Analyse the paragraph in bold type. What is its style? Function?

· Does the main body of the article start with describing the problem? Explain why/why not?

· Look at the underlined words and word-combinations. Are they academic? Explain your opinion. Can you provide their more academic equivalents?

2.6.3 Normally, academic texts, particularly those in natural sciences, do not use emotional epithets, metaphors, similes etc. such as underlined words (“smelly”, “peaceful” or “hefty slice”). They also avoid starting sentences and paragraphs with “but”, “and”, “so”, using their academic synonyms instead. Shortenings (such as “we’ve”, “they’ll”, “didn’t” etc.) are not used either.

It would not be possible for a scientific article to have an expression like “certain gut microbes”: there would be a concrete Latin name for the bacteria in question.

Finally, an article meant for a scientific community of specialists will not bother to catch a reader’s eye by a bright picture at the beginning – it will start by introducing the problem and setting the goals.

Articles published in mass media, however, are written for a wide audience, often unprepared for sophisticated texts with a lot of academic terminology. Therefore, to make the readers get interested in the text and read it to the end, authors employ different techniques, such as a catchy start (e.g. puzzling or unexpected scene), impressive metaphors (“hefty slice” instead of a boring academic “significant proportion”), dialogues (examples see below). At the same time, a good newspaper article, whose purpose is to convey an important message and certain scientific ideas, is supposed to provide true facts, clear and precise explanations, opinions of specialists and objective and meaningful conclusions and implications.

The form of a newspaper article, devoted to scientific problems, might be entertaining at times, but the content has to be reliable and objective.

2.6.4 Read the paragraphs below and answer the questions:

1. Does this text provide reliable scientific information on the problem?

2. Does it help readers understand scientific terminology?

3. Does it analyse the problems objectively, providing different opinions and presenting different approaches to dealing with the problem?

4. Are conclusions clear?

4. AgResearch’s aim is to develop this vaccine, along with other anti-methane methods, in an effort to allow us to continue eating meat and dairy products while lessening the impact the livestock industry has on the environment. Beef without blame, you might say; and cheese with a clear conscience.

5. Estimates vary, but livestock is reckoned to be responsible for up to 14% of all greenhouse emissions from human activities. Alongside carbon dioxide, farming generates two other gases in large quantities: nitrous oxide from the addition of fertilisers and wastes to the soil, and methane. The latter is largely belched out by ruminants – principally sheep and cattle – and accounts for more than a third of the total emissions from agriculture. The average ruminant produces 250-500 litres of methane a day. Globally, livestock are responsible for burping (and a small amount from farting) the methane equivalent of 3.1 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually.

6. But the scientists at AgResearch hope it may be possible to reduce the contribution livestock farming is making to global warming.

7. Their approach builds on work by Sinead Leahy, a microbiologist at AgResearch who is currently on secondment to the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre. The methane produced by ruminants comes from some 3% of the vast number of microbes that live in the rumen, the first section of the gut. The guilty organisms belong to an ancient group called the archaea, and they are capable of living in environments where there is no oxygen.

8. Through a process known as enteric fermentation, these microbes decompose and ferment the plant materials eaten by the animals, producing methane as a byproduct. To release the pressure that can build up as this gas is produced, the animals then burp it out.

9. …

10.  “Understanding what makes these microbes different from other types that are also important for ruminant digestion is essential,” says Leahy. “Through our research we were able to look across the different types of gene sequence [in the microbes] and pick out targets [shared] across all varieties of methanogen. These then became the top targets for the development of a vaccine.”

11. This work allowed the team at AgResearch to systematically design vaccines that targeted several microbe species at the same time.

12. “There are about 12 or 15 species in the subset of archaea we’ve tried to target,” says Peter Janssen, principal investigator of the methane mitigation programme at AgResearch... Given by injection, the vaccine is designed to stimulate the animals’ output of anti-archaea antibodies in their saliva, which is then carried into the rumen as the animals swallow.

13. <…>

14. But vaccination isn’t the only idea for cleaning up cows’ breath. Animals vary in their output of methane, and some at least of this variation is attributable to genetic differences. Eileen Wall, head of research at Scotland’s Rural College, explains that this offers scope for selective breeding for animals that produce less methane. …

15. “Over the past 20 years we’ve already reduced the environmental footprint of milk and meat production in the UK by 20%,” she says. Breeding for low methane would simply be an add-on to existing programmes. She and her colleagues are experimenting with methods of doing just this.

16. Not everyone is quite so confident. Breeding animals in this way could be time-consuming and expensive, warns Liam Sinclair, who studies rumen metabolism at Harper Adams University in Shropshire, UK.

17. Another alternative is to feed animals on a diet less to the liking of the archaea…, so long as it continues to allow the animals to go on producing milk and meat.

18. “You can probably reduce methane by about 20-25% by altering diet,” he says. One study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, estimated it might be possible to reduce global methane emissions from cows by 15% by changing their diet. But Garnsworthy believes more may be possible. In the UK, he says, farmers mainly use grass-based silage.

19. “If you changed just to maize-based silage you might see a drop in methane production of 10%.”

20. The more fibre a cow eats, the more methane it produces, but adding legumes and various oils such as linseed and soya to their diet can be helpful, adds Sinclair.

21. “Better quality feeding makes animals more productive, and more productive animals produce less methane,” he says.

22. …

23. One slightly wackier approach to be proposed is to fit cows with burp-collecting backpacks, while students at the Royal College of Art in London have designed a device that could be attached to a cow’s nose ring to convert the exhaled methane into the less potent, but longer-lasting carbon dioxide.

24. A more realistic alternative, however, are feed additives such as ionophores, which are already used in some parts of the world to boost weight gain in animals and could also be used to inhibit the methane-producing archaea. But these are not without their problems.

25. …

26. Another option is to give cattle probiotics, or helpful bacteria, to aid their digestion. <...> But chemical inhibitors and probiotics like this would have to be added daily to feedstuffs, and would be hard to deliver to animals fed mostly on grass. It is likely to be an expensive option. A vaccine would potentially only need to be given once, or perhaps would need just an annual booster.

27. Regardless of the approach used, messing with the pattern of microbial life in the gut will alter its ecology – possibly with unforeseen consequences. The gut microbiome is closely linked to health, and changing it can increase the risk of disease. There is even some association in humans between gut bacteria and mood, although it is unclear if reducing methane-producing bacteria would lead to depressed cows and sheep, or what effect this might have on their meat and milk.

28. Janssen thinks it is unlikely. “We don’t get any signals that we’re going to inhibit the ability of animals to turn grass into meat or milk,” he says.

29. But until further tests prove that hacking the guts of livestock can cut their emissions without being detrimental to the animals or the products they are farmed for, the world will have to wait with bated breath.

(The full text of the article “The cows that could help fight climate change” you can find here: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190806-how-vaccines-could-fix-our-problem-with-cow-emissions )

 

2.6.5.Write a one-page article about one of existing ideas to slow down the climate change. Search the Internet to find various facts and opinions concerning the selected idea. Think of a stark example to attract the readers’ attention from the start. Then list the main points you think are essential to present the idea in a balanced and unbiased way, with pros and cons. Add examples and experts’ opinions. Draw conclusions. You are free to employ some metaphors to make important accents, but don’t overdo: too many colloquial expressions and excessively powerful metaphors will betray your bad taste. After you have prepared a clear plan, the key vocabulary and conclusions, write the full text, then proofread it and delete everything not directly connected with your main message.

Suggested areas:

1. Using alternative energy, biofuel etc.

2. Transition to vegetarianism

3. Planting trees (grasses etc.) to capture CO₂

4. Cutting usage of aircraft

5. Reducing consumption in richer countries

Lesson 3. Analysing Graphs

v Task 3.1. Speaking. Look at the graph below. Try to describe what it shows.

Expected changes in the CO₂ System in the atmosphere and the ocean

< -- Image 28 -- >

Year

v Task 3.2 Reading. Read about line graphs and how they help to describe both the factual and projected data. Then correct your own description of the given graph.

A graph is a visual representation of the relationship between two quantities, showing how one quantity depends on another.

There are different types of graphs: pie charts, bar charts and stacked bar charts, histograms, scatter plots, line charts. Every type has its specific area of application: for example, bar charts are preferred to compare individual items, pie charts are best to describe a structure or proportions of a whole, scatter plots are used to show correlations, while line graphs and histograms are convenient to show trends. Below we will be focusing mostly on line graphs.

A line graph often (but not always) has a time scale shown along the horizontal axis (x-axis). This type of graph can be used to show how a set of data values changes over time. Two sets of data can easily be compared by plotting both lines on the same graph. The points on a line graph are joined by a set of straight lines. Some examples of time periods are: minutes, hours, days, weeks, months or years. Both x- and y-axes should be clearly labelled with a title and units of measurement if appropriate. You must look very carefully at the y-axis scale on a line graph when you are trying to interpret the trends in the data over time. If the scale is too small then the patterns in the data may be exaggerated. For instance, graph shown above provides the information about projected changes in ocean pH (acidity) and in the concentrations of CO₂ dissolved in the ocean over calendar years. The scale of the x-axis has been expanded to illustrate the pH trend projected over the next century. Future pH values show a trend of growing acidity (falling pH) as the effect of increasing CO₂ concentration on seawater chemistry.In other words, as CO₂ dissolves in seawater, the pH of the water decreases. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, ocean pH has dropped globally by approximately 0.1 pH units. By the end of this century, we may expect a drop in ocean pH of about 0.4 pH units, what means a rise of water acidity.

v Task 3.3 Vocabulary work. Complete these sentences with verbs from the following list (more than one verb may be possible and you might need to change the tense).

fall decrease expand grow drop increase modify rise decline

 

1. Scientists predict that the number of people using plastic bags _____________ from 7% to 15% next year.

2. The effect ___________ and became less significant as more water was added.

3. In general, the questionnaire was informative, but one or two questions were ______________for clarity.

4. The costs of related laboratory equipment have ____________ significantly, further reducing the competitiveness of the scientific project of this country.

5. The results showed that a reduction in ocean pH _____________ the thinning of marine organisms’ shells to resist ocean acidification and their survival was consequently down.

6. His business has greatly _______________ to meet the demand of the growing number of citizens.

7. The temperature _______________ from 15 to 16 degrees on the average what is already critical.

8. The population of endemic lizards on the island ______________ dramatically as a result of the epidemic.

9. The forecast predicts that the amount of precipitation in this region will be slowly _________________ in the next decade.

 

For more verbs and nouns related to describing trends and tendencies see Appendix, p. …

 

v Task 3.4. Vocabulary work. Look at the following list of adverbs:

Considerably

Dramatically

Marginally

Markedly

Noticeably

rapidly

Sharply

Significantly

Slightly

Somewhat

Steeply

to a small degree