One of the favourite pursuits of people travelling for pleasure is visiting the famous beauty spots. But — alas! — the number of such spots decreases from year to year. Lakes, rivers and seas are pollut-ed, forests cut down, meadows littered with rubbish, the very air people breathe threatens disease and danger. The problem of envi-ronmental protection is one of the most urgent and crucial problems of today. The texts that follow deal with such important aspects of the problem as pollution and litter.
Read the texts and enact them either in the form of interviews or as role plays enlarging on the words of each speaker.
Use the conversational formulas of encouraging people to speak (see Unit 4, Conv. and Disc. II. l.(a) and the following formulas of persuading:
You'd better; Wouldn't it be a good idea to...? You really must try to; You could always; Do listening to our reasoning; Why should you be so obstinate? I still hope we can persuade you to; If I were you I'd
Pollution
Situation
For 30 years the Crowchester Chemical Company has got rid of its waste by dumping it in the River Crow or by burning it. Most of the people living in Crowchester work for the company, so there have been few complaints. Recently, however, doctors at the local hospi-tal found that cases of throat cancer in Crowchester were 20 times higher than the national average and tests proved that air and water pollution were responsible.
Characters
Mabel Bloxford, the wife of a former employee of the Crowches-ter Chemical Company who is suffering from throat cancer.
Leonard Miles, editor of the local newspaper Henry Murdoch, the president of Crowchester Chemical Co. Brian Thatcher, a lawyer representing local cancer victims Veronica Wade, a Member of Parliament Ted Sherwood, a university professor
Mrs Mabel Bloxford
Last year when my husband found out that he had cancer, the doctor advised us to leave Crowchester. We planned to buy a farm 50 miles away. But before we could save enough money for the de - posit, he lost his job. Now we'll never be able to get away from here.
Leonard Miles
For the last 30 years, Crowchester Chemical Company has not only blackened our skies and polluted our rivers, it has been slowly and surely poisoning us in our own homes. Other big companies treat
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their chemical waste. Not Crowchester Chemical Company. They think that money is more important than our comfort and our health. And the suffering of Crowchester cannot be measured in terms of pounds and pence. 37 people are seriously ill. Hundreds more are living in misery. The Crow River will never again be fit for drinking water. Crowchester Chemical Company must compensate us all for the trouble and the suffering they have brought among us.
Henry Murdoch
I do not accept that my company is responsible. We can't be held responsible. If people choose to work here or live nearby, they must accept the risks. We did not bring the company to the town. The town grew up round the chemical factory. And part of the reason the town is such a thriving community today, is because of my company. Of course, there is a little pollution. There is always pollution in the chemical industry. It can't be helped because this country needs chemicals. Crowchester needs chemicals too — without this compa-ny 3,000 people would be jobless.
Brian Thatcher
We are suing for over a million pounds in compensation, and we're also asking for a court order to close the factory. I'm confident that we shall win. What worries me is that it's impossible to stop this kind of thing until it's too late. The Government should have intro-duced strict pollution controls long ago.
Veronica Wade
Already many towns are worse than Crowchester. If we don't act soon, this country will become uninhabitable. Pollution is a crime against society and must be punished. I propose to fix strict limits for discharge of pollution. All companies which exceed these limits neg-ligently will pay heavy fines. All companies which exceed the limits deliberately will be closed and their managers will go to prison.
Ted Sherwood
Pollution from factories is not the only problem. Motor vehicles and aircraft pollute the air. Oil tankers pollute the sea. Many city govern-
ments discharge sewage into their rivers and leave mountains of gar-bage in the countryside. Man is a dirty and wasteful creature. Yet all of this could be avoided, with a little imagination. There are engines which don't cause air pollution. Garbage can be recycled and sewage can be converted to energy. Private companies won't make the necessary in-vestments. This money really does have to come from Government.
Litter
Situation
Last weekend Nick West was jogging along a popular path when he stumbled on a broken bottle and injured his leg. He wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper complaining about litter.
Characters
Nick West
Ann Scott, a housewife with two children
Linda Mitchell, a member of a local anti-litter group Nina Haines, a journalist of the local newspaperFred Hurst, a representative of the local council Reg Giles, a local policeman
Albert Greaves, the manager of a soft drinks company
Nick West
People who leave litter behind them are anti-social. They spoil the countryside and create all sorts of danger for other people. Broken bottles and rusty cans cause serious injuries, especially to children. Old magazines and empty packages help to start fires when fools throw away matches and cigarette butts. Why can't people be more careful?
Ann Scott
Dropping litter is a disgusting habit. If you don't do it in your own house why should you do it anywhere else? I never drop litter and I don't allow my children to. Unfortunately, most parents these days don't bring their children up properly. It's a mother's duty to teach her children how to behave and to set a good example herself.
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Linda Mitchell
I belong to an anti-litter group. Recently we cleaned up a beach. We collected over 150 tons of garbage. We burned half of it and we sold the rest to scrap dealers for $ 100. We spent that money on lit-ter cans which we placed at regular intervals along the beach. Every local government ought to do the same thing.
Nina Haines
The problem of litter reflects a lack of responsibility on all sides. The local government has a duty to provide litter cans and the citi-zens have a duty to use them. The police have a duty to report peo-ple who litter public places and the courts have a duty to punish such people. Last, but not least, the companies which manufacture throw-away products should stop using materials which can't be burned or recycled.
Fred Hurst
There's not much we can do. There are a thousand sguare miles of countryside around this town. We can't afford to supply a million litter cans to empty them regularly. Why should local taxpayers be responsible for litter left by holiday visitors from other towns?
Reg Giles
Littering is a crime and carries a heavy penalty. But the police are too busy preventing serious crime to worry about litter. If someone drops a ton of poisonous chemical waste in the forest, we'll try to catch him, but we can't arrest everyone who leaves a few empty cans around after a picnic. We're policemen, not babysitters.
Albert Greaves
We used to sell drinks in glass bottles and we refunded a little money when empty bottles were returned to us, because we could wash them and use them again. But glass is heavy and breaks easily, so we changed to plastic. It's cheap, light, strong and unbreakable. Of course, we don't collect empty bottles because it's cheaper to make new ones. Empty bottles should be thrown in the litter cans,
but a few untidy people don't bother. That's,nothing to do with us,. We aren't responsible for their bad habits.
2. Read the following text and summarize it in English:
Я подошел к поверженному дереву, тронул ствол. Он былтеп-лым, хранил еще силу жизни. Глянул окрест. На месте пронизан-ного солнцем прозрачного бора тянулись серые, угрюмые валы из комьев земли, пней, ветвей и сучьев, мертвых осколков от стволов.
Вспомнились слова К. Паустовского: «Мещерские леса величественны, как кафедральные соборы». В великолепном памятнике природы, в центре Мещерской низменности, шла высокомеханизированная сплошная рубка сосен и подроста. Все подчистую... А всего в нескольких сотнях метров от Клязь-мы, которая, лишившись своего кровного лесного брата, на десятки, а может, сотни лет осталась сиротой, обкраденной здоровьем. А ведь она — один из притоков Оки, питающей Волгу-матушку...
С трудом преодолеваю несколько высоких валов. На после-днем перехватило дыхание. От стыда за содеянное над приро-дой, от жестокости людской. Не запоет здесь соловей, потому как не напиться ему-росы из березового листа, не запылает тут и закат в кронах деревьев. Мне показалось, будто не сосну, а меня.по сердцу полоснула зубастая машина.
Позже узнал: ежегодно только во Владимирской области вырубается лесов на площади восемь тысяч гектаров. С расчет-ной лесосеки вывозится 2 миллиона 143 тысячи кубических метров древесины. Головы каких государственных чиновников озарила идея сводить сосновые боры в центре России в таких огромных объемах? Лесосеки в знаменитых Мещерских лесах по своей площади не уступают лесосекам Западной и Восточной Сибири.
(«Правда», 16 сентября, 1989)
3. Enact the text in the form of a role play. Take for a pattern the texts "Pollu tion" and "Litter". Use the conversational formulas suggested in item 1.
Characters
An old peasant from a village situated in the district under discussion. Editor of the local newspaper.
The director of the local "Lespromkhos".
An official representative of the Ministry of Forest Industry. A university professor, biologist.
Ал artist.
A school teacher.
A writer who was born in the district.
