YOU CAN′T LIVE WITHOUT IT 1.It is in our bodies. It is in living things around us. It is used in some church services and in social customs. We have superstitions and sayings about it. It has thousands of uses in the world today. One of these is to flavour the egg you have for breakfast. Can you guess what it is? Common table salt. 2.Salt is necessary for the life and health of people, plants and animals. Blood, sweat and tears are all salt. Body cells must have just the right amount of salt to function properly. Too much salt can be dangerous for your heart and blood vessels. But if you work or play hard enough to respire heavily, you must replace the salt lost from your system or you could suffer from heat exhaustion. 3.Salt is made up of two elements, sodium and chlorine, its chemical name is “sodium chloride”. Ordinarily these two work together in proper balance in the body. 4.Today we take salt for granted, but many years ago salt was scarce, it was used as money. African traders exchanged it for twice its weight in gold. The soldiers in Julius Caesar's army received common salt, called solarium, as part of their pay. From this came the word salary. 5.From the earliest times, salt has been a symbol of lasting friendship and honor. When the Arabs say, “There is salt between us,” they mean, “We have eaten together and are friends.” 6.When salt was scarce, it was considered bad luck to spill any of it. Many people still believe this. To prevent bad luck, they say, you must take a pinch of the spilled salt between the thumb and first finger of your right hand and throw it over left shoulder. 7.Today, almost 40 000 000 tons of salt are produced in the United States alone, taken from mines, wells, and the sea. Some salt deposits are thousands of years. In Poland, 900 feet underground, miners have cut out whole rooms and have carved statues out of pure salt crystals. In another old mine in Columbia, 345 feet down, there is an excavation large enough to hold 10 000 people. 8.Only a small amount of all the salt produced seasons our food. The rest of it is used in other ways – to preserve food, to cool refrigerated railroad cars, to cure animal hides, to melt winter snow and ice. Chemical compounds made from table salt are also used in manufactured things like glass, soap, paper, and rayon, in heat-treating, smelting, and refining metals, and in water-softening. Common table salt is necessary in many ways we take for granted – our very lives depend upon it. 1. Найдите в тексте синонимы к следующим словам, запомните их значения.
application, usual, essential, common rule, quality, proper, substitute, constitute, deficient, merchant, get, think
5.Письменно ответьте на вопросы по содержанию текста.
a) Why must body cells have just the right amount of salt?
b) Can too little salt be dangerous for our body? Why?
c) What is the chemical name of common table salt? Why is it called so?
d) When and why was salt used as money?
e) Where is salt taken from nowadays?
f) What are the ways of using salt in the modern world?
ответ:It was a beautiful day in the woods near the village of Montignac. The sky was blue, and autumn leaves covered the ground. Four friends strolled happily among the tall trees, telling stories of treasures that people had hidden in the forest.
2) As they were walking, one of the boys fell. When others ran to help him, they saw there was a hole in the ground. Could it be a tunnel with hidden treasures in it? The boys began to dig. try to make the hole bigger so that they can climb in and take a look. By this time, though, it was getting dark and they had no torch, so they decided to return early the next day.
3) They returned to the woods in front of the school. One after the other. the boys lit their torches and slid into a small, dark tunnel. After about ten minutes, the boy who was at the front released a loud choke. When he pointed his torch at the wall, everyone was amazed to see the walls covered with colorful drawings of horses, deer and oxen. The friends ran quickly to school and told their teacher all about their fantastic discovery. She named an expert who went immediately to investigate the paintings.
4) Later that day, their teacher asked that the boys stay after school. They thought they had done something wrong, but they were reduced when they saw their teacher's smiling face. An expert confirmed that the boys were the first modern humans to lay eyes on the famous Lascaux paintings, which were at least 17,000 years old. They felt really proud.
Объяснение:
1 It was a beautiful afternoon in the woods near the village of Montignac. The sky was blue and autumn leaves covered the ground. Four friends strolled happily among the tall trees, telling stories about treasures that people had hidden in the forest.
2 As they were walking, one of the boys fell over. When the others ran to help him, they saw that there was a hole in the ground. Could this be a tunnel with hidden treasures in it? The boys started to dig. trying to make the hole bigger so that they could climb in and have a look. By this time though, it was getting dark and they didn't have a torch, so they decided to come back early the next day.
3 They returned to the woods before school. One by one, the boys lit their torches and crawled into the small dark tunnel. After about ten minutes, the boy who was at the front let out a loud gasp. When he pointed his torch at the wall, everyone was amazed to see the walls covered with colourful pictures of horses, deer and oxen. The friends ran quickly to school and told their teacher all about their fantastic discovery. She called an expert who went immediately to examine the paintings.
4 Later that day, their teacher asked the boys to stay behind after school. They thought that they had done something wrong, but they were relieved when they saw their teacher's smiling face. The expert had confirmed that the boys were the first modern people to lay eyes upon the famous Lascaux paintings, which were at least 17,000 years old. They felt really proud.