Variant 4

1. Read the text and translate the italised extract in written form

The Legal System And Environmental Law

In our societies decisions are made every day concerning environmentally hazardous activities, e.g. discharges from factories, road constructions and extracts of natural resources. In these decisions environmetla concerns are confornted with other interests. The ledislative bodies of the countries have the task to set up rules how to solve these conflicts. The rules consisting of laws, regulations and other legal instruments, constitute the environmental law of the country. Environmental law is the major way for the policymaking bodies to implement a national environmental policy and, above all, to protect its environment against pollution and other damage.

Legal instruments are also used when an international convention, e.g. the Baltic Sea Convention, is implemented on the national level.

Several principals basic to environmental legislation have been developed during the last fifteen years. The Rio Conference on the Environment and Development, UNCED in 1992 played an important role to strengthen these principles.

Most important today is the Principle of Sustainable Development. The essence of this principle is the requirement not to jeopardize the satisfaction of future generations’ needs when we satisfy the needs of today’s generation. This principle is included in the Amsterdam Treaty of the European Union and other international documents which are valid in many countries in the region. It is also included in national statutes, e.g. the new Swedish Environmental Code, and in the Latvian Law on Environmental Protection.

A decisive question in practice is who should bear the costs of environmental protection. A second widely accepted principle of basic importance to environemtnal law which adresses this question is the Polluter Pays Principle (PPP). There are impacts or risks of impacts on other person’s health or private property as well as on public interests, e.g. biodiversity.

The PPP says that the polluter has to take the financial responsibility for precautionary measures. The obligation for polluters to pay compensation if a person is hurt or other property is damaged may also be seen as an effect of the PPP. Special pollution taxes are also based on this principle.

Private and public interests are therefore to some extent protected by law. But the question is: should the polluter be compensated if an activity is restricted due to its possible or proven damaging environmental impacts? The answer seems to be in general no. An exception might, however, be the Swedish Constitution, which in unclear. Many lawyers claim that a Polluter is entitled to compensataion if an ongoing polluting activity is restricted, e.g. in connection with a requirement to reduce the emmisions. However, it is important to stress that the PPP applies to pollution situations only. If, e.g. a nature reserve is established in a natural forest with endangered species, and the restrictions prohibit clear-cutting, a land owner would naormally be compensated by direct payment, tax reduction or otherwise.

A third important issue is how to consider risks of environmental impacts. Some legislation requires that precautions be taken, and may even prohibit the activity, although it is not possibl; e to say for sure that damage will in fact occur.

2. CHOOSE THE CORRECT PREPOSITION:

1. Environmental concerns are confronted (from, about, with) other interests.
2. The legislative bodies of the countries have the task to set (up, on, in) rules how to solve conflicts.
3. Several principles basic (on, to, at) environmental legislation have been developed during the last fifteen years.
4. The Principle of Sustainable Development is included (at, in, on) the Amsterdam Treaty of the European Union.
5. A decisive question in practice is who should bear the costs (from, of, at) environmental protection.
6. There are impacts, or risks of impacts, (for, on, at) other persons’ health or private property as well as (for, on, at) public interests, e.g. biodiversity.
7. The polluter has to take the financial responsibility (for, with, in) precautionary measures.
8. The obligation (on, from, for) polluters to pay compensation if a person is hurt or other property is damaged.
9. It is important to stress that the PPP applies (at, for, to) pollution situations only.
10. An important issue is how to consider risks (with, from, of) environmental impacts.

3. A. MAKE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES PASSIVE:

1. The legislating bodies, primarily parliaments, can often not solve conflicts between environmental protection and other interests in the legislation as such.
2. Certain environmental features may influence a culture’s diet, dress, religion, and marriage partnership.
3. The different states use the same types of legal instruments.
4. People should use economic instruments for environmental protection.
5. Law protects private and public interests.

B. MAKE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES ACTIVE:

1. In our societies decisions are made every day concerning environmentally hazardous activities.
2. The legislation on control of pollution and nature conversation may be seen as the heart of environmental legislation.
3. A wider economic perspective has nowadays been accepted in some pieces of legislation and court cases.
4. Should the polluter (developer) be compensated?
5. Strict requirements can be used as an outer limit, “roof”’, for acceptable environmental impacts.

4. A. MATCH SYNONYMS:

B. MATCH THE WORDS WITH THEIR DEFINITIONS:

5. CHOOSE THE BEST VARIANT TO COMPLETE THE SENTENCES:

1. In our societies decisions are made every day concerning environmentally hazardous activities, e.g. discharges from factories, road constructions and (quarrying, extraction, mining) of natural resources.
2. Private and public interests are (defended, safeguarded, protected) by law.
3. Many lawyers claim that a (polluter, pollutant, pollution) is entitled to compensation if an ongoing polluting activity is restricted.
4. Environmental concerns are (faced, opposed, confronted) with other interests.
5. If a nature reserve is (set up, ascertained, established) in a natural forest with endangered species, and the restrictions prohibit clear-cutting, a land owner would normally be compensated by direct payment (in Sweden), tax reduction (e.g. Latvia) or otherwise.

B. MARK THE STATEMENTS AS TRUE (T) OR FALSE (F). CORRECT THE FALSE STATESMENTS:

1. The rules, consisting of laws, regulations and other legal instruments, constitute the environmental law of the country.
2. Legal instruments are not used when an international convention, is implemented on the national level.
3. The essence of the Principle of Sustainable Development is the requirement to jeopardize the satisfaction of future generations’ needs when we satisfy the needs of today’s generation.
4. Special pollution taxes are based on the Polluter Pays Principle.
5. A third important issue is how to consider risks of environmental impacts.

6. A. TRANSLATE FROM ENGLISH INTO RUSSIAN:

1. Environmental law is the major way for the policymaking bodies to implement a national environmental policy and, above all, to protect its environment against pollution and other damage.
2. All economies around the Baltic Sea are nowadays based on private ownership of land, water and natural resources.
3. The economy may be seen as an interest opposite to protection; e.g. treatment of wastewater requires expensive equipment.
4. Pollution is closely connected with the use of chemicals in the industrial process, the use of energy and natural resources, waste management and avoidance of accidents.
5. While cultural cataclysms have an immediate crisis-centered impact on a culture’s development, cultural experts recognize that a culture’s ecology also has a long-term, gradual impact.

B. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1. How can society regulate environmentally hazardous activity?
2. What legal instruments for environmental protection can you name?
3. What are the most hazardous environmental risks that should become a subject of special concern to all humans?
4. What legal ways are there for modern civilization to eliminate environmental risks?
5. Tell about the situation with environmental law in your country.

VARIANT 5

1. Read the text and translate the italised extract in written form

Acidification of the Soil

The critical load, the ability of the soil to resist is sooner or later used up and it becomes acidified. The following may be said to be the worst effects:

Plant nutrients are leached out. The ability of plants to take up nutrientsdiminishes when the availability of base cations in the soil, such as magnesium, calcium, and potassium, is reduced. Forest growth can be affected, and some sensitive plant species possibly eliminated. It is estimated that the content of easily available base cations in the soil of southern Sweden os declining at a rate of 1-2 % per annum.

Poisonous metals are freed. Aluminium ions, which are poisonous to plant’s root systems, are freed through the weathering of the soil at lower pH-values. As the soil becomes more acid, the mobility of many heavy metals also increases. In acidified soil, it is likely that uptake by the plantsof cadmium, zink, manganese, and nickel, to mention a few, is increased.

Phosphates become bound. Plants also suffer indirectly when the concentrations of dissolved aluminium increased. Alumimiun ions have the ability to bind phosphate, which is an important nutrient and make it less easily available. The effect of an insufficiency of phicphate i moreover heightened when the process of decomposition becomes slowed down in the soil as a result of acidification. Some other important nutrients besides phosphate, such as molybdenum, boron, and selenium, also become less easily available to plants when the soil is acidified.

Up to the early 1980’s, most soil scientists believed belived it to be unlikely that the soil would be affected by acidification. There are parts of Europe where the soil has a large content of easily weathred minerals, enabling it to accept great amounts of acid without becoming acidified. But where the soil minerals weather less easily, as in Scandinavia, the resistance to acidification is low. The amount of acidific deposition that the various types of soil can accepr without becoming acidified, vries in Europe. Continuous sampling in Sweden has shown that the pH value of the soil has decreased by 0.3 to 1.0 units in only a few decades. The drop has not only taken place in the upper layers, but also far down into the mineral soil. The store of base cations available to plants has on the average been halved in forty years.

While sulphur is responsible for most of the soil acidification caused by air pollutants, nitrogen compounds also contribute, but in a more complicated manner. To put it simply, there will be a net acidifying effect only to the extent that the nitrogen is not taken up by the plants but leached out. An obvious conclusion is that the acidifying affect of nitrogen increases if the vegetation fails to take up as much as is deposited. The resulting state known as nitrogen saturation, relatively large leakages of nitrogen have been noted from forest land.

The nitrogen that is leached out of the soil ends up in streams and lakes where it eventually leads to biological changes. Some finds its way to the sea where the eutrophication effect is still greater causing algal blooms, oxygen depletion, and lifeless depths.

2. PUT THE WORDS IN THE CORRECT ORDER TO MAKE A QUESTION:

1. most evident/on freshwater life/ where/have/of acidification/the effects/been?
2. the number/why/rapidly/does/diminish/of phytoplankton?
3. forest decline/seriously/was/when/air pollutants/the connection/taken/between/and?
4. and/how/toxic substances/ affect/land, water, air living beings/do?
5. fish/stock/the/for/reason/declining/what/main/is?

3. MAKE UP NEW WORDS USING PREFIXES de-, dis- AND EXPLAIN THEIR MEANING:

1. ability – disability;
2. acceleration –
3. acidification –
4. appearance –
5. aquation –
6. composition –
7. connection –
8. intoxication –
9. population –
10. position -

4. A. MATCH SYNONYMS:

B. MATCH THE WORDS WITH THEIR DEFINITIONS:

5. A. CHOOSE THE BEST VARIANT TO COMPLETE THE SENTENCES:

1. The ability of the soil (to withstand, to resist, to oppose) is sooner or later used up.

2. Alumnium ions are (vindictive, toxic, poisonous) to plants’ root system.

3. Plants (suffer, endure, undergo) when the concentration of dissolved aluminium increase.

4. There are parts of Europe where the (loam, soil, area) has a large content of easily weathered minerals.

5. Aluminium ions are (freed, liberated, exempted) through the weathering of the soil at lower pH-values.

B. MARK THE STATEMENTS AS TRUE (T) OR FALSE (F). CORRECT THE FALSE STATESMENTS:

6. The ability of plants to take up nutrients is reduced when the availability of base cations in the soil diminishes.

7. Aluminium ions are very useful to plants’ root systems.

8. Molybdenum, boron, selenium become more available to plants when the soil is acidified.

9. As the soil becomes more acid, the mobility of many heavy metals also increases.

10. Where the soil minerals weather less easily, the resistance to acidification is high.

6. A. TRANSLATE FROM ENGLISH INTO RUSSIAN:

1. Large leakages of nitrogen have been noted from forest land in the Netherlands, Denmark, northern Germany.

2. Aluminuim ions have the ability to bind phosphate, which is an important nutrient, and make it less easily available.

3. Most scientists believed it to be hardly likely that the soil would be affected by acidification.

4. To put it simply, there will be a net acidifying effect only to the extent that the nitrogen is not taken up by the plants but leached out.

5. The resulting state, known as nitrogen saturation, can be reached at quite a low load.

B. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

6. What is acidification?

7. What is acidification caused by?

8. Does the ability of the soil in Europe to resist acidification increase? Explain your answer.

9. What is toxicology?

10. What are the causes of forest decline?

Вариант I семестр

1. Read the text and translate the extract in italic in written form.