5. Write the summary of the text above.

6. Retell the text “Soil fertility”.

7. Translate from Russian into English:

1) История изучения почвы тесно связана с насущной необходимостью обеспечить нас пищей и кормами для животных. На протяжении всей истории, цивилизации процветали или приходили в упадок в зависимости от наличия и продуктивности почв.

2) «Хозяйство» Колумеллы около 60 г. до н.э.пропагандировало использование извести, а также запахивание клевера и люцерны в качестве зеленого навоза. Эта методика использовалась 15 поколениями, на протяжении 450 лет вплоть до распада Римской империи.

3) Оливье де Серрес, считавшийся отцом французской агрономии, первым предложил отказаться от паров и заменить их сеном лугов в период севооборота, и подчеркнул важность почвы в возделывании виноградников.

4) Эксперименты, связанные с возделыванием растений, привели к мысли о том, что зола, оставшаяся после сжигания растительной материи, является существенным элементом.

5) Однако, роль азота, который оставался на земле после сгорания не признавалась до 19 века .

Active Vocabulary 3

essential [ɪˈsenʃl] – существенный

willow tree [ˈwɪloʊ] – ива

soil's weight [sɔɪlz weɪt] – вес грунта

muddy [ˈmʌdi] – грязный, мутный

essence [ˈesns] – сущность

stirring [ˈstɜːrɪŋ] – перемешивание, взбалтывание

internally [ɪnˈtɜːnəli] – внутри, в пределах

evidence [ˈevɪdəns] – свидетельство, доказательство

litter [ˈlɪtər] – помет

mining [ˈmaɪnɪŋ] – добыча

chilean nitrate [ˈtʃɪliən ˈnaɪtreɪt] – чилийская селитра

1. Translate the following word combinations into Russian:

water to be the essential element; only the addition of rainwater; the increase in the plant's weight; water ranging from clean to muddy; vital growth principal; some essence to the growing plant; it was beneficial to cultivate (stir) the soil; to obtain evidence; nitrogen was taken from soil

2. Read the following text and say:

a) what the term “soil fertility” means;

b) what subjects are touched upon in the text

Text 3. Soil fertility (II)

In about 1635, the Flemish chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont thought he had proved water to be the essential element from his famous five years' experiment with a willow tree grown with only the addition of rainwater. His conclusion came from the fact that the increase in the plant's weight had apparently been produced only by the addition of water, with no reduction in the soil's weight.

John Woodward (d. 1728) experimented with various types of water ranging from clean to muddy and found muddy water the best, and so he concluded that earthy matter was the essential element. Others concluded it was humus in the soil that passed some essence to the growing plant. Still others held that the vital growth principal was something passed from dead plants or animals to the new plants. At the start of the 18th century, Jethro Tull demonstrated that it was beneficial to cultivate (stir) the soil, but his opinion that the stirring made the fine parts of soil available for plant absorption was erroneous.

As chemistry developed, it was applied to the investigation of soil fertility. The French chemist Antoine Lavoisier showed in about 1778 that plants and animals must [combust] oxygen internally to live and was able to deduce that most of the 165-pound weight of van Helmont's willow tree derived from air. It was the French agriculturalist Jean-Baptiste Boussingault who by means of experimentation obtained evidence showing that the main sources of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen for plants were air and water, while nitrogen was taken from soil. Justus von Liebig in his book Organic chemistry in its applications to agriculture and physiology (published 1840), asserted that the chemicals in plants must have come from the soil and air and that to maintain soil fertility, the used minerals must be replaced. Liebig nevertheless believed the nitrogen was supplied from the air. The enrichment of soil with litter by the Incas was rediscovered in 1802, by Alexander von Humboldt. This led to its mining and that of Chilean nitrate and to its application to soil in the United States and Europe after 1840.