Protection of the Environment
«Ecology» is a very popular word today. But what does it mean? Ecology is a science which studies the relationships between all forms of life on our planet and the environment. This word came from the Greek «oikos» which means «home». This idea of «home» includes our whole planet, its population, Nature, animals, birds, fish, insects and all other living beings, and even the atmosphere around our planet.
Do all of them live a happy and healthy life in our common home nowadays? Unfortunately not. Since ancient times Nature has served Man giving him everything he needs: air to breathe, food to eat, water to drink, wood for building and fuel for heating his home. For thousands of years people lived in harmony with the environment and it seemed to them that the resources of Nature had no end or limit. With the industrial revolution our negative influence on Nature began to increase. Large cities with thousands of steaming, polluting plants and factories can be found nowadays all over the world. The by-products of their activity pollute the air we breathe, the water we drink, the fields where our crops are grown.
Every year the atmosphere is polluted by about 1000 tons of industrial dust and other harmful substances. Big cities suffer from smog. Cars with their engines have become the main source of pollution in industrial countries. Vast forests are cut down in Africa, South America and Asia for the needs of industries in Europe and the USA. The loss of the forests upsets the oxygen balance of the new wastelands. As a result some species of animals, birds, fish and plants have disappeared and keep disappearing. Rivers and lakes dry up. One of the most resent examples is the Aral Sea, which has become much smaller due to man’s activity. The pollution of the air and the world’s oceans and the thinning of the ozone layer are the other problems arising from man’s careless attitude to ecology.
The protection of the environment is a universal concern. Active measures should be taken to create an international system of ecological security. Some progress has been made in this direction. 159 countries – members of the United Nations Organization – have set up environment protection agencies. A lot of conferences have been held by these agencies to discuss ecological problems, some of which are of extreme urgency.
In Russia and the former Soviet republics there are some areas where the environment is in a poor state. The Aral Sea, Lake Baikal, the Kuzbass, Semipalatinsk and Chernobyl. For decades nuclear weapons were tested near Semipalatinsk, and the group is contaminated with radiation there. More than twenty years ago a pulp-and-paper factory was built on the shore of Lake Baikal. As a result of the pollution, more than 50 per cent of the world’s purest water has been ruined. The whole ecological system of the lake has changed greatly. After the disaster in Chernobyl the inhabitants of the nearby towns and villages had to be evacuated. Some of them died and some have become invalids. Ecological catastrophes do a lot of harm to Nature, but they are much more dangerous for Man. The question is whether mankind is going to live or die.
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What Makes a Cat a Cat?
The domestic cat and the large wild cats belong to the same family of animals, Felidae. The tiger is the largest cat, with males averaging about 190 kilograms (420 pounds). Most domestic cats weigh only from 3 to 7 kilograms (6 to 15 pounds). But all members of the cat family have long, muscular bodies and short, strong jaws with 30 sharp teeth for grasping and shredding prey. The domestic cat is most closely related to Felis libica, its wild ancestor. Felis libica still exists in Africa, but the solitary animal is rarely seen.
Like their wild ancestor, domestic cats are physically adapted for hunting small prey. Although their vision is not especially keen, they see well in dim light and readily perceive motion. Their padded feet and feet and flexible muscles allow them to silently stalk prey or give chase by running about 48 kilometers (30 miles) per hour.
Biologists have been a little more successful in understanding how cats purr. Purring appears to be a sign of contentment, yet even cats that are ill and in discomfort may purr. Cat owners recognize that purring occurs when cats around people, but the presence of people is not essential for purring. Cats may purr during mating – and kittens, while nursing. But cats of any age do not while they are sleeping.
Perhaps more intriguing than purring is the cat’s ability to survive falls.
How do cats manage to take falling so easily? For one thing in comparison to human beings, a cat is much smaller and lighter. Also, a cat has more body surface area in proportion to its weight than a human being has. This increase in surface area results in greater air resistance, which slows the fall. The important thing however, is that a falling cat apparently positions itself to form a sort of parachute. Less than one second after it starts to fall, a cat quickly rights itself in midair with all four legs pointing downward. The cat’s inner ears act like an internal gyroscope, telling the cat which direction it is falling. With the legs pointed downward, the cat then spreads its legs so that its body forms a sort of parachute that increases air resistance. With its limbs flexed, the cat also cushions the force of impact by landing on all four legs. The force of the impact is distributed through the muscles and joints.
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The Emperor Penguins
In the early autumn the emperor penguins leave the sea and climb onto the ice. They then walk 50-60 kilometers to their breeding grounds close to the South Pole.
When they arrive at the breeding grounds in late March, the penguins choose a mate. They then wait five to six weeks until the female lays her egg. As soon as the female has laid the egg, the male lifts it onto his feet. The female then returns to the sea leaving the male to incubate the egg.
There is no vegetation on the ice so the emperor penguins do not build nests. Instead, the males stand with the eggs tucked away under their stomachs. They stand for nine to ten weeks hardly moving because the eggs the must not fall onto the ice.
The chicks hatch in July. Antarctica is one of the coldest and most inhospitable places in the world. In the middle of winter it has temperatures of –700C and there is no food and no shelter. But it has one important advantage: it is the safest place in the world for emperor penguins to breed as there are no predators. The emperor penguin is the only animal in the world that can survive such low temperatures. Their only enemy is the cold and the chicks stand close together in big groups to protect themselves from the icy winds and storms.
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When the chicks hatch, the males have not eaten for over two months. Even so the male finds some food in his stomach to feed the chick. He has to keep the chick alive until the weather improves and the female returns from the sea with food. In March the males weighed around 46 kilos, but now they only weigh 16 kilos. The smaller female emperor penguin would not have survived for so long without food.
After the females return in early August, the males walk 150 kilometers back to the sea for a short «holiday» before returning with food. The male and the female then take it in turns to return to the sea for food. In the late spring, when the chicks are big and strong enough, the emperor penguin families return to the sea. The adults then have just the three summer months in the sea before returning to the breeding grounds once more.
10. Birds of Paradise
There are about 50 different kinds of birds of paradise, but they are all found in the tropical islands of the western Pacific and in northern Australia.
Birds of paradise range in size from that of a crow to that of a sparrow, and each kind has its own special pattern of brilliant colors. It is this display of brilliant colors in their plumage that makes these birds so unusual. But these beautiful birds are actually related to the common crow.
The first Europeans to see these birds were the early Dutch explorers in the fifteenth century. They looked so beautiful that these men believed the birds were fed from the dews of heaven and the nectar of flowers, which explains their name.
Only the males have the brilliant plumage. The reason for this is not yet understood. It may be to attract the females, or it may be to draw natural enemies away from the nests of the mother and the young and so protect them.
Most birds of paradise build flimsy, platform-like nests in the tree-tops. In these they lay their streaked and spotted eggs. The birds eat almost everything they can find, from fruit to snails and insects.
During the mating season, the male birds gather and show off their fine feathers before the females. While these birds are usually wary, at this time they concentrate so much on showing off that hunters can shoot them at close range. The natives used to shoot them with blunt arrows so as not to injure the plumes.
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Рекомендуемые учебники и учебные пособия
1. Арбекова Т.И., Власова Н.Н., Макарова Г.А. Я хочу и буду знать английский. М.: Телер, 1993.
2. Бонк Н.А., Лукьянова Н.А., Памухина Л.Г. Учебник английского языка, 2 часть. Иваново, фирма «Фора», 1994.
3. Федотова И.Г., Ишевская Н.А. Ускоренный курс английского языка. М.: «Клен», 1993.
Список использованной литературы
1. David Macdonald. Priscilla Barrett. Mammals of Britain and Europe. Butter and Tanner, Frome, Somerset, 1993. 312 s.
2. Encyclopaedia Britannica: biology.
2. Nature, vol. 393, 4 June, 1998.
3. Nature, vol. 394, 6 August, 1998.
4. Nature, vol. 395, 29 October, 1998.
5. Nature, vol. 396, 12 November, 1998.
6. Английский язык. 1 сентября.
ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ
| Контрольное задание…………………………………………………. 1-ый вариант контрольного задания……..……………………………. 2-ой вариант контрольного задания ……………………………….…. 3-ий вариант контрольного задания…………………………………... 4-ый вариант контрольного задания………………………………….. Тексты для дополнительного чтения 1. Biology………………………….…………………………………….. 2. Zoology………………………….……………………………………. 3. The Cell…………………………………….…………………………. 4. Environment and Ecology…………………………………………….. Ozone and the Greenhouse Effect……………………..….…….…….... 5. Ground-Level Ozone..…………………………………….…………... 6. High-Level Ozone………..…………………………………………... 7. Protection of the Environment………………………………………... 8. What Makes a Cat a Cat?.…………………………………………….. 9. The Emperor Penguins………………………………………………... 10. Birds of Paradise…………………………………………………….. Рекомендуемые учебники и учебные пособия…………………….. Список использованной литературы................................................. | 3 3 6 9 12 15 16 19 20 21 21 23 25 26 27 27 29 29 |
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