Golden billion

ACQUIRING COMMUNICATION SKILLS

- eradicate extreme hunger and poverty;

- achieve universal primary education;

- promote gender equality and empower women;

- reduce child mortality;

- improve maternal health;

- combat HIV/AIDC, malaria and other diseases;

- ensure environmental sustainability;

- develop a global partnership for development.

5.22. Work with a partner. Read the facts below and discuss them.

· Every minute of the day twenty-four people die because they do not have enough food to eat. Three-quarters of them are children under five.

· Water is the main support of life, however, it often brings death in the third World. Two out of three Africans cannot get clean water to drink. Dirty water is the cause of three quarters of all illness there.

· Another cause of death is failure of the food crops because there is not enough rain.

· However, one of the main causes of Africa’s problems is war. Often the weapons come from rich countries such as the USA or South Africa. In the past, poor African countries borrowed too much money from rich countries, and now they are struggling to pay this money back, usually with no success. This is why they have no money for food, education and healthcare. Russia often acquits African countries of their debts. Do you think other countries should follow suit, or that this practice won’t help?

5.23. a) Energy has always been a very important issue for poor countries, but recently the problem of energy safety has become vital for developed countries as well. In the light of this, the idea of alternative energy sources has come to the global forefront. Read the passages below and think of any disadvantages to the solutions described. b) Work with a partner and discuss which solution you think is more effective and acceptable and why. Discuss your opinions in class.

Passage 1:

The nuclear fuel we use is uranium, a resource which is not only plentiful but logical since there is no other day-to-day use for it. It is also extraordinarily efficient: two uranium pellets the size of sugar cubes will meet the electricity needs of one person for an entire year.

Passage 2:

Today the Centre for Alternative Technology produces almost all the electricity it needs using the wind, the sun and water. Water supplies about 55% of the electricity, the wind supplies 25%, and 10% is from solar energy. A diesel generator provides the rest.

c) Answer the following questions.

1. What difficulties might arise when trying to persuade people to use alternative sources of energy?

2. What changes in the energy supply would you agree to if you thought it would make a difference to the environment?

3. Do you think there is too much emphasis on environmental issues in the media? Why do you think so? Can media help in solving environmental problems?

5.24. Read the following citations about nature, war and poverty and comment on each. Which one do you like best? Why?

Citations about nature, war and poverty:

1. Seen from within, nature is a war of living powers of will. (Karl Heim)

2. [Nature is] an infinite pleasure-ground, where all may graze, and where the more bite, the longer the grass grows, the sweeter is its flavour, and the more it nourishes. (Thomas Henry Huxley)

3. [Nature is] the background and theatre of the tragedy of man. (John Morley)

4. [Nature is] nothing but the existence of the divine omnipotence. (Immanuel Kant)

5. [Poverty is] the discoverer of all the arts. (Apollonius)

6. [Poverty is] the wicked man’s temper, the good man’s perdition, the proud man’s curse, the melancholy man’s halter. (Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton)

7. Poverty consists in feeling poor. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

8. [Poverty is] a great wealth. (Epicurus)

9. [Poverty is] a great enemy to human happiness; it […] destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult. (Samuel Johnson)

10. To have nothing is not poverty. (Martial)

11. [War is] a biological necessity of the first order. (Friedrich von Bernhardi)

12. [War is] the highest perfection of human knowledge. (Daniel Defoe)

13. [War is] that condition which uses man’s best to do man’s worst. (Harry Emerson Fosdick)

14. [War is] part of God’s world order. (Helmuth von Moltke)

15. [War is] the business of barbarians. (Napoleon)

16. [War is] an art. (Plato)

17. [War is] a series of mathematical problems, to be solved through proper integration and coordination of men and weapons in time and space. (Georgi Zhukov)

18. [War is] an adventure which kills off the best while preserving the unfit. (Irwin Van Grove)

WRITING

1. International tourism as a threat to wild nature.

2. Protecting wild animals is a waste of resources.

3. Pollution in my city.

4. My share in reducing pollution.

5. A bicycle versus a car.

5.27. a) American doctors believe there is a new illness – ‘earth anxiety’? Can you guess what it is? Read the text below and do some research to see how the situation has changed. Write a report on this change.

‘Earth anxiety’ is worry about our environment. One of the main causes of worry is rubbish. Years ago we used to throw things away and not think twice about it. Now people are beginning to learn facts. Read the statistics for the year 1991.

- In Britain each family threw out about one ton of rubbish a year.

- 90% of this rubbish went into ‘landfill sites’ – big holes in the ground in places far away from the city centres.

- Town councils burned about 8 % of the rubbish.

- Britain only recycled (saved it in some ways and used it again) 2% of all rubbish.

- America produced 160 million tons of rubbish (AmE. garbage ) and recycled 10%.

- Britain was very bad at recycling compared to some other European countries:

Britain recycled 16% of all glass bottles.

Holland recycled 62% of all bottles.

Britain recycled 5% of the aluminum from aluminum cans.

Canada recycled 65% of all aluminum cans.

Britain recycled 26% of all waste paper.

Holland recycled 57% of waste paper.

1. [War is] a time when the laws are silent. (Cicero)

2. [War is] that attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood. (Abraham Lincoln)

3. [War is] a drastic medicine for ailing humanity. (Heinrich von Treitschke)

4. [War is] the only proper school of the surgeon. (Hippocrates)

5.30. Render the text in English.

Голод в США

Систематически недоедают 38 млн. американцев. Таковы шокирующие данные опубликованного в США доклада министерства сельского хозяйства страны. Недоедание и голод, как оказалось, вещи обычные для американских пенсионеров и семей с детьми. Число голодающих растет вместе с числом бедняков.

Число голодающих в США растет вместе с числом бедных. В 2002 году, по данным американского Бюро переписи населения, в США за чертой бедности проживало 34,6 млн. американцев, что на 1,7 миллиона больше, чем в 2001 году. По данным американского Бюро статистики, 32,9 млн. американцев - почти 12% - считаются нищими.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-26