Fill in the gaps with the right preposition or particle where necessary

Match the words with their definitions.

Self-check TEST 5

Amazon Forest May Take Some Heat off Global Warming

The forest, which is home to the richest diversity of species on Earth and thousands of indigenous peoples, is currently destroyed at a rate of two million acres per year. This rapid loss of species diversity and displacement of indigenous peoples focused international conservation efforts on the Amazon region following the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. But the loss and displacement continues today unabated, according to Amazon Watch, an environmental organization based in California.

Some scientists who study climate suspect that forests grow faster for a period in response to increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. If that picture is correct, as several studies indicate, then trees in the Amazon rain forest may absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at a higher rate than they release it for more than a hundred years after the period of increasing growth.

Carbon dioxide, which humans produce at a rate of nearly six billion tons per year via the burning of fossil fuels is one of the most important of the
greenhouse gases – gases that trap heat in the atmosphere, leading to global warming. Some experts say that the ability of forests to act as a carbon sink ought to be capitalized upon.

Working on the assumption that the growth of forests will accelerate by 0,25 per cent per year for 50 years in response to increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, scientists ran the data obtained through a computer model, which predicted the increase of forest's carbon dioxide absorption into the future. The results show that the trees would grow larger, exceeding the mass they might have otherwise reached. Once the trees establish a new higher growth rate, the forest continues to absorb additional carbon for more than a century.

The result, though not conclusive, suggests practical reason to protect the Amazon rain forest from destruction. Yet, there is no question that fossil fuel emissions must be reduced to control global warming, scientists say.

John Roach. National Geographic News. 2001

1) abundant	a) causing harm without being noticed
2) irreversible	b) completely lacking in sth
3) insidious	c) present in large quantities
4) barren	d) so serious or so great that it is impossible to change sth back to how it was before
5) devoid	e) lacking vegetation

1. Heat-trapping gases that build … in the Earth's atmosphere cause global warming.

2. Setting … national parks is an initiative to save forests.

3. If people don't take actions … conserving the wildlife, it may disappear completely.

4. The ocean has turned into a site where some countries dispose … the wastes … nuclear power plants.

5. In the future people will have to count … new sources of energy.

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