1. Read the text and translate the extract in italic in written form.
2 Grammar work
3. Vocabulary work
4 Text work
1. Read the text and translate the extract in italic in written form.
Ecological problems and solutions
If a chemist or a physicist or anyone for that matter endeavoured a brief description of the current environmental problems, he would find it troublesome and far exceeding the knowledge of an individual scholar, for the situation with our environment has long become a subject of joint research of scientists from different fields who have to combine their wisdom and information from still other domains, with experts in sociology, psychology, philosophy hurriedly coming into the picture.
Yet, to put it briefly, one of the causes of the current situation with our environment should be searched in the lack of development of particular fields of knowledge, and of an inadequate picture of the intricately acting whole, which our planet.
It is man's intervention in nature that has singled him out from the rest of the animal world since his early days. It is this very intervention that has landed him in this highly technological world of ours, with the rate of progress in particular fields being faster than that in our fundamental knowledge of the general operation of the Earth.
It is this very discrepancy between the two rates which appears to be the cause of most of today's problems. This is, by no means an exhaustive explanation, overlooking as it does, the social factor.
2 Grammar work
A. Read the following sentences. Pay attention to emphasis with "it". Write out another 5 inverted sentences from the text. Translate them.
1. It is these properties of crystals that are the most important. It was the laboratory where all this started.
2. It is crude oil that comes from the ground.
3. It is man's intervention in nature that has singled him out from he rest of the animal world.
4. It is this mixture that returns to the Earth in the form of acid rain.
5. It is in this stable layer that disturbing changes are occurring.
1. It is man's intervention in nature that has singled him out from the rest of the animal world since his early days. Именно вмешательство человека в природу выделило его из остального животного мира с ранних дней.
3. Vocabulary work
A Match the words with their definitions.
1. treat b a. any interference that may affect the interests of others; especially, of one or more states with the affairs of another
2. intervention a b. something that is a source of danger;
3. inevitably d c. a sense of concern with and curiosity about someone or something;
4. extinction e d. without possibility of escape or evasion
5. involvement c e. state of being extinguished or of ceasing to be
4 Text work
A Choose the best variant to complete the sentences.
1. One of the causes of the current situation with our environment should be searched in the lack of development of particular fields of knowledge.
2. The discrepancy between the rate of progress in particular fields and our fundamental knowledge of the general operation of the Earth appears to be the cause of most of today's problems.
3. Man's intervention in nature has singled him out from the rest of the animal world since his early days.
4. A nuclear catastrophe would disturb every individual, whatever life he might be living, and its inescapability is too obvious to be disputed.
5. The changes in our environment are not likely to bring mankind to the brink of extinction overnight.
