The Protection of Nature

TEXT № 1

Louise Hidalgo considers life in the 21st century, with two-kilometre high buildings, and Japanese cities that touch the sky.

Living in the Skies

TEXT № 3

Imagine a building one third of the height of Mount Everest, built by robots, and containing a whole city. Imagine you can walk out of your front door in a T-shirt and shorts on a cold winter's day and take a lift down 500 floors to school. Imagine you can see the sea a mile below you. Imagine you can never open a window. Imagine...

Well, if Japanese architects find enough money for their project, in the 21st century you'll be able to live in a building like that.

Ohbayashi Gumi has designed a two-kilometre high building, Aeropolis, which will stand right in the middle of Tokyo Bay. Over 300,000 people will live in it. It will be 500 floors high, and in special lifts it will take just 15 minutes to get from top to bottom. Restaurants, offices, flats, cinemas, schools, hospitals, and post offices will all be just a few lift stops away. According to the architects, Aeropolis will be the first 'city to touch the skies'.

'When we get to the end of this century, Tokyo will have a population of over 15 million people,' said design manager Mr Shuzimo. 'There isn't enough land in Japan. We're going to start doing tests to find the best place to build it. I hope people will like living on the 500th floor.' Won’t people want to have trees and flowers around them? 'We're going to have green floors, where children can play and office workers can eat their lunch-break sandwiches,' explained Mr Shuzimo. What about fires? 'If there is a fire, it will be put out by robots. I hope we'll get the money we need to build. As soon as we do, we'll start. This will be the most exciting building in the world.’

Appendix 2

Supplementary Texts

(Ecological Problems of Modern Cities)

Nature is the source of Man's life since ancient times. People lived in harmony with environment for thousands of years and thought that natural riches were unlimited. The development of civilisation increased man's harmful interference in nature.

Large cities with thousands of smoky industrial enterprises pollute the air we breathe and the water we drink. Every year world industry pol­lutes the atmosphere with about 1,000 million tons of dust and other harmful substances. Many cities suffer from smog. Beautiful old forests disappear forever. Their disappearance upsets the oxygen balance. As a result some rare species of animals, birds, fish and plants disappear for­ever, a number of lakes and rivers dry up.

The pollution of air and destruction of the ozone layer are the results of man's attitude towards Nature.

The protection of the environment is a universal concern. We must be very active to create a serious system of ecological security.

Слова к тексту:

destruction (n) – разрушение

dry up (v) – высыхать

harmful interference – вредное воздействие

industrial enterprises – промышленные предприятия

natural riches – природные богатства

ozone 1ауer [´əuzəun ´leıə] – озоновый слой

rare (adj) – редкий

source (n) [´sכ:s] – источник

substances (n) – вещества

suffer (v) – страдать

universal concern – всеобщая забота

upset (v) – зд. нарушать

Ответьте на вопросы:

1. What is the main reason of ecological problems?

2. What are the main ecological problems?

3. Why should the ecological problems be a universal concern?

4. What steps are taken to fight ecological problems?

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