Treeless city

Sit back, relax, close your eyes and come with me on a journey to a srange and different world. Imagine taking a walk down a street on a warm summer day. Everything looks pretty and fresh. Overhead, leafy trees are giving you plenty of nice, cool shade. You hear birds happily chirping high in the branches. The air smells fresh and clean. Off in the distance you see gently rolling green hills. A sparkling stream runs near you. You think you willgo fishing later. People are setting up tables in a nearby park to enjoy a picnic.

The neighbourhood is quiet and peaceful today.

But wait! Something strange is happening. You turn round a corner, and a whole different scene appears. The air is hot, and you cannot find a spot of shade anywhere. Chirping birds and scurrying squirrels are filling, because they have no place to live.

The ground looks sunbaked and dry. The neighborhood doesn’t look very pretty because everything is bare. Dust and soil fly through through the air and make it hard to breathe. The wind blows all the time.

You look at the hillsides in the distance. They are brown and bare, and covered with gullies. When it rains, water rushes down these hillsides, carrying lots of soil with it. The soil ends up everywhere, much of it collecting in streams and lakes. You wonder if the soil buildup is what has been killing fish and making the little stream in you neighborhood its banks.

People in the parks are putting beach umbrellas over their tables to shade their picnics. You hear humming noises everywhere. Air conditioners are working overtime as people try to keep cool.

What has made such a difference in your world? You have the feeling something important is missing – something that used to prevent and correct some of these problems. What is it? What do you think?

What is a world without trees?

A world without trees would be a barren world. Giant dust storms would roll across the countryside blowing away precious topsoil and choking people, plants, and animals. Sunbaked fields could no longer grow enough food to feed the world’s population. Hillsides would wash away, clogging rivers and streams with soil and silt.

Without trees, we would have little protection from summer heat and cold winter winds. Air conditioners would bum precious energy 24 hours a day in the summer, and furnaces would work overtime in winter. People would live much of their lives indoors because life outdoors would be too uncomfortable.

1.After reading the text describe: what you feel, hear, see, and smell when you are in the park/ forest.

2.Answer the questions: What is a green space? Why are green spaces important? Why are their purposes? Explain what is meant by “ green spaces”.

3.Read definitions of the following terms and the accompanying scenarios:

A. Encroachment is the act of seizing someone else’s property. The following scenario is an example: There is an existing park. People live near the boundaries of the park and have a garden in the yard. Since there are no visible boundaries to the park, these people can easily move garden into the park’s property a little bit at a time. After a few years, a park ranger might notice the change. The people will most likely insist that their garden has always been there. How can we prevent this from happening?

B. Littering is the disposing of garbage/ waste in an improper place.

C. Erosion is the destruction of soil by water and wind. It is a natural process that can be exaggerated by people’s activities, such as deforestation, overgrazing and overuse of land

LESSON 70

ECOLOGY IS A PRYORITY

1. Read and define the meaning of the following words having the same root in the Ukrainian words:

ecology, n; dominant, a; ecocyctem, n; catastrophic, a; anthropogenic, a; cycle, n; accumulation, n; aerosol,n; planet,n; balance, n; stratosphere, n; ultrviolet,a; immune, a; ionizing, a; pathological, a; defect, n; genetically, adv; chronic, a; degeneration, n.

2. Remember pronunciation and translation of these following words and word-combinations:

dangerous – небезпечний, погрозливий

threaten - погрожувати

gradual - поступовий

arid – сухий, безводний, засушливий

melt - танути

capital investment - капіталовкладення

purify - очищати

drug – ліки, медикаменти

vulnerability – чутливість, уразливість

impede – перешкоджати, затримувати

generation – покоління, нащадки

3. Paying attention to the meaning of the suffix, pick out to the Ukrainian words the following English equivalents:

здоровий(health, healthy, healthless); очистка (purifier, purify, purification); отруйний (poisoning, poison, poisonous); згубний, руйнівний (destruction, destructively, destructive); сприятливий (favour, favourable, unfavourable); родючість (fertility, fertilizer, fertilize); засушливий (aridity, aridness, arid); порушення (disrupt, disruption, disruptive).

4. Find the meaning of the following words and word-combinations in the terminological dictionary and check your understanding these words and word-combinations:

food supply, disruption, layer, unfavourable, fertile, fertility, coastal, health, water body, pest, poison, heredity, hereditary, disease, ozone screen.

5. Translate the following word-combinations:

1.field, forest, garden – pest

2. surface, depletion, oxygen rich – layer

3. unfavourable – weather, climate, changes, heredity

4. dangerous – impact, pollution, disease, consequences, interference

5. disruption – of the temperature regime, in the oxygen balance

6. arid – land, climate, region

7.increasing, chemical, economic – fertility

8. threat – war, extinction, destruction, depletion,a disruption in the oxygen balance

6. Read the text and define the main idea: