Natural Disasters

В 8 классе средней общеобразовательной школы мною используется учебно–методический комплект (УМК) «Enjoy English-5», авторы М. З. Биболетова, Н. Н. Трубанева (обучение английскому языку осуществляется с 1 класса).

Учебник состоит из четырех тем (Units), которые включают многочисленные подтемы( Sections). Так, например, тема It Is a Wonderful Planet We Live On включает такие аспекты, волнующие подростков, как: After Rain Comes Fine Weather. We Are a Part of the Universe. Space Travels. Space and Science (Exploring Space). Natural Disasters. (Is the Earth a Dangerous Place?). World’s Geographical Champions. Эта тема тесно переплетена и взаимосвязана со следующей темой The World’s Best Friend Is You, которая состоит из следующих разделов, таких как: The Earth Needs a Friend, Doesn’t It? Environment. Personal Problems (What’s Wrong with Us?). Recycling. What Can We Do to Save the Earth?

Формулировки названий тем и разделов учебника отражают коммуникативные задачи, решаемые на уроках, т.е. формирование способности общаться на английском языке.

Я хочу изложить подробнее работу по следующему разделу учебника Natural Disasters(Is the Earth a Dangerous Place?), которая является нетипичной и нетрадиционной для изучения и заинтересованного обсуждения. (Unit 1. Section 1).

Teacher: A lot of different weather disasters happen on the Earth every year. All of them can be very dangerous for people. The greatest natural disasters cause a lot of damage, injure and kill people and animals. Among them are earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts, tidal waves (цунами).

Children look at the pictures, listen to the tape and read the words denoting disasters (ex. 76 p. 23). Then children do ex. 77 p. 23 when they not only match the words and the texts but try to remember and reproduce the following information:

1. A flood is a large amount of water which covers a place that is usually dry land.
2. An earthquake is a sudden shaking of the ground.
3. A hurricane is a very violent wind or storm.
4. A tornado is a very violent wind in the form of a funnel of air that spins at great speed.
5. A volcano is a mountain with a hole called a crater in the top. Sometimes lava and gases are thrown from the crater.
6. A drought is a long period of dry weather when there is not enough water.

After listening to the teacher’s text about natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions the pupils fill in the following table and working in groups inform each other where serious earthquakes have taken place on our planet, where people suffer from hurricanes, where tornadoes are common, where there are active volcanoes. (ex. 78 p. 23).

При этом осуществляется повторение и обобщение такого грамматического материала, как « The» with geographical names.

Далее ребятам предлагается текст для прочтения с пониманием основного содержания The Yungay Earthquake (ex. 81 p. 84). The text is about the worst earthquake ever happened in Peru when 50 000 died and another 100 000 people were hurt, when nearly a million lost their homes – that is one out of 13 people in Peru – then questions to the text were suggested ( ex. 82 p. 24).

Домашнее задание ребята получили следующее: Read the text about tornadoes (ex. 89 p. 26) и в Рабочей тетради выполнить ex. 1 p. 17 (guess the crossword puzzle)/

В начале следующего урока проверили разгадку домашнего кроссворда (Рабочая тетрадь ех. 1 р. 17) и ребятам были розданы листы с текстами о различных катаклизмах природы. На чтение каждого текста отводилось 2-3 минуты, далее следовали вопросы учителя, или ребята сами задавали вопросы.

Nearly two thousand years ago, in 79 AD, a volcano called Vesuvius erupted on the west coast of Italy, south of Naples. It was one o’clock on 24th August. In the busy Roman port of Pompeii, people were walking about in the streets, families were preparing lunch and children were playing. Suddenly Vesuvius erupted. There was a loud explosion. There was dust and ash everywhere. People rushed into the streets screaming. Children ran to their parents crying. People tried to run away, taking their things with them. They tried to escape, but most of people and animals died.

Vesuvius has erupted many times. The last big eruption was in 1944. Will Vesuvius erupt again? Nobody knows. If it does, it might be a small eruption or a big one. Some people live close to Vesuvius because the soil around it is good for growing crops. But it is also very dangerous.

Questions:

1. What is Vesuvius?
2. Where is Vesuvius?
3. When did Vesuvius erupt?
4. What was there after eruption?
5. How many people and animal died?
6. When was the last big eruption of Vesuvius?
7. Why do some people live close to Vesuvius? Is it dangerous?

Sometimes in desert climates, it does not rain for a long time. This happened between 1968 and 1974 in the Sahel, in West Africa. The winds changed direction and the area did not receive any rain for six years. Hundreds of thousands of people and nearly half of the animals in the area died because there wasn’t enough water. The crops did not grow and many countries suffered from famine. People had to walk hundred kilometers to find water.

Questions:

1. Which disaster was in Africa between 1968 and 1974? (drought)
2. Why didn’t the area in West Africa receive any rain for six years?
3. How many people and animals died?
4. Why did many people and animals die?

When the famous Galveston Hurricane struck in the United States in September 1900, the whole city of Galveston, Texas, was destroyed and about 6000 people were killed.

Hurricanes are very strong winds that come from the sea. Warm wet air rises in a spiral and goes faster and faster – over 160 km an hour. In 1992, «Hurricane Andrew» hit Florida. The people there had to leave their homes and move to other towns and wait. When the hurricane arrived, it killed 15 people and destroyed thousands of buildings. More than 50 000 people had nowhere to live.

Questions:

1. What are hurricanes?
2. What may the speed of a hurricane be?
3. Which disaster happened in Florida in 1992?
4. How many people did «Hurricane Andrew» kill and how many buildings did it destroy?

The Netherlands is very flat and part of the country is below the level of the sea. The people there have to make sure that the walls by the sea – the dykes – are very strong.

Usually, there is no problem, but in January 1995, it rained and rained for more than two weeks. The water in the canals and rivers rose higher and higher, and thousands of people had to leave their homes because of a danger of floods. They went to other towns and waited until the water level fell down again.

Questions:

1. What disaster happened in the Netherlands in 1995?
2. Why did flood occur?
3. Why did people have to leave their homes?

An awful flood happened in China in 1998. It was caused by heavy rainfall. Nearly 4000 people were killed. The flood destroyed houses and left millions of people homeless, a lot of farmland was damaged.

После чтения и активного обсуждения текстов об извержении вулкана, засухе, ураганах, наводнениях в разных странах и на разных континентах, мы подошли к проверке домашнего текста о смерчах (Tornadoes ex. 89 p. 26).

К следующему уроку ребятам было предложено рассказать про торнадо, обращая внимание на то, как природа предвещает данное стихийное бедствие.

Заканчивая работу по этой теме, мы говорили о помощи, в которой нуждаются люди во время и после стихийных бедствий и о людях, которые профессионально оказывают эту помощь.

In all these disasters nature and people need help.

Emergency workers are specially trained people who do their job during and after the disasters.

Emergency workers such as doctors, nurses, fireman, water and gas workers do their jobs in difficult situations.

Sometimes the police and the army help too to save people who are in danger.

Natural disasters should be predicted, and then people have a much better chance of protecting themselves. Of course, it’s the work of scientists to find dangerous areas, to warn people about expected or coming emergencies.

Работа по данной теме была завершена, но к ней пришлось вернуться после страшной трагедии в конце декабря 2004 в Юго-Восточной Азии.

Such a terrible disaster as tidal wave happened in South-Eastern Asia on 25 December 2004. Such countries as Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia were damaged greatly. The consequences of it are terrible. More than 200000 people were killed, a lot of injured people, thousands of people became homeless, unemployed, a lot of people need water, food clothes, medical and psychological help. There is a threat of different diseases and epidemics. Different countries of the world provide help for injured people in these countries. Russia is among them. The consequences of tidal wave wouldn’t have been so awful, and not so many people would have been killed if people were warned, but they weren’t. There was no notification system in that area.