Site involved urban decline forestry concern effort spread safety acid fertiliser sulphur emission hedge nitrates

Energy and the Environment

Environmental issues

Everybody's task (E.T.): read to be prepared to answer the following questions:

Pre-reading task: have a look at the following words and if you don't know them look them up in your dictionary it will help a lot while you are reading the article:

site involved urban decline forestry concern effort spread safety acid fertiliser sulphur emission hedge nitrates

Although Britain is densely populated, it still has large areas of open countryside, including National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Royal Parks. Many special sites are protected because they are of architectural or historical value (for example, see Stonehenge). In addition to the Government's Department of the Environment there are а number of voluntary organisations which are involved in protecting buildings and the countryside.

Over the last twenty years there have been changes in patterns of agriculture and urban development. Traditional heavy industries such as iron and steel have declined and inner-city (старая центральная часть города) areas have declined with them. At the same time, new towns have been built and the pressure on the countryside from roads and houses has increased. People have moved away from the big cities and there has been а battle to keep parts of the 'Green Belt' from development.

Changes in agriculture have meant bigger farms with bigger fields, with less room for plants and wildlife in hedges, and an increased danger of soil erosion in some areas. Mineral workings, intensive forestry and the use of nitrates [naitreit] in fertilisers, as well as the general increase in the amount of pesticides [pestisaid], have created concern for the future.

In some ways, Britain is а less polluted country than it was thirty years ago. Coal burning is strictly controlled in areas like London, which no longer suffers the poisonous smogs that killed people in the 1950s. Attempts have been made to landscape areas of wasteland, to repair and restore the old canals [kə’næl](искусственный!) and to clean up Britain's rivers. But despite these efforts various serious threats to the environment remain: acid rain caused partly by sulphur emissions from power stations, the rise in the number of cars and lorries on the roads, the pollution of the sea, the destruction of old buildings and the spread of housing. There is continuing debate on the safety of nuclear power and the possibility of alternative sources of energy.

E.T. In the article find synonyms to the following words and phrases:

nongovernmental concerned with alterations

try n. space get worse, lose initial quality and/or character

worry, anxiety increase n. quantity

E.T. In the last paragraph find the word which is a homonym of the noun 'landscape'. What grammatical category does it belong to? Is it an adjective, an adverb or a verb?

E.T. Practise the pronunciation of the following words:

architectural ['a:ki'tekt∫(ə)rəl] ] environment [in'vaiər(ə)nmənt] voluntary ['voləntəri] nitrates [naitreits]

pesticides [pestisaid] acid ['æsid] fertiliser ['f ə: ti'laizə]

poisonous ['poizənəs] spread [spred]

E.T. Find derivatives of the following words:

Example: fertiliser - fertile

pollute -? suffer -? poisonous -? repair -?

various -? destroy -? debate -

Information: mind the difference in pronunciation between the noun increase and the verb to increase

E.T. Find answers to the following questions:

1 Where do you think most National Parks are found in highland or lowland areas? Name four of them.

2 Who is responsible for protecting the environment?

What examples of protection are given?

3 How has agriculture in Britain changed?

4 What has happened to the London smogs and why?

Personal task (P.T.) for two or three students

1. Find more information about what hedges are historically and share it with your colleagues. Why do you think people are worries about preserving wildlife in the hedges?

2. What alternative sources of energy do you know? Are any of them applicable in Kurganskaya Oblast?

3. List four things which threaten the environment and suggest what can be done about them.

4. Which parts of your own country are most in need of protection: cities or the countryside? Give reasons for your decision.

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