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UNIT 4.
ECONOMIC MIGHT VS. ECOLOGIC RIGHT
4.1. Tourism: a Mixed Blessing
A. Read the text and do the tasks following it.
Tourism creates employment. It is estimated that in the Lake District 30% of jobs can be directly attributed to tourism. But the fact that visitors spend their money in a variety of different ways affects other things too. Many village shops would have to close if they were not supported by income from tourists and the money spent on local souvenirs can prevent local industries from going out of business.
Many of the roads in the Lake District are extremely narrow and tourist cars cause congestion. Some farmers and local traders complain that the traffic makes it difficult for them to do their work. Because car parks fill up during busy periods, many visitors cause obstructions by parking across gateways, etc.
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The popularity of the countryside has led to the growth of many organizations dedicated to protecting it. Many areas also operate conservation schemes or trusts, supported by voluntary contributions. In some parts of the country, tourist operators have set up their own trusts and give money to local conservation projects.
The Lakes are a popular attraction for people who enjoy water sports. Most lakes have a speed limit for boats of 16 km per hour. One of the few lakes where fast boats are permitted is Windermere, which has recently become polluted. This is partly due to boats pumping sewage directly into the water. There are also problems with litter.
In the summer, thousands of people use the network of footpaths across the fells. Often, the grassy surface is worn away, leaving rough stone and mud. This makes the path look unsightly and it can be dangerous to walk on. Repairing the paths can be very expensive, particularly higher up in the fells where access is difficult.
The income from visitors can help to support local services and industries. In a sparsely populated rural area it can be expensive to keep bus service running. Because large numbers of visitors use the buses during the holidays, it is possible to keep them running at quieter times too.
Because of the number of people using the lake shores for picnics and to land their boats, some of the vegetation around the lakes is being destroyed. This can be harmful to wild animals which build their nests along the shores. The creation of wildlife refuges around some of the lakes has helped protect these natural habitats.
The Guardian. 2007
B. Answer the questions.
1. Explain jobs can be directly attributed to tourism.
2. Explain cause congestion.
3. Explain pumping sewage directly into the water.
4. Explain why the path could be dangerous to walk on.
5. Why would it be expensive to keep a bus service running in an area of this kind?
6. How can the wildlife refuges help protect the natural habitat?
C. Give each paragraph a short heading according to its subject matter and arrange your paragraph headings under the arguments for and against tourism.
Advantages Disadvantages
D. Write one sentence summarizing the main point in each paragraph and link your sentences to have two paragraphs only, one expressing the arguments for and one against tourism. Choose two or three of these words and phrases to link similar ideas in both paragraphs.
In addition (to this fact), moreover, besides, furthermore, also.
Now link the two contrasting paragraphs, using one of the following words and phrases.
Nevertheless, in contrast, on the other hand, conversely.
Hard Luck, Bambi
A. Read the text paying attention to the boldfaced vocabulary items.
For more than 30 years Sea Pines Plantation the smart residential area of Hilton Head Island, off South Carolina has been a model of avant-garde environmental policies. Houses had to be build of materials that blended naturally with the lush low country vegetation of live oaks and palmetto trees, and covenants were drawn up obliging residents on these plantations to preserve and protect the wildlife. This wildlife, however, also includes the swarms of intellectuals and politicians who descend each January for the so called Renaissance weekends. They have made Hilton Head, a few of those 42 square miles (109 square kilometres) are still undeveloped, an even more attractive place to live. But increasing fame has not been a blessing for Sea Pines at all.
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The list of woes is long. The islands 25 golf courses and many manicured lawns are kept weed-free with chemicals, which run off into the creeks and streams and enter the water supply. More and more boats are discharging petrol and other stuff into the water, poisoning the local shellfish; on much of Hilton Head, shellfish harvesting has been either forbidden or restricted. Waste from the residents dogs is getting into the water too, as is run off from failed septic tanks.
Most of all there are too many cars. Sea Pines radical development pattern paid no attention to pedestrians, and residents cannot walk anywhere. The new network of concrete that are being poured to serve the car (including a recently opened express-way) have encouraged more cars to come. They are bumping, literally, into the legacy of Sea Pines green past: an exploding population of white-tail deer.
The deer are everywhere. They eat the carefully clipped vegetation, they are suspected of spreading disease and they are getting in the motorists way. Deer and cars mangle each other once every nine days in Sea Pines, much more than in South Carolina as a whole, and the average car costs $2,000 to put right afterwards. Enter a plan, somewhat at odds with the islands environmental boasts, to keep the deer in their place.
This plan, developed by the University of Georgias school of Forestry, will first of all thin out the herd from around 400 to 200. No one knows exactly how this will be done. Some options appear to be lethal injection and bowand-arrow hunting (nicely environmental, one would think). There was no suggestion that cars, rather than deer, should be got rid of.
The Guardian. 2006
B. Match the underlined words from the text to their meanings.
1. building houses, 2. great sorrow, 3. a gift, 4. a written agreement, 5. to crush, 6. to harmonise with, 7. crowd
C. Discuss the following questions giving arguments for or against the point.
1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of living in an area having a good ecological reputation?
2. What are some of the high and low aspects of the plan to control the population of deer?
3. Speak in favour or against developing the areas that are natural habitats or refuges of some species of wild animals?
4. What is the authors attitude to the problem?
5. Account for the title of the article.
D. Sum up the article.
4.3. A Bears Dream
A. Read the article and match the first sentences with the paragraphs.
a. Lawyers, academics and environmentalists have been holding meetings and circulating petitions.
b. All zoos are animal prisons, but Beijing Zoo seems like death row.
c. The government has said little since word of its secret decision leaked out on a Chinese website run by a private environmental group a couple of months ago.
d. Although it may be a dismal thought for the guidebooks authors who conclude that the polar bears must pin all their hopes on graduating from their concrete hell to the marvelous Beijing Aquarium the zoo is nonetheless hugely popular among visitors from around the country.
1. So the 2002 Lonely Planet guide to China describes one of the very few public works of the imperial era that is still being used for the same purpose today. Its days, however, could now be numbered. Plans are afoot to the 96-year-old attraction far beyond the urban area. Yet the city government used to making big decisions without telling the public has met stiff resistance.
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2. And oddly, perhaps, in a city where grotesque planning decisions are often made with scarcely a murmur from the public, the fate of the zoo has turned into a hotly contested issue. Even the state-owned media have sided with critics of the government who want the zoo to stay where it is.
3. According to Chinese media reports, even the zoo was initially kept in the dark. The pretext for moving it was to protect public health (prompted by concerns about the animal origins of SARS the respiratory disease bird flu), improve traffic conditions and give the animals more space. But some suspected that the potential value of a large price of land in a fast developing area of Beijing was a powerful incentive.
4. Interestingly, much of the debate has focused on the way the decision was made and the need for greater public oversight of the government. One prominent opponent of the move, Chen Yueqin, a lawyer describes the government decision as illegal, arguing that Chinese law requires public scrutiny of major projects. We should develop a notion of doing things according to the law, she says. Ms Chen draws comfort from the fact that Shanghai dropped similar plans after a public debate. If Beijing follows suit, the bears may have to dream on.
The Economist. 2007
B. Answer the questions.
1. What decision did the government of Beijing take?
2. What was the reaction of the public? What is so surprising about it?
3. What was the pretext for moving the zoo? Did everyone believe it?
4. What are lawyers, academics and environmentalists mostly concerned about?
5. Which is the best decision for the polar bears?
A. Summarize the article in English.
A. Render the text into English using the suggested vocabulary items for the underlined word combinations.
Many people got an insight into the importance of preserving environment, they are obsessed with protecting environment, it is estimated, approximately 10%, environmentally friendly tourism, excessive development, poor disposal of wastes and congestion.
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. 2007
B. Answer the questions.
1. Do you think that ecotourism will really help to protect environment?
2. Is it possible to develop ecotourism in Russia?
Render the text into English using the vocabulary items suggested below for the underlined words and word-combinations.
Species, to set up a travel agency, to get an insight into the secrets, to provoke the pollution of the environment, to be caught up in ecotourism, an uplifting atmosphere.
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. 2006
Animal Rights
A. Complete the text using the following words.
Fought, kept, provides, right, exploited, well-being, mistreating, abuse, activists, safeguarded, banning, cruelty, resources, conservation, wild, experimental, entertainment, interference.
When we think about animals, we usually consider them in relation to human beings, rather than in their own (1) . For example, people who keep pets are likely to think of themselves as responsible for the (2) of their animals. If we do not have animals at home, we can still see them in zoos and circuses or on farms, where human beings are very much in control of how they are (3) and what happens to them. Only animals living in the (4) , dependent on their own (5) , and what nature (6) for their survival, appear to be free from human (7) .
Do any of these animals have rights? If we look for a moment at todays society, and at the ways in which animals live, it may seem that most people think they do not. There are millions of animals in zoos for us to look at, in laboratories for (8) use, on farms for us to eat, in circuses for our (9) , and in the wild for us to hunt. Human beings, it appears, have decided that animals exist simply to be used as they think best.
On the other hand, however, there are many stories in the newspapers and on television about people who have been convicted in the courts for (10) to animals. There are also reports of the zoos being closed down for (11) their animals, councils (12) circuses from visiting their areas, demonstrators protesting against hunting, (13) liberating animals from laboratories, and a growing number of wildlife (14) programmes. So not everyone believes that animals exist just to be (15) . More and more people are deciding that they do not have the right to use and often (16) - animals, but that animals have rights themselves which must be (17) , and when necessary, (18) for in the same way that we fight for womens rights, civil rights and all human rights.
The Economist. 2008
B. Summarize the text in English.
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4.7.
Render the article into English and say whether it is reasonable of the governments of some exotic countries to impose restrictions on tourism.
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. 2008
4.8.
Render the article into English and give your opinion of Noahs Ark for endangered species.
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: www.rkive.rg, BBC,
UNIT 6.
TO KNOW MORE ABOUT LESS OR LESS ABOUT MORE
