Вариант 17

1. Переведите текст на русский язык.

Rain Forest Gets Too Much Rain

San Jose, Costa Rica – Eduardo Carrillo was on a field trip to Corcovado National Park with a group of his biology students when he realized that something was wrong. In just over a mile, the group found five dead monkeys.

Three more were in agony, he said later – emaciated, near death, sitting on the forest floor unable to climb a tree.

“I had never seen something like this,” said Dr. Carrillo, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Costa Rica. At first he suspected yellow fever, which swept through monkey populations in the 1950’s. So he hurried back to San Jose, the capital, and convened a team of scientists, which included wildlife biologists, a microbiologist, a geneticist and a veterinarian.

Tourists in the park, a relatively remote 212-square-mile tropical rain forest preserve that stretches along the Pacific coast and inland, reported sightings of other dead animals, including deer, toucans, macaws and sloths.

Dr. Carrillo and his colleagues, as well as government officials, worried they might have a mini-epidemic on their hands. But tissue samples from Corcovado spider monkeys – Costa Rica’s most endangered species of monkey – sent to a laboratory at the University of Texas for analysis showed no evidence of a virus or other pathogen.

The story of what really happened in Corcovado, or at least the prevailing theory, is less worrisome in the short term than a disease outbreak, but it has the potential to be deadly serious.

Costa Rican researchers think the affected animals starved to death because of a lack of available food sources and an inability to forage for food during several months of extreme rain and cold.

September, October and November brought excessive rainfall, nearly twice the monthly averages, and unusually low temperatures to many parts of Costa Rica, especially the Osa Peninsula, which juts into the Pacific in the south.

Corcovado averages about 24 inches (24”) of rain in September, 31” in October and 20” in November. In 2005, more than 39” fell in the park in September, 59” in October, and 41” in November.

The weather caused several problems for the monkeys. Some fruit trees did not bear fruit during the rainy months. Others produced fruit but it fell to the ground early, leaving nothing on the trees for long periods of time.

Compounding the problem, researchers say, was that monkeys were unable to look for food because of the incessant rain.

“If you have a long period of days where it’s raining, raining, raining, they just stay in the tree waiting, and they don’t eat,” said Grace Wong, a wildlife conservation researcher at National University in San Jose.

The squirrel and capuchin monkeys rely on a diet of fruit, insects, leaves and stems: however, monkeys mainly eat leaves. The spider monkeys consume a diet almost exclusively of fruit, leaving them the most vulnerable

Spider monkeys in Corcovado also appear to have very low genetic diversity, said Dr. Gutierrez-Espeleta, the wildlife population geneticist.

“I’ve been finding that when we measure genetic variability, the spider monkey is the worst in Costa Rica,” he said.

In addition to being hungry, the monkeys that died were severely dehydrated, apparently having been unable to venture down from the trees for water.

This may have stressed their immune systems to the brink, causing parasites and infections that occur normally to become deadly.

“I never saw toucans here before, but they were fighting outside my office because we have banana trees,” said Marleny Jimenez, who owns the Drake Bay Wilderness Resort, a tranquil getaway at the headwaters of the Rio Agujas, about five miles up the coast from Corcovado

At Bosque del Cabo, a 650-acre private rain forest preserve and eco-resort at the southern end of the Osa Peninsula, also near Corcovado, most of the property’s fruit trees did not bear fruit during the excessive rains, said the proprietor, Kim Spier. “We have also noticed that we had many more animals, especially monkeys, than usual that were trying to get into the kitchen or our fruit storage area to steal food,” Ms. Spier wrote in an e-mail message.

The Wildlife Conservation Society and Conservation International provided money for research into the animal deaths and will pay for follow-up visits to the park every other month.

“The lesson is that we should document as much as possible from now on with this kind of event and try to establish a link to the climate change process,” said Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, Costa Rica’s minister of the environment and energy.

For several decades, Costa Rica has had a strong record of natural resource protection, with strict rules on what sort of resource extraction is allowed on private lands. The country uses a gasoline tax to pay landowners for “environmental services” provided by forests on their land, like watershed protection, greenhouse gas mitigation, biodiversity and scenic beauty.

“Costa Rica is committed to reversing the process of climate change,” Mr. Rodriguez said, citing the country’s rain forest preservation efforts, ban on oil drilling and interest in renewable energy. “We don’t see the rest of the world doing a good job,” he added.

Corcovado’s starving monkeys, the Costa Rican scientists worry, may be early messengers of future problems associated with a changing climate. As Ms. Wong, the wildlife conservation expert, says, “Sometimes we can establish a national park and say, “We are taking care of animals here,” but the situation is out of the control of humans.”

2. Переведите следующие словосочетания на русский язык:

1. yellow fever; 6. severely dehydrated;

2. to convene a group of scientists; 7. incessant rain;

3. scenic beauty; 8. compounding the

problem;

4. the most vulnerable; 9. to forage for food;

5. almost exclusively; 10. to jut into the Pacific

3. Найдите в тексте эквиваленты следующих словосочетаний:

1. удаленный от моря; 6. не в состоянии;

2. подвергающиеся опасности; 7. охрана бассейна реки;

3. имеющиеся в наличии источники 8. спокойное прибежище;

пищи; 9. тропический лес;

4. избыточное количество осадков; 10. в верховьях реки

5. необычно низкие температуры;

4. Найдите в тексте однокоренные слова, определите, к какой части речи они относятся, и переведите их на русский язык:

1. able; 6. protect;

2. danger; 7. preserve;

3. usually; 8. proper;

4. add; 9. govern;

5. dead; 10. populate

5. Задайте к предложению все типы вопросов: общий, альтернативный, специальный (а) к подлежащему, б) к второстепенному члену предложения), разделительный:

Tourists in the park, a relatively remote 212-square-mile tropical rain forest preserve that stretches along the Pacific coast and inland, reported sightings of other dead animals, including deer, toucans, macaws and sloths.

6.Найдите и выпишите из данных предложений случаи следующих грамматических явлений: группа времен Indefinite в действительном и страдательном залогах, модальные глаголы и их эквиваленты, степени сравнения прилагательных, притяжательный падеж и множественное число имени существительного:

1. Tissue samples from Costa Rica’s most endangered species of monkey showed no evidence of a virus.

2. In 2005 more than 39 inches fell in the park in September, 59 inches in October and 41 inches in November.

3. The weather caused several problems for the monkeys.

4. The Wildlife Conservation Society provided money for research into the animal deaths and will pay for follow-up visits to the park every other month.

5. The story of what really happened in Corcovado, or at least the prevailing theory, is less worrisome in the short term than a disease outbreak, but it has the potential to be deadly serious.

7. Ответьте на вопросы к тексту:

1. What did Dr. Carrillo suspect at first?

2. Who did the team of scientists consist of?

3. What really happened in Corcovado?

4. What happened to fruit trees during the rainy months?

5. What are the environmental services provided by the rain forests?

6. Where is Corcovado National Park situated?

7. What is the size of Corcovado National Park’s territory?

8. Составьте аннотацию к тексту.

9. Составьте реферат текста (10-15 предложений).

10. Составьте план текста и устно перескажите текст.