Английский язык в сфере профессиональной коммуникации: природопользование. Тарасова Л.А - 45 стр.

                                Unit 9
        THE MEN WHO STUDY VOLCANOES

       A man was standing at the door of a small house, looking at
the high mountain some twenty miles away.
       From the top of the mountain thick smoke was rising into the
sky. The man went into the house. In the house instruments were
registering earth tremors.
       Soon some men in heavy thick coats went away — towards the
volcano.
       The volcano we are speaking about is Kluchevskaya, over 16,000
feet high, the best known and biggest of the many active volcanoes
of Kamchatka. Who are the men that not afraid of the volcano? They
are the scientists who study it. They work at the Kamchatka station
for the study of volcanoes. This volcano is an object of great interest
to scientists. There, near the Pacific Ocean, great geological and
mountain-making disturbances are taking place. These disturbances
are being studied by scientists. Study of eruptions and other volcanic
activity is teaching the scientists a great deal about the laws of the
formation of munerals deep in the earth.
       The men whom we were watching went up the mountain
through deep snow. They were carring all kinds of special cameras
and instruments. All around them thick trees were sleeping deep in
snow. Cold mountain winds were blowing, carring the snow along
the ground. But noises, like gunfire, were disturbing the silence. They
seemed to be coming from above.
       The men went up another eight or nine hundred feet and
came out of the trees on to an open place. Before them a mountain of
fire, coming up from the earth, rose to a great height. Above it was a
dark cloud with red tongues of fire. Below it was a river of lava,
reflecting the mountan of fire. It was a slow, dark, wide river. All
around it trees were burning in the heat.
       The houses of the station were built on the river Kamchatka
over thirty years ago. There, thousands of miles from the nearest
city, the scientists have all the equi pment they need — from first-
class laboratories to telescopes. When the eruption take place camer-
as on these telescopes take many pictures. But the main work must be
done by expeditions.

                                                                    45