Louise Hidalgo considers life in the 21st century, with two-kilometre high buildings, and Japanese cities that touch the sky.

Imagine a building one third of the height of Mount Everest, built by robots, and containing a whole city. Imagine you can walk out of your front door in a T-shirt and shorts on a cold winter's day and take a lift down 500 floors to school. Imagine you can see the sea a mile below you. Imagine you can never open a window. Imagine...

Well, if Japanese architects find enough money for their project, in the 21st century you'll be able to live in a building like that.

Ohbayashi Gumi has designed a two-kilometre high building, Aeropolis, which will stand right in the middle of Tokyo Bay. Over 300,000 people will live in it. It will be 500 floors high, and in special lifts it will take just 15 minutes to get from top to bottom. Restaurants, offices, flats, cinemas, schools, hospitals, and post offices will all be just a few lift stops away. According to the architects, Aeropolis will be the first 'city to touch the skies'.

'When we get to the end of this century, Tokyo will have a population of over 15 million people,' said design manager Mr Shuzimo. 'There isn't enough land in Japan. We're going to start doing tests to find the best place to build it. I hope people will like living on the 500th floor.' Won’t people want to have trees and flowers around them? 'We're going to have green floors, where children can play and office workers can eat their lunch-break sandwiches,' explained Mr Shuzimo. What about fires? 'If there is a fire, it will be put out by robots. I hope we'll get the money we need to build. As soon as we do, we'll start. This will be the most exciting building in the world.’

TEXT № 1

The Protection of Nature

Nature is the source of Man's life since ancient times. People lived in harmony with environment for thousands of years and thought that natural riches were unlimited. The development of civilisation increased man's harmful interference in nature.

Large cities with thousands of smoky industrial enterprises pollute the air we breathe and the water we drink. Every year world industry pol­lutes the atmosphere with about 1,000 million tons of dust and other harmful substances. Many cities suffer from smog. Beautiful old forests disappear forever. Their disappearance upsets the oxygen balance. As a result some rare species of animals, birds, fish and plants disappear for­ever, a number of lakes and rivers dry up.

The pollution of air and destruction of the ozone layer are the results of man's attitude towards Nature.

The protection of the environment is a universal concern. We must be very active to create a serious system of ecological security.

Слова к тексту:

destruction (n) – разрушение

dry up (v) – высыхать

harmful interference – вредное воздействие

industrial enterprises – промышленные предприятия

natural riches – природные богатства

ozone 1ауer [´əuzəun ´leıə] – озоновый слой

rare (adj) – редкий

source (n) [´sכ:s] – источник

substances (n) – вещества

suffer (v) – страдать

universal concern – всеобщая забота

upset (v) – зд. нарушать

Ответьте на вопросы:

1. What is the main reason of ecological problems?

2. What are the main ecological problems?

3. Why should the ecological problems be a universal concern?

4. What steps are taken to fight ecological problems?

TEXT № 2

Greenhouse Effect

Greenhouse effect is the term for the role the atmosphere in warming the earth’s surface. The atmosphere is largely transparent to incoming short-wave solar radiation, which heats the earth’s surface. Much of this radiation is reflected back by gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone in the atmosphere. This heating effect is at the root of the theories concerning global warming.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been increasing by 0.4 per cent a year because of the use of fossil fuels such as oil, gas, and coal. The cutting of tropical forests has also been a contributing factor in the carbon cycle. Other gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect, such as methane and halocarbons, are increasing even faster. The net effect of these increases could be a worldwide rise in temperature, estimated at 2˚ to 6˚ C (4˚ to 11˚ F) over the next 100 years. Warming of this magnitude would alter climates throughout the world, affect crop production, and cause sea levels to rise significantly. If this happened, millions of people would be badly affected by flooding.

Слова к тексту:

absorb (v) [əb´sכ:b] – поглощать

alter (v) [´כ:ltə] – изменять

affect (v) – влиять

be affected by – подвергаться воздействию

чего-либо

carbon dioxide [´kα:bən daı´oksaıd] – двуокись углерода, углекислый

газ

cause (v) – послужить причиной/поводом

для чего-либо

contribute (v) – содействовать, способствовать

estimate (v) – оценивать

flood (n) [flLd] – наводнение

fossil (n) [fכsl] – ископаемое

greenhouse effect – парниковый эффект

halocarbons (n) [´hælokα:bənz] – хлороуглероды

heating effect – эффект нагревания

magnitude (n) – величина

methane (n)[´mi:θeın] –метан

net effect – суммарный эффект

nitrous oxide [´naıtrəs´ oksaıd] – окись азота

root (n) – корень

surface (n) [´sə:fıs] – поверхность

transparent [træns´pεərənt] – прозрачный

Ответьте на вопросы:

1. How is the surface of the Earth heated?

2. What gases reflect heat back in the atmosphere?

3. Why is the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increasing?

4. What can you say about possible worldwide rise in temperature in the next 100 years?

ТЕХТ № З

Global Warming

Global warming is an increase in the earth's temperature due to the use of fossil fuels and other industrial processes leading to a build-up of "greenhouse gases" (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide) in the at­mosphere. It has been known since 1896 that carbon dioxide helps stop the sun's infrared radiation from escaping into space and thus functions to maintain the Earth's relatively warm temperature (this is called the green­house effect). The question is whether the increasing levels of carbon di­oxide in the atmosphere will lead to elevated global temperatures, which could result major climatic changes, and have serious problems for agri­cultural productivity.

Since 1850 there has been a mean rise in global temperature of approximately 1˚ C (1.8˚ F), but this rise could just be part of a natural fluctuation. Such fluctuations have been recorded for tens of thousands of years.

The potencial concequences of global warming are so great that many of the world’s top scientists have insisted on immediate action and have called for international cooperation on the problem.

Слова к тексту:

built-up (n) – накопление, увеличение

consequence (n) – (по)следствие

due to (prep) – благодаря, вследствие, в результате

elevated (p.II) – повышенный

fluctuation (n) – колебание

insist on (v) – настаивать на

mean (adj) – средний

Ответьте на вопросы:

1. What gases are called “greenhouse gases”?

2. What is a “greenhouse effect”?

3. What can be the potential consequences of global warning?

TEXT № 4

The Environment and Pollution

It was in Britain that the word 'smog' was first used (to describe a mixture of smoke and fog). As the world's first industrialized country, its cities were the first to suffer this atmospheric condition. In the nineteenth century London's 'pea-soupers' (thick smogs) became famous through descriptions of them in the works of Charles Dickens and in the Sherlock Holmes stories. The situation in London reached its worst point in 1952. At the end of that year a particularly bad smog, which lasted for several days, was estimated to have caused between 4,000 and 8,000 deaths.

Water pollution was also a problem. In the nineteenth century it was once suggested that the Houses of Parliament should be wrapped in enormous wet sheets to protect those inside from the awful smell of the River Thames. In the middle years of this century, the first thing that happened to people who fell into the Thames was that they were rushed to hospital to have their stomachs pumped out!

Then, during the 1960s and 1970s, laws were passed which forbade the heating of homes with open coal fires in city areas and which stopped much of the pollution from factories. At one time, a scene of fog in a Hollywood film was all that was necessary to symbolize London. This image is now out of date, and by the end of the 1970s it was said to be possible to catch fish in the Thames outside Parliament.

However, as in the rest of western Europe, the great increase in the use of the motor car in the last quarter of the twentieth century has caused an increase in a new kind of air pollution. This problem has become so serious that the television weather forecast now regularly issues warnings of 'poor air quality'. On some occasions it is bad enough to prompt official advice that certain people (such as asthma sufferers) should not even leave their houses, and that nobody should take any vigorous exercise, such as jogging, out of doors.

ТEXT № 5

Acid Rains

Every year more and more plants and animals disappear forever. Strangely, it is the most intelligent but most thoughtless animal that is caus­ing most of the problems – man. Nature is very carefully balanced and if this balance is disturbed, animals can disappear alarmingly fast. Every day, thou­sands of species of animals draw closer to extinction.

In many lakes fish are dying. Fishermen are worried because every year there are fewer fish and some lakes have no fish at all. Scientists are beginning to get worried too. What is killing the fish?

The problem is acid rain. Acid rain is a kind of air pollution. It is caused by factories that burn coal, oil and gas. These factories send smoke high into the air. The wind often carries the smoke far from the factories. Some of the harmful substances in the smoke may come down with the rain hundreds of miles away.

The rain in many places isn't natural and clean any more. It's full of acid
chemicals. When it falls in lakes, it changes them too. The lakes become more acidic. Acid water is like vinegar or lemon juice. It hurts when it gets in your eyes. It also kills the plants and animals that usually live in lake water. That is why the fish are dying in lakes.

But dead fish may be just the beginning of the problem. Scientists are finding other effects of acid rain. In some large areas trees are dying. Not just one tree here and there, but whole forests. At first scientists couldn’t under­stand why. There were no bugs or diseases in these trees. The weather was not dry. But now they think that the rain was the cause. Acid rain is making the earth more acidic in these areas. Some kinds of trees cannot live in the soil that is very acidic.

ТEXT № 6

The Ozone Layer

The ozone layer is a thin layer of gas about 25 to 40 kilometres above the Earth's surface. The ozone protects us from the sun's radiation. In the 1980s scientists discovered 'holes' in the ozone layer.

The causes include more carbon dioxide (CO₂) and the use of CFCs
(chlorofluorocarbons).

The holes in the ozone layer might become bigger. Some scientists believe the average temperature of the Earth will increase by between 1.5˚ С and 4˚ C. There will be more droughts and we will change the way we grow our food.

The forests will die. The polar ice will melt and the sea levels might rise by a metre. There will be floods and some big cities might disappear. Some scientists think many thousands of people might die.

ТEXT № 7