чтение
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Reading for Detailed Comprehension
Task 1. Read the text below and mark the following statements as true or false by putting a tick in the appropriate box, if the text does not provide sufficient information to decide, tick the ns ("Not Stated").
true false NS
1. Some scientists believe that intellect depends on the brain size.
2. Trainers teach dolphins successfully to speak or otherwise communicate interactively with humans.
3. U.S. and Japan have disputes over whaling.
4. Greenpeace and the Animal Welfare Institute voted against moratorium on commercial whaling.
5. Subsistence whaling by Eskimos and other natives around the Arctic Sea was also banned.
6. Russia supported the restrictions on commercial whaling.
7. Japan's whaling industry is profitable.
8. Americans are fond of whale products.
9. The UN holds an annual conference on whaling.
10. Whales are known for complex social behavior.
11. Japan opposes explosive harpoons because they damage some of the meat.
12. Mankind has no dominion over the Earth.
At the Mercy of Mankind: A Lament for the Whales
George F. Will
Whales have inhabited the seas for millions of years. Their brains are many times larger than ours. Some scientists believe that as the brain size increases, the ability to think and reason also is increased, although no exact data have been produced to show exactly how whales think. Researchers are very interested in the way these huge mammals respond to human contact. Anyone who has ever watched a killer whale in an aquarium show cannot envision the creature killing anything. These performers seem to have a natural instinct for showmanship; they love affection and applause. Attempts have been made to teach dolphins (also members of the cetacean order of mammals) to speak or otherwise communicate interactively with humans, but so far the dolphins that are able to reproduce simple sounds of human speech are not able to relate them to meaning. Still scientists keep trying, hoping to learn some of their secrets before these mammals disappear from the seas.
Whales, which have quite enough problems, have now got caught in the angry waters of U.S. - Japan relations. But the persons protesting on the whales' behalf during last week's visit by Japan's prime minister have a grand cause.
The campaign to save the whales is a rare and refreshing example of intelligence in the service of something other than self-interest. That is one reason why it has progressed tremendously. In the summer of 1985, the member nations of the International Whaling Commission, responding primarily to appeals to conscience from groups like Greenpeace and the Animal Welfare Institute, voted 25-7 for a five-year moratorium on commercial whaling, beginning in late 1985. (Subsistence whaling by Eskimos and other natives around the Arctic Sea would continue.) But the three nations that kill 90% of the whales - Iceland, Norway and Japan -refused to comply.
Cheap substitutes now exist for all whale products, and no nation's whaling industry could exist unsubsidized. Japan kills the most whales and buys almost all the oil and meat from other nations' whaling. Japan's compliance with the moratorium probably would end commercial whaling. Whale meat provides less than 1% of Japan's protein. Japan's whaling industry has shrunk from five fleets to one, but several thousand jobs are involved.
The International Whaling Commission is toothless, but U.S. law is not. Nations in defiance of the commission's rulings can be denied fishing rights within the U.S. 200-mile zone, and imports of their fish can be stopped. The value to Japan of the fishing and imports is at least 10 times the value of Japan's whaling industry. US Congress favors sanctions if commercial whaling continues.
Japan's policy may seem another instance of that nation's bloody-mindedness, and of Oriental concern with saving face. But the disapproval of Western nations, and especially the United States, strikes Japan as Occidental hypocrisy. In the 1830s and 1840s American whalers depleted stocks in the seas around Japan. When Commodore Perry's fleet arrived in Japan in 1853, he was seeking supply stations for American whalers. Japan notes that Americans became fastidious about whaling only when whale products were no longer needed for lamp oil and margarine.
But such point-scoring misses the point - two points, in fact. The campaign against whaling has two distinguishable motives, conservation and humanitarianism.
More than 300,000 whales have been killed in the decade since the United Nations called for a moratorium. Every species of whale except the small Minke is endangered. It may be too late to save the magnificent blue whale. (They can exceed 100 feet in length; a baby can gain 200 pounds a day.) Whaling commission quotas have been cut from around 50,000 in the early 1970s to 12,365 in 1983 and zero quotas since 1986. Whaling is a dying industry; the question is whether it will be extinct before some species are.
Humanitarian concerns include, but go beyond, the refusal of Japan and others to abandon "cold" harpoons which, lacking explosives, cause a prolonged death agony. Japan opposes explosive harpoons because they damage some of the meat.
It probably is virtually impossible to kill humanely a creature that large. But even if the problem of pain could be solved, this problem would remain: There is something unseemly, something subversive of our own dignity, about killing such splendid creatures.
Whether whales, with their complex brains, really are, as some scientists say, "our neurological relations" is less important than this: whales have individual personalities, complex social behavior, and remarkable memories and capacities for communication.
As I sit with pen poised over paper, I am struck by the oddness of cataloging reasons for abandoning the killing - the cruel and utterly unnecessary killing - of such mysterious creatures, about which we have so much to learn. It is possible, and not exactly wrong, to give practical reasons why saving the whales would be useful. But there are times, and this is one, for rising above utilitarianism.
It is important to say that life is enhanced aesthetically by the knowledge that these sociable creatures are swimming - and singing - on the surface of the sea, and in the sunless depths below.
Furthermore, mankind has dominion over the Earth, but mankind's unsteady, serpentine path toward finer sentiments can be measured, in part, by evolving standards of what constitutes civilized dominion over lower animals.
Surely it involves a conviction, more intuitive than reasoned, that Creation, and we as the responsible portion of it, are diminished by wanton behavior toward creatures that so stunningly exemplify the mysteriousness of the natural. Notes:
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) is the global intergovernmental body charged with the conservation of whales and the management of whaling Greenpeace is an international non-governmental environmental organization The Animal Welfare Institute is an American, non-profit, charitable organization founded in 1951 and dedicated to reducing animal suffering caused by people Eskimos are the indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the northern circumpolar region from eastern Siberia (Russia), across Alaska (United States), Canada, and Greenland
The Arctic Sea is the same as The Arctic Ocean, which is located in the Northern Hemisphere, mostly in the Arctic northpolar region
Oriental - of, relating to, or from Asia and especially eastern Asia Occidental - (adjective) Western peoples and culture (as opposed to Oriental, describing peoples of the East)
Commodore Perry's (1794-1858) - Matthew Calbraith Perry, United States Navy officer, who persuaded Japan to open trade with American merchant ships in 1854
Minke whale, or lesser rorqual, is a name given to two species of marine mammal belonging to a clade within the suborder of baleen whales
Task 2. See if you can find answers to the following in the text.
1. Why do you think whales are endangered animals? They are so big.
2. Why is whaling not banned across the world altogether?
3. Why do Iceland, Norway and Japan refuse to sign the moratorium?
4. How can we end commercial whaling?
5. The author names "two distinguishable motives" for ending whaling. What facts and figures are used as supporting evidence?
6. How does human treatment of animals change with time? Do we always understand our motives?
7. What is the practice and policy of Russia on commercial whaling?
8. 23rd of July is the World Whale and Dolphin Day, how do we observe the date?
9. What do you know about worldwide efforts of environmentalist organizations to protect whales and other endangered species?
Task 3. Complete the word for each definition.
1. (adverb) according to the principles of aesthetics, which are based on a love of beauty a------
2. (verb) obey c-----
3. (noun) the power or right of controlling d-----
4. (noun) a number of ships that act together under a single command f----
5. (noun) authorized delay or stopping of a specific activity m-----
6. (adjective) grand; superb; magnificent s------
Task 4. Paraphrase the sentences using expressions from the text.
1. Protection of wild life is our common concern.
2. Whales have lived in the seas for millions of years.
3. The US Congress favors restrictive measures against some countries if commercial whaling continues.
4. Cheap alternatives now exist for all whale products.
5. Japan's policy may seem another instance of that nation's barbaric nature.
6. There is something improper, something destabilizing of our own dignity, about killing such splendid creatures.
7. Mankind has power over the Earth.
8. Life is enhanced inspirationally by the knowledge that these sociable creatures are swimming - and singing - on the surface of the sea
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