Exercise 18. Match the definitions

A) smog

B) pollute

C) preserve v

D) deteriorate

E) waste

Protect environment;

Make or become worse (in quality) or of less value;

Thrown away because not wanted; useless; refuse;

Fog with smoke, exhaust fumes from motor-vehicles, etc.

Make dirty, impure.

Exercise 19. Write out from the text words and word combinations concerning the environmental protection.

Exercise 20. What country does this article speak on, in your opinion?

Exercise 21. Read and translate the text.

People everywhere have become aware of a new kind of pollution - noise pollution. The problem has been brought into sharp focus by the discovery that many teenagers have suffered permanent hearing loss following long exposures to amplified rock music, and by public concern about the effects of sonic booms that would be caused by supersonic transports (SST) if they were put into commercial service.

Noise is usually measured in decibels. A tenfold increase in the strength of a sound adds 10 units on the decibel scale, a 100-fold increase

Adds 20. The human threshold of hearing is represented by zero decibels.

Even a brief exposure to intense noise can cause temporary loss of hearing acuity. Permanent loss of hearing follows chronic exposure to high noise levels. Noise levels as low as 50-55 decibels may delay or interfere with sleep and result in a feeling of fatigue on awakening. There has been growing evidence that noise in the 90-decibel range may cause irreversible changes in the nervous system. These forms of damage, including permanent hearing loss such as that suffered by fans of rock music, can occur at noise levels well below those that are painful. Noise may be a factor in many stress-related diseases, such as peptic ulcer (виразка шлунку) and hypertension, although present evidence is only circumstantial. In any case noise pollution is clearly a growing threat to our health and happiness.