Text B. Friendly to the Environment

 

Recycling

 

"In the time it takes to read this, more than a million pounds of materials that could have been recycled will be thrown away all over California."— Californians Against Waste (CAW) Newsletter

We are running out of space in which to discard our garbage, and our current methods of disposing of it are endangering the environment. One solution to this problem is recycling.

Recycling is the process of collecting used materials and remanufacturing them into new products instead of throwing them away. This process is important because it reduces the trash in overcrowded landfills, salvages materials that we can use to make new products, and saves our natural resources.

Used products may be converted or reutilized in a number of ways. Paper is reprocessed into new sheets, glass is cleaned and remolded, and plastic is melted and formed into new products such as carpet backing, fence posts, and drainage pipes.

Recycling is being done worldwide. Japan recycles 95% of its bottles and 50% of its aluminium; the United States recycles only 20% of its bottles and 38% of its aluminium. In Germany a new law requires product manufacturers to create ways of reusing their packaging material.

Helping to solve the garbage crisis is something everyone can do if they just remember the three Rs: "reduce, reuse, and recycle. "

Business Goes Green!

Many cities around the world today are heavily polluted. Careless manufacturing processes em­ployed by some industries and lack of consumer demand for environmentally safe products have contributed to the pollution problem. One result is that millions of tons of glass, paper, plastic, and metal containers are produced, and these are diffi­cult to dispose of.

However, today, more and more consumers are choosing "green" and demanding that the prod­ucts they buy are safe for the environment. Before they buy a product, they ask questions like these: "Will this hairspray damage the ozone layer?" "Is the packaging biodegradable?" "Will it break down in a trash dump?" "Can this metal container be recycled or can it only be used once?" A recent survey showed that two out of five adults now consider the environmental safety of a product before they buy it. This means that com­panies must now change the way they make and sell their products to make sure that they are "green", that is, friendly to the environment.

Only a few years ago, it was impossible to find green products in supermarkets, but now there are hundreds. Some supermarket products carry la­bels to show that the product is green. Some com­panies have made the manufacturing of clean and safe products their main selling point and empha­size it in their advertising.

The concern for a safer and cleaner environment is making companies rethink how they do business. No longer will the public accept the old attitude of "Buy it, use it, throw it away, and for­get it." The public pressure is on, and gradually business is cleaning up its act.

 

The symbol of TM-An official Japan

recyclability. mark of Environment

Environment Canada Association

(used with permission). logo.

Vocabulary

 

run out of, v истощить свой запас

garbage, n мусор, отбросы

dispose, v ликвидировать

reduce, v уменьшать, сокращать

trash, n отбросы, хлам, мусор, макулатура

landfill, n территория

salvage, v спасать, собирать

mold, v отливать в форму, формовать

melt, v плавить, растапливать

consumer demand потребительский спрос

lack, n отсутствие, недостаток

survey, n исследование

sell (sold, sold), v продавать

emphasize, v обращать внимание, подчеркивать

concern, n забота

 

 

I. Study the words to text B.

 

II. Read the text ‘Friendly to the Environment’. Answer the questions below:

 

1. What is recycling?

2. Why is the process of recycling important? Prove it by the text.

3. What may paper be reprocessed into?

4. What can be done with glass and plastic?

5. Which country recycles more – Japan or the US?

6. What do the three Rs stand for?

 

III. Choose the correct answer.

 

1. Many people choose green products because they are....

a) cheaper

b) better made

c) environmentally safer

 

2. Corporations are producing more green products because....

a) they have to pay higher taxes

b) it costs less

c) consumers want to buy them

 

3. Nowadays... consumers consider the environmental safety of products before they buy them.

a) all

b) many

c) no

 

IV. Write the definitions for the following words and phrases:

 

a) “green” products ______

b) biodegradable packaging _____

c) recycling _____

d) selling point _____

 

 

C o n v e r s a t i o n

 

Environment and Ecology

 

Environmental Protection

The twentieth century is known to be the century of the scientific and technological progress. The achievements of the mankind in mechanization and automation of industrial processes, in chemical industry and conquering outer space, in the creation of atomic power stations and ships are amazing.

But at the same time this progress gave birth to a very serious problem – the poisoning of our planet, its land, its air and water. The ecological harmony is disturbed. The seas are filled with industrial and nuclear waste, chemicals and fertilizers. The concentration of smoke in the air is so high in some industrial centers that it is deadly dangerous just to breathe there.

Many species of flora and fauna have disappeared. Some of them are on the brink of extinction, many have been put down into the “Red Book of Nature”. Every hour some kinds of animals and plants die out for ever.

Acid rains, the greenhouse effect, ozone depletion caused by harmful substances emitted by industrial enterprises are much spoken about.

Unfortunately some means of transport can be regarded as offenders in poisoning the environment.

Atomic power plants are worth mentioning as a grave threat to the environment nowadays. The pollution of the environment is hard to ignore.

The problem of environmental protection has become an extremely important part of political programmes in many countries nowadays.

The Environmental Movement had gained a lot of supporters long before our country joined it. Many laws and vital decisions on the problem have been adopted, many measures have been taken to protect our forests, rivers, lakes and seas.

However, the Mediterranean is already nearly dead; the North Sea is following. The Aral Sea is on the point of vanishing. The environmental problems have grown beyond the concern of a single country. Their solution requires the cooperation of all nations.

It is obvious, that only our joint effort will help to avoid a global catastrophe.

 

I. Answer the questions.

 

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?

 

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

 

III. Read the following text. Write 5 questions on the text. Let your fellow students answer them.   Ecology is the science of how living things are related to their environment. Many people all over the world are concerned about the ecology today. The word "ecology" came from the Greek which means "home". This idea of "home" includes the whole planet of ours. We must protect our planet from littering, air pollution, water pollution, de­struction of natural resources.

We know that polluted air, land and water are harmful to plants, animals and people. Many terri­tories, lakes, rivers, seas, oceans and the atmo­sphere are polluted with all kinds of technological, chemical, nuclear and other wastes. Awful harm is caused to our home by nuclear tests, atom bombs and accidents on the atomic power stations.

How can we keep our earth clean?

Don't buy drinks in plastic bottles. These bot­tles can't be recycled and plastic won't even de-grade. If you throw this bottle, it will still litter the earth for ever. Only buy water and other drinks in aluminium cans or glass bottles. Buy milk and juice in cartons. Glass, aluminium and carton can be recycled.

The energy saved from one recycled aluminium can will operate a television set for three hours. If you throw an aluminium can out of the train win­dow, it will still litter the earth up to 500 years later. If you throw the glass bottle you litter the earth for ever.

It takes 500 000 trees just to make the newspa­pers we read every Sunday. Save your family newspapers. Find out how to recycle newspapers in your area. Most paper thrown away in the office just has printing on one side. So you can use the blank side for writing or drawing.

 

IV. 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.

 

V. 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.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

2. 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 21-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?

Eight million tons of oil are spilled into the Earth’s oceans every year.

 

Did you know?

Glass produced from recycled glass instead of raw material reduces related air pollution by 20% and water pollution by 50%.

 

Did you know?

American workplaces discard enough paper each year to build a 12-foot high wall stretching from Los-Angeles to New York.

 

 

Did you know?

Madagascar is home to at least 150,000 living species found nowhere else in the world.

 

Did you know?

One ton of recycled paper can save 17 trees and three cubic yards of landfill space.

 

 

III. Do this puzzle.

 

 

 

Across

1. Some species are this

9. Large predatory cat

10. Road (abbr.)

11. What we breathe

13. That which encloses some animals before birth

14. Exist

15. Planting this will help the

environment

16. Often pronounced like "f

17. Finger-like part of the foot

18. That thing

19. Gains; deserves; gets (money) by

working

20. Past tense of hide

22. North-Northeast

23. Strange; unusual; opposite of even

24. Endangered ocean animal

26. Small pie

29. South America (abbr.)

30. Japanese unit of money

31. Sweet substance

33. Preposition

35. Write on a machine; class

or sort people

36. Follow as a result; happen

afterwards

38. Negative

39. At liberty; not enslaved

Down

1. An endangered species

2. Near (poetic)

3. Domestic animal

4. Indefinite article

5. A color

6. Past-tense marker

7. A time to celebrate the environment (2 words)

8. Expire; cease to live

12. Scan written matter with the eyes

14. Made (someone) uninterested by

dull talk; drilled a hole

15. The seventh note in the sol-fa

musical scale (between la and do); a

tropical plant

17. Light brown

19. The power that does work and

drives machines

21. Not working; not doing anything

23. Exclamation of surprise

24. A liquid necessary for life; H₂O

25. Go in

27. Motor car; vehicle for carrying

28. Narrow magnetic material used for recording sound

32. Concerning; about; second note or the sol-fa musical scale

34. Number; unit

37. Southeast

Unit 5

 

Grammar: 1. Passive Voice 2. Word.-building. The suffixes of adjectives   Texts: A. Science and Technology B. Inventors and their Inventions   Conversation: The Progress of Science