Reading for a Specific Purpose

Use the following text to practice reading for a specific purpose. Do not be distracted by words or sentences you don't understand. Read as quickly as possible only to find out what are the main ecological challenges that Canada face.

Ecological Issues of Canada

In spite of Canada's huge size and relativelysmall population, we experience some of the same ecological problems creating stress over theworld. The Great Lakes havesuffered from so much pollution that many fish, plants, and other life have died or are diseased. It is now dangerous to eat the fish from the Great Lakes and some other lakes and rivers in the country.

The great rain forests of the Pacific Northwest are threatened by logging. A growing number of activists fight to protect them and the animals, which live in them, but loggers are concerned about their livelihoods. Logging companies are becoming more aware of their environmental responsibilities, but the issue remains controversial.

People are also concerned about protecting our national parks from developments such as roads and hotels. These developments would attract more people to the parks, but would they also destroy the natural environments the parks were created to protect? Jasper and Banff National Parks, for example, have become extremely popular tourist spots in the summer. This tourism is very good for our economy, but at what point do we say that we choose not to cut down more trees and build more hotels around these beautiful natural sites?

Garbage has become an issue. Every household is now expected to take some responsibility for reducing the amount of garbage it produces annually. Recycling depots and other recycling programs are common in all cities now. Urban house-holds are also beginning to compost plant and animal waste just like rural households have done for centuries.

Canadians are also being encouraged to be more careful with certain kinds of toxic waste. Instead of throwing medication down the toilets where it will poison our rivers, and throwing old paint in the garbage where it will pollute our landfill sites, we are now saving such waste for the toxic waste round-ups in spring and fall. Or, people are taking it to special sites designated for toxic waste.

More and more commuters are turning to buses, trains, and bicycles to get to work rather than driving their cars and burning more gas (which is expensive as well as polluting). Whereas air pollution is not as big a problem in Canadian cities as it is in Mexico City, Santiago, Calcutta, or the industrial centers of China, it is enough of a problem in Toronto, Hamilton, and Vancouver that when weather conditions trap the air over the city, asthmatics suffer. Our grocery stores stock more and more "green" products each year: laundry soap which is less polluting, juice in tetra-paks rather than cans, dish detergent in refill bags rather than plastic containers, cosmetics produced without animal testing, and so on. We are eating less meat and more grains and vegetables. As consumers, Canadians are more conscious that what we buy affects the health of our planet. Nonetheless, we must be ever vigilant of damage to our environment and take action to protect it.

Comprehension Check

1 Describe the problem in Canada's Great Lakes?

2 Which forests in Canada are ecologists especially

worried about?

3 What problem is Banff National Park facing?

4 How can we reduce our household garbage?

5 What kinds of transportation are most healthy for us

and for the planet?

6 Name one Canadian city in which air pollution is

occasionally a problem.

Be sure you know the vocabulary:

Vocabulary

pollution the introduction into the environment of substances which are harmful to it

depots places where some specific object or objects are brought for collection and redistribution

to compost to treat organic (plant and animal) garbage so that it will turn into a fertile, earth-like product which can then be used to nourish new plant life

toxic waste waste which poisons the environment, killing life forms

landfill sites places where large amounts of garbage are dumped or buried

designated designed for one particular purpose asthmatics people who suffer from breathing problems because they have asthma, a common respiratory illness

tetrapaks cardboard containers for liquid; they are recyclable vigilant watchful in a protective way

Using New Words

From the list above, fill in each of the blanks below. You will have to use the singular form of one of the words.

1 Animals that drink water from rivers polluted by

____________ from industries may well die or become

seriously ill.

2 You can get money from your used pop and beer bottles

if you take them to a bottle ________.

3 You should not throw medicine or other toxic chemicals

into your garbage because if they are taken to ________,

they may pollute the groundwater.

4 ________ find breathing difficult around people who

are smoking.

5 Recyclable bottles and ________ are popular with those

who want to protect our environment.

6 In some office buildings, there is a room ________ for

smokers.

7 Air and water ________ can cause illnesses.

8 Many households have two garbage disposal pails, one

for the dry garbage and one used to ________ the "wet"

garbage.

9 Parents of small children are normally very _______when

their children go outside to play.

For Discussion

▪ What areas do you know where people's abuse of the planet has led to major problems for the environment, and for the people and other life forms in those areas?

▪ What common Canadian behaviors contribute to pollution?

▪ What kinds of lifestyle changes need to be made to solve the problems of pollution worldwide?

Translate the text in writing:

Saving Canada’s Troubled Fisheries.

Canada is a nation of incredible beauty. Vast open plains and rich forests blanket her lands. Wild life still abounds in her unspoiled wilderness. But the rich natural resource base that supports Canada’s 25 million people is slowly coming unraveled. In eastern Canada, for example, 10,000 lakes are so acidic that experts believe they are no longer containing fish. In lake Ontario fishermen now reel in salmon ulcerated by tumors.

Canada’s freshwater fisheries are now in chaos. Fish populations are declining, and spawning and rearing areas are being lost each year to urban development and industrialization. In some areas fish are contaminated and are unfit for human consumption.

The destruction of Canada’s once-famous fisheries results from many different causes. Overfishing by commercial interests, native Canadians, and recreationists is a leading cause. Air pollution from Canadian and US smokestacks and cities contributes, as do water pollutants from Canadian cities and paper mills. Fertilizers and pesticides from farmlands are also a major factor. Unfortunately, say many Canadians, the management of recreational fishing is left to the provincial governments, which are generally under budgeted and stretched too thin. That impairs control.

Although anglers still harvest 45,000 tons of fish per year and spend $4.7 billion (in Canadian dollars) in the process, fishing has deteriorated significantly in the past five years. But many Canadian anglers have decided to take matters into their own hands. In record numbers, they are finding ways to rescue their favorite streams and to influence political leaders to help protect their vanishing resource. They are also putting pressure on the federal government to tackle some of the more overwhelming problems that require national solutions.

Anglers turned out in record numbers to save the Credit River, a trout stream 70 kilometers from Toronto, home of three million people. There, anglers labored hard to remove dead trees and other obstructions that have changed the stream flow, making it warmer and unsuitable for trout. And they have begun to repair riverbank erosion, which increases the sediment load in streams and destroys spawning sites.

The Credit River is only one of many rivers that have been rescued by these ambitious Canadians. Fifteen years ago the Bow River, a large stream that flows through Calgary, was likened to an open sewer, but local anglers applied pressure to political leaders to ensure minimum-flow dam releases, better waste treatment, and tighter fishing regulations. As a result, the river is now a blue-ribbon trout stream.

Instead of just griping as in the past, people are out their cleaning and improving streams, planting eggs and fry, pushing for mandatory hook and release and other conservation measures. In Ontario, anglers lobbied to institute fishing licenses. As a result of their successful campaign, Ontario fishing licenses now produce millions of dollars used to protect fish and manage their fisheries better.

Another exciting development is the Community Fisheries Involvement Program (CFIP) in Ontario, a cooperative program between private interests groups and the government. The government provides technical advice and some money;

The group provides labor. Thousands of individuals work on such projects as cleaning up streams, building incubation boxes, and anything else to help improve trout and salmon streams.

Ontario’s CFIP is a model program. British Columbia has started a similar program to protect streams. In a single year 250 fishery projects involving 8,000 volunteers from all walks of life are carried out in British Columbia. This idea is spreading fast to other parts of British Columbia and is a good example of what people can do to make a difference in their environment.

Learn the vocabulary by heart:

Vocabulary

1) incredible- неймовірний

2) plain- долина

3) to blanket- покривати

4) to reel - ловити

5) ulcer- виразка

6) tumor- пухлина

7) angler- рибалка

8) overfishing- надмірний вилов риби

9) pollution-забруднення

10) paper mill-целюлозна фабрика