Английский для бакалавров. Зарубина Л.П - 201 стр.

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201
Pacific. A piece of the Earth’s crust that is bounded by spreading ridges and subduc-
tion zones is called a “plate”, which gives the concept of continental drift its modern
name, “plate tectonics”. In some places, two pieces of crust — two plates — rub side
by side, with no net creation or destruction of sea floor. This happens today along the
notorious San Andreas fault in California.
The whole process of break-up and re-arrangement of the continents may have
happened several times in the Earth’s history, and is responsible for building moun-
tain ranges, where continents collide. India, moving northward into Eurasia, has
forced up the Himalayas, which are still growing. By contrast, the line of the Red Sea
marks a new (by geological standards) crack in the Earth's crust, a spreading ridge
which is splitting Africa off from Arabia, and which may eventually cause this nar-
row sea to expand into an ocean as large as the Atlantic is today.
Overwhelming evidence for the reality of continental drift, or plate tectonics,
was collected during the 1960s and 1970s. But the "icing on the cake" has been pro-
vided only in the past few years. Using laser beams bounced off artificial satelites in
orbit around the Earth, it is now possible to measure directly the steady widening of
the Atlantic, calculated at a couple of centimetres every year.
From “The Courier”
I. Read the text ‘Wandering Continents’. Arrange the following sentences in a
logical sequence corresponding to the contents of the text.
1. Magnetic studies of the ocean floors gave the key evidence of the continen-
tal drift.
2. Hundreds of millions of years ago all of the Earth’s landmasses were joined
together in one supercontinent.
3. The net effect is that there is no change in the surface area of the Earth –
spreading in the Atlantic and at other sites is balanced by contraction of the
Pacific.
4. Thanks to laser beams, it is now possible to measure directly the steady
widening of the Atlantic.
5. The idea of continental drift was stated by the German astronomer and me-
teorologist Alfred Wegener.
6. The process of re-arrangement of the continents is responsible for building
mountain ranges, where continents collide.
7. New geological techniques supported the idea of continents moving through
the rocks of the sea floor.
8. Plate tectonics is the modern name for the concept of continental drift.
II. Find the sentences with ing-forms. Define their functions.
III. Translate the text.

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