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

marking the beginning of the modern climate era — and of human civilization. Most of these climate changes are attributed to very small variations in Earth’s orbit that change the amount of solar energy our planet receives.

The current warming trend is of particular significance because most of it is extremely likely (greater than 95 percent probability) to be the result of human activity since the mid-20th century and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented over decades to millennium.

Earth-orbiting satellites and other technological advances have enabled scientists to see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate on a global scale. This body of data, collected over many years, reveals the signals of a changing climate.

The heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases was demonstrated in the mid-19th century. Their ability to affect the transfer of infrared energy through the atmosphere is the scientific basis of many instruments flown by NASA. There is no question that increased levels of greenhouse gases must cause the Earth to warm in response.

Ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica, and tropical mountain glaciers show that the Earth’s climate responds to changes in greenhouse gas levels. Ancient evidence can also be found in tree rings, ocean sediments, coral reefs, and layers of sedimentary rocks. This ancient, or paleoclimate, evidence reveals that current warming is occurring roughly ten times faster than the average rate of ice-age-recovery warming.

The evidence for rapid climate change is compelling: Global temperature rise

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The planet's average surface temperature has risen about 2.0 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century, a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere. Most of the warming occurred in the past 35 years, with 16 of the 17 warmest years on record occurring since 2001. Not only was 2016 the warmest year on record, but eight of the 12 months that make up the year – from January through September, with the exception of June – were the warmest on record for those respective months.

Warming oceans

The oceans have absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 700 meters (about 2,300 feet) of ocean showing warming of 0.302 degrees Fahrenheit since 1969.

Shrinking ice sheets

The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass. Data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost 150 to 250 cubic kilometers (36 to 60 cubic miles) of ice per year between 2002 and 2006, while Antarctica lost about 152 cubic kilometers (36 cubic miles) of ice between 2002 and 2005.

Glacial retreat

Glaciers are retreating almost everywhere around the world — including in the Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska and Africa.

[All passages adapted from: https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/]

Vocabulary:

Cycles of glacial advance	glaciers repeatedly covering more,
and retreat	then less of the land over time

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Earth’s orbit		the path Earth follows around the sun
Evidence		something that shows a particular
		idea or theory could be true
To receive solar energy		to get energy from the sun
The current warming trend		global warming that we see today
To be unprecedented		to have never happened before
Earth-orbiting satellites		satellites that revolve around the
		Earth
To collect information		to gather data
Heat-trapping nature		to have the ability to store heat
To absorb heat		to take in heat
Transfer of infrared energy		transfer of heat
Greenhouse gases		gases that trap heat
Greenland		large island just to the east of Canada
Antarctica		southernmost frozen continent
Tropical mountain glaciers		glaciers located at the cold higher
		altitudes of mountain ranges that are
		in otherwise warm, tropical areas
Average surface		temperature at the surface of the
temperature		planet
Human-made	emissions	gases put into the atmosphere by
into the atmosphere		humans, air pollution
On record		to have ever been recorded
Ice sheets		large areas of ice

Task 3. Do research and determine the key reasons that cause global warming effect in the modern world. Give evidence.

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Topic 11. Natural Disasters, Catastrophes and their Impact on the Development of Countries and People

Task 1: Read about the ways how natural disasters can affect economy and summarize the data.

Natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, typhoons, hurricanes, wildfires, volcanic eruptions and weather events like extreme droughts and monsoons are increasing in frequency due to climate change. These disasters inflict serious damage and trigger humanitarian, public health, environmental and infrastructural problems.

(1) Humanitarian Crises

Climate change and natural disasters have created a large migrant population, called climate refugees or environmental migrants. These people are forced out of their homes by an abrupt natural disaster, like a tsunami, or a slower-moving natural disaster, like a relentless drought. In any case, the area where they formerly lived is no longer habitable for several reasons, or the standard of living has dropped so dramatically that the uncertain future of migration looks more promising.

It is predicted that by the end of the century there will be 2 billion climate refugees and environmental migrants. Out of a projected population of 11 billion by 2100, that is almost 1/5 of the people on earth. Most of these people will have lived along the coastlines.

(2) Public Health Issues

Health issues are one of the most pressing problems after any natural disaster. It is often the case that facilities for water and toilet hygiene are damaged or inoperable. Further, without running water, hand washing and food hygiene rapidly deteriorate.

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During and after events like hurricanes and floods, standing water can be a breeding ground for pathogenic bacteria and disease vectors like mosquitoes. In cases where transportation capabilities and infrastructure are damaged, survivors of natural disasters can be cut off from life-saving medications for both acute and chronic conditions, and isolated from rescue and emergency healthcare services.

After a natural disaster event, survivors can experience mental health consequences, including post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

(3) Environmental Problems

In March 2011, a tsunami following the 9.0-magnitude Tōhoku earthquake in Japan caused what came to be known as the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, where radioactive material was released in Japan and into the Pacific Ocean. This was the largest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, and it caused a cascade of issues in the ecosystem and surrounding waters, spreading radioactive material through far-ranging ocean currents.

Natural disasters, from tsunamis to wildfires, can cause wideranging and long-term consequences for ecosystems: releasing pollution and waste, or simply demolishing habitats.

(4) Infrastructural Damage

One of the most immediate and economically devastating concerns with natural disasters is the damage to both public and private infrastructure. These events can cause billions of dollars in damages, and not all governments are equipped to fund the process of post-disaster cleanup and rebuilding.

Further, many private homeowners do not have property insurance, and certain natural disasters fall outside of the scope of insurance

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coverage; this means that in the wake of a disaster, people can end up losing all of their assets with no opportunity for restitution.

However, there is also another side of analysing the impact of natural disasters. As reviewed in surveys such as Noy and Vu (2010) and Loayza et al. (2012), the existing studies report that natural disasters may even promote growth. Thus, we need analyses to clarify the mechanisms through which natural disasters affect the productivity of an economic sector.

(5) Creative destruction

A channel through which natural disasters may enhance corporate productivity is the improvement in the productivity of firms that survive the disasters, which is due to the update of their capital stock and the adoption of new technologies. This mechanism is often called creative destruction.

There is some evidence for this hypothesis. De Mel et al (2011) find that the firms that suffered more damage to their assets because of the devastating tsunami in Sri Lanka in 2004 exhibited smaller profits, sales, and capital stock. Cole et al. (2013) and Tanaka (2015) find that the plants located in the most devastated districts during the 1995 Kobe Earthquake exhibited smaller employment and value-added growth. These findings are inconsistent with creative destruction.

On the other hand, Leiter et al (2009) find that European firms located in regions affected by a major flood in 2000 had higher asset and employment growth as compared with non-affected firms. Cole et al (2013) find some evidence for a short-run increase in the productivity of damaged plants after the Kobe Earthquake, although they also report that this effect disappeared over time.

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(6) Firm selection

Aside from the channel through survived firms, there is another potentially important channel through which natural disasters may affect the corporate sector: the selection, or exit, of firms due to the disasters. If natural disasters expel inefficient firms, or if natural selection is at work, then the average corporate productivity will increase.

In reality, it is evident that the firms in the affected area do suffer substantial damage, especially from tsunamis or the serious accident at the nuclear plant in Fukushima. On the other hand, there is enormous amount of public aid to damaged firms. This aid may financially support the damaged firms and contribute to keeping them from going into bankruptcy.

[All passages adapted from: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/02/how-do-natural- disasters-affect-the-economy/; https://sciencing.com/negative-effects-natural-disasters-8292806.html]

Vocabulary:

Earthquake	shaking of the earth
Flood	when rain causes bodies of water to
	overflow onto dryland
Typhoon	strong tropical storm in the Indian or
	western Pacific Ocean
Hurricane	strong tropical storm in the western Atlantic
	ocean
Wildfire	destructive fire in the wilderness
Drought	period with less rain than usual
Monsoon	season of heavy rainfall in southern Asia

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Tsunami	huge sea wave, usually caused by an
	earthquake
Nuclear disaster	disaster caused by a meltdown in a nuclear
	power plant
Relentless	continuous (negative connotation)
Devastating	causing a huge amount of damage
To inflict damage	to cause damage
To trigger problems	to lead to or set off problems
Migrant population	group of people who have moved to a new
	area
Climate/environmen	people who have been forced to leave their
tal refugees	homes because of natural disasters or other
	factors related to climate
To deteriorate	to become worse
A breeding ground	place where disease-causing bacteria can
for pathogenic	easily spread
bacteria
To be cut off from	to not be able to get medications that could
life-saving	save lives
medications
Rescue services	groups that rescue people during disasters
Emergency	healthcare	provided	in	short-term,
healthcare services	emergency situations
PTSD	post-traumatic stress disorder
To demolish habitats	to destroy the area where certain species of
	plant/animal live
Far-ranging ocean	ocean currents that cover a long distance
currents

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Post-disaster cleanup		cleanup and rebuilding after a disaster
and rebuilding
To fall outside of the		to be something that insurance won’t pay
scope	of insurance	for
coverage
Productivity		rate of production in an industry/region
An economic sector		one industry or part of the economy
Creative destruction		destruction that leads to the opportunity to
		build, create, or grow something new
To enhance		to improve the productivity of corporations
corporate
productivity
To suffer damage to		to lose property or have property become
one’s assets		damaged or worth less
Value-added growth		economic growth caused by improving
		something that already exists
To be	inconsistent	to not be in agreement with other evidence
with something		on a topic
Natural selection		the idea that the strongest or otherwise best
		for a particular environment will survive
To go into		to be unable to pay debts
bankruptcy

Task 2: Dialogue - take different examples of big natural disasters or catastrophes and discuss how they affect human lives and the economy of countries.

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Topic 12. Historical and Cultural Heritage of Different Countries. The Development of Tourist Infrastructure

“Ill-gotten gains: how many museums have stolen objects in their collections?”

The prestigious New York Museum of Metropolitan of Art made headlines earlier this month when museum officials announced plans to return two large statues to Cambodia, after concurring with evidence provided by Cambodian officials that the artifacts were looted from an ancient temple in the country. But the incident raises a thorny question for museums in the US and Europe: how many of the objects in their collections were stolen or acquired illegally, and how many should be sent home?

For now, there’s no easy answer. The process of identifying museum objects that were stolen, and then returning them to their countries of origin, is called "repatriation." While the term describes restoring something to its point of origin, it’s also been used to describe sending prisoners of war back home. In more than one sense, that’s appropriate for museum artifacts, given that many famous works – like the Greek "Elgin Marbles" at the British Museum and "Priam’s Treasure" at the Pushkin Museum in Russia – were taken from their home countries by occupying armies or grabby colonial governments, mostly over the past 300 years.

Many of these objects were also looted by people within the countries of origin. But no matter who took them, they were often spirited away across several borders and then purchased by a series of private collectors. Those individuals later sold them to museums for vast sums, maintaining that the objects were legally acquired. This makes it difficult to pinpoint the true origins of artifacts or the validity of claims to ownership. Indeed, the Archaeological Institute of America, a nonprofit group representing archaeologists

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