- •И.П. Агабекян
- •Содержание
- •От автора
- •Вводный фонетический курс особенности английского произношения
- •Правила чтения
- •Основной курс местоимения
- •Личные местоимения
- •Притяжательные местоимения
- •Указательные местоимения
- •Порядок слов в английском предложении
- •Вопросительные местоимения
- •Возвратные местоимения
- •Числительные
- •2000 — Two thousand, in (the year) two thousand
- •Множественное число существительных
- •Притяжательный падеж существительных
- •Неопределенный и определенный артикли
- •Оборот there is / there are
- •Степени сравнения прилагательных и наречий
- •Основные типы вопросов, используемые в английском языке
- •Неопределенные местоимения some, any, отрицательное местоимение n0 и их производные
- •In the open — на воздухе
- •Времена английского глагола
- •Согласование времен в главном и придаточном предложениях
- •Страдательный залог
- •Модальные глаголы и их заменители
- •Сложное дополнение
- •Придаточные предложения условия и времени, действие которых отнесено к будущему
- •Приложение 1 Тексты для дополнительного чтения
- •Travelling
- •The kremlin
- •Sports in great britain
- •My favourite writer Arthur Conan Doyle
- •Mark Twain
- •Education in russia
- •The system of education in great britain
- •University education in great britain
- •Isaak newton
- •Raditions of english speaking countries. Holidays in the usa
- •The united states of america
- •WasHrNgton d.C.
- •New york
- •The protection of nature
- •Приложение 2
- •Дополнительные тексты для чтения short stories
- •Lazy jim
- •Pickwick papers
- •The prince and the pauper
- •Treasure island
- •The difficulties of a foreign language
- •Dumb wife
- •The king and the critic
- •A broken vase
- •English houses
- •From the history of london
- •The tower
- •English universities
- •Charles darwin
- •Mayflower
- •Newton's dinner
- •A lesson in politeness
- •English character
- •American character
- •William shakespeare
- •Christopher columbus
- •Acid rains
- •The stars and stripes
- •What quality means
- •Dictionaries
- •The english alphabet
- •O. Henry
- •Spreading the word
- •The skylight room
- •Walter scott
- •Ivanhoe
- •Агабекян Игорь Петрович Английский для средних специальных заведений
Acid rains
Every year more and more plants and animals disappear never to be seen again. Strangely, it is the most intelligent but most thoughtless animal that is causing most of the problems — man. Nature is very carefully balanced and if this balance is disturbed, animals can disappear alarmingly fast. Every day, thousands of species of animals draw closer to extinction.
In many lakes fish are dying. Fishermen are worried because every year there are fewer fish and some lakes have no fish at all. Scientists are beginning to get worried too. What is killing the fish?
The problem is acid rain. Acid rain is a kind of air pollution. It is caused by factories that burn coal or oil or gas. These factories send smoke high into the air. The wind often carries the smoke far from the factories. Some of the harmful substances in the smoke may come down with the rain hundreds of miles away.
The rain in many places isn't natural and clean any more. It's full of acid chemicals. When it falls in lakes, it changes them too. The lakes become more acidic. Acid water is like vinegar or lemon juice. It hurts when it gets in your eyes. It also kills the plants and animals that usually live in lake water. That is why the fish are dying in lakes.
But dead fish may be just the beginning of the problem. Scientists are finding other effects of acid rain. In
some large areas trees are dying. Not just one tree here and there, but whole forests. At first scientists couldn't understand why. There were no bugs or diseases in these trees. The weather was not dry. But now they think that the rain was the cause. Acid rain is making the earth more acidic in these areas. Some kinds of trees cannot live in the soil that is very acidic.
The stars and stripes
The history of Old Glory goes back to early colonial days. The first banner used in the colonies was, of course, the standard English flag, consisting of a red cross on a white field. The flags of the separate colonies followed the same lines except that occasionally a pine tree, or a hemisphere, was figured in the upper left quarter of the cross.
The beginning of the Revolution brought a flood of suggestions as to the design for a new standard. But it was not until June 14,1777, that official action was taken, when the Continental Congress passed a resolution fixing the design as thirteen alternate red and white stripes, and thirteen white stars on a blue field. Each star and each stripe represented a state. As each new state was admitted to the Union, a star and a stripe were added, but it was soon realized that the addition of many more stripes would make the flag too bulky. Consequently, after having been increased to fifteen, the number of bars was reduced to the original number. But the number of stars steadily increased, until the present number of 50 equals the same number of states. The story goes that Betty Ross sewed the first flag, and it was at her suggestion that five-pointed, instead of six-pointed, stars were used.
While controversy continues as to why Congress selected this design, there is good reason to believe that the coat of arms of the Washington family, which contains both stars and stripes, furnished the inspiration.
It is interesting to note that, prior to the adoption of an official flag, a banner frequently used bore the figure of a rattlesnake, coiled to strike, with the motto, «Don»t tread on me.»