privacy, and as for any relationships with my colleagues, my boyfriend knows that I would never get involved with anyone else. Anyway, you can't get romantic when you re worried about frost-bite. The cold is a nightmare. I sleep and work in most of my; clothes. All the gear makes peeing difficult for women. What's so terrible is baring your bottom to the icy blast. I never wash and rarely change my clothes because it's too cold, and at that temperature no bacteria work so you don't smell. Last time we changed only three times in 73 days. I clean my teeth with snow on the toothbrush, but that's all. We never go more than a couple of hundred yards from the tent, and we carry another small tent and radio with us, so if our big tent gets blown away we can at least survive a couple of days. We take turns to cook supper. Everything's rationed and there's very little choice - no fresh food, all dried. The bonus is one tin of sardines and one tin of sausages each, every twenty days.

January. We travel every few days from site to site on Skidos. This is the best bit, travelling through the open landscape. There's such a sense of freedom: all my belongings are on the sledge behind me. I am self-sufficient and enjoying the adventure and the romance. I've only had one frightening moment, when we were flying in a blizzard. We had to land blind and were then stranded for three days in the storm. I was pleased I didn't panic. There are problems with people not getting on. I know of people who have become irrational because of the isolation and the stress, even threatening to kill each other. It's rare-, but it does happen - more so in the winter. But everyone's very carefully selected over a week's residential course. I'm on the selection panel; we look for a happy, calm, mature temperament and have to reject anybody who appears to be trying to escape from something or who doesn't mix well with others.

February. It's getting really cold now, with winter coming on. There are even a few sunsets, although it's never actually dark. Night temperatures go down as low as -30F (a domestic freezer is -20F). When it's cold I can't sleep. We've read the three or four books we could bring, so we're reliant on each other for amusement. I feel it will be nice when this is over, but I'm not bored because I am fascinated by every aspect of the Antarctic experience.

- March. The pack ice takes all summer to melt and then quickly starts freezing again, but with luck we've got two weeks when ship can get in. Leaving is terribly emotional, the people who are staying behind for the winter lining up to watch the boat go, the ship hooting mournfully. Those who are leaving after two years - the non-scientists such as doctors and cooks - weep because they know they're unlikely to go back to Antarctica. In fact, the whole thing is an incredibly emotional experience.

Explain in English what is meant by:

1. the frozen wastes

2. I put together my equipment

3. It's a community life

4. an amazing commitment

5. at that temperature no bacteria work

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6. I'm self-sufficient

7. We're reliant on each other for amusement

h) an incredibly emotional experience

Give synonyms to the following words:

1. desolate

2. to permit

3. luxurious

4. intelligent

5. to get involved with smb.

6. frightening

7. to mix well with smb. Answer the questions.

1. When does summer start in Antarctica?

2. What does the author mean saying 'there is no privacy'? What is your attitude to it?

3. Who does she share a room with?

4. Do they often go far from the tent?

5. What do they usually travel on?

6. What main problems do they face?

7. What is the author's impressions of Antarctica?

8. Would you like to experience anything like this trip?

XIV. Fill the gaps with the suitable words from the table.

agriculture environment naked small bright horticulture pine snow hot darkness science yeast enormous imaginable seaweed

Plants can be almost any colour ______ .They may be , or so

small that you cannot see them with the eye. A giant is

just as much a plant as a tree, plant, or a bacterium

which is too to see. Some plants flourish in climates,

while others live equally successfully on and ice. Some carry out

their life processes in total , while others are at their best in

sunlight. A whole known as ecology has grown up to

help us understand the relationship between the and living things

'here. , forestry, and are the sciences of learning

how to make living things do what we want them to do in a given place.

XV. Read the paragraphs and answer the questions after each one.

Every hour, two or three kinds of animals, plants or insects die out for ever. If nothing is done about it, one million species that are alive today will have become extinct twenty years from now. 1. What is your reaction to this information?

1. you already knew

2. you are surprised and shocked

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c) you don't believe it

d) you are not very interested

e) other

The seas are in danger. They are being filled with poison: industrial and nuclear waste, chemical fertilisers and pesticides, sewage. The Mediterranean is already nearly dead; the North Sea is following. If nothing is done about it, one day soon nothing will be able to live in the seas.

2. Which of these sources of poison is not mentioned in the text?

a) factories

2. lavatories

3. atomic power stations

4. oil tankers

e) farms

The tropical rain forests, which are the home of half the earth's living things (including many rare animals and plants), are being destroyed. If nothing is done about it, they will have nearly disappeared in twenty years. The effect on the .world's climate and on our agriculture, wood, food supplies and medicine - will be disastrous.

3. Do you know any places where rain forests are being destroyed?

4. Do you know why the world's climate will be affected?

Fortunately, somebody is trying to do something about it. In 1961, the World Wildlife Fund was founded - a small group of people who wanted to raise money to save animals and plants from extinction. Now called the World Wide Fund for Nature, WWF is a large international organisation working to stop the destruction of the earth's natural resources. It has raised over 230 million pounds for conservation projects over the last ten years, and has created or given support to National Parks in five continents. It has helped 30 mammals and birds - including, the tiger - to survive. Perhaps this is not much, but it is a start. If more people give more money - and if more governments wake up to what.is happening - perhaps the World Wide Fund for Nature will bе able to help us to avoid the disaster that threatens the natural world, and all of us with it.

5. Does the text say where the WWF gets its money from?

XVI. Practise your translation skills. Translate the sentences from Russian into English.

1. Похоже, будет дождь.

2. Дождь покапал и прошел.

3. Вчера у нас был сильный снегопад.

4. Со всех сторон нас окружали снежные сугробы.

5. США занимает одно из первых мест в мире по загрязнению атмосферы.

6. Глобальное потепление климата изменит динамику снегопадов на западе США: снег будет выпадать раньше и таять позже.

7. В результате уже ближайшей зимой увеличится количество талой воды,

что грозит наводнениями, 8.. в лесах на севере США следствием потепления климата станет

постепенное исчезновение целого ряда видов деревьев, прежде всего,

клена, осины, кедра и березы. 9. Чрезвычайно важно сохранять живую природу.

10. Если не принять меры, некоторые виды животных и растений могут исчезнуть с лица земли в ближайшее десятилетие.

XVII. Fill the gaps in the paragraphs with the suitable words from the tables. [create left remain save

Seventy years ago there were 100,000 tigers in the wild. Today there are not more

than 8,000 . In 1972 the World Wildlife Fund launched 'Operation

Tiger to the tigers that . Eighteen tiger reserves have

been in India and there in Nepal.

I almost hunter natural zoo

rare survive zoo wildlife By the 1970s, - had killed - all of the Arabian oryx. The

WWF helped to capture the last thirty oryx and send them to ■

Phoenix in Arizona, where a herd of these _____________

animals has been built up. Other _________ and parks have

helped, and the oryx has been reintroduced into its

surroundings in Oman, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Arctic alive fewer hunting I increase live successfully

Thirty years ago ___________ than 1,000 polar bears were left in

the wild in Norway, Greenland and the former USSR. WWF persuaded the five

__ nations of Canada, the former USSR? Denmark (Greenland), the

former USSR and Norway, to agree to control _________ and promote scientific

study. Now the 'ice bears' are and breeding once

again, and those 1,000 bears have their numbers to about 5,000.

jdam destroy encourage flood

j in danger international medicine

I protect supply .

Tropical forests have us with very many sorts of plants for food,

and industry. They could probably supply many more. They also

reduce and droughts, keep water clean, and slow down the

Greenhouse Effect. But the tropical forests are being to make room

for things like farms, ranches, mines and hydroelectric . About

20 million hectares are lost each year - an area more than twice the size of Austria. WWF is working to and save the forests that are ;