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Text 16. The Greenhouse Effect

Active Vocabulary:

The light from the sun comes in, and the greenhouse gases trap some of the heat radiated from the Earth. It‘s an energy balance. The more heat that comes in or the more heat that is trapped, the higher the energy balance is. The bigger the ice fields, the lower the Earth‘s energy balance.

A fundamental error is being spread that, because a global warming gas is transparent to a large amount of the incoming radiation from the sun, it cannot have much effect in terms of warming the planet. This is an error that ignores a real-world fact that incoming radiation is converted to longer wave-lengths as it impacts the atmosphere and the planetary surface. It is these longer wavelengths that are then blanketed from escaping back into space. If it were not for this wave-length conversion (mechanism), the greenhouse gases (GHGs) would not be causing the rise in the level of the Earth‘s energy balance.

The energy balance for the Earth is about 33° Centigrade higher than it would otherwise be if there was no greenhouse effect. The average temperature on Earth is about 16° Centigrade. Thus, it would be more like -17° Centigrade, if there were no greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and, therefore, no greenhouse effect. The best estimate is for climate sensitivity to be 3°С. Values substantially higher than 4.5° C cannot be excluded.

Speech Patterns

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І. Decide which of these statements are true and which are false.

1. Energy balance depends on heat level. 2. GHGs can not cause the rise in the level of the Earth‘s energy balance. 3. The average temperature on Earth is about 18° Celsius. 4. The best temperature for climate is 3° F.

ІІ. Answer the following questions.

1. What is an energy balance? 2. What error information is spread all over the world? 3. What is the difference between a greenhouse effect and a global warming? 4. Is there any danger in the greenhouse effect?

Text 17. Essential “Green” Metals are being Thrown Away

Active Vocabulary:

That old cellphone gathering dust in your cupboard could help the economy go green, if only you could get round to recycling it. A UN report published last week says that too many of the rare metals that are essential for green technologies are locked up in old gadgets we throw away or forget about.

The report, from the United Nations Environment Programme, examined the recycling rates of 60 metals. Globally, 34 of them have recycling rates below 1 per cent, while only 18 have rates above 50 per cent. Among the least-recycled metals are tellurium and gallium – which are used in solar cells – and lithium, a key component of the batteries in electric cars – which is also found in cellphone batteries.

These metals are not yet in heavy use, but will be crucial over the next few decades. While we are unlikely to run out of them in the near future, recycling

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those already in use is less energy-intensive than mining, offering a way to make the green technologies that rely on the metals even greener.

―Most metals can be used over and over again,‖ says leading author Thomas Graedel of Yale University. But this doesn‘t happen, partly because electronic devices are not designed with recycling in mind, and partly because people hang onto their old gadgets for years. This hoarding mentality may be influenced by privacy concerns associated with selling or recycling old electronics that store personal information.

Part of the solution is to collect more metals for recycling, but Graedel says we also need to update our recycling technology. At the moment, about 70 per cent of the metal sent for recycling gets lost during the process.

Speech Patterns

І. Decide which of these statements are true and which are false.

1. UN specialists discovered that some rare metals are thrown away together with food wastes. 2. Gallium is used in producing electric car batteries. 3. Cellphone batteries contain Lithium. 4. During the recycling process, about 50 per cent of rare metals are lost.

ІІ. Answer the following questions.

1. What technologies use most of rare metals? 2. What investigation concerning rare metals was made under the United Nations Environment Programme? 3. Why aren‘t rare metals recycled on a large scale?

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Text 18. Robots

Active Vocabulary:

Ever since the Czech writer Karel Chapek first coined the term ―robot‖ in

1921, there has been an expectation that robots would some day deliver us from the drudgery of hard work. The word – from the Czech ―robota‖, for hard labour and servitude – described intelligent machines used as slaves in his play R.U.R. (Rossum‘s Universal Robots).

Today, over one million household robots, and a further 1.1 million industrial robots, are operating worldwide. Robots are used to perform tasks that require great levels of precision or are simply repetitive and boring. Many also do jobs that are hazardous to people, such as exploring shipwrecks, helping out after disasters, studying other planets and defusing bombs or mines.

Robots are increasingly marching into our lives. In the future, robots will act as carers, medics, bionic enhancements, companions, entertainers, security guards, traffic police and even soldiers.

Domestic invasion.

Despite the longevity of the robot concept, robotic butlers that roam our homes and relieve us from housework still seemed far from reality until very recently. Instead, the vast majority of robots worked in factories performing the industrial functions of brainless machines.

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However, a combination of increased computing power and advances made in the field of artificial intelligence, or AI, have now made software smart enough to make robots considerably more useful.

A recent report published by the United Nations revealed that sales of domestic robots had tripled in a single year. What‘s more, they were well on their way to outstripping their industrial cousins.

While a large portion of the household robots were made up of robotic vacuum cleaners, mops, lawn mowers, pool cleaners, security bots and even robotic baby-rockers – the real boom was in entertainment robots.

Suddenly people were happy to pay for robots that had no specific functional value. Instead these bots, such as Sony‘s Aibo robotic dog and its robopups served as robo-pets and companions, rather than slaves.

This is partly because many domestic chores still pose a real challenge for robots, in terms of dexterity and intelligence, even with seemingly simple chores such as ironing.

Speech patterns

І. Decide which of these statements are true and which are false.

1. Karel Chapek was a Czech engineer. 2. Robots are used to perform boring repetitive work. 3. Robots can be found only at the enterprises. 4. Robots can easily do ironing.

ІІ. Answer the following questions.

1. Where did the word ―robot‖ first appear? 2. How many industrial robots are used today? 3. What household jobs can robots perform? 4. What robots are being used now to entertain their masters?

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Text 19. Raphael Revealed by Raman Spectrography

Active Vocabulary:

A portrait of Madonna and the Child is one of Raphael‘s most famous Renaissance creations. Now it is in a gallery in Dresden, Germany. For many years people have wondered what the provenance of the work is.

Laser Raman spectral analysis of three flecks of paint taken from the Raphael‘s canvas reveals that the unknown artist used a lead-based yellow pigment called massicot (lead II oxide). This is typical of the Renaissance period and it was not used in the early 17th century. There‘s historical evidence that massicot was one of the pigments used by Raphael himself.

Raman analysis is a very good technique for detecting pigments. Using scanning electron microscopy (energy dispersive x-ray microanalysis), scientists identified another yellow – lead-tin yellow – in some of Raphael‘s paintings at the gallery. But it is possible that the artist was also using other yellows.

Later, as the painting has aged, a miniature sketch of the composition has become visible beneath the Madonna‘s scarf. ―It‘s undoubtedly an original in some form,‖ Alan Ward said. Further research could confirm it. But it‘s unlikely there will ever be conclusive proof that Raphael was the artist. ―The more evidence one gets about it, the more firm the conclusions that can be drawn,‖ he said.

Speech Patterns

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І. Decide which of these statements are true and which are false.

1. Raphael made only one work. It is ―Madonna and the Child‖. 2. Using massicot was widely spread during the Renaissance period. 3. Scientists have never detected pigments yet. 4. Scientists could see nothing under the layers of paint on the portrait.

ІІ. Answer the following questions.

1. Where is the portrait of Madonna and the Child now? 2. What is massicot? 3. What did the scientists do to detect pigments? 4. What was Raphael and what do you know about him?

Text 20. How Much Arsenic do You Drink?

Active Vocabulary:

Sex, drugs, rocks, gold, murder, war, mass poisonings, the deaths of Napoleon, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, and others are all linked by one element – arsenic! Arsenic has been around since the beginning of time and the word has become a metaphor for poison with associated shock value.

But nowadays Japanese rice-based drinks are becoming a central part of Western diets, such as vegan diets. However, the levels of toxic inorganic arsenic contained in these types of drinks could, in fact, be cause for concern.

High levels of arsenic have recently been found in rice-based food. Now, researchers have found that some drinks and syrups contain high levels of arsenic too. ―The rice-derived products we investigated are consumed by millions of people in Japan on a regular basis, and are increasingly becoming an important part of the diet of health conscious consumers in Western countries,‖ says

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Signes-Pastor. However, regularly including these types of drinks in the diet could add as much as 23% of the daily tolerance level of arsenic.

Although in isolation this may not seem of massive concern, for people already taking high levels of arsenic from rice and sea-weed based products this could mean exceeding maximum daily tolerance levels.

Similar products derived from barley or millet contain much lower levels of arsenic and could be used as an alternative to the rice based drinks. This could be particularly important for people who already eat a lot of rice and sea-weed products.

The experiments showed that regulations for inorganic arsenic in foodstuffs and non-water drinks should be re-examined. Regulations for arsenic in foodstuffs and non-water drinks may lead to a reduction in the incidence of arsenicattributable diseases, including various cancers.

Speech Patterns

І. Decide which of these statements are true and which are false.

1. Toxic inorganic arsenic could cause cancer. 2. The rice-derived products consumed by millions of people on a regular basis are less important part of the diet of health conscious consumers. 3. The products derived from barley and millet contain much more arsenic than rice-based food. 4. Contemporary regulations for inorganic arsenic in foodstuffs and non-water drinks should be admitted.

ІІ. Answer the following questions.

1. What do you know about vegan diets? 2. What food contains high levels of arsenic? 3. Why is arsenic dangerous? 4. What should scientists do in order to protect people against arsenic-attributable diseases?

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APPENDIX V. UNITS CONVERSION TABLES

Weight (or mass) conversion

Area Conversion

Volume (or Capacity) Conversion

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APPENDIX VI. РОЗМОВНІ ФОРМУЛИ

I. Прочитайте зразки розмовних формул і складіть діалоги. Positive requests (Ввічливі запитання)

Positive replies (Позитивні відповіді)

Negative replies (Негативні відповіді)

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