Watch the video and make up sentences with the following words:

1. To pick smth at random = выбрать что-то ( с поля) в случайном порядке

2. To be twice the background levels = превышать допустимый уровень в два раза

3. A sample = образец

4. To enter the food chain = войти в пищевую цепочку

5. To obtain the value = получить значение ( равное …)

6. To go beyond = превышать

7. Spinach = шпинат

8. To test higher for radiation = иметь плохие результаты теста на радиацию

9. To ban = налагать запрет

10. To contaminate = загрязнять

11. Below any health threat = ниже уровня угрозы здоровью

12. To force the destruction of tons of food = насильно проводить уничтожение еды

13. To have an economic impact on = приносить экономический вред

14. Upsetting = грустный

 

1. What news do the journalists break in the video? What did they find on spinach fields at Fukusima?

2. What do the officials say about the danger of the radioactivity found in the local food?

3. Why have they started banning the produce from the contaminated area if it doesn’t pose immediate and even long-term threats to health? 4. What is the 82-year-old woman afraid of? Put down the video the way you hear it and send for checkup.

 

Retell it.

 

Now read the text and find in it English equivalents or synonyms for the following:

1. To impose constraints on=

2. To be dangerous for health

3. Запретить продажу чего-либо (2 variants)=

4. To stop distribution of…

5. To suffer from=

6. To face a problem=

7. Колебаться в пределах от … до …

8. To be rated one of the top producers=

9. Иметь положительные результаты теста на радиоактивность

10. Polluted=

Tokyo (CNN) -- The detection of high levels of radioactivity in certain Japanese foods -- and the nation's subsequent clampdown on their sales -- signals the food safety situation is "more serious" than originally thought, a World Health Organization official said Monday.
Peter Cordingley, the Manila-based spokesman for the WHO's regional office for the Western Pacific, said his organization believes people in Japan "have to be cautious" about what they eat and drink.
Besides causing devastation throughout northeast Japan, the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11 seriously damaged several reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, leading to the release of an unspecified amount of radioactive material into the atmosphere.
On Sunday, the sale of raw milk from Fukushima Prefecture and spinach from neighboring Ibaraki Prefecture were banned due to detected levels of radioactive iodine and cesium that surpassed government limits, Japan's health ministry reported. And officials in Fukushima halted the distribution of locally grown vegetables outside the prefecture.Cordingley noted that, whereas fears initially were for produce within 30 kilometers (18 miles) of the plant, cows (and the milk they produce) outside that radius and spinach from as far as 120 kilometers was being affected.
"Quite clearly, it is not what we thought in the early stages. It is more serious," he said. "We have seen Japanese people in grocery stores paying close attention to where their produce is coming from, and we think this is a wise practice."
Cordingley's assessment -- and the Japanese health ministry's move -- suggests that top world and national health agencies are definitely taking the issue seriously. And so are people in Japan.
"It doesn't look like a short-term issue," said Phil Knall, who lives in Tokyo. "I'm definitely concerned about the food that is going to be shipped out from now. I'm definitely thinking about it."
Japanese officials reported levels of radioactive iodine in milk from four locations in Fukushima that ranged from about 20% over the acceptable limit to more than 17 times that limit. Testing at one location also found levels of cesium about 5% over the acceptable limit, the health ministry reported Sunday.
And in Ibaraki, a major center of vegetable production, tests at 10 locations found iodine levels in spinach that ranged from 5% over acceptable limits to more than 27 times that ceiling. At seven sites, levels of cesium grew from just above 4% to nearly four times the limit.
Iodine and cesium isotopes are byproducts of nuclear reactors like the ones that were damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated the northern Japanese island of Honshu. While Iodine-131 has a radioactive half-life of eight days, cesium-137's half-life is about 30 years.
A few water samples taken in the area tested positive for iodine -- although far below levels of concern under Japanese law, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency website. The agency said it received reports from Japan's government that six out of 46 samples tested positive for the iodine-131 radioactive isotope.
The decision to prohibit food produce sales is another potentially devastating blow to a part of northeast Japan hit by the earthquake, tsunami and other potential fall-out from the Fukushima plant.
Fukushima, northeast of Tokyo, has Japan's fourth-largest amount of farmland and ranks among its top producer of fruits, vegetables and rice. Ibaraki, south of Fukushima, supplies Tokyo with a significant amount of fruits and vegetables and is Japan's third-largest pork producer.
After the 1986 nuclear plant disaster in Chernobyl -- then a part of the Soviet Union -- tons of food had to be destroyed when radioactive debris fell on crops in large swaths of Eastern Europe and Scandinavia.
Hygiene expert Satoshi Takaya, who helped Japanese scientists prevent contaminated food from entering the country at that time, said the current situation is no Chernobyl -- but he said the current crisis is sure to affect Japanese farmers.
That means threatening the livelihood of people like Ukia Uchida, an 82-year-old woman whose family has farmed a plot in Shibayama for generations. "Up until now, I thought everything was fine here," said Uchida. "But to hear that some radiation has been found here is pretty upsetting."

 

Answer the following questions:

1. Why did Japan slap restrictions on some produce? What kind of products is it?

2. What risks would eating this food pose to the citizens?

3. Why can the food problem cause double shock to the country?

4. Who is most likely to be affected and to what extent?

5. How do levels of radioactivity range in the contaminated areas?

6. If you were in charge of the problem in Japan what would you do to support the farmers and the economy? Retell the text using the active words from the list above.

 

Make up the following dialogue:

A farmer from Fukushima Prefecture and his wife are discussing how to get out of the scrape they have found themselves in. The husband is desolate and completely lost. He sees no way out. The wife seems to be more decisive: she suggests leaving their farm and heading for China where her relatives live. Use:

§ That puts the kibosh on it — Ну все, писец нам.

§ This is it. - Ну всё..

§ That’s done it! – Теперь все пропало!

§ Fancy living on the land for 10 generations and hey presto ….ing…! = Надо же… Живем на этой земле уже 10 поколений и вот на тебе …. § To hang oneself up=to string oneself up

§ Oh, come on!

§ What must be, will be=Every bullet has its billet.=От судьбы не уйдешь

§ To put up with =смириться с

§ We could / might V1

§ That’s all we wanted at this age! = Только этого нам не хватало в нашем возрасте.