& 1. Read the introduction to the unit and answer the questions:
1. Which two kinds of natural resources ensure the well-being of our civilisation?
2. Since when have people lacked mineral resources?
The well-being of our society depends on the resources provided by the earth. There are removable resources such as timber, food, and water, and non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels and minerals; the earth also provides maintenance of the life-support systems such as pollution absorption capacity. Until the world population reached 3 billion the means the earth provided were adequate. However, the present growth in population coupled with industrial growth has caused all the resources, which are limited, to be outstripped by human demands. And they are not just overexploited to a small degree: both society and the natural world are being destroyed at such a rate that the very survival of our species on this planet is now seriously threatened.
& 2. Read the text and find words which are similar in meaning to the following. Then answer the questions:
| 1. made to think of |
| 2. very sadly |
| 3. endangered, the ones that soon may no longer exist |
| 4. the place where animals or plants live |
| 5. cutting down trees for wood |
| 6. a factory where trees are cut into flat pieces |
| 7. gone down in number |
| 8. non-existent |
| 9. an extremely beautiful place |
| 10. a small light |
| 11. people concerned about saving the natural world |
| 12. greatly |
| 13. very good, splendid |
| 14. destroyed |
| 15. hit sth extremely hard with a lot of damage or noise |
ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION
The chin may be too large and the arms too long, but when you look at an orangutan, you are often reminded of someone you know. And there's a simple reason. Humans share 97% of their genes with orangutans.
Orangutans are found mostly in the rainforests in Indonesia, on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. Tragically, the survival of these beautiful, human-like animals is being threatened. In the last fifty years, much of their natural habitat has disappeared. Nearly 80% of the rainforests in Indonesia have been destroyed, mainly by logging but also by forest fires.
In parts of the rainforests, the noise of trees can be heard crashing to the ground every three or four minutes. According to studies by the WWFN (Worldwide Fund for Nature), as soon as trees reach a certain size - 20 cm in diameter - they are cut down and transported to the nearest port ready to be shipped as hardwood to the developed world, particularly the USA.
The result of so much logging is that orangutans have been forced out of their natural habitat so rapidly that they may be completely wiped out. Their numbers have declined by 50% in the last 20 years. Fewer than 25,000 orangutans were recorded in 2001 and today there are only 15,000. For Indonesian wildlife this is a continuing tragedy. Says one wildlife officer in Borneo: 'If orangutans become extinct, part of our paradise will be destroyed.'
But there is a glimmer of hope. A few years ago in Gunung Leuser National Park in Borneo, where the orangutans' natural habitat was being severely threatened, conservationists insisted that illegal logging should be stopped and tried to ban the international sale of hardwood from Indonesian rainforests. By December 2002 the sawmills there had been closed down and illegal logging had been vastly reduced.
The question is: can anything more be done to save our magnificent red-haired cousin from extinction before it is too late?
s 3. Answer these questions on the text.
| 1. Why are orangutans like humans? | 4. What has happened to the orangutan population in the last 20 years? |
| 2. Who buys the hardwood? | |
| 3. Why is logging dangerous for | |
| orangutans? | 5. And to the sawmills in Borneo? |
@ 4. Complete the factfile about orangutans:
| Animal in danger: Where found: Natural habitat: Estimated existing number: Reasons for decline: Recent measure: |
Ç 
5. Look at the pictures and match them with the names of some endangered species from the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation also known as Red Book:
 1
|  3
|  4
|
a) Amur Sturgeon, b) Puffin, c) Golden Eagle, d) Ladoga seal
_ 6. Talk about these questions:
1. What animals, birds or fish in our country are endangered?
2. What should people do to save them?
Begin like that: To my mind,...
| one of the best ways to protect endangered species is | to prevent their decline and deterioration to maintain healthy populations of fish, wildlife, and plant species to promote broad-based conservation efforts |
| Other ideas: to save all our natural resources, to stop interfering in vital breeding and behavioral activities, donate to organisations protecting wildlife |
# 7. Fill in the gaps with the following words: ecosystem, back, chain, forever, disastrous
Once they are gone, they are gone 1._________ and there is no going 2._________. Losing even a single species can have 3._________ impacts on the rest of the 4._________, because the effects will be felt throughout the food 5._________.
NATURAL RESOURCES
s 8. Answer the questions in this quiz.
1. You decide to fly to an island 5,000 miles away for a holiday. How many trees would you need to plant to make up for the C02 emissions produced by the flight?
| A. 0.2 | B. 20 | C. 2 | |
| 2. Which is the most environmentally friendly way to clean your clothes? | |||
| A. Hand-wash the clothes in hot water. | |||
| B. Take them to the dry cleaners. | |||
| C. Machine-wash the clothes in cold water. | |||
| 3. You are tidying up your house in the evening, going back and forth between the bedroom, kitchen and living room, spending five to ten minutes in each room as you sort out the clutter. What is the best way to make sure your lights aren't needlessly wasting energy? | |||
| A Keep the lights on as you go from room to room until the job is done. | |||
| В Turn the lights off every time you leave a room and then on again when | |||
| you return. | |||
| 4. You decide to cook a baked potato for lunch. Which is the most energy-efficient way of cooking the potato? | |||
| A Put it in an electric oven to cook slowly for an hour. | |||
| В Quickly zap it in the microwave. | |||
| 5. You want to really make a significant contribution to the reduction of C02 emissions. Which of these would be of the most benefit over the course of a year? | |||
| A Taking the train instead of driving a car. | |||
| В Hanging your washing out to dry rather than using the tumble dryer. | |||
| С Working from home one day a week. |
8 9. Listen to the answers to find out how environmentally aware you are.
$ 10. Find in the unit English equivalents for the following Russian words and phrases. поведенческий, размножение, пищевая цепь, защитники природных ресурсов, уменьшаться, пагубный, выделение (углекислоты), вымерший, среда обитания, (прекратить) вмешательство, испытывать нехватку, система жизнеобеспечения, заготовка леса, использовать природные ресурсы выше уровня их естественного восстановления, сурово, неумолимо (об угрозе исчезновения), (само) выживание, угрожать, трагически, стереть с лица земли.