Questions to be answered

1. The environmental pollution is a very serious problem nowadays, isn’t it?

2. What gave birth to the problem of poisoning our planet?

3. Why have a lot of species disappeared and still more are on the brink of extinction?

4. Have you ever heard of the “Red Book of Nature”? What kinds of animals are registered in it?

5. What causes acid rains, green house effect and ozone depletion?

6. Atomic power plants do both good and harm, don’t they? Give your reasons.

7. Can transport means be considered a kind of threat to the environment?

8. What movement had gained a lot of supporters before our country joined it?

9. What do many adopted laws and measures aim at?

10. Do students of our University join the Environment Movement?

IV. Make a summary of the text ’Environmental Protection’.

V. Speak on the problem of pollution. Use the key-words:

pollution, to breathe, pure water, burned gas, harmful, invisible, disease, to affect, lack, to reduce, waste, to spray, garbage and trash, to pack down, acid rain, nuclear energy, ozone layer, to extinct, wild life.

VI. Deliver a lecture on the problems of environment as if you were

· a teacher of ecology and environmental protection;

· a member of the Ecological International of the Green Cross and Crescent;

· Chairman of the new International Non-Governmental Board.

VII. Speak on the reasons which made scientists set up an international industrial ecological consortium.

VIII. Describe the ways of solving the problems of environmental protection.

IX. Describe the ecological problems of our city. What has been done and is being done for their solution?

X. Work in pairs. Imagine you are a journalist; your fellow-student is Chairman of the new International Non-Governmental Board. Interview him.

D i a l o g u e s

a) Read the short dialogues in pairs

I

A. Mum, why are you so upset?

B. The window glasses get dirty so shortly and the winter is so long.

A. This is air pollution. All big cities have this problem.

II

A. Alice, why are you so upset? What’s happened?

B. My best bathing suit was spoilt this summer. I came out of the sea with a black mineral oil spot on it though the sea water looked so clear.

A. Oh, dear! Don’t take it ill. With “Tide” this problem will be solved, I believe.

III

A. Daddy, why are you so upset? What’s wrong?

B. Oh, my shirt smells awfully because our mum aired it outdoors.

A. Take it easy. I’ll give you another one.

IV

A. Granny, why are you so upset?

B. I can’t sleep quietly because of the noise of all those cars, lorries, buses. Even late at night!

A. Good heavens! This is the scientific and technological progress of the 20-th century. How lucky we are that we do not live near the airport.

b) Memorize the dialogues and reproduce them.

c) Make up your own dialogues on a similar topic.

J u s t f o r F u n

I. Read the following quotations and comment on them.

The “boundless” blue sky, the ocean which gives us breath and protects us from the endless black and death, is but an infinitesimally thin film. How dangerous it is to threaten even the smallest part of this gossamer covering, this conserver of life.

-Vladimir Shatalov,

quoted in The Home Planet, 1988

The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

-Mohandas Gandhi

The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives.

-Indian Proverb

This we know. The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected.

Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

-Chief Seattle

II. It’s interesting to know.

Did you know?