lakes? Reduce sulfur emissions and do it economically by creating a market for sulfur trading. An endangered rainforest? Create a protected area.

To be truly effective in most endeavors, including environmental work, it is important to lift one's gaze from the particular to assess periodically the overall state of the exercise. That can determine whether and how to alter strategy as new environmental problems emerge and understanding deepens.

Current indicators can only tell us about the moment, whereas we need to be cognizant of shifting environmental horizons — what could well become future baselines unless action is taken. Doing so, one can only conclude that the environmental profession has changed from one in which simple and often local interventions would work, to one in which we have become planet doctors. In the oceans and on land it is impossible to find a place unaffected by human activities. We live in a chemical soup of our own making. Even in the Arctic and Antarctica, animals accumulate toxic compounds in their tissues. Rainforests and virtually all other natural habitats are in retreat. The number of endangered birds, mammals and plants is soaring from multiple causes.


Perhaps as many as one quarter of all amphibian species are endangered through a strange combination of factors, including a fatal fungal disease. With no tadpoles, some streams have turned bright green from unconstrained algal growth. The great global cycles of carbon and nitrogen are badly distorted, producing, among other things, climate change and acidifying oceans from greenhouse gases plus multiple dead zones in estuaries and coastal waters. The rising temperatures are already stressing coral reefs. In some parts of Siberia, the thawed permafrost bubbles with methane like a Yellowstone hot spring.

While there is enough on the planet's environmental horizon to make us all want to throw up our hands, as planet doctors we know diagnosis is just prelude to treatment.

There is a tremendous amount that can be done to right the imbalance without wrecking the global economy. Indeed the recent Stern report on climate change, whatever its flaws, clearly demonstrates that the implications of a deteriorating environment are more serious for the economy than the cost of addressing it. Action is required in all segments of society: Government needs to put the right incentives in place to encourage, for example, the right kinds of biofuels and other alternate energy sources. Individual human aspiration needs to be provided choices that are environment-friendly.

Clearly, there is an enormous role for the private sector. Happily, there are many signs that some companies view this as an opportunity. The aluminum company Alcoa, in one of the most energy-intensive industries, is seeking to make its Brazilian operations carbon-neutral and sustainable in other ways as well. Generators made by Caterpillar run on methane from landfills. Time magazine has analyzed the carbon in its product life cycle from tree harvest to disposal.

This is not the first time in our history that humanity has faced a huge and unprecedented challenge. Environmental degradation is largely avoidable. It only requires us to take the planetary diagnosis as seriously as our own individual annual checkups, and rise to the challenge with all of our innate creativity.

Think about your daily routine. Make a list of five ways in which you could help the environment by making changes to that routine

In groups draft a plan to make your region more environmentally friendly and attractive for residents and tourists.

Think about: rubbish removal / improved recyclingpedestrianisation / cycle pathbetter and cheaper public transporttree planting and more green areas

READING 3: ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Pre-reading:


What are the major concerns and fears associated with the issue of energy efficiency?

TEXT 1Energy security 'more important than climate change'

Alok Jha, green technology correspondent Guardian.co.uk17 September 2008

Securing the country's supply of electricity is more important than tackling climate change, a new report from energy analysts has claimed. It warned that the UK's economy could be wrecked if there was no action to plug the energy shortfall predicted for the next decade, with businesses going bust and hundreds of thousands of people losing their jobs.

But the report, led by Ian Fells, a veteran energy policy analyst, has been dismissed as "naive" by Greenpeace, and "overstated" by the energy secretary. Environmentalists argued that the report's recommendation for new coal-fired power stations went against the advice of scientists and that the rest of the world was forging ahead with renewables.

The report said the government had to consider extending the lifespan of the UK's ageing coal and nuclear power stations to meet the impending shortage. Otherwise, Fells warned, the UK would be hit by repeated power cuts that would shut down public transport, reduce hospital services and cause chaos in supermarkets and offices. "Electricity is the life blood of civilisation. Without it we spiral down into anarchy and chaos."

Fells criticised proposed renewable energy schemes as being too optimistic in their promises and highlighted a long-term need for new nuclear power stations and coal-fired stations that were ready to fit carbon-capture technology to maintain future energy security in the UK.

The impending energy gap will be caused by the closure of the UK's ageing nuclear and coal-fired power stations over the next decade. The report estimates the UK will lose a third of electricity generating capacity in this time. Candida Whitmill, a co-author of the report, said: "Nuclear will not be ready, renewables will not be able to cope. Gas is getting politically and geographically dangerous to rely upon. Security of supply must take priority over everything including climate change."

Fells said the situation was like "watching a slow-motion train crash" because government plans to plug the energy shortfall, such as rolling out huge wind farms, were impractical and filled with wishful thinking. Successive governments, said Fells, had failed to come up with any solutions and criticised the current UK energy policy as "not fit for purpose", warning that there could be severe consequences for the economy.

Fells who has long been a proponent of nuclear power, said that the upcoming crisis required some "unpalatable" short-term fixes. "We will have to keep current nuclear power stations going long past their sell-by date. We will probably have to keep coal-fired stations that are coming to the end of their life. And that's no good for


the environment." He also advocated building new gas-fired power stations that could be built quickly to shore up the supply and said that the controversial coal-fired plant in Kent would also be needed, though he said this should be made ready to fit technology to capture carbon dioxide and store it underground.

Greenpeace chief Scientist Doug Parr criticised Fells' report for its "long standing love affair with the technologies of the 20th century, but as time goes by [Fells'] fetish for coal and nuclear power looks increasingly naïve. All over the world jobs are being created in the renewable energy sector, but Britain has been left behind for too long by the negative, white flag approach to climate change that this report represents. By proposing projects such as new coal fired power stations and the large scale conversion of coal to liquid fuel for use in aeroplanes, Fells has finally lost the backing of the scientific community."

Responding to the report, energy secretary John Hutton said: "Ensuring we have enough clean and secure energy is a national priority and fundamental to our future existence and prosperity. Ian Fells overstates the risk of the energy gap, but he also understates what the government's already doing to secure our future supplies and increase our energy independence - such as a tenfold increase in renewables, a renaissance of nuclear energy in the UK, and backing clean coal technology."

He added: "That's not to underestimate the task we've got on our hands. Securing future energy supplies for the UK is a matter of national security and so we're not going to rule out any radical options. That's why we keep our energy infrastructure under constant review, and will continue to take the tough decisions needed to ensure that we have reliable energy supplies in the decades ahead."

Fells' report also suggested laying transmission lines to Norway, Germany and Denmark and also an additional line to France. "That would mean we were properly connected up to Europe. That would add a great deal of comfort and security, provided there was someone there to make decisions." Greenpeace have backed a similar North Sea grid proposal.

Over the longer term, Fells wants the UK to build more nuclear power stations and also give the go-ahead for the Severn Barrage, a tidal generation system that could produce up to 5% of the UK's electricity needs. He defended his point that energy security was more important than climate change: "You can't go on doing all the right things environmentally speaking if the whole of your system has crashed - it's more important."

SPEAKING: Search the Internet to draft a short report on energy policy of a chosen country

TEXT 2A blow to coal

Mar 31st Economist print edition


New rules look set to speed the move from coal to natural gas

Presidents like to say that they have an “all of the above” energy policy. But it is hard to see how one fuel, at least, has much of a future under the restrictions on emissions of greenhouse gases from new power plants set out by his administration this week. The proposed limit, of 454kg of carbon dioxide per megawatt hour of electricity generated, would in practice bar the construction of any new facilities powered by coal.

In theory, the rules make an effort to accommodate future coal-fired plants, by allowing them to exceed the emissions cap for the next ten years, provided that they subsequently make up the difference by installing especially effective pollution controls. That is a bureaucratic way of admitting that the technology needed to limit emissions, by extracting carbon dioxide from power plants’ smokestacks and storing it underground, is not yet commercially viable.

The problem is that carbon capture and storage (CCS), as the technology is known, is not likely to be commercially viable in ten years’ time either. Thanks to new techniques that have made it possible to extract natural gas relatively cheaply from shale beds in recent years, America’s domestic gas supply has increased dramatically and prices have slumped. Gas is also a less climate-threatening fuel than coal: efficient new gas plants can easily meet the proposed carbon-emissions standard. That makes the already questionable economics of CCS seem downright implausible.

Lobbyists for the coal industry immediately declared that the current administration was “driving up energy prices and destroying jobs”. In fact, low gas prices, along with sluggish demand for electricity in the aftermath of the recession, have kept power prices subdued (petrol prices are another matter). For some time now utilities, faced with falling gas prices and the prospect of stricter environmental regulation, have been favouring gas over coal anyway. So the new rules will only formalise a shift that had already been under way, with little immediate economic impact.

Yet, the White House, having determined that greenhouse gases are a threat to “public health and welfare”, is now obliged under to follow through. In addition to the rules about new power plants, it will soon have to produce an emissions policy for existing facilities.

Compare energy policy of the UK with that of the US. How similar/different are their short and long-term perspectives?

TEXT 3Alternative energy costly, inefficient

March 26, 2012 Thomas Ryan, Guest Columnist


Despite the pleas coming from both the left and right calling for further government intervention in the energy industry, green and alternative energy sources are still unable to compete with coal and natural gas. Alternative energy sources have proven to be unsustainable, costly and detrimental to the economy, especially for working-class families.

When it comes to most issues, liberals and conservatives seem to be at odds with one another, but for some strange reason, they both seem to be on the same side of the aisle when it comes to our country’s energy efficiency. But why should politicians force taxpayers to invest more in an industry that has already cost us billions and produces very little?

This obviously feeble industry, despite being propped up through subsidies, is still very unattractive to profit hungry capitalists. The common misconception that oil tycoons are just greedy and do not care about the environment is a gross example of benightednes. In reality, any industrialist in a market economy would be more than happy to find, own and produce a cost-efficient alternative to coal and oil. Any energy industry entity that discovers this alternate resource would become immensely wealthy while reducing our oil dependency and increasing our standard of living.

But wind, solar and biomass plants have proven to not be the answer, despite their governmental free ride. Renewable Portfolio Standards, mandated in 24 different states, create quotas regarding how much production must be dedicated toward alternative energy at production plants.

RPS increases the cost of energy production resulting in higher utility costs. Combining that with skyrocketing gas prices, it becomes obvious that the green movement is detrimental to lower income households. It is time for the state to get out of the energy industry and let market forces and consumers decide how we will power our homes and cars. The push for green energy has proven to be costly, inefficient and harmful to a financially healthy environment.

Do you think alternative energy can be efficient? Give your examples.

The future has just begun

LEAD-IN

Calling this "our generation's Sputnik moment" and a "time to win the future," Obama in his second State of the Union address urged a renewed emphasis on innovation. "Now it's our turn," Obama told a joint session of Congress. We need to out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world."“…Yes, scientific innovation offers us a chance to achieve prosperity. It has offered us


benefits that have improved our health and our lives — improvements that we take too easily for granted. But, it gives us something more. At root, science forces us to reckon with the truth as best we can ascertain it. Some truths fill us with awe, others force us to question long-held views. Science can’t answer every question, and indeed it seems at times the more we plumb the mysteries of the physical world the more humble we must be. Science cannot supplant our ethics, our values, our principles or our faith, but science can inform those things, and help put those values, these moral sentiments, that faith, can put those things to work — to feed a child, to heal the sick, to be good stewards of this Earth. We are reminded that with each new discovery, and the new power it brings, comes new responsibility. That the fragility, the sheer specialness of life, requires us to move past our differences and to address our common problems, to endure, and continue humanity’s strivings for a better world.”

Barack Obama

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/video/2011/jan/28/predictions-future-science-video?intcmp=239http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/video/2011/feb/04/science-future-predictions

SCIENCE BASICS QUIZ

Which over-the-counter drug do doctors recommend that people take to help prevent heart attacks?1. Antacids2. Cortisone3. Aspirin

According to most astronomers, which of the following is no longer considered a planet?1. Neptune2. Pluto3. Saturn4. Mercury

Which of the following may cause a tsunami?1. A very warm ocean current2. A large school of fish3. A melting glacier4. An earthquake under the ocean

The global positioning system, or GPS, relies on which of these to work?1. Satellites2. Stars3. Magnets


http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/video/2011/feb/04/science-future-predictions

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/video/2011/jan/28/predictions-future-science-video?intcmp=239

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/video/2011/jan/28/predictions-future-science-video?intcmp=239

4. Lasers

What gas do most scientists believe causes temperatures in the atmosphere to rise?1. Hydrogen2. Helium3. Carbon dioxide4. Radon

How are stem cells different from other cells?1. They can develop into many different types of cell2. They are found only in bone marrow3. They are found only in plants

What have scientists recently discovered on Mars?1. Platinum2. Plants3. Mold4. Water

For each statement that follows, please indicate whether it is true or false.

The continents on which we live have been moving their location for millions of years and will continue to move in the future: True False

Lasers work by focusing sound waves: True False

Antibiotics will kill viruses as well as bacteria: True FalseElectrons are smaller than atoms: True False

All radioactivity is man-made: True False

READING 1


Onwards and UpwardsDec 17th 2009 the Economist

Why is the modern view of progress so impoverished?

In the rich world the idea of progress has become impoverished. Through complacency and bitter experience, the scope of progress has narrowed. The popular view is that, although technology and GDP advance, morals and society are treading water or, depending on your choice of newspaper, sinking back into decadence and barbarism. On the left of politics these days, “progress” comes with a pair of ironic quotation marks attached; on the right, “progressive” is a term of abuse.

The idea of progress forms the backdrop to a society. In the extreme, without the possibility of progress of any sort, your gain is someone else’s loss. If human behaviour is unreformable, social policy can only ever be about trying to cage the ape within. Society must in principle be able to move towards its ideals, such as equality and freedom, or they are no more than cant and self-delusion. So it matters if people lose their faith in progress. And it is worth thinking about how to restore it.

Modern science is full of examples of technologies that can be used for ill as well as good. Think of nuclear power—and of nuclear weapons; of biotechnology—and of biological contamination. Or think, less apocalyptically, of information technology and of electronic surveillance. History is full of useful technologies that have done harm, intentionally or not. Electricity is a modern wonder, but power stations have burnt too much CO2-producing coal. The internet has spread knowledge and understanding, but it has also spread crime and pornography. German chemistry produced aspirin and fertiliser, but it also filled Nazi gas chambers with Cyclon B.

The point is not that science is harmful, but that progress in science does not map tidily onto progress for humanity. In an official British survey of public attitudes to science in 2008, just over 80% of those asked said they were “amazed by the achievements of science”. However, only 46% thought that “the benefits of science are greater than any harmful effect”.

From the perspective of human progress, science needs governing. Scientific progress needs to be hitched to what you might call “moral progress”. It can yield untold benefits, but only if people use it wisely. They need to understand how to stop science from being abused. And to do that they must look outside science to the way people behave.

SPEAKING:

Get ready to make a 4 to 5-minute speech on one of the questions below:How have the lives of ordinary people been affected by recent scientific advances? In what areas are scientific discoveries likely to be made in the near future? Should scientific research be subject to tighter governmental controls?Give your own examples proving that modern science is full of technologies that can be used for ill as well as good


READING 2

Smarter PlanetDecember, 19th 2011Steve Hamm Every year IBM predicts the future of technology via the IBM 5 in 5 initiative–our forecast of five innovations that will help transform aspects of modern life, making the planet smarter, within the next five years. We assess not just the availability of a new technology but also the likelihood of its large-scale adoption.This year’s predictions:· People power will come to life · You will never need a password again· Mind reading is no longer science fiction · The digital divide will cease to exist · Junk mail will become priority mailMaking this kind of prediction is difficult. (In fact, to me, sadly, the one about eliminating the digital divide seems impossible.) So, every year, IBM researchers stick out their necks. Which is risky. “A lot of people wait for things to happen. It’s rare than an organization says: this is a big change, and it’s coming,” says IBM Fellow Bernard Meyerson.Why do they do it? In addition to the PR value, we complete this exercise annually because it makes IBMers think hard about what’s possible and to strive to make it so. Simply put, the process of choosing the predictions and defending them is good for us.Meyerson, who plays a role in the annual exercise, says the most useful thing about the process is that it requires IBMers to think holistically about innovation. They can’t consider science and technology in a vacuum. They also have to think deeply about social trends, market conditions the willingness of people to pay for cutting-edge technologies. That’s the kind of thinking that can transform inventions into high-impact innovations.We’ve been issuing the Next 5 in 5 predictions for the past six years. So, how are we doing? Mindful of the difficulty, and considering the fact that for most of the predictions less than five years have passed, we’ve done pretty well.Two of the first year’s predictions, for instance, have pretty much come true:We will be able to access healthcare remotely from just about anywhere in the world. Today, through telemedicine, patients can connect with physicians or specialists from just about anywhere via inexpensive computers and broadband networks. Doctors can view x-rays and other diagnostic imagery from thousands of miles away.Technologies the size of a few atoms will address areas of environmental importance. Nanotechnology is now used in countless fields and industries, including agriculture, biotechnology and sensor networks, enabling us to understand and interact with the natural environment like never before.


Predictions from other years have panned out as well. A couple of examples:You will have a crystal ball for your health. Thanks to advances in genetic research and high-performance computing it is now possible to affordably decipher an individual’s entire genome. This makes it possible for physicians to alert people to medical conditions they might fall prey to, and it clears the pathway, eventually, to truly personal medicine.You will talk to the Web…and the Web will talk back. Today, speech recognition and mobile communications technologies make it possible for people to talk to the Internet using their computers or mobile phones, be understood, and listen to automated voices that are responsive to their needs.The Next 5 in 5 initiative got its start in an IBM Innovation Jam in 2006. The seed goal was to get the entire company thinking about grand challenges. “If you give people a grand challenge you push them to really innovate,” says Meyerson. “That’s when extraordinary things can happen.”IBM has played a significant role in each of these breakthroughs. So, it’s working.

READING 2

Read this article and then look at the statements below. See which of them are true. Give your reasoning by citing the text.

Computers and technology

Has the present lived up to the expectations of the past? Throughout the ages people have tried to predict what life in the twenty-first century would be like. Many science-fiction writers did manage to predict the influence the computer would have on our world. Some even imagined that it would take over our lives, develop a personality, and turn on its creators.

To some extent they were right, especially when it comes to children and cyber addiction. One constant prediction was that, thanks to computers and machines, the time devoted to labour would diminish. Even in 1971, in his book Future Shock, Alvin Toffler envisaged a society awash with 'free time'. The author noted that time at work had been cut in half since the turn of the previous century and wrongly speculated that it would be cut in half again by 2000.

However, our gadget-filled homes are a tribute to the various visions of the future: the microwave oven, internet fridges with ice-cube dispensers, freezers, video monitors, climate control, dishwashers, washing machines, personal computers, wireless connections and cupboards full of instant food. These may no longer be considered cutting-edge but they have


matched, if not surpassed, visions of how we would live. The domestic robot never quite happened, but if you can phone ahead to set the heating and use a remote control to operate the garage door, they may as well be redundant.

The car, of course, has failed to live up to our expectations. It has been given turbo engines, DVD players and automatic windows, but its tyres stick stubbornly to the road. Why doesn't it take off? The past promised us a flying car in various guises. In 1947 a prototype circled San Diego for more than an hour but later crashed in the desert. Some 30 patents for flying cars were registered in the US patent office last century but none of these ideas has been transformed into a commercially available vehicle.

At least communication technology in this digital age hasn't let us down. Even in the most remote areas people have access to some form of communication device. The introduction of the telephone last century changed our world, but today's mobile phones and the virtual world of the Internet have revolutionised it.

1. A modern problem proves that computers are dominating our lives in some way2. Alan Toffler's predictions have been proven true3. Household gadgets today have been a disappointment4. We have enough gadgets now to make robots unnecessary in the home5. Today's cars have fulfilled all predictions6. The mobile phone and the Internet have changed our world for the better

Now match the words in the text with these definitions.1. guessed2. be greater than expected3. a machine invented for a specific purpose (x 2)4. relating to computers5. a screen that images can be seen on6. the first working example of a machine7. an adjective used to describe anything related to8. almost real9. computers10.very modern

Match a word from box A with a word from box В and use the compound words to complete the sentences below

A. automatic, cyber, remote, silicon, wireless, labour

B. chip, connection, control, pilot, space, saving,

1. The invention of the …………… made watching television an even more passive experience.2. In my view the dishwasher is one of the greatest …………… devices.


3. People often talk about emails and text messages being lost in …………… as if it were a real place.4. Even flying a plane has been automated now. The …………… is used for most of the flight.5. The invention of the …………… meant that computers could be much smaller. 6. I can access the Internet from anywhere in my house because my laptop has a ……………

USE OF ENGLISH:

Read the text below and think of the word that best fits each space

Predicting the world we live inWhich nineteenth-century writer predicted the world we know most

accurately? 'Jules Verne' would be a reasonable guess, but is not the (0) correct answer. The man who foresaw most of the technological advances we take for (1) _______ was a French writer, Albert Robida, (2) _______ novel 'The Twentieth Century' appeared in 1882. Robida did not know nearly as (3) _______ science as Verne but he possessed an intuitive sense of what technology would be capable of in a hundred years' time even though he did not understand (4) _______ the advances would be achieved.

His successful predictions make a formidable list. He not (5) _______ foresaw radio and television but air travel and fast-food restaurants. He was also far-sighted enough not to share his contemporaries' blind faith (6) _______ progress, realising that technological advance might cause problems as well as (7) _______ life more comfortable.

In some ways, however, Robida failed to foresee (8) _______ our world would be like and in each case the error was due to his personal prejudices. When cars came (9) _______ fashion later in his life, he disliked them so much (10) _______ of their noise and fumes that he refused to revise his predictions to include them. (11) _______ did he envisage the development of computers and the extent of their influence (12) _______ every aspect of our lives today.

But his most serious errors were sociological. He was typical (13) _______ his age and social class in thinking that women were less intelligent than men and the working class would always be mainly employed (14) _______ servants. Though he foresaw many of the technological developments that have (15) _______ into being in our time, he could not imagine the sexual and social revolutions of the twentieth century.

WRITING: SUMMARY

The Future Is NowBy Joel AchenbachApril 13, 2008; The Washington Post


The most important things happening in the world today won't make tomorrow's front page. They won't get mentioned by presidential candidates or Chris Matthews or Bill O'Reilly or any of the other folks yammering and snorting on cable television. They'll be happening in laboratories -- out of sight, inscrutable and unhyped until the very moment when they change life as we know it.

Science and technology form a two-headed, unstoppable change agent. Problem is, most of us are mystified and intimidated by such things as biotechnology, or nanotechnology, or the various other-ologies that seem to be threatening to merge into a single unspeakable and incomprehensible thing called biotechnonanogenomicology. We vaguely understand that this stuff is changing our lives, but we feel as though it's all out of our control.

What's unnerving is the velocity at which the future sometimes arrives. Consider the Internet. This powerful but highly disruptive technology crept out of the lab (a Pentagon think tank, actually) and all but devoured modern civilization -- with almost no advance warning. The first use of the word "internet" to refer to a computer network seems to have appeared in this newspaper on Sept. 26, 1988, in the Financial section, on page F30 -- about as deep into the paper as you can go without hitting the bedrock of the classified ads. The scientists knew that computer networks could be powerful. But how many knew that this Internet thing would change the way we communicate, publish, sell, shop, conduct research, find old friends, do homework, plan trips and on and on?

It's not just us mortals, even scientists don't always grasp the significance of innovations. Tomorrow's revolutionary technology may be in plain sight, but everyone's eyes, clouded by conventional thinking, just can't detect it. So where does that leave the rest of us? In technological Palookaville.

Science is becoming ever more specialized; technology is increasingly a series of black boxes, impenetrable to but a few. Americans' poor science literacy means that science and technology exist in a walled garden, a geek ghetto. We are a technocracy in which most of us don't really understand what's happening around us. We stagger through a world of technological and medical miracles. We're zombified by progress.

Our ability to monkey around with life itself is a reminder that ethics, religion and old-fashioned common sense will be needed in abundance in decades to come. How smart and flexible and rambunctious do we want our computers to be? Let's not mess around with that Matrix business.

Every forward-thinking person almost ritually brings up the mortality issue. What'll happen to society if one day people can stop the aging process? Or if only rich people can stop getting old?

It's interesting that politicians rarely address such matters. The future in general is something of a suspect topic . . . a little goofy. Right now we're all focused on the next primary, the summer conventions, the Olympics and their political implications, the fall election. The political cycle enforces an emphasis on the immediate rather than the important.


And in fact, any prediction of what the world will be like more than, say, a year from now is a matter of hubris. The professional visionaries don't even talk about predictions or forecasts but prefer the word "scenarios." When Sen. John McCain, for example, declares that radical Islam is the transcendent challenge of the 21st century, he's being sincere, but he's also being a bit of a soothsayer. Environmental problems and resource scarcity could easily be the dominant global dilemma. Or a virus with which we've yet to make our acquaintance. Or some other "wild card."

Some predictions are bang-on, such as sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke's declaration in 1945 that there would someday be communications satellites orbiting the Earth. But Clarke's satellites had to be occupied by repairmen who would maintain the huge computers required for space communications. Even in the late 1960s, when Clarke collaborated with Stanley Kubrick on the screenplay to "2001: A Space Odyssey," he assumed that computers would, over time, get bigger. We have built into us an idea that tomorrow is going to be pretty much like today, which is very wrong.

The future is often viewed as an endless resource of innovation that will make problems go away -- even though, if the past is any judge, innovations create their own set of new problems. Climate change is at least in part a consequence of the invention of the steam engine in the early 1700s and all the industrial advances that followed.

Look again at the Internet. It's a fantastic tool, but it also threatens to disperse information we'd rather keep under wraps, such as our personal medical data, or even the instructions for making a fission bomb.

We need to keep our eyes open. The future is going to be here sooner than we think. It'll surprise us. We'll try to figure out why we missed so many clues. And we'll go back and search the archives, and see that thing we should have noticed on page F30.

Palookaville is a 1995 motion picture about a pair of trio burglars and their dysfunctional family of origin. It is a comedy about bumbling buddies who decide to live a life of crime. But there's a problem: the only thing they know about being criminals is what they've seen on TV so you can imagine the problems they encounter when planning their big score

READING 3

Fill each of the numbered blanks in the passage with one suitable word.

Life on MarsSpeculation about life on Mars began, like so much speculation, with the

ancient Greeks. For them, as for us, it formed part of a larger question: Are there intelligent life forms elsewhere in the universe, and if (1) ………., are they anything like us?


As (2) ………. as Christians believed that the Earth was the centre of the universe, interest (3) ………. such matters (4) ………. out but revived in the nineteenth century. The reason why discussion began to focus (5) ………. Mars was that Italian astronomers claimed there were lines on the surface, which they called canali or channels. When the word was translated (6) ………. English as 'canals', implying that they had been artificially constructed, the stage was set for all kinds of hypotheses.

After the astronomers came the novelists, (7) ………. all the young H G Wells, who portrayed the Martians as ruthless invaders in The War of the Worlds. The success of Wells' novel (8) ………. Rise to a host of imitations, (9) ………. them an early work of Edgar Rice Burroughs, later the creator of Tarzan. Burroughs' Mars was inhabited not only by monsters (10) ………. also by beautiful princesses who gave birth by (11) ………. eggs.

Since a spacecraft landed there in J 997, Mars has once again been in the news. (12) ………. always, public interest is aroused by the hope that life might be found there. So far such speculation remains wishful (13) ………. and one cannot help wondering why it should seem important to us. The answer may be that we (14) ………. it comforting to imagine that we are not (15) ………. in the universe.

What DNA can tell us about the pastDNA is the substance from which all life as we know it is derived. But how (0)

long can it survive? Is it out of the (1) ………. to think of recreating a creature from DNA found in the remains of one? The discovery of traces of DNA in an animal known (2) ………. the quagga, a cross (3) ………. a horse and a zebra that became extinct in the last century, was the starting point for a series of investigation of this type.

The initial excitement has (4) ………. down a little since subsequent research has demonstrated that however well preserved a creature's remains may be, the upper limit for the survival of DNA is about 100,000 years and using it to (5) ………. a quagga back to life is the stuff of fantasy. Yet the discovery can be used to provide (6) ………. to many questions about prehistory that have troubled archaeologists.

For example, as a result of extracting DNA from the remains of a Neanderthal, scientists have (7) ………. the conclusion that it belonged to a different species and we are not its descendants. Another problem concerns the inhabitants of Easter Island in the South Pacific. In this case, the DNA evidence of ancient human remains does not bear (8) ………. the theory that they came from South America but nor does it prove that they were from South East Asia, the alternative suggestion (9) ………. forward.

It might be imagined that these new scientific techniques would (10) ……. an end to traditional archaeological research but this is very (11) ………. from being the case. (12) ………. the contrary, they provide a basis (13) ………. many further projects, if we (14) ………. into consideration the hundreds of samples of hair, bone and tissue containing DNA in museums that can be analysed to throw (15) ………. on the unsolved mysteries of the past.


USE OF ENGLISH PRACTICE

Gapped Sentences1. Shell is poised to become the first oil major to sign a deal to ……………

natural gas in the Kurdish region of Iran.Brutal interrogation methods and even executions are allegedly used by the security services to …………… information about insurgents.Read this …………… from an information booklet about the work of an airline cabin crew.

2. MyTravel, the embattled tour operator, is understood to be preparing to …………… back its retail division by shedding senior staff and closing up to 260 shops.To …………… fish at home, start to …………… from tail to head with the back of a table knife. There is now a consensus among politicians of all parties that it is time to face up to the …………… of the problem in the public finances.

3. The menu will be ready as soon as you …………… up your computerIn the United States, a …………… camp is a military training camp for new recruits, with strict discipline.Alice was not just the smartest girl in the class; she was the best dancer, to ……………

4. Gerry was seen as a computer wizard capable of debugging convoluted …………… in his sleep.It was as if the speaker’s words contained a concealed ………… that only we were picking up.Remember to dial the area …………… if you are phoning from outside Nottingham.

5. As with any complex project, it’s a …………… of getting the right mix of skills.

In the brain, the cerebral cortex is a layer of grey …………… lying above each cerebral hemisphere.Helping him to escape had not been a minor …………… and he knew that if these people were caught they would be punished.

6. Though she was an exacting boss at work she could never put her …………… down in the affairs of her family.There is a mounting dissent between the participants in the deal over who should …………… the bill for the technology needed.Put your best …………… forward and work on the assumption that there is an acceptable solution to every problem you are likely to face.

Word formationToday, of course, we face more complex challenges than

we have ever faced before: a medical system that holds the promise of (1)…………… new cures and treatments -- attached


to a health care system that holds the potential for bankruptcy to families and businesses; a system of energy that powers our economy, but simultaneously (2)…………… our planet; threats to our security that seek to exploit the very (3)............... and openness so (4)…………… to our prosperity.

And if there was ever a day that reminded us of our shared stake in science and research, it's today. We are closely monitoring the emerging cases of swine flu in the United States. And this is obviously a cause for concern and requires a (5)…………… state of alert. But it's not a cause for alarm. The Department of Health and Human Services has declared a public health emergency as a (6)…………… tool to ensure that we have the resources we need at our disposal to respond quickly and effectively. And this is one more example of why we can't allow our nation to fall behind.

(7)……………, that's exactly what's happened. Federal funding in the physical sciences as a portion of our gross domestic product has fallen by nearly half over the past quarter century.

Our schools continue to trail other developed countries and, in some cases, developing countries. Our students are (8)…………… in math and science by their peers in Singapore, Japan, England, Hong Kong, and Korea, among others. And we have watched as scientific integrity has been undermined and scientific research (9)…………… in an effort to advance (10)…………… ideological agendas.

lock

dangerconnectessence

height

caution

fortune

perform

policydetermine

Open ClozeThe Danger of Dissent

Some would argue that, in matters (1) …………… great public importance, scientific dissent should be silenced. It can, it is true, (2) …………… harm. When AIDS first (3) …………… its ugly head, no one knew what caused it. Gradually, the virus responsible was isolated, identified and then attacked successfully with drugs (4) …………… specifically to (5) …………… its reproduction. A few scientists, though, refused to (6) …………… the evidence and some politicians used their arguments to (7) …………… inaction.

Now this newspaper believes that global warming is a serious threat, and that the world needs to take steps to try to (8) ……………….. it. That is the job of the politicians. But we do not believe that climate change is a certainty. There are no certainties in science. Prevailing theories must be constantly tested (9) ……………. evidence, and refined, and more evidence collected, and the theories tested again. That is the job of the scientists. When they stop questioning orthodoxy, mankind will have given up the (10) …………… for truth. The skeptics should not be silenced.

READING 4: READ and DISCUSS


The term GM foods or GMOs (genetically-modified organisms) is most commonly used to refer to crop plants created for human or animal consumption using the latest molecular biology techniques. These plants have been modified in the laboratory to enhance desired traits such as increased resistance to herbicides or improved nutritional content. The enhancement of desired traits has traditionally been undertaken through breeding, but conventional plant breeding methods can be very time consuming and are often not very accurate. Genetic engineering, on the other hand, can create plants with the exact desired trait very rapidly and with great accuracy. For example, plant geneticists can isolate a gene responsible for drought or cold tolerance, pest or disease resistance and insert that gene into a different plant. The new genetically-modified plant will gain these traits as well.

The world population has topped 6 billion people and is predicted to double in the next 50 years. Ensuring an adequate food supply for this booming population is going to be a major challenge in the years to come. GM foods promise to meet this need.

Environmental activists, religious organizations, public interest groups, professional associations and other scientists and government officials have all raised concerns about GM foods, and criticized agribusiness for pursuing profit without concern for potential hazards, and the government for failing to exercise adequate regulatory oversight. It seems that everyone has a strong opinion about GM foods. Most concerns about GM foods fall into three categories: environmental hazards, human health risks, and economic concerns.

Genetically-modified foods have the potential to solve many of the world's hunger and malnutrition problems, and to help protect and preserve the environment by increasing yield and reducing reliance upon chemical pesticides and herbicides. Yet there are many challenges ahead for governments, especially in the areas of safety testing, regulation, international policy and food labeling. Many people feel that genetic engineering is the inevitable wave of the future and that we cannot afford to ignore a technology that has such enormous potential benefits. However, we must proceed with caution to avoid causing unintended harm to human health and the environment as a result of our enthusiasm for this powerful technology.

Make up a list of arguments for and against genetic engineering

Render the text that follows in EnglishЧеловечество давно использует генную инженерию для получения

генетически модифицированной продукции. При этом более 95% продукции получают из растений, которые являются прекрасными объектами для изучения, особенно соя, кукуруза, хлопок, картофель и многие другие.

Сегодня получены образцы растений, в которых содержатся антигены некоторых вирусов, что позволяет вакцинировать население от многих заболеваний. Возможно обогащение продуктов растительного происхождения витаминами, микроэлементами и минеральными веществами. Появились


растения, способные защитить себя от насекомых и сорняков – повышается урожайность, качество, понижается себестоимость продукции. Существуют ГМ овощи и фрукты способные переносить заморозки и засуху, которые в обычных случаях уничтожили бы урожай.

Максимальное количество генетически модифицированных растений выращиваются на территории США (соя, кукуруза, хлопок и другие), на их долю приходится 63% мировых объемов производства «новых» растений, а потребителями являются развивающиеся страны.

Трудно предсказать последствия использования измененных продуктов за счет природных, глобальных факторов воздействия, а тем более отклик человеческого организма на успехи генной инженерии. Выращивание и употребление в пищу генетически модифицированных организмов (ГМО) сопровождается несколькими рисками. Экологи опасаются, что генетически измененные формы могут случайно проникнуть в дикую природу, что приведет к катастрофическим изменениям в экосистемах.

Например, сорняки могут получить от ГМО ген устойчивости к вредителям и пестицидам. Тогда размножение сорняков будет неконтролируемым. Саморегуляция в экосистемах нарушится.

Кроме экологических рисков, связанных с проблемами выращивания ГМО, существуют пищевые риски. Употребление трансгенных продуктов вызывает у многих людей аллергические реакции. Сорта растений, устойчивые к пестицидам могут накапливать вредные вещества и вызывать отравление при употреблении в пищу. ГМ-растения подвергают риску экологический баланс в природе и могут негативно повлиять на здоровье человека.

READING 5

With the advent of new technology there have been many changes during the latter part of the twentieth century. As well as new words, some words have changed their meaning.

You Are Survivors!(for those born some time ago)

You were born before television, before penicillin, polio shots, frozen foods, Xerox, plastics, contact lenses, DVDs and Frisbees. You were before radar, credit cards, split atoms, laser beams and ball point pens; before dishwashers, tumble dryers, electric blankets, air conditioners … and before man walked on the moon. You got married first and then lived together (how quaint can you be?). You thought ‘fast food’ was what you ate at Lent, a ‘Big Mac’ was an oversized raincoat and


‘crumpet’ you had for tea. You existed before house husbands, computer dating, dual careers, and when ‘sheltered accommodation’ was where you waited for a bus.

You were before day-care centers, group homes and disposable nappies.You never heard of FM radio, key boards, artificial hearts, yoghurts and young

men wearing earrings. For you ‘time sharing’ meant togetherness, a ‘chip’ was a piece of wood or a fried potato, hardware meant nuts and bolts, and software wasn’t a word.

‘Made in Japan’ meant junk, pizzas, McDonalds and instant coffee were unheard of. In your day, cigarette smoking was ‘fashionable’, ‘grass’ was mown, ‘coke’ was kept in a coal house, and a ‘joint’ was a piece of meat. ‘Rock music’ was grandmother’s lullaby, ‘Eldorado’ was an ice cream, a ‘gay person’ was life and soul of the party and nothing more, while ‘aids’ just meant beauty treatment, wooden legs or help for someone in trouble.

You, who were born a long time ago, must be a hardy bunch when you think of the way in which the world has changed and the adjustments you have had to make. But … by the grace of God … you have survived!!


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