IMPLEMENTS FOR GROWING CROPS
Many types of implements have been developed for the activities involved in growing crops. These activities include breaking ground, planting, weeding, fertilizing, and combating pests.
Ground is broken by ploughs to prepare the seed-bed. A plough consists of a blade-like ploughshare that cuts under, then lifts, turns, and pulverizes the soil. Modern tractor ploughs are usually equipped with two or more ploughshares so that a wide area of ground can be broken at a single sweep. Harrows are used to smooth the ploughed land and sometimes to cover seeds and fertilizer with earth. The disc harrow, which has curved, share-edged steel discs, is used mainly to cut up crop residues before ploughing and to bury weeds during seedbed preparation. Rollers with V-shaped wheels break up clods of soil to improve the aeration of the soil and its capacity for taking in water.
Some cereal crops are still planted by broadcasting seeds-that is, by scattering the seeds over a wide area. Machines for broadcasting usually consist of a long seedbox mounted on wheels and equipped with an agitator to distribute the seeds. Broadcast seeds are not always covered by a uniform or sufficient depth of soil, so seeding is more often done with drills, which produce continuous furrows of uniform depth. Specialized implements called planters are necessary for sowing crops that are planted in rows, such as maize. Maize planters and other similar machines have a special feed wheel that picks up small quantities of grain or separate kernels and places them in the ground.
Fertilizer can be distributed during the winter or shortly before seeding time. Commercial fertilizers are commonly distributed, along with seeds, by drills and planters. Manure is distributed most efficiently by a manure spreader, which is a wagon equipped with a bottom conveyor to carry the fertilizer back to a beater attachment, which disintegrates it and then scatters it on the ground.
After crops have begun to grow, a cultivator is used to destroy weeds and loosen and aerate the soil. A flame weeder, which produces a hot-air blast, can be used to destroy weeds growing around crops, such as cotton, that have stems of tough bark. The weeds are vulnerable to the hot air, but the tough stems protect the crops from damage. Chemaical herbicides applied in the form of a spray or as granules are used extensively for weed control.
Задание №9
Ответьте на вопросы к тексту.
1. What implements do farmers use for growing crops?
2. When can fertilizers be distributed?
3. For what do farmers use manure spreaders?
4. In what way are chemical herbicides applicd into the soil?
Задание №10
Вставьте слова или словосочетания, данные под чертой.
1. Specialized implements, which are called … …, are necessary for sowiry crops.
2. … … is distributed by a manure spreader.
3. Seediny is often done with … …, which produce furrows of uniform depth.
4. … … consists of a blade - like ploushshare.
Manure, drills, a plough, planters.
Задание №11
Закончите предложения.
1. Harrows are used ….
2. Ground is broken by ploughs to prepare ….
3. Chemical herbicides applied in the form of ….
4. Machines for broadcasting consist of ….
III вариант
Задание №1
Употребите глагол to be в нужной форме (am, is, are, was, were, shall be, will be). Переведите предложения.
1. Next year the aim of the farmers... increasing the fertility of the soil, raising the high-yielding crops and improving the productivity of cattle.
2. Last year the weight of the cow before marketing... 300 pounds.
3. The main aim of the agricultural policy of England... the production of more meat than the increase in milk production.
4. Domestic animals... important as the source of the animal protein.
5. Beef production... the most important part of this farm's economy.
Задание №2
Поставьте глагол to have в нужную временную форму
(Present, Past or Future Indefinite) и переведите предложения на русский язык.
1.... you … any hotbeds in your vegetable garden next year?
2.... your family … any domestic animals?
3. They... (not to have) high quality oats seeds last spring.
4. … you... modern farm equipment on your farm?
5.... our city... a park for public recreation in some years?
6. My parents... a bumper apple crop last summer.
Bumper - небывалый
Задание №3
Вставьте нужный предлог и переведите предложения.
1. We do not sow this crop... our region.
2. It is impossible to live... plants.
3. All people get beauty... flowers.
4. I introduce many fertilizers... the soil.
5. This method... cultivation is very important
6. We shall go... the village... summer.
Задание №4
Поставьте глагол в соответствующем времени.
Переведите предложения.
1. Cotton generally (grow) on bottom or irrigated lands.
2. Last summer my sister (to work) at the granary.
3. Acid rains (to destroy) a lot of forests in future.
Задание №5
Вставьте подходящие по смыслу модальные глаголы, переведите предложения.
1.... I work at the laboratory of plant diseases diagnostics when the classes are over?
2. "Land melioration... be improved last year, and what are we having now: no irrigation, no melioration",- reported the farmer angrily.
3. "What are you doing? You... not touch this electronic device!"
4. You... not use Internet in 1950.
Задание №6
Переведите письменно 1, 2 и 6 абзацы текста на русский язык.
Ecology
1. Since ancient times Nature has served Man, being the source of his life. For thousands of years people lived in harmony with environment and it seemed to them that natural riches were unlimited. But with the development of civilization man's interference in nature began to increase.
2. In the 20th century with the rapid growth of science and technology human achievements in conquering nature became so great that man's economic activities began to produce an increasingly negative effect on the biosphere.
3. Large cities with thousands of smoky industrial enterprises appear all over the world today. The by-products of their activity pollute the air we breathe, the water we drink, the land we grow, grain and vegetables. Every year world industry pollutes the atmosphere with about 1000 million tons of dust and other harmful substances. Many cities suffer from smog. Vast forests are cut and burnt in fire. Their disappearance upsets the oxygen balance. As a result some rare species of animals, birds, fish and plants disappear forever, a number of rivers and lakes dry up.
4. The destruction of nature gradually led to the loss of the most essential element of existence, a healthy biological habitat. Environmental pollution increases the cases of diseases, raises the cost of medical services, reduces the life-span of a man. By now the pollution and poisoning of the soil, water and air have reached a critical level.
5. Environmental pollution has become a significant obstacle to economic growth. The discharge of dust and gas into the atmosphere returns to the Earth in the form of "acid rain" and affects crops, the quality of forests, the amount of fish. To this we can add the rise of chemicals, radioactivity, noise and other types of pollution.
6. Economic, social, technological and biological processes have become so interdependent that modem production must be seen as a complex economic system. It is wrong to see economy and ecology as diametrically opposed: such an approach inevitably leads to one extreme or the other.
Задание №7
Ознакомьтесь с содержанием текста и письменно ответьте на следующие вопросы:
1. What is "acid rain"?
2. Is the air which we breathe clean or dirty?
3. What does upset the oxygen balance?
4. What are the results of man's interference info biological habitat?
Задание №8
Прочтите текст и переведите его на русский язык.
IMPLEMENTS FOR HARVESTING CROPS
Insecticides for pest control are applied to soil and crops in the form of granules, dust, or liquid sprays. A variety of mechanical spraying and dusting equipment is used to spread chemicals on crops and fields; the machinery may be self-powered, or drawn and powered by a tractor. In areas where large crops of vegetables and grain are grown, aircraft are sometimes used to dust or spray pesticides.
Chemical pesticides are used in nearly all farming operations undertaken in developed countries. However, increasing concern over the harmful effects that pesticides may have on the environment has led to the use of alternative forms of pest control. For example, farmers use crop rotation to prevent pests that feed on a certain crop. Also, certain pests are controlled by introducing an organism that damages or kills the pests, but leaves the crops unharmed. Finally, some crops are being genetically engineered to be more resistant to pests.
Most cereal crops are harvested by using a combine- a machine that removes the fruiting heads, beats off the grain kernels, and cleans the grain as the combine moves through the fields. The cleaned grain is accumulated in an attached grain tank.
Wheat and other cereal crops are harvested by a combine which, as it moves along the rows, picks the ears from the stalks and husks them. The ears are then transferred either to a sheller, which removes the kernels from the ear, or to a vehicle trailing behind the machine.
Hay harvesting usually requires several steps. First, the hay is cut close to the ground with a mower. After drying in the sun, most hay is baled. In baling, the pickup baler lifts the hay to a conveyor that carries it to a baling chamber, which compresses the hay into bales weighing up to 57 kg or more and ties each bale with heavy t wine or wire. A machine called a field chopper cuts down green hay or field-cured hay for use as animal feed. After being cut down, the hay is stored in a silo and allowed to ferment; this type of animal feed is nutritious and resistant to spoilage.
Specialized machinery is also used to harvest large root crops such as potatoes and sugar beet and to harvest fruits and vegetables. Some mechanical fruit-pickers that are used to harvest tree fruits, such as plums, cherries, and apricots shake the fruit tree, causing the fruit to fall on to a raised catching frame that surrounds the tree. Nut crops can also be harvested in this manner.
Use of agricultural machinery substantially reduces the amount of human lab our needed for growing crops. The average amount of labour required per hectare to produce and harvest corn, hay, and cereal crops has fallen to less than a quarter of what was required only a few decades ago.
Задание №9
Ответьте на вопросы к тексту.
1. In what way are insecticides for pest control applied into the soil?
2. What method do farmers use to prevent pests?
3. What is a combine?
4. What are the steps of haymaking?
Задание №10