Section 2 - Unit 3

Section 2 - Unit 3

    Ever since man came bursting out of the last Ice Age 11,000 years ago, armed with sharpened sticks, traps, and snares, he has had a nasty habit of wreaking havoc on plants and animals.

    By the late nineteenth century, with the advent of industrial technology and modern farming, man’s weapons of choice in his continuing war against nature had become more sophisticated. Today parking lots, pesticides, waste dumps, and industrial pollutants of all stripes are the new spears though the victims remain the same – plants, animals, and their homes. Grasslands and wetlands are increasingly replaced by subdivisions and malls. Trees and lakes are poisoned by acid rain. Tropical forests are slashed and burned at the rate of 100 acres a minute. As population density soars from South America to Southeast Asia, economic might continues to overrule ecologic right. Since 1900, Africa’s wildlife population has declines by more than seventy percent as the human population has grown sixfold.

    The number of wildlife extinctions and endangered species is mindboggling. In the early twentieth century, the earth was losing one pieces a year; today, it’s one species a day – 400 times the natural rate. By comparison, it’s estimated that dinosaur species died off at the rate of one every 1,000 years. By the middle of the next century, according to the Nature Conservancy, one-half of all the earth’s present species may be lost, largely as a result of man’s greed, cruelty, and vanity.

    One school of biological theorists contends that extinction is evolutionary, arguing that we have to go sometime. But there’s s big difference between natural and unnatural death. Already the Tasmanian wolves, the laughing owls of New Zealand, the Caribbean monk seals, and many more are history. And while there are some efforts underway to rescue a handful of species – in the U.S., for example, a number of zoos have had success breeding and bringing back such species as condors, ferrets, and Siberian tigers – they represent a drop in the bucket, particularly at the time when only thirty Spanish lynxes and thirty Western swamp tortoises remain, and when entire species of insects arevacated every day. While much of the public handwringing over (and Hollywood fund – raisers on behalf of) endangered species is done in the name of the “glamour” animals – like blue whales and bald eagles (which are actually staging a come back of sorts, after a twenty-year, $25 million campaign) – the unparalleled horror of today’s carnage lies more in the sheer number of plants that are disappearing.

    When the dinosaurs were killed off 65 million years ago, flowering plants survived. Today dozens are being eradicated weekly, many before they can even be named or studied. The tragedy in their extinction is that many hold potential cures for everything from cancer to AID. Twenty five percent of the pharmaceuticals in use in America today contain ingredients originally derived from wild plants.

    But aren’t there plenty of shrubs and vines to go around? Who’s going to miss an odd thousand or so of the 30 million different kinds of insects that crawl the face of the earth? Certainly evolution will continue even as we pave and pollute the planet. Unfortunately, as man’s technology weeds out the survivors in the plant and animal world, those that willthrive are hardly the most biologically diverse, or necessarily the most beneficial. Cockroaches, rats, raccoons, bats, and weeds are far from endangered.

    What is wrong with the current rate of extinction is its chilling acceleration. According to the World Wildlife Fund, thousands of existing species may be extinct by the end of this century. Such extreme dying-off portends the disruption of widespread, complex habitats, key players in the planet’s ecological balance. With more and more of those players missing in action, such essentials as clean air and water, productive soil, and many harvestableproducts will increasingly be things of the past. And extinction only breeds more, and faster, extinction.

    One especially frightening aspect of the endangerment to wild plants and animals is not what we know for a certainty will happen but what we cannot predict. Our knowledge of earth’s biological fabric and ita mysteries is, at best, incomplete, uneven. Thus the consequence of man’s continued alteration of nature’s diversity cannot be forecast with any real degree of accuracy. It is the unknown that has even the experts scared stiff .

(By Jon Bowermaster, from Rolling Stone)

• EXTRACTING MAIN IDEAS 

    Check the statement that summarizes the author’s viewpoint

 1. Man’s war against nature has had to become more sophisticated.
 2. The number of species becoming extinct each day is frightening.
 3. We must accept the fact that extinction is part of evolution.

• DEALING WITH UNFAMILIAR WORDS 

    Find boldfaced words in the passage that have similar meanings to the following

1. great power
2. eliminates
3. cut
4. removed
5. shocking
6. is a sign of
7. insignificant amount
8. hard to believe
9. complexes of stores
10. worrying
11. destroyed
12. grow strong and healthy
13. short woody stemmed trees
14. capable of being cut and used
15. medicinal drugs
16. become extinct
17. no longer in existence
18. causing damage

• CRITICAL READING 

    Read the following statements, write F if it is a fact or O if it is an opinion next to each one.

 1. Ever since man came busting out of the last Ice Age 11,000 years ago, armed with sharpened sticks, traps, and snares, he has had a nasty habit of wrecking havoc on plants and animals.
 2 Tropical forests are slashed and burned at the rate of 100 acres a minute.
 3 By the middle of the next century, according to the Nature Conservancy, one half of all the earth’s present species may be lost, largely as a result of man’s greed, cruelty and vanity.
 4 On one hectare of any rain forest live countless species of plants and insects that exist nowhere else.
 5 But there’s s big difference between natural and unnatural death
 6. Already the Tasmanian wolves, the laughing owls of New Zealand, the Caribbean monk seals, and many more are history.
 7 While much of the public handwringing over (and Hollywood fund – raisers on behalf of endangered species is done in the name of the “glamour” animals – like blue whales and bald eagles …– the unparalleled horror of today’s carnage lies more in the sheer number of plants that are disappearing.
 8. When the dinosaurs were killed off 65 million years ago, flowering plants survived.
 9. Unfortunately, as man’s technology weeds out the survivors in the plant and animal world, those that will thrive are hardly the most biologically diverse, or necessarily the most beneficial.
 10. What is wrong with the current rate of extinction is its chilling acceleration.

• UNDERSTANDING WRITER’S STYLE 

1. The writer’s style would be described as (more than one answer may be possible)
A. business-like	B. argumentative	C impersonal	D personal
2. The tone of the passage would be described as (more than one answer may be possible)
A authoritative	B warning	C factual	D harsh
3. The writer’s attitude toward deforestation is (more than one answer may be possible)
A critical	B disapproving	C approving	D positive

• FURTHER WORK 

Answer the questions. Answers should be posted in the discussion area for discussion.

1. Is there any issue of endangered species in your country? What opinion do you have toward your government’s policies, if there are any, on endangered species.

2. What animals are endangered in your country? Why are they endangered? Can they be saved by humans? Suggest some ways of saving these animals.

Answer Key: 

• Extracting main idea: 2
• Dealing with unfamiliar words: 
   

  1. might	7. a drop in the bucket	13. shrubs
  2.weeds out	8. mindboggling	14. harvestable
  3. slashed	9. malls	15. pharmaceuticals
  4. vacated	10. handwringing	16. died off
  5. chilling	11. eradicated	17. history
  6. portends	12. thrive	18. wreaking havoc

• Critical reading: 
  1. O
  2. F
  3. O
  4. F
  5. O
  6. F
  7. O
  8. F
  9. O
  10. O
• Understanding writer’s style: 1. B     2. C, B     3. B