Economic-technological development and ecology problems

Task 1. What do you know about ecological problems and what solutions can you propose?

Task 2. Have you mentioned any connection between economic-technological development and ecology problems in everyday life?

Task 3. You are going to read about economic-technological development and ecology problems. Define whether the following statements based on the text are true “+” or false “-“.

1. During centuries man was trying to live in harmony with nature, but did not survive.

2. A lot of animal and plant species suffer from industrial activity of a man.

3. The main problem of environmental protection is the acid rains.

4. To solve the ecological problem we have to work on cooperation.

For millennia man had to struggle against nature in order to survive and develop. For many thousands of years man remained weak while nature was omnipotent.

However as economy developed, the scientific and technologi­cal revolution increased the correlation of forces between man and nature changed. Man gradually grew so strong that he dared to declare himself the "king of nature" and contemplated conquering and remoulding nature to his liking. In his conquer of nature man became so great that his economic achievements began to have an increasingly negative effect on nature, on the biosphere.

Road and factory constructions, industrial development take away to seven million hectares of land every year. Forest disappears at a rate of 20 hectares a minute. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, 76 ani­mal species and several hundred plant species of the Earth became extinct in the last 60 years alone.

Today animals and plants perish not so much due to their physical extermination by hunting, fishing, or open-cast mining, as due to the production of chemical and other industrial pollutants, poisoning the biosphere.

Each year the world economy ejects into the atmosphere over 200 million of carbon monoxide, more than 50 million tons of diver­se hydrocarbons, 120 million tons of ash and nearly 150 million tons of sulphur dioxide. They fall back upon the Earth in the form of "acid rains".

Expansion of man's activities in outer space and mastering nuclear energy make the relationship between man and nature still more complicated.

In view of this nature and environment protection is one of the major ecological problems. Today it is clear that economic, social, technological and biological processes are closely interrelated. We must consider modern production as a complicated ecological — economic system. It is only a strictly scientific approach to the industrial-technological development that can solve ecological problems.

Nature and environment protection is one of the major functi­ons of the state, reflecting concept of society's atti­tude to the environment. It became a constitutional principle. The State Committee for Hydro-meteorological and Environmental Control and other Government agencies together with public organisations supervise permanently ecological conditions in the country. The ma­jority of states support initiatives and proposals of our country on Nature Conservation. Today more and more people in various count­ries begin to understand that countries both far and near one ano­ther are ecologically interdependent. Therefore all nations must cooperate in solving global problems of ecology.

Task 4. Find in the text equivalents to the following words and expressions:

боротися, вижити та розвиватись, науково технологічна революція, економічні досягнення, дорого будування, хімічні та промислові забруднювачі, чадний газ, відкритий космос, атомна енергія, відношення суспільства до оточуючого середовища, конституційний закон, екологічно взаємозалежні країни

Task 5. Translate into Ukrainian the following words and word combinations:

in order to, to be omnipotent, the correlation of forces, to declare, conquering and remoulding nature, at a rate of, animal species, to become extinct, to perish, hunting, fishing, open-cast mining, diver­se hydrocarbons, acid rain, nature and environment protection, global problems of ecology

Task 6. Explain next words and word combinations in English without translation:

protection, pollutants, biosphere, ecologically interdependent, outer space

Task 7. Translate the following sentences into English:

1. З розвитком науки та технології людина змогла підкорити природу до своїх уподобань та потреб.

2. Щороку через людську діяльність зникають сотні кілометрів лісів, багато видів рослин та тварин.

3. Промислові та хімічні забруднювачі погіршують стан навколишнього середовища.

4. Держава має створити єдину промислово-екологічну систему для контролю стану навколишнього середовища.

Task 8. Put the verbs in brackets in Past Simple or Past Continuous Tense:

1. Students (to spend) 3 weeks at the research laboratory last winter.

2. The environmental situation in Ukraine (to get worse).

3. State (to carry out) different laws, reflecting concept of society's atti­tude to the environment.

4. It (to rain) all day and the roads were very wet.

5. Last spring (to be) wonderful. The sun (to shine) and the birds (to sing).

Task 9. First, fill in the table. Then choose five verbs and make sentences using the past simple:

Infinitive	Past	Past Participle
be
become
build
do
get
go
have
keep
make
write

Task 10. Memorize the following words and word combinations:

1.	ash	зола
2.	conquer	підкорення, завоювання
3.	constitutional principle	конституційна норма
4.	to contemplate	розглядати, вважати
5.	correlation of forces	співвідношення сил
6.	to dare	насмілюватись
7.	to declare	проголошувати, наголошувати
8.	to disappear	зникати
9.	diver­se	різноманітний
10.	environment protection	захист навколишнього середовища
11.	factory constructions	будівництво заводів
12.	industrial pollutants	промислові забруднювачі
13.	interdependent	взаємозалежність
14.	millennia	тисячоліття
15.	omnipotent	всемогутній, величезний
16.	open-cast mining	відкрита розробка
17.	to remould	змінювати, підлаштовувати
18.	to perish	гинути, зникати
19.	physical extermination	фізичне винищення
20.	plant	рослина, завод
21.	to remain	залишатися
22.	scientific approach	науковий підхід
23.	to struggle	боротися
24.	to survive	вижити, продовжити існування
25.	weak	слабкий

Lesson 6.