lung disease and cause early deaths. The cloud is also damaging agriculture and affecting rainfall levels. It has affected many countries in southern Asia. The pollution cloud is three kilometers high. Scientists say it can move halfway around the world in a week.
The cloud is the result of forest fires, the burning of agricultural waste, and huge increases in the burning of fuels by vehicles, industries and power stations.
Pollution from millions of bad cooking stoves hs made the problem worse. Many poor people burn of fuels wood and animal waste in such stoves.
Scientists say this combination could be changing winter rainfall levels in Asia. They say rainfall has increased over the eastern coast of Asia. But it has dropped sharply over parts of northwestern Asia. The report says the cloud could reduce rainfall over northwestern Pakistan, Afghanistan, and western China by up to forty percent.
Harmful chemicals from the cloud are mixing with rainfall. This acid rain damages crops and trees and threatens public health. Scientists are concerned that the pollution will intensify during the next thirty years as the population of Asia increase to an Estimated 5,000 million people.
1. What is the true of the cloud of pollution?
2. What is NOT the cause of the cloud of pollution? 3. What does the cloud of pollution bring about?
4. Why will the pollution intensify in the next 30 years, according to the passage? 5. What do you think is the best title for the passage?
Keys: 1.D 2.B 3.A 4.C 5.C
Task 2: Mountain regions face a number of dangers.
Script
Mountain people around the world are in great danger of the negative effects of the worsening environment, according to a UN report. As global warming and deforestation accelerate and technology makes wilder places more accessible, environmental and social pressures on the world’s remotest regions increases.
The UN has found that many mountainous regions—inhabited by one out of five of the world’s people—are barely recognizable when they are compared to what they ere like 60 years ago. This is mostly because forests were cut to make way for cattle grazing and agriculture.
The authors of the UN study expect 98 percent of its mountain areas to experience
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severe climate change by 2055. Biological losses are expected to be heavy. The mountains of Europe, part of California and the northwest Andes in South America are among the most threatened mountain areas in the world and should be given priority in conservation.
The UN is anxious to raise awareness of the problem facing mountain areas because they are inhabited by some of the most vulnerable people. These people could lose their culture and their livelihood with even the smallest shifts in climate.
At the same time, many mountain regions are losing people. Thousands of villages in Europe are deserted most of the year. In other areas like Nepal, people are drifting to the cities in search of work.
Task3: Digging a Hole
Script
A fellow stopped at a rural gas station and, after filling his tank, he bought a soft drink. He stood by his car to drink his cola ad watched two men working along the roadside. One worker would dig a hole two or three feet deep and then move on. The other worker came along behind and filled in the hole. While one was digging a new hole, the other was about 25 feet behind filling in the old hole.
“Hold it, hold it,” the fellow said to the men. “Can you tell me what’s going on here with this digging?”
“Well, we work for the country government,” one of the men said.
“But one of you is digging a hole and the other is filling it up. You’re not accomplishing anything. Aren’t you wasting the country’s money?”
“You don’t understand, mister,” one of the men said, learning on his shovel and wiping his brow. “Normally, there’s three of us, me, Joe, and Mike. I dig the hole, Joe sticks in the tree and Mike here puts the dirt back.”
“Yeah,” piped up Mike. “Now Joe is sick but that doesn’t mean we can’t work, does it?”
For Reference
1. One worker would dig a hole two or three feet deep and then move on. The other worker came along behind and filled in the hole.
2. He asked them, “Can you tell me what’s going on here with this digging?”/He asked them what was going on there with that digging.
3. Because one of them was digging a hole and the other was filling it up. They were not accomplishing anything.
4. Normally there were three of them, the worker who answered him, Joe and Mike. The first man dug the hole, Joe stuck in the tree, and Mike put the dirt back.
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News Report
Santa’s Hometown in Danger Script
Weather experts may have found a new problem caused by global warming, one which many people will pay attention to: There are signs that Santa’s home in the North may be in trouble because of warmer temperatures. The Finnish town of Rovaniemi on the Arctic Circle, which many Europeans say is the home of Santa Claus, has had its warmest winter in 40 years. As a result, there has been much less snow than usual—meaning no snowmen, no snowballs and possible not enough snow for Santa to ride his sleigh on.
More important for local residents, it may mean fewer tourists, as well. Santa’s wintry hometown normally attracts thousands of visitors each year, and millions of dollars. Anne Pelttari-Bergman, the town’s tourist director, worries that the town could be in trouble if snow levels do not return to normal. She explains: “Snow is really important for us, of course. For Santa Claus, for Christmas tourism, and also for our winter tourism because winter is our best season. It is really important for us.”
Weather experts and town residents are hoping this warm winter is a one-time thing. Few people can imagine a holiday when even Santa does not have a white Christmas.
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