Lesson 13. Natural Disasters.
Warm-up
1. London’s return to focusing on European security, alongside its gentle tilt to the Indo-Pacific, aligns with Washington’s current policies. The question is what will happen after the November U.S. elections. Former U.S. President Donald Trump has made clear that the EU, which ran a surplus of more than $200 billion in its goods trade with the United States in 2023, will feel the full force of his retaliatory (ответный) trade policy, of which Britain may be spared (=not touch).
2. This misalignment of strategic priorities confronts Europe with a dilemma. French President Emmanuel Macron put his finger on a very fundamental issue when he pressed Europe to consider independent nuclear deterrent. But will Paris—the only European Union member with such weapons—risk annihilation (=deterioration) to save Berlin? Is Europe ready to consider a nuclear-armed Poland or Germany? Despite what its boosters (supporters) say, the EU is not a security actor. The bloc’s so-called common foreign and security policy is hardly taken seriously in Asian capitals—or, for that matter, in European ones. A European defense force is only talk, with no prospect of materializing for the foreseeable future.
3. Countries in the east and north are rightly terrified of Vladimir Putin’s Russia and might well join forces to defend one another. But countries farther west and south might worry more about terrorism, mass migration, and other non-traditional threats. Washington has long played honest broker in such disputes within NATO or simply provided the margin (reserves) of power that allows a diverse trans-Atlantic community to do multiple things at once. Without that leadership, Europe could fragment and flounder (хромать на обе ноги; идиом.). THAT’S AN UGLY OUTCOME—but not the ugliest one. In a third scenario, Europe’s future might look a lot like its past. In this Europe, weakness is a temporary condition, and a failure to overcome collective-action problems such as EU security is just the beginning.
A very little bit of Lexis
Negative prefixes II
How it started...
https://eslbuzz.com/a-list-of-50-common-prefixes-in-english/
Let`s start with little steps:
b) unhealthy, harmful: maleffect
d) incorrect: maldifferentiation
e) poorly, deficiently: malfed, malnourished, malcirculation
2) unintentional, mistaken, accidental: malcommunication
MIS-
1) wrongly/badly (in verbs): misjudge, misbehave, mispronounce, misspell
2) bad/wrong (in nouns): misunderstanding, misdeed, misdiagnosis
3) opposite or lack of: mistrust
Task 1. Explain the meaning of the words in the chart. Translate the words into Russian.
Task 2.
Disasters all around..
https://breakingnewsenglish.com/2408/240826-antarctica-post-glacial-uplift.html
Time for Miraflores!
1. Why did Chavez dismiss PDVSA officials?
2. What was the public reraction on massive firings?
3. What is the phenomenon of cacerolazo?
4. What made General Uson stay alert? What actions did he take to calm people down?
5. List the principal reasons that have precipitated the march.
6. Why did Chavez irritate Uson? What were the discrepancies?
Homework
Task 1.
Some people say that protecting the environment is the government’s responsibility. Others believe that every individual should be responsible for it. Discuss both views and give your own opinion. Give reasons for your answer and
include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Task 2.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=IVLGo_SgRfs
Read the text and fill in the gaps with NO MORE THAN 4 WORDS AND/OR NUMBERS from the text.
- The natural disaster that occurred in Lisbon /_________/_________/_________/ of a British scientist.
- According to John Michell’s /_________/_________/_________/, the motion of the waves prompts the earth to vibrate.
- John Michell couldn’t expound on the origin of the /_________/_________/that could produce such a wave.
- John Michell managed to quantify the momentum of the wave using /_________/_________/ and his own theory.
- John Michell observed that strong fires burning inside the earth’s core caused tectonic plates to /_________/_________/.
An event in 1775 caused all of Europe to pay attention to the ground beneath it. On November 1, Lisbon, Portugal, was devastated by earth tremors and the high waves that followed.
On that fateful day, a majority of the population was in the city's churches commemorating the Catholic holiday of All Saints' Day. At 9:30 a.m., a rumbling sound was heard. Then the ground began shaking. People in the cathedrals saw larger chandeliers swaying as walls shook. The shaking paused. Then came a second shock, followed by a third.
Fires flared up immediately, ignited by cooking fires and heating stoves. Buildings that survived the quake as well as the rubble of fallen structures began to burn. Many people died in the fires, which continued burning for six days.
The twin horrors of the earthquake and the fires drove much of the population to the seaside. People observed that the sea had pulled back an unusual distance from the shore, but they did not understand why. The quake, which had struck off the coast, led to a tsunami, which hit Lisbon and wiped out houses and businesses in low-lying areas. Scores of people who had rushed to the seaside were swept out into the ocean and died. An eyewitness, Reverend Charles Davy, said he talked to a ship's captain who thought his ship had struck a rock. Actually, the sensation was caused by the waves of energy from the earthquake passing under the ship.
An estimated 60,000 people died in Lisbon. Most large buildings and 12,000 houses were destroyed. The quake caused damage as far away as Algiers, 685 miles to the east and across the Mediterranean Sea in Algeria.
The tragedy in Lisbon also captured the attention of English astronomer John Michell. Michell gathered information about the Lisbon earthquake and theorized it was caused by waves passing through the ground.
His idea was that a sharp force hitting a point in the earth would travel as an elastic wave, even passing through solid rock. Michell knew sound moves through the air in waves with high points and low points in a regular progression. Sound waves can be characterized by amplitude, velocity, and frequency, among others.
Michell’s elastic wave theory claims that sound waves travel through air, compress, and expand. As the waves travel, they cause the earth to vibrate. However, Michell had no explanation for the massive force required to start such a wave.
Using his wave theory and observer reports from Lisbon, Michell calculated the velocity of the wave. It was not an accurate measurement, but it was a start. He figured the waves would go out in all directions, like ripples from a stone dropped in a pond. Michell believed that if one could map the waves, the location of the earthquake could be determined.
His explanation of waves produced by an earthquake and causing the shaking was correct, but he came to the wrong conclusion about the formation of the waves. He noted that earthquakes and volcanoes often occur together, and he thought large fires burning substances such as coal beneath the ground caused rock layers to arch up from the heat. Then pieces of rock would break off and fall into the fire, where the moisture in the rock would explode, causing an earthquake.
Michell tried to fit what eyewitnesses of the Lisbon earthquake reported into a framework that would explain the events. His theory of elastic waves was impressive for its time, but additional information was needed before a more complete theory of the cause of earthquakes could be proposed.