книги / Модели речевой коммуникации. Устная речевая практика английского языка для студентов-переводчиков

summer and autumn the prevailing wind is reversed except for the dry north-west; allowing moist, warm air from the South China Sea to move north. Rainfall varies considerably from year to year in inland areas leading to risk of drought or flood, particularly during the summer. Typhoons from the South China Sea are a frequent hazard in late summer and autumn, affecting most commonly Fujian Guangdong and Zhejiang.

[All passages adapted from: http://www.chinasage.info/geography.htm]

Vocabulary:

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Task 2. Read about the results of the conference “Global Fight for Natural Resources ‘Has Only Just Begun’”, United Nations University, and prepare your speech on this topic.

“Global Fight for Natural Resources ‘Has Only Just Begun’”

The global battle for natural resources – from food and water to energy and precious metals – is only beginning, and will intensify to proportions that could mean enormous upheavals for every country.

Sir David King, former chief scientific adviser to the United Kingdom’s government, told the Guardian: “We are nowhere near realizing the full impact of this yet. We have seen the first indications – rising food prices, pressure on water supplies, a land grab by some countries for mining rights and fertile agricultural land, and rising prices for energy and for key resources [such as] metals. But we need to do far more to deal with these problems before they become even more acute, and we are not doing enough yet.”

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Countries that are not prepared for this rapid change will soon – perhaps irrevocably – lose out, with serious damage to their economies and way of life.

Amartya Sen, a Nobel prize-winning economist, said that the free market would not necessarily provide the best solution to sharing out the world’s resources. Governments would need to step in, he said, to ensure that people had access to the basics of life, and that the interests of businesses and the financial markets did not win out over more fundamental human needs.

But Nabarro said there had been important successes – that governments had agreed to strive for the elimination of hunger and more sustainable agriculture, including an emphasis on small farmers, improvements in nutrition (in both developed and developing countries), and cutting the harmful waste of resources that is currently plaguing economies.

Several speakers joined him in highlighting the problems of waste and inefficiency – the developed world tends to be profligate in its use of natural resources, because most western companies have in the last century experienced few limits on their ability to access raw materials in peacetime, thanks to the opening up of global trade.

But this is rapidly changing. One of the first indications has been the soaring price of fossil fuel energy in the past decade, which has had severe economic impacts but which could easily be lessened if countries and companies took simple measures to be more energyefficient.

If price signals are not enough to change behaviour, then other methods such as government intervention may be needed.

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Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, urged rich countries to work together with poor developing nations to ensure that the best was made of the natural resources, and to remedy situations where scarcity leads to human suffering.

[All passages adapted from: https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/global-fight-for-natural-resources-has- only-just-begun]

Vocabulary:

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To strive for the elimination to work to get rid of something of something

Topic 9. Nature in Different Countries: Flora and Fauna

“America’s National Parks”

In August 2015, the Donnelsons took off with little more than some camping gear, outdoor clothes, backpacks and a cooler. They have gazed over the desert and mountains from the top of 13,063-foot

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Wheeler Peak in Great Basin, hiked through moss-draped rainforests in Olympic, and camped everywhere from the dune fields of Colorado to Haleakala’s crater in Hawaii.

The Donnelsons were part of a swell of adventurers who were visiting all 59 national parks in celebration of the Park Service’s 100th birthday. In interviews, travelers offered many similar explanations for undertaking their journeys: to have grand adventures, to see cool and beautiful things, to seize the moment and live a life without regrets. But adventures aren’t always easy. They are also feats of grit and endurance, and this year’s crop of park trippers has endured plenty of discomforts so far.

Some get demoralized camping in multiday downpours, and others have endured stomach aches and sustained injuries from running and hiking. In Arches, one couple staved off an onslaught of enormous spiders that emerged during a storm. Another said they sometimes overdose on the “amazingness” of the parks and head to a movie theater for a break from the awe and wonder.

But all of that is outweighed by the parks themselves. One traveler spoke reverently of walking alone though 9 inches of fresh snow on Sentinel Dome in Yosemite and watching a bison shake off dust in the waning evening light in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Another has relished sunsets in desert parks, where the light tints the rocks shades of bronze and terracotta.

And Elizabeth Donnelson recalled sitting on a beach near her campsite in Dry Tortugas National Park after the last ferry departed with day-tripping visitors. “It was the absolute perfect temperature, the bluest water I’ve ever seen – like teal blue, better than Hawaii – white sand, and it’s just a small beach with no one else there,” she said. “There were maybe 10 people on the entire island, and I had this feeling of complete peace, like this is what a national park is supposed to be.”

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Vocabulary:

To seize the moment to make the most of a moment (Latin: carpe diem)

Task 1: Dialogue - Talk about natural and geographical wonders. What do you consider as a wonder and why?

Task 2: Read the essay “Natural wonders” by Connor S. Odekirk and tell what ideas and arguments you like or dislike in this essay.

Natural Wonders

“Let us not take this world for granted. I do not take tonight for granted.” The words uttered so assuredly, so plainly and unapologetically by Leonardo di Caprio on his acceptance of the Academy Award that eluded him for so long ring profoundly in the face of those who would still dare to deny climate change. Di Caprio adds his name to the already long list of celebrities, scientists, and politicians who have spoken out against the threat of global warming, a threat that challenges the very existence that we

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all do take for granted. This is by no fault of our own, mind you, for I believe it is outside the scope of our reason and understanding to actively question on a daily basis our own existence. The fact remains, however, that we nonetheless assume that such life and existence will always, well, exist. It is all we have ever known, though this is changing. As Di Caprio pointed out, 2015 was the hottest year in recorded history. The world is slowly being exploited and destroyed by the very hands to which it gave life, to which it continues giving life.

I have always loved the outdoors, a setting in which I might (can) be an adventurer, sportsman, and human to the highest degree. My recent trip to Russia’s Lake Baikal, the largest fresh-water lake in the world and a wonder that most Russians would kill to experience, has me reflecting on the truly little amount of my own country that I have seen. My mind drifts to the American West and the Pacific Coast, regions of the United States to which I have never been but have always dreamed about. Yosemite National Park in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, perhaps America’s Baikal, teases me from photos half-a-world away. The magic of a place so real and penetrating that even Instagram filters seem to be genuine. To dance with wolves in the winters of Yellowstone, to feel the spray of Old Faithful erupting, to make one’s way slowly by mule to the basin of the Grand Canyon – such beauty should be known and actualized through the memory of lived experience, not admired from afar on another lucky traveler’s social media account. I want to gaze upon photos of the towering El Capitan and Half Dome only if they are my own, because then I will have finally seen the cliffs the way they are intended – in the flesh, under the stars and sky whose limits know no bounds. They may not be there one day though. They may be changed. They may be gone. If the threat to these wonders is not reason enough to acknowledge

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climate change, then what is? For if not even stone giants, whom Father Time has never crippled, can stand up to a world being destroyed, what can? Who can? Can we? I want to see Yosemite and Yellow Stone and the Grand Canyon in person, before pictures on a romanticized Instagram account are all that we will ever know of them, before memory fades to filters and hash tags.

Vocabulary:

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Task 3. Prepare your final speech on “Natural wonders”.

Topic 10. Seasons, Climate, Weather. Global Warming

Task 1. Dialogue - debate with your partner how climate and weather of your home country (cities, towns, settlements) have changed over the last 10 years.

Task 2. Read the passages from the article of NASA about the evidence of global warming and summarize it.

The Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 650,000 years there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat, with the abrupt end of the last ice age about 7,000 years ago

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