Notes onthe text

1. not to mention a tremendous number of living organisms – не говоря уже об огромном количестве живых организмов;

2. throughout the ages – веками (на протяжении столетий);

3. trade winds – пассаты.

Exercise 4. Answer the following questions:

1. What minerals can we find in sea water?

2. Which layer of the sea water contains more salt, the surface layer or the bottom one?

3. What does the degree of salinity of sea water depend on?

4. What substances do rivers carry into the ocean?

5. In which zone is the strongest salinity ob­served?

Exercise 5. a) Form adjectives of the following nouns using the suffix - al:

monument, nation, profession, centre, finance, commerce, addition.

b) Read and translate the words, say what part of speech they are:

fresh – fresh­ening; identify – identical; construct – construction; deposit – deposition; direct – direction; accumulate – accumulation; compare – comparatively; grow – growth; press – pressure; concentrate – concentration; biology – biological; active – activity; suspend – suspension.

Exercise 6. Change the following sentences into the Passive Voice:

1. They have estimated that 451,702 cubic kilometres of sea water evaporate every year.

2. The river water brings 2,735,000,000 metric tons of dissolved salts to the ocean annually.

3. Rivers carry vast quantities of suspended mud and silt into the ocean.

4. We can find gold, silver and radium in sea water.

5. Large portion of marine animals use phosphate and carbonate of lime to form their shells or bones.

6. Marine animals also absorb nitrogen compounds and oxygen.

Exercise 7. Translate the following sentences into Russian:

1. The salinity of the Azov Sea is a half of the common salinity of seas.

2. The Red Sea which is located between the two torrid deserts – the Nubian and the Arabian ones is the saltiest sea in the world.

3. It is a well-known fact that the water in the Caspian Sea is greatly freshened by the river water.

4. Big rivers freshening sea water enrich it with "living salts".

5. In the slightly salt water life devel­ops much better than in salt or fresh water.

Exercise 8. Translate the following sentences into English:

1. Морская вода – это раствор многих солей и газов, а не просто вода в обычном понимании.

2. Ученые подсчитали, что ежегодно испаряется 451 702 км³ морской воды, которая возвращается в море в виде дождя и речной воды.

3. Морские водоросли, произрастающие в верхних слоях морской воды, поглощают из нее большое количество нитратов и фосфатов.

4. Панцири и кости морских животных образуются из фосфатов, карбонатов и извести, которые являются составной частью морской воды.

5. Степень солености морской воды зависит от многих причин.