Под угрозой исчезновения

Пятая часть обитающих на планете позвоночных животных находится на грани вымирания. Ученые назвали текущее вымирание шестым самым масштабным на планете. Без преувеличения можно сказать, что сохранение некоторых видов зависит исключительно от России.

Угроза вымирания нависла и над белыми медведями. Варварская охота на животных и глобальное потепление стремительно снижает численность мишек на планете.

Многолетние наблюдения свидетельствуют, что из-за таяния льдов медведям ежегодно приходится преодолевать все большие расстояния между областями ледяного покрова и сушей. Также медленно, но верно убивает медведей промышленность, которая все ближе подбирается к местам их обитания и загрязнения среды обитания.

Ученые настаивают, что тревожная ситуация не только в России, но и по всему миру. Так что вымирание может принять массовый характер, и о многих живых существах можно будет узнать только из книг и научно-популярных фильмов.

Add new vocabulary to your vocabulary notebook. ?

1. Read the text again and summarize it in English. Make use of the phrases from the box.

Divisions of Zoology

· Zoography, also known as descriptive zoology, is the applied science of describing animals and their habitats.

· Comparative anatomy studies the structure of animals.

· The physiology of animals is studied under various fields including anatomy and embryology

· The common genetic and developmental mechanisms of animals and plants is studied in molecular biology, molecular genetics and developmental biology

· Ethology is the study of animal behavior.

· The ecology of animals is covered under behavioral ecology.

· Evolutionary biology of both animals and plants is considered in the articles on evolution, population genetics, heredity, variation, Mendelism, reproduction.

· Systematics, cladistics, phylogenetics, phylogeography, biogeographyandtaxonomy classify and group species via common descent and regional associations.

· The various taxonomically-oriented disciplines such as mammalogy, herpetology, ornithology identify and classify species, and study the structures and mechanisms specific to those groups. Entomology is the study of insects, by far the largest group of animals.

· Palaeontology, including all that may be learnt of ancient environments.

Progress test

1. Cross out the odd word.

a) endangered, extinct, threatened, decline

b) cranes, rails, rodents, parrots

c) to damage, to safeguard, to protect, to conserve

d) overexploitation, habitat destruction, captive breeding, exotic species invasion

e) materialistic, thoughtful, irrational, selfish

f) marine sanctuary, wildlife refuge, forest reserve, paper park

2. Do the crossword. Find the key word.

1) the natural home of a plant or animal

2) kept in a place and is not allowed to leave; as a collocation used with breeding

3) an animal that eats flesh

4) one that soon may no longer exist

5) animals and plants growing in natural conditions

6) something that can be easily harmed or hurt

7) a collocation with the word game; a large area of land that is designed for wild animals to live in safely

8) to save something or someone from being harmed or destroyed

9) a duty to be in charge of someone or something, so that you make decisions and can be blamed if something bad happens

10) when a particular type of animal or plant stops existing

11) the business of organizing holidays to natural areas, especially areas that are far away such as the rain forest, where people can visit and learn about the area in a way that will not hurt the environment

12) a formal written agreement between two or more countries or governments

3. Write the word and the Russian equivalent next to each transcription.

e.g. [ˈspiːʃiːz] species - род

a) [ˈvəːtɪbrət]

b) [ɪnˈvəːtɪbrət]

c) [ɪnˈsɛktɪvɔː]

d) [ˈprʌɪmeɪt]

e) [dɪˈklʌɪn]

f) [ˈkaptʃə(r)]

g) [əˈkwatɪk]

4. Fill in the correct modal verb expressing necessity into the sentences below. Explain your choice and specify the meaning of the sentences.

a) Preservation of environment ………… be every individual’s responsibility.

b) Humanity ……… face with over-utilisation of nature which has its ill-effects.

c) Maintaining the ecological balance ……… help in preventing natural disasters.

d) We …… awareness on preservation of environment more than ever before.

e) People ……… engage themselves in building a healthy society by involving themselves in activities relating to upkeep of environment.

f) The faith in ever-renewing nature ……… be abandoned before it is too late.

g) As overharvesting represented the biggest threat to wildlife, it …… be restricted or banned.

h) We ………. to encourage not only aesthetic appreciation of nature but also responsible governance.

Listening transcript

Reporter: During the Earth’s history, may be 5 times, mass extinctions have taken place caused by natural phenomena, the last one was at the end of the Cretaceous Period, about 65 million years ago. You have said, we are facing a sixth mass extinction. Why do you believe that?

Peter Raven: Well, the reduction of habitat all over the world, not only by cutting tropical rain forests, but by many other factors, having to do with human population growth and affluence consumption are reducing the places that animals and plants can live, and when we look at the relationship between what’s going to be left and how many species there are, we come pretty clearly to that conclusion.

Reporter: Conservation biologists estimate at least one species becomes extinct each day. How does that rate compare to background extinction, the kind of extinction that naturally occurs as life on the Earth evolved?

Peter Raven: If you look at the historical rates of extinction of birds and mammals which we can measure over the last, let’s say, 3 hundred years, you’ll find that extinction is running at about a hundred or a couple of hundred times the rate at which species were lasting over the last 65 million years, you could follow them when they come and go and then so far record. And if you add to that the destruction inhabitants, the pollution, and all the other things that are going on in the world, you can easily project that accelerating to thousands times than normal rate of extinction over the last 65 million years.

Reporter: Why do you think those causes are directly responsible for extinction?

Peter Raven: The species need room. Over the last 50 years the human population has grown from 2,5 billion to 6 billion. About a third of the forests that were around 50 years ago, have been cut, the characteristics of the atmosphere have been changed radically. In other words human beings are changing the world much more rapidly than they have done it in any past time. We estimate up to about a quarter of the species on Earth may be either extinct or on the way to extinction. Two thirds of all the species on land being extinct by that time is equivalent as to what happened at the end of Cretaceous Period. Only in this case the extinction is driven by one species alone – ourselves and our activities.

Reporter: Let’s say the people of the world appoint you biologist tzar, what would you decide needs to be done to slow down or prevent the sixth mass extinction?

Peter Raven: Well, we need to look at all the factors that are limiting life on Earth. In other words we need to look at all the factors that attack living systems. In a place like the United States, where we live we can make a huge difference by the choices we make to live more conservative lives, to waste less, to take the bicycle, and set off the cars to work and so forth. We can make a big difference by engaging in the political process. We can make a big difference by caring about organizations that support the environment. There are lots of things we can do to make our community. The world that we leave to pass on to children and grandchildren in a very real sense is kind of depend on those choices that we do make.

(Taken from Are We Facing A Mass Extinction? By Peter Raven http://www.glrc.org/mp3/1999/06/28/graham.mp3)

(3.081)

Keys

Lead in

1) Zoology means “the study of wildlife”.

2) It is the branch of science that studies animals.

3) Whales, monkeys, birds, frogs, crocodiles, fish.

4) Whales, mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish

5) They all refer to vertebrates, that is they have a backbone.

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