Lectura 4: Water

A.   Pre-reading tasks:

1. Answer the following questions yourself.

1. What do you think is this article about?

2. Are you worried about it?

3. What can you suggest authorities for solving or improving this subject?

4. What should we do?

 

2. Rearrange the words in the table.

cleaner - pollution - efforts – active –contamination -responsible -water usage -take care -quality -residues -impurities  -purification program - limits -consequences - environmental -problem -environment - fish - antibiotics -risk  -concern  -nature -chemical substances -threat
Positive idea	Negative idea	Neutral idea

WATER

 Switzerland’s rivers and lakes have become much cleaner since the 1960s thanks to an active water purification policy. But these natural water resources are being threatened with new types of pollution: residues from medication and pesticides. A recent UNESCO survey has ranked Switzerland 16th in the world for water management. It reserved particular praise for the efforts the country had made to stop industrial contamination.

Some years ago we didn’t use to worry about water. This has changed. Now we have to be responsible for our water usage and everybody has to take care of water. “Some important industrial waste treatment plants have been built in the past 20 years, especially round Basel, and the quality improved a lot,” said the Head of the Water Management Division at the Office of Water and Geology. Now, drinking water is checked for impurities in Bern. Millions of francs have been pumped into cleaning up water in Switzerland and into the installation of a national water purification program, which can deal with biodegradable organic matter, most phosphates and many other organic substances. In 1986 authorities banned the use of phosphates in the production of washing powder in Switzerland. But even water treatment plants have their limits. “For example, they can’t treat remnants of certain types of medication,” said the Head of Water Hygiene at the Environment Ministry. “We are at the moment studying what possible consequences there could be for both humans and wildlife of having these substances in water,” he added. He says residues from medication get into the water system via showers, sinks and WCs. “Today we are able to measure micro pollution.” “If this very low amount constitutes an environmental problem, we can have a serious problem”, added the chemist.  But there are signs that such pollution has already affected the environment. Last year, the Association of Swiss Chemists said it was alarmed to find that one in every six fish bred in the country contained the highest levels of medication or banned substances. We should do something and quickly.  A study by the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology found that fields were being contaminated with stronger antibiotics used to treat animals – placing drinking water at risk. Pesticides, especially nitrates were also causing concern. In 2001, the Worldwide Fund for Nature warned that the presence of hormones and other chemical substances from fertilizers, antibiotics and perfumes in Switzerland could pose a potential threat to human health.

Adapted from: www.swissinfo.org

Activities

A.   GRAMMAR COMPREHENSION

1.    Find three connectors and state their functions.

2.    Find one adjective in the comparative degree and one in the superlative degree.

3.    Find an example of Infinitive of Purpose in the text.

4.    Why does the author use “alarmed” instead of “alarming”? Answer in Spanish.

5.     Find a verb in the following tenses. Why are these tenses used?

	Example (English)	Uses (Spanish)
Simple Present
Simple Past
Present Continuous
Present Perfect
Past Perfect

6.    Find two examples of Passive Voice in the text (English).

7.     Who does the action? Is the agent mentioned in the text?

Example 1:

Example 2:

8.    When/Why is the passive voice used? (Spanish)

9.    State the function of the following words. Are they nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs?

Washing
Studying
Something

10. Find an example of a relative clause in the text and underline its pronoun.

11. Find some modal verbs in the text and explain their uses in Spanish.

12.  Find an example of a conditional sentence and state its type (0, I, II or III).

13.  Find an example of an obligation in the past in the text. 

14.  Find an example of the “used to” structure in the text. 

B.   Reading Comprehension:

1.    Summarize the text in Spanish:

What is the problem?
What are the effects?
What are the causes?
What are the solutions?

2. Find some transparent words in the text:

3. Find six key words in the text: