Listen as you read the texts again. Tell your partner three things you found interesting in the texts and why they interest you.
A
Ben Goldsmith was one of a number of organic farmers at the conference on the future of farming. In his speech he pointed out that there was no reason to suggest that farmers will not be able to produce enough food for everyone in the future using traditional farming methods. He claims that the problem is one of distribution, not production and that genetically modified foods will not solve this problem.
B
The history of beekeeping dates back at least 3,000 years but recently there have been threats to bee populations all over the world from mysterious diseases. One of the most serious is colony collapse disorder (CCD) which occurs when worker bees fail to return to the hive. There have been many theories put forward as to the causes of this phenomenon, including GM crops, global warming and interference from mobile phone networks.
C
The largest tiger in the world is the Amur tiger, often referred to as the Siberian tiger. Measuring up to 3 metres in length, a fully grown adult male can weigh anything up to 300 kg. The Amur tiger is a protected species but conservation is difficult due to the fact that the tigers need a very large area to hunt in to ensure their survival in long cold winters. Although by the 1950s only 50 tigers remained in the wild, their numbers have grown and there are now over 400 of them.
D
One of the things the anti-GM food lobby overlooks is the fact that farmers have been genetically engineering food for thousands of years by cultivating hybrids, which means putting two varieties of plant together to make a new variety. The difference today is that scientific knowledge and technology have advanced to the point where we can alter a plant to make it resistant to disease, stop insects eating it and even develop foods that are more nutritious.
E
New research has revealed that the extinct Caspian tiger lives on in the Siberian tiger. Once thought to be a sub species, the Caspian tiger has been discovered to have DNA which is almost identical to the Siberian tiger. The scientists have concluded that the reason the two are so alike is because both were descended from the same migrating ancestor but that the two groups were later isolated in different areas by hunters.
F
When the potato was introduced to Europe from South America in the 16th century, only a few varieties were established and this left crops vulnerable to disease. To help prevent crop failure, potatoes should not be grown in the same soil for two years in a row. Unfortunately, in the mid 1800s the impoverished tenant farmers of Ireland had no option but to use the same small plots of land for growing potatoes year after year and this is what led to the Great Potato Famine.
G
The use of honey in healing is much older than medicine itself, and the Father of Medicine, Hippocrates, used it to treat a variety of conditions. However, it is only recently that the antiseptic and antibacterial properties of honey have been chemically explained. Researchers are currently looking into ways in which the use of honey can help conventional medicine in the treatment of drug resistant infections.
Записи нет, но задание просит назвать личные впечатления от напечатанных текстов, поэтому его можно выполнить по ним. Выбираем три факта и к каждому добавляем причину интереса с because.
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В G мёд имеет antiseptic and antibacterial properties — «антисептические и антибактериальные свойства»; это интересно как пример необычного применения обычного продукта.
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В E DNA двух тигров almost identical — «почти одинаковая»; интересно, как генетика позволяет узнать происхождение животных.
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В D гибриды выращивали for thousands of years — «тысячи лет»; это показывает давнюю историю изменения культур человеком.
Перевод образца: Мне было интересно узнать о лечебных свойствах мёда, потому что раньше я воспринимал его в основном как еду. Меня также удивила близость ДНК каспийского и сибирского тигров, потому что она помогает объяснить их общее происхождение. Наконец, меня заинтересовало, что фермеры создавали гибриды тысячелетиями, потому что я считал изменение сельскохозяйственных культур совсем новым.
Образец:
I found the healing properties of honey interesting because I used to think of it mainly as food.
I was also surprised that the Caspian and Siberian tigers have almost identical DNA because this helps explain their shared ancestry.
Finally, I found it interesting that farmers have cultivated hybrids for thousands of years because I thought changing crops was a much more recent development.
