Environmental Protection. Работа с текстами "Environmental Problems" и "Our planet Earth"

there is a good saying: you needn’t strive for cleanliness, you should take a bloom and sweep your street.

3. Read the text.

Environmental Problems.

Environmental problems have become exceptionally acute in the country. For a long time too little attention was paid to the environment.

In effort to meet production goals the ministries stinted on measures to protect the environment from industrial pollution. As a result, about half of the water sources in the country are polluted with industrial or communal waste. In more than a hundred towns and cities with populations of some fifty million, the concentration of harmful substances in the air is over ten times the admissible level.

For dozens of years the national economy focused on large projects, including giant projects in what was called the transformation of nature. Blunders were committed that caused environmental disasters.

Of the acute problems causing public concern the environment safety of nuclear and hydraulic power engineering is beginning to assume paramount importance. Public anxiety has grown particularly after the Chernobyl disaster. Another reason is the adverse effect of flatland hydropower stations on the environment.

The list of serious environmental problems could be continued.

In recent years people have become more sensitive towards the environment. Still more public organizations and unofficial environmentalist movements have bee established with every passing year.

In 1987 a “Green Peace” public commission has been set up. Its main goal is to combine the people’s efforts for peace with the huge and ever mounting movement for nature conservation. Another area of its work is to set up and strengthen cooperation among environmentalists from many similar organizations.

Russia and the United States are carrying out joint projects to study and protect the environmental systems of the Arctic and Subarctic regions, and also to study some of the natural processes in the permafrost zone.

4. Find English equivalents to the following Russian word combinations in the text.

Исключительно острый; преследуя производственные цели; бытовые отходы; вредные вещества; допустимый уровень; грубая ошибка; вызывающий озабоченность общественности; сооружение атомных и гидроэлектростанций; приобретать первостепенное значение; неблагоприятное воздействие; гидроэлектростанции, построенные на равнине; проявлять внимание; неофициальное движение в защиту окружающей среды; все возрастающий; сохранение природы; совместные проекты; зона вечной мерзлоты.

OUR PLANET EARTH.

The planet Earth is only a tiny part of the universe, but it’s the only place where human beings can live.

Today, our planet is in serious danger. Acid rains, global warming, air and water pollution, overpopulation are the problems that threaten human life on Earth. Who is to blame for the disaster? The answer is simple: all of us. Our forests are disappearing because they are cut down or burnt. If this trend (тенденция) continues, one day we won’t have enough oxygen