Exercises

I. Find the predicate in the sentence and determine the tense and the voice of the predicate. Translate the sentences.

1. Methods of maintaining or increasing the amount of organic matter have been given much attention.

2. Much energy is required to convert the elemental nitrogen of the air into useful compounds.

3. In less intensively cropped areas more phosphorus is being removed annually from farm land than is being applied to it.

4. Farmers were using bones as fertilizers as early as the seventeenth century.

5. Many experiments have been conducted to determine the relative efficiency of rock phosphate.

6. By 1927 scientists had identified the gray-speck disease of oats as a manganese-deficiency symptom.

7. Many soils have lost as much as one percent of organic matter under cultivation.

8. The fertilized crops were worse in the drought and where the subsoil had been depleted of moisture.

9. Soil that is being cultivated for the first time is fairly resistant to wind erosion.

10. The field had been disked twice.

11. Crop rotations including legumes have been widely used as a means of restoring soil nitrogen and organic matter.

12. Legumes are grown as green manure crops for soil improvement on many farms.

13. Irrigation had been established when the writing of history began.

14. These inlets were constructed of tile bats, sand and gravel and corn cobs.

15. Some farmers were attempting to control erosion by terracing.

II. Define the function of the verb “to be”. Translate the sentences.

1. Among commonly grown crops cereals are comparatively low in sulfur content.

2. The first problem was to ascertain what part of plant should be tested for certain nutrient and at which stage of growth.

3. As was to be expected objections to the procedure were and are still discussed.

4. The common practice is to apply the manure to a sod which is to be plowed for corn.

5. The plant is anchored by its roots.

6. The amount of available plant nutrients is usually greater in the topsoil than in the subsoil.

7. It is well known that the topsoil dries out more quickly than the subsoil.

8. The conservation of water is becoming increasingly more important.

9. It is desirable to store as much pre seasonal moisture as possible for the corn.

10. The average carbon content of the subsoil is estimated to be about 40 per cent.

11. Some of the blue-green algae are able to fix nitrogen from the air.

12. It is believed that algae have been very important in maintaining the nitrogen levels in soils used for the rice production.

13. These elements are present in plants because they are present in soils.

14. Very few economic data concerning these materials have been collected.

15. There are two general groups of living matter which are involved in soil formation.

16. Sediment is an inevitable consequence of erosion.

17. Without soil tests it is not possible to determine the lining factors in plant growth.

18. Puddle erosion can be prevented by maintaining enough plant cover on the surface to shield the soil.

19. Much has been said in recent years about soil-depleting and soil-conserving crops.

20. The best means of preventing wind erosion on cropland is to keep a vegetal plant over on the land continuously.

21. Cover crops may be pastured as long as their protective value is not destroyed.

22. In any climate there are many kinds of soils.

23. This plot is in poor condition, as it has been grazed for several years.

24. Measures designed for water spreading vary with the purpose or which they are to be used.