PRESERVING THE ENVIRONMENT.

1. Recently more and more attention has been focused on the problem of preserving the environment. Over the past forty years or so the living standards has increased due to technological progress in general but at the same time quality of many people's lives has deteriorated in some respects because of this very technological progress.

2. People everywhere have become aware of noise. The problem has been brought into sharp focus by the discovery that many teenagers ^l have suffered permanent hearing loss following long exposures to amplified rock music, and by public concern about the effects of sonic booms that would be caused by supersonic transports (SST) if they were put into commercial service. Those people living near airports are constantly attacked by the noise of increasingly larger and more powerful jet aircraft and SST taking off and landing.

4. We have ugly buildings which have appeared in towns and cities. Some of these are blocks of flats-high - rise buildings dwelled by hundreds of people. They are being built because of high price city land. Air pollution in such districts as well as the problem of domestic wastes disposal grows in proportion to the population.

5. The automobile is a convenient means of transport, but it has a negative influence on the environment. The motor car has been responsible for many changes in the environment. On the one hand it has brought mobility to millions of people but on the other it has led to the construction of more and more noisy and dangerous roads and has polluted the atmosphere with exhaust fumes. This followed very bad winter in which many people with bronchial complaints became very ill or died through the effects of a mixture of smoke, fog and fumes known as "smog".

6. While towns and cities have become larger and more densely populated, the rural areas have lost most of their population owing to the need for fewer workers in agriculture. The countryside has also been affected by the large-scale use of insecticides and pesticides as well as herbicides. For one thing the killing of insects has resulted in a loss of balance in the ecology, insects, although a nuisance to farmers, provide food for birds. Many people are afraid that fruit and vegetables sprayed with chemicals may have some poisonous effect upon the people who eat them.

7. Some decades ago, however, certain counter measures against the destruction of the environment have been introduced. One of the first acts of Parliament to counter pollution was the Clean Air Act which opened the way to smokeless zones in large towns and cities. Some European rivers which are fouled up with industrial chemical waste are now being cleaned and fish which could not live there a few years ago can be caught again.

2. Find the English equivalents fromthe text.

Смесь дыма, тумана и паров; инсектицид; ухудшаться; технический прогресс; химикаты; промышленные отходы; засорять; шум; oхрана (сохранение) окружающей среды; бороться с загрязнением; выхлопные газы; бездымная зона; нарушение экологического равновесия; ядовитый.

3. Match the words in A with the corresponding phrases in B:

4. What idea corresponds to every passage of the text?

a) Light pollution is rather new kind of pollution;

b) Overcrowding in the cities leads imperceptibly to many problems;

c) The indirect effect of insecticides is much worse as they attack not only insects;

d) The automobile needs another source of energy;

e) Noise pollution influences almost all people living in the industrial centers;

f) Technological progress has twofold relationship to human being.

5. Answer the questions to the text:

1. What kind of comparatively new pollution is it told about?

2. What does the author mean saying that quality of many people's lives has deteriorated in some respects?

3. What changes in the environment is automobile responsible for?

4. Is the application of insecticides and pesticides banned everywhere nowadays?

5. Why do people protest the using of insecticides?

5. Is smog the constant companion of all big cities?

6. What country is mentioned in the text as a successful one to counter pollution?