Техносфера: Technosphere

Министерство науки и высшего образования Российской Федерации 

НОВОСИБИРСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ ТЕХНИЧЕСКИЙ  УНИВЕРСИТЕТ 

 
 
 
 
 
 
А.Г. БАЛОБАНОВА 
 
 
 
 
ТЕХНОСФЕРА 
 
 
TECHNOSPHERE 
 
 
 
Утверждено  
Редакционно-издательским советом университета  
в качестве учебного пособия 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
НОВОСИБИРСК 
2018 

ББК 81.432.1-7-923 
  Б 206 
 
 
Рецензенты: 
Е.Г. Жарикова, канд. пед. наук, доцент СГУПС 
Е.Т. Китова, канд. пед. наук, доцент НГТУ 
 
 
 
 
Балобанова А.Г.  
Б 206  
Техносфера: Technosphere: учебное пособие / А.Г. Балобанова. – Новосибирск: Изд-во НГТУ, 2018. – 76 с. 

ISBN 978-5-7782-3692-9 

Учебное пособие  «ТЕХНОСФЕРА» предназначено для студентов 2 курса, 
обучающихся по направлению подготовки 20.03.01 – «Техносферная безопасность». 
Целью учебного пособия является совершенствование умений и навыков 
чтения и перевода, а также практики устной и письменной речи в сфере 
общепрофессиональной коммуникации. 
Структура пособия содержит три раздела: 
Unit I. Human activity impact on the environment. 
Unit II.  The antithesis of the biosphere. 
Unit III. Technosphere safety – protecting man from himself. 
Содержание текстовых материалов включает актуальную информацию, 
ориентированную на интеллектуальное развитие личности. Комплекс упражнений способствует развитию критического мышления и творческих способностей обучающихся.  
Учебное пособие может использоваться как в аудиторном режиме работы, 
так и в самостоятельной работе студентов. 
 
 
 
ББК 81.432.1-7-923 
 
 
ISBN 978-5-7782-3692-9 
 Балобанова А.Г., 2018 
 
 Новосибирский государственный 
 
    технический университет, 2018 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

ПРЕДИСЛОВИЕ 

Учебное пособие  «ТЕХНОСФЕРА» предназначено для студентов 
2 курса, обучающихся по направлению подготовки 20.03.01 – «Техносферная безопасность». 
Целью учебного пособия является совершенствование умений и 
навыков чтения и перевода, а также практики устной и письменной 
речи в сфере общепрофессиональной коммуникации. 
Структура пособия содержит три раздела: 
Unit I. Human activity impact on the environment. 
Unit II.  The antithesis of the biosphere. 
Unit III. Technosphere safety – protecting man from himself. 
Каждый раздел включает систему заданий, нацеленных на развитие 
навыков чтения, аудирования, устной и письменной речи в ситуациях 
общепрофессиональной коммуникации. 
В учебное пособие включены профессионально-ориентированные 
текстовые материалы, заимствованные из аутентичных источников, 
содержащих актуальную информацию.   
Тексты сопровождаются комплексом языковых, речевых и 
коммуникативных заданий, нацеленных на активизацию лексических 
единиц в ситуативном профессионально - ориентированном контексте.  
Учебное пособие содержит задания творческого характера и включает активные формы обучения (проектная работа, дискуссии, case 
study). 
В основу учебного пособия положены принципы системности, 
дидактической, познавательной и коммуникативной ценности. 
Учебное пособие может использоваться как в аудиторном режиме 
работы, так и в самостоятельной работе обучающихся. 
 

UNIT I 

HUMAN ACTIVITY IMPACT  
ON THE ENVIRONMENT 

Read the quotation below. What does it tell you about? 
“Earth gives enough to fulfil each man's necessities, not every man's 
covetousness.” 
Mahatma Gandhi 
an Indian politician  

LEAD IN 

Humanity's effects on the Earth have grown 
more and more significant since becoming the 
dominant species on the Earth. Never before in 
our planet's history have human activities had a 
greater impact on the environment.  
 
 
 
 

1. Before you start, make sure you know these words. Check them with 
your dictionary if necessary. 
advancement 
significant  
responsible  
vapour 
salinity 

harmful 
emission 
widespread  
channelization 
irrigation 

watershed 
run-off 
triggering 
to ramify 
to diffuse 

water logging 
impact 
stream 
diversion 
concern  
impact   
protracted 
vegetation 
tribal 
deliberate 
desertification 
swamp 
 predator  

overgrazing 
deforestation 
quantity 
quality 
relate  
salinization 
barren land 
digging  
grazing 
salt marshes  
domestication  
arid  
interference

to yield 
source 
to obtain  
coastal 
sediments 
heap 
habitation  
charcoal 
fumes 
dispersal 
extraction  
subsistence 
vulnerable
 

   READING 1: 

Do you know? 
Why is the atmosphere important? 
What is air pollution? 
How can air quality affect health? 
How might humans be changing Earth’s climates? 

HUMAN IMPACT ON THE ATMOSPHERE 

The increasing human population and the advancement in technology 

have not only become significant factors in the variations in world climate 
but are also responsible for the various changes in atmospheric conditions 
including air pollution. 

The human influence on global climate is due to the following mecha
nisms: 

 Gas emissions 
 CO2 – industrial  
and agricultural 
 Methane 
 Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) 
 Nitrous oxide 

 Aerosol generation 
 Thermal pollution 
 Dust addition to ice caps 
 Deforestation 
 Overgrazing 
 Extension of irrigation 

 Krypton 85 
 Water vapour 
 Miscellaneous trace gases 

 Alteration of ocean currents by 
constricting straits 
 Diversion of fresh waters into 
oceans 

 
The problem of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission has become a major 

environmental concern. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution 
humans have been taking stored carbon out of the earth in the form of coal, 
petroleum and natural gas, and burning it to make carbon dioxide, heat, 
water vapour and small amounts of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and other gases, 
which are responsible for air pollution, greenhouse effect, increase in 
surface temperature, or in other words, global warming. 

By 2050, it is possible that the increase in global surface temperatures 

ranges between 1.4 and 2.2 degree Celsius.  

The impact of human activities on the atmosphere is more because the 

atmosphere acts as a major channel for the transfer of pollutants from one 
place to another. It is in this way that harmful substances are transferred 
long distances from their sources of emission. Another example of the 
possible widespread and ramifying ecological consequences of atmospheric 
pollution is provided by acid rain. 

In recent years, the greatest attention has been paid to the role of CFCs, 

the production of which has been rising in last few decades. 

These gases may diffuse upwards into the stratosphere where solar 

radiation causes them to become dissociated to yield chlorine atoms which 
react with and destroy the ozone present there. The Antarctic ozone hole has 
been identified through satellite monitoring. In fact, air pollution and its 
variability both in space and time is more due to human action. 

2. Match the terms 1-5 with the definitions A-E. 

1. Water vapour 
 
A) intensive grazing by animals, for example 
cattle, sheep or goats, on an area of pasture. 

2. Thermal pollution 
 
 

B) gas which makes up less than 1 % by 
volume of the Earth's atmosphere, and it 
includes all gases except nitrogen (78.1 %) 
and oxygen (20.9 %). 

3. Deforestation 
C) one state of water within the hydrosphere. 

4. Trace gas 
D) the degradation of water quality by any 
process 
that 
changes 
ambient 
water 
temperature. 

5. Overgrazing 
E) the removal of a forest or stand of trees 
where the land is thereafter converted to a 
non-forest use. 
 

   READING 2: 

Do you know? 
Why is the hydrosphere important? 
What is water pollution? 
How can water quality affect health? 
 
 Use the words from the box to fill in the gaps in the text below.  
 

activities 
pollutants 
purposes 
resources 
quantity 
townships 

 
dams 
impact 
source 
ways 
ancient 
effects 
 

construction 
deforestation 
consequences 
environmental 
degradation 
 

 

HUMAN IMPACT ON THE HYDROSPHERE 

Water is the (1)________  of life and, human beings use it for various 

purposes. The (2)_______ civilizations have developed in river valleys. 
This is also true of medieval (3)_________ and other developments, and all 
modern developments are related directly or indirectly to water. The main 
concern is that by using water, humans have influenced both its 
(4)_________and quality. 

Earlier, the influence of human activity on water (5)_________was 

limited but now this has become a major problem of environmental 

(6)________ throughout the world. However, there are many (7)_______in 
which humans influence water, for example, by direct channel 
manipulation, modification of watershed characteristics, urbanization and 
pollution. 

The (8)_________ of dams and reservoirs is widespread throughout the 

world for irrigation, to generate power or to provide a reliable source of 
water. More than 700 (9)______ have been built worldwide and their 
number is increasing year after year. 

In countries like Brazil, Argentina, China, run-off of water has been 

regulated by water reservoirs. 

The (10)_________of human activities is especially marked in Africa 

and North America where about 20 per cent of total run-off is now 
controlled. 

The impact of dam, construction is apparent in the form of change in 

ecosystem and (11)_________ conditions.  

The environmental (12)__________of dams include subsidence, 

earthquake triggering, transmission and expansion in the range of organism, 
the build-up of soil salinity, changes in groundwater levels, water logging, 
deforestation, etc. 

The process of urbanization has a considerable impact, in terms of 

controlling rates of erosion, the delivery of (13)___________to rivers and 
influencing the nature of run-off and other hydrological characteristics. 

The impact of urbanization can be summarized as follows: 
 Removal of trees or vegetation. 
Construction of houses and sewerage lines. 
Construction of septic tanks. 
Diversion of nearby streams for public supply. 
Accelerated land erosion. 
Larger quantities of untreated waste into local streams. 
Pollution of streams and wells. 
Drilling of deeper, large capacity industrial wells. 
Increased use of water for domestic and commercial purposes.