11.2 Find the answers to the following questions in the text 1:

1. Why are the rainforests important?

2. What is the weather like in a rainforest?

3. Why do animals need large parks in the rainforests?

4. Why are the leaves of rainforest trees important?

5. What layer is unique to tropical rainforests? Why?

11.3 Give Russian equivalents: destroy endemic, logging, clearing, animal grazing, extinction, existence, hyacinth macaws, mahogany tree, understorey, canopy, emergents, pharmaceutical products, cinchona tree.

11.4 Divide the text into the main paragraphs and name each of them.

11.5 Read the text 1 again and say if the statements are false or true. Correct the false ones.

1. Rainforests are in danger.

2. There are rainforests in all parts of the world.

3. Rainforests are very important for us. They give us wood, rubber, fruits, many of our medicines.

4. There are many rainforests in Europe.

5. The trees and other plants in the rainforest help to make the air that we are breathe.

11.6 Skim the text 2. Title it. Write down an annotation of the text. Text 2

There are several common characteristics of tropical rainforest trees. Tropical rainforest species frequently possess one or more of the following attributes not commonly seen in trees of higher latitudes or drier conditions on the same latitude.

Many tree species have broad, woody flanges (buttresses) at the base of the trunk. Originally believed to help support the tree, it is now believed that the buttresses channel stem flow and it’s dissolved nutrients to the roots.

Large leaves are common among trees and shrubs of the understorey and forest floor layers. Young individuals of trees destined for the canopy and emergent layers may also have large leaves. When they reach the canopy new leaves will be smaller. The large leaf surface helps intercept light in the sun-dappled lower strata of the forest and are made possible because the lower layers are largely protected from winds which damage large leaves in the canopy. Canopy leaves are usually smaller than found in understorey plants or are divided to reduce wind damage. The leaves of rainforest understorey trees also often have drip tips which facilitate drainage of precipitation off the leaf to promote transpiration and inhibit the growth of microbes and bryophytes which would damage or smother the leaf.

Trees are often well connected in the canopy layer especially by the growth of woody climbers known as lianas or by plants with epiphytic adaptations, allowing them to grow on top of existing trees in the competition for sunlight.

Other characteristics that are more frequent in tropical rainforest tree species than in temperate forests or drier tropical regions include: exceptionally thin bark, often only 1-2 mm thick. It is usually very smooth, although sometimes covered with spines or thorns. Cauliflory, the development of flowers (and hence fruits) directly from the trunk, rather than at the tips of branches. Large fleshy fruits that attract birds, mammals and even fish as dispersal agents.