UNIT 4 - Тексты для аудирования к учебнику

Step 1

Аудиозапись № 59 к заданию 1

Alaska is the largest state in the US, which is northwest of Canada. The climate there is very cold. People usually think about this place as a place with very cold weather and a lot of ice and snow. In the past people often went there to find gold. Now it is a popular place with tourists. Some Americans move from big cities to Alaska. They build wooden houses and live in a healthy way. In the short summer they grow their own vegetables, catch fish and have a peaceful life. They enjoy the beauty of the land and the freedom of Alaska’s wide open spaces. Some people come to find jobs in Alaska’s growing cities.

It is interesting to know that Russian people came to Alaska in the seventeenth century. For about a century that territory belonged to Russia. Then in 1867 the USA bought it.

Step 2

Аудиозапись № 61 к заданию 1

Does the Nightingale Sing Only at Night?

Poets have written so many poems about the nightingale. They say its songs are the most beautiful songs in the world. Poets think that the nightingale sings only at night and at any season of the year. But this isn’t true. The nightingale lives in England only from the middle of April till the middle of June. The bird doesn’t visit Ireland, Wales or Scotland. On the continent people can hear the nightingale in many countries, especially in the south. The nughtingale goes to Africa too.

The bird sings at night and also during the day, but because other birds sing at the daytime too you can’t hear its song very well. While the nightingale songs are the most beautiful songs of all birds its body is not very beautiful. The birds are reddish-brown. They build their homes in the grass.

Step 3

Аудиозапись № 63 к заданию 1

Speaker 1

This animal lives only in Africa. It is very tall and has a very long neck and long legs. The animal is light brown. It eats leaves from trees because it is so tall.

Speaker 2

These large yellowish-brown animals belong to the cat family. They eat the meat of other animals and live mostly in Africa. These animals are brave, enjoy fighting and live in small groups. People call them the kings of all the animals. This animal is one of the symbols of Great Britain.

Speaker 3

This is a very large grey animal with big ears, small eyes and a very long nose with which it takes food and puts it in its mouth. People sometimes say, “These animals never forget,” because they think they remember everything. In India, where these large animals live too, they help people a lot.

Speaker 4

This large animal with long body lives on land and also in lakes and rivers in the hot and wet parts of the world. It has a long body, short legs and a long mouth with a lot of teeth. It eats fish and other animals. People are often afraid of it.

Step 4

Аудиозапись № 66 к заданию 1

Speaker 1

Rainforests are tropical forests with tall trees growing thickly together, a lot of rain and high temperatures. These places are very old. Rainforests may be about a hundred million years old. There are different kinds of rainforest too.

Speaker 2

When people speak about rainforests, they usually think about the rainforest in South America because it is the largest. The great part of it is situated in Brazil and Peru. But there are rainforests in Central America, Africa, in the south and southeast of Asia, in Australia and some islands.

Speaker 3

People usually say that rainforests have a high rainfall which means that it can rain on these territories during more than two hundred days a year. Just think of it, it rains there more than half a year and the rain is heavy. It is always hot on these territories. The temperature is about 23—32 degrees above zero all the year round.

Speaker 4

Rainforests are getting smaller. People destroy them every year. They cut down trees to plant coffee and sugar in Brazil. In 1988 people found gold there and came to the forest to get it. They began to make roads and build airports. They have already destroyed a lot of the rainforest.

Speaker 5

We need rainforests very much and mustn’t destroy them. The leaves of rainforests trees make one third of the Earth’s oxygen which people breathe in and without which we can’t live. For more than 50 million people of different tribes the rainforest is their home. Many species of plants and animals live only in the rainforest. Probably one day you will travel to a rainforest country.

Step 6

Аудиозапись № 70 к заданию 1

As you remember, Sally Barker lives in London. She was fifteen this year and she is already thinking about her future career. One of Sally’s great interests is wildlife. She is very fond of plants and animals. Sally and her friends often go to wildlife parks to watch birds there. Sally knows a lot of names of species living and growing in her country. Sally’s biology teacher often gives her books on animals and plants. Sally loves reading such books, she has made a talk on the animals which don’t live on the British Isles any more. The talk was a success. Her classmates listened to her with interest and asked questions about bears and wolves. In fact, Sally is beginning to think about going to university to do biology.

Step 7

Аудиозапись № 73 к заданию 1

The Horse

The horse has been people’s friend and helper for a very long time. It was one of the first wild animals which people domesticated. Today there are very few wild horses. Many of them come from domestic horses that have run away from their homes and become wild.

People love horses for their beauty and because they make good friends. Modern horses are very fast and strong animals. But the first horse was small and looked like a dog. Scientists gave it the name of Eohippus, or “early horse”.

Eohippus lived millions of years ago. It had four toes on its front feet and three toes on its back feet. It probably hid from its enemies in the forests.

Later horses came out to live on the wide grassy plains. There were no trees and they did not hide from their enemies any more. That’s why horses learned to run away from them. By and by, their legs grew longer and changed. Finally, after millions of years of evolution, the modern horse appeared.

Now there are many kinds of horses from small ponies to large working horses. People use them both for work and sport. Lately they have started using horses to help children who are ill. Children get better when they ride horses, play with them or look after them.

Step 9

Аудиозапись № 77 к заданию 1

Text 1. It is a plant with small white flowers. The flowers look like small bells. They are lovely and pleasant. It is a wild spring flower, it grows in forests and valleys. It appears in May when there is no snow on the ground and there are few flowers. By the way you can often see these flowers in gardens too.

Text 2. This sweet garden flower is probably everyone’s favourite. In England you can enjoy its beauty from June to September, sometimes you can see them in November or even December. In Russia where winters are colder than in Britain these flowers open in June or July and you can’t see them in autumn. The most common colours are red, pink, white and yellow. The red flower is England’s emblem.

Text 3. It is a very tall plant with large yellow flowers with a round brown centre. People eat the seeds of this flower. The plant has got its name from its very large head that looks like a small sun. This flower came to Europe from America.

Text 4. These flowers grow in ponds and lakes. They are fairly large. Some are deep yellow, some are white and some are blue or even purple. The leaves of the most famous species of this plant grow over a meter and a half in diameter. Its flowers are of pink and white colour. They open in the evening.

Step 10

Аудиозапись № 78 к заданию 1

Ostriches are very big and strong birds, and though they have rather large wings they can’t fly. Their long powerful legs make them good runners. They can move as fast as a good riding horse.

Ostriches live in savannahs and deserts of Africa and West Asia. These birds have to travel from place to place looking for their food because they live in countries with a hot and dry climate where few plants grow.

Ostriches usually live in groups of five or six. From early morning till midday they walk about looking for food. In the afternoon they usually lie down and sleep for two or three hours. Sometimes they sleep standing. Later in the afternoon they go to a place where they can find water. They drink water and sometimes bathe standing up to their necks in water.

Ostriches have very good eyes and can hear well. As soon as they see or hear something new, they run away. People say that they are not brave birds. Wild ostriches are mostly vegetarians but they can eat insects and small animals too. For such big birds as they are they don’t eat much.

Their eggs are very big, up to 15 centimetres. People domesticate ostriches and keep them on ostrich farms. Some people think that ostriches are stupid but it’s difficult to say if it’s true or not. Some people think that ostriches put their heads in the sand not to see something they don’t want to see. This is only a legend.

Аудиозапись № 79 к заданию 6

Dictation 4

A. Including humans and insects, especially, enjoyable trips, common species, to support relatives, curious monkeys.

B. 1) No one has ever heard about these scientific problems. 2) People say that ostriches hide their heads in the sand. 3) I don’t think the text is readable. 4) The doctor asked me to breathe deeply. 5) What similar flowers do you know?