TOPICS: / 1. Human habitat.
2. The world around us.
GRAMMAR: / Modal Verbs
Step I
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES (1)
LEAD IN1. a) Millions of species inhabit our planet, each living in a particular type of place. What does the term natural habitat imply?
b) Look through the list of animals, birds and plants below and indicate their natural habitat.
Model: The lion’s natural habitat is the savanna.
polar bearcolibri
tiger
camel
edelweiss / lion
penguin
blue whale
cactus
monkey / rain forest
taiga
jungle
desert
mountains / sea
Arctic
Antarctic
savanna
prairie
· Which of them are in danger of losing their natural habitat? What makes you think so?
· What do we refer to as human habitat?
· What is the most appropriate place for people to live in?
· What endangers natural habitat most: global warming, natural calamities, wars, terrorism, revolutions, nuclear explosions? What makes you think so?
2. a) Skim through the text and say what the message of the text is.
6 (1.5 min.)
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Up to 4 million people live in the Arctic, spread out between the eight countries – Canada, Denmark, Fin-and, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States. The Arctic tundra is expected to shrink over the century as climate warming causes the sea level to rise. Most scientists say climate warming can be attributed to human activities.
The UN Environment Program said in a recent report that widespread disintegration of permafrost in the Arctic can cause serious damage to buildings, roads, pipelines and other infrastructure in places such as Alaska and Siberia. The melting permafrost could also threaten a nuclear power plant near Murmansk. The plant, located on the Kola Peninsula, is the only one in the world built north of the Arctic Circle.
Warming could also have some economic benefits opening shipping lanes and access to valuable natural resources.
Melting ice could open polar passages historically clogged by ice. A revived Northern Sea Route could shorten the journey for goods and raw materials from North-East Asia to Europe by 40 percent.
Climate warming is likely to bring extensive fishing activity to the Arctic. Recent studies have also projected that in a few decades there could be lucrative fishing grounds in waters that were largely untouched throughout human history.
Russia is planning to develop Shtokman gas field in the Barents Sea. The development costs are estimated at $15 billion to $20 billion. The field is reported to hold more than double all of Canada’s gas reserves.
As polar ice melts, nations stake claims to potential riches. As long as it’s ice, nobody cares except the indigenous people, because they hunt and fish and travel on that ice. However, the minute it starts to thaw and becomes water, then the whole world is interested.
(After The New York Times / The Moscow Times, 2004-2005)
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b) Sum up the text in three sentences.
c) Scan the text for details.
d) Answer the teacher’s questions.
3. a) Open the brackets using the correct forms of the verbs.
demise [dI'maIz] – (very formal) the time when something stops existing
to shroud – to cover or hide something
Nothing ______(1 – to last) forever. Changes in climate can make a friendly place less welcoming. Catastrophes like volcanoes or giant earthquakes can kill a city quickly. After the New Orleans disaster of 2005, it ______(2 – to be) hard not to think of other places that ______(3 – to fall) to time and the inconstant earth.
Take the library of Alexandria. ______(4 – to found) sometime around 300 B.C., it grew into an enduring symbol of culture and knowledge before ______(5 – to disappear) into the sand and sea less than 1,000 years later.
It was the library. It ______(6 – to influence) everybody who ever thought about building a library. Nobody ______(7 – to know) how large it ______(8 – to be) or what
______(9 – to be) actually in it. The library’s demise ______(10 – to be) equally shrouded in mystery. One legend says the books ______(11 – to burn) during Caesar’s conquest of Alexandria in 47 B.C., but the library was still around in the 4th century, according to historical accounts. Later, in 642, the Arabs ______(12 – to move) Egypt’s capital to the Cairo region and Alexandria ______(13 – to shrink) into obscurity.
The most famous lost city of all is one that probably never really
______(14 – to exist), Atlantis, the fabulous island civilization ______(15 – to swallow) by the sea, which
______(16 – to refer to) by Plato. Some scholars think he might have been inspired by one or more real events. Among them is the destruction of Helike, a city on the Corinthian coast, which ______(17 – to swallow) by an earthquake and a tsunami in 373 B.C., during Plato’s lifetime.
Archaeologists ______(18 – long / to seek) the remains of the sunken city. After a dozen years of ______(19 – to search), a team of archaeologists said they ______(20 – to find) the lost city – not in the sea but on the coastal plain next to it. In expeditions every summer, they ______(21 – to uncover) more and more of the city, ______(22 – to include) walls, buildings, coins, pottery and a cemetery, although they
______(23 – not / to find) the center of the city yet.
(After Dennis Overbye, The New York Times, 2005.)
b) Answer the teacher’s questions.
VOCABULARY EXTENSION4. a) Read the text filling in the gaps with the proper words.
carbon dioxide [LkQ:bRndaI'OksaId] – the gas produced when animals breathe out, when carbon is burnt in air, or when animal or vegetable matter decays. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas.
Energy saving in the home
Have you ever stopped to think about how much damage your own home may be doing to the ______(1 – environment / ecology / surroundings)? In the UK people’s homes are responsible for an alarming twenty-five percent of all carbon dioxide ______(2 – fumes / emissions / smoke). But there are a lot of simple steps that can be taken to put things right and help reduce our CO2 ______(3 – production / produce / output).
For the start, get into the habit of clicking off the light switch when you leave a room, and swap regular light bulbs for energy-saving versions. And when you go off to bed, don’t just turn off your TV, video/DVD recorder or hi-fi system with the ______(4 – remote / distant / distance) control: in standby mode they still use up a lot of energy, so switch them off at the plug socket instead. Washing machines and dishwashers are also hideously ______(5 – extravagant / wasteful / careless) in terms of water, electricity and money when you run them with less than a full load.
Never overfill the kettle if all you want is a single mug of tea; don’t use large saucepans when you only want to cook small ______(6 – number / amounts / quantity) of food, as they will take longer to heat up. And when it starts to turn milder in the early spring, you can turn down the central heating by several degrees and ______(7 – turn / run / operate) it for fewer hours every day. Summertime air-conditioning in the home may be ______(8 – modern / fashionable / sophisticated), especially for hi-spec city apartments, but it’s an unnecessary luxury when all you need to do to let a breeze blow through is open a window or door.
b) Answer the teacher’s questions.
HOME ACTIVITIES (1)
5. a) Go through the texts in exercises 2 – 4 and find the English for
естественная среда обитания; белый медведь; голубой кит; уменьшаться в размере; потепление климата; уровень моря; деятельность человека; вечная мерзлота; наносить серьезный ущерб; трубопровод; атомная электростанция; Кольский полуостров; Северный морской путь; районы рыбных промыслов; на протяжении всей истории человечества; газовое месторождение; запасы газа; коренное население; как только он начинает таять; бессмертный (вечный) символ знаний и культуры; легендарная островная цивилизация; окутанный тайной; раскапывать древний город; керамика; выбросы углекислого газа; энергосберегающий; дистанционное управление; страшно (ужасно) расточительный, неэкономный; нагреваться.
b) Illustrate the word combinations with sentences from the texts. 4
6. Retell any of the three texts (see exercises 2-4).
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES (2)
7. Paraphrase and add a sentence logically connected.
1. I prefer to see animals in the places where they normally live, rather than in zoos. 2. As a result of colonization, the native people of America were driven away from their lands. 3. The exhibition of oriental ceramics and sculpture attracted thousands of visitors. 4. The polar bear is indigenous to the icy wastes of the Arctic. 5. Washing a woolen sweater in hot water will make it smaller in size. 6. New regulations are aimed at reducing toxic waste produced by motor vehicles ['vi:Iklz]. 7. The legendary wealth of King Croesus ['kri:sRs] has become proverbial. 8. In ancient times, Britain was known to be a faraway land covered in mist and mystery. 9. I recognized the man as soon as I saw him. 10. The old block of flats was eventually demolished because it had become awfully uneconomical to maintain it. 11. Leonardo’s Mona Lisa is generally regarded to be an eternal symbol of beauty. 12. The number of employees has dramatically reduced from 130 to 75.
8. Translate into Russian.
1. Melting ice could open three Polar passages historically clogged by ice, allowing shipping companies to greatly reduce the time it takes to cross the globe and deliver goods. 2. If the melting continues, the mass of floating ice that has crowned the planet for millions of years may largely disappear for entire summers this century. 3. No one knows what share of the recent thawing can be attributed to natural cycles and how much to heat trapping pollution. 4. Interest in ice-breaking ships must have picked up so much that a giant shipbuilder based in Helsinki created a subsidiary (дочерняя компания) to develop ice-hardened ships. 5. There are likely to be a number of foreign policy issues that must be addressed by the Arctic countries. 6. Some countries that one might think of as being half a world apart appear as startlingly close neighbours. 7. An Arctic Bridge could drastically cut the distance to Canada, a revived Northern Sea Route could shorten the journey for goods and raw materials from Northeast Asia to Europe by forty percent.
9. a) Read the article and say in one sentence what it deals with.
Северный Ледовитый океан может растаять
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(1) Площадь арктического льда стремительно сокращается. Если ситуация не изменится, то уже к 2050 году льда станет еще меньше, и суда смогут ходить летом прямо через Северный полюс.
(2) Большинство специалистов настаивают, что основной при-чиной происходящего является глобальное потепление. Свиде-тельств тому, что оно действи-тельно происходит, с каждым днем становится все больше. Летом 2006 года европейские ученые были шокированы состоянием шапки полярных льдов на Северном полюсе: воды Северного Ледо-витого океана, обычно покрытые льдами, не исчезающими летом, очистились от льда практически до полюса. Если глобальное по-тепление будет продолжаться, через 10-20 лет станет возможным проложить мореходные пути прямо через Полярный регион.
(3) Многие ученые уверены, что потепление климата связано с антропогенным (человеческим) фактором и возникло вследствие “парникового эффекта”. В атмо-сфере накапливается все больше парниковых газов (водяного пара, двуокиси углерода, метана и др.).
(4) Глобальное потепление также может быть вызвано извержениями вулканов, увеличением солнечной активности, изменением магнит-ного поля земли. При этом все модели, построенные на этих гипотезах, предсказывают значи-тельное усиление процесса в ближайшие десятилетия.
(5) Глобальное потепление, веро-ятнее всего, сильно изменит нашу жизнь. Профессор Лондонского университета Билл Макгвайр предсказывает следующее: изме-нение климата заставит жителей Северного полушария ездить на средиземноморское побережье зи-мой или весной, а летом уст-ремляться к горячему песку и пальмам норвежских фьордов. Однако значительная часть территорий, лежащих почти на уровне моря, исчезнет под водой.
(6) Во второй половине ХХI века уровень Мирового океана под-нимется, поэтому местами суша отступит. Участятся ураганы, засу-хи, проливные дожди и штормы. Сотни миллионов человек оста-нутся без крова и станут бежен-цами. Из-за таяния ледников не-достаток питьевой воды будут испытывать до 6% населения земного шара.
(7) В Сибири оттает около 2 метров вечной мерзлоты, что приведет к высвобождению значительного ко-личества газов, на которых воз-лагают вину за парниковый эффект. Чем выше температура летом, тем больше лесных пожаров. Огромное количество сажи, поднимаясь в атмосферу, изменит распределение осадков. Европа, скорее всего, будет испытывать недостаток пить-евой воды, а Азов повторит судьбу Арала. Кроме того, экологическая катастрофа вызовет массовую ги-бель животных. На планете исчез-нет до 40% фауны.
(8) Удастся ли современной науке найти решения для предупреж-дения природных катаклизмов? Прислушаются ли правительства к рекомендациям ученых и захотят ли вкладывать средства в их реализацию? Хочется надеяться на лучшее.
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(По материалам еженедельника Мир новостей, январь 2007 г.)
b) Choose the most appropriate English words/phrases corresponding to the highlighted Russian ones. (More than one word/phrase may be right.)
(1) сокращаться (to reduce / to decline / to shrink);
(2) специалист (specialist / expert / authority); проложить мореходные пути (to follow sea-routes / to lay sea-routes / to create sea-routes)
(3) накапливаться (to store / to accumulate / to amass) парниковые газы (greenhouse gases / heat-trapping gases / hothouse gases); водяной пар (steam / vapour / smoke)
(4) увеличение солнечной активности (greater solar activity / increase in solar activity / the rise of solar activity);
(6) проливные дожди (downpours / heavy rains / showers); остаться без крова (to become homeless / to live without shelter / to be left roofless); беженцы (refugees / exiles / runaways); таяние ледников (glacial melting / ice warming / ice melting); питьевая вода (still water / fresh water / drinking water);
(7) оттаивать (to melt / to thaw / to fade); высвобождение (release / emission / disengagement); осадки (rainfall / sediment / precipitation)
(8) природные катаклизмы (natural calamities / natural catastrophes / natural disasters)
c) Answer the teacher’s questions.
HOME ACTIVITIES (2)
10. Give a brief summary of the article (see exercise 8) in English using the suggested key words and phrases: