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Task 8. Choose one of the topics to make a report and present it in front of the class.
What is environment?
The main problems of the environment.
Means to preserve the environment.
BIODIVERSITY
PRE-READING
Before reading the passage,answer the following questions and discuss them with your partner. Then read the passage and find the facts supporting your ideas.
1. What is biodiversity?
2. How many species of animals exist on the Earth?
3. Why is biodiversity so important for some industries?
TEXT
Task 1. Read, translate the text and do the exercises.
Biodiversity
Species by the Numbers
Scientists have identified about 1.75 million different species. That includes 950,000 species of insects, 270,000 species of plants, 19,000 species of fish, 9,000 species of birds, and 4,000 species of mammals. This is only a small portion of the total number of species on Earth. There are millions more species yet to be discovered and named.
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Biodiversity refers to all the different kinds of living organisms within a given area. Biodiversity includes plants, animals, fungi, and other living things. Biodiversity can include everything from towering redwood trees to tiny, single-cell algae that are impossible to see without a microscope.
Kinds of Biodiversity
A common way to measure biodiversity is to count the total number of species living within a particular area. Tropical regions, areas that are warm year-round, have the most biodiversity. Temperate regions, which have warm summers and cold winters, have less biodiversity. Regions with cold or dry conditions, such as mountaintops and deserts, have even less.
Generally, the closer a region is to the Equator, the greater the biodiversity. At least 40,000 different plant species live in the Amazon rain forest of South America, one of the most biologically diverse regions on the planet. Only about 2,800 live in Canadas Quebec province.
The warm waters of the western Pacific and Indian Oceans tend to be the most diverse marine environments. The Birds Head Seascape in Indonesia is home to more than 1,200 species of fish and 600 species of coral. Many of the corals build coral reefs, which are home to hundreds more species, from tiny seaweeds to large sharks.
Some places in the world have a large number of endemic speciesspecies that exist only in that place. The Cape Floristic Region in South Africa is home to about 6,200 plant species found nowhere else in the world. Areas with high numbers of endemic species are called biodiversity hotspots. Scientists and communities are making a special effort to preserve biodiversity in these regions.
Biodiversity can also refer to the variety of ecosystemscommunities of living things and their environments. Ecosystems include deserts, grasslands, and rain forests. The continent of Africa is home to tropical rain forests, alpine mountains, and dry deserts. It enjoys a high level of biodiversity. Antarctica, covered almost entirely by an ice sheet, has low biodiversity.
Another way to measure biodiversity is genetic diversity. Genes are the basic units of biological information passed on when living things reproduce. Some species have as many as 400,000 genes. (Human beings have about 25,000 genes, while rice has more than 56,000.) Some of these genes are the same for all individuals within a speciestheyre what make a daisy a daisy and a dog a dog. But some genes within a species are different. This genetic variation is why some dogs are poodles and some are pit bulls. Its why some people have brown eyes and some people have blue eyes.
Greater genetic diversity in species can make plants and animals more resistant to diseases. Genetic diversity also allows species to better adapt to a changing environment.
