CHAPTER FIVE Reading Page 78
page 78 GREEN ORCHIDS
Life is a series of choices,and we cannot always foresee the consequences.
Harry Saleem,an obese man with too much money and power,faced a choice now.
Outside his office waited his personal doctor,
bringing him vital news about the only medicine which could save his life.
On the other side of the world,
one of his engineers waited for his decision
on an important matter of business.
His secretary asked whether she should bring the doctor in.
And then the billionaire businessman made his decision.
'No,let the fool wait,'growled Saleem.'Business comes first.'
Despite the health problems caused by his huge weight,
he was still obsessed with making money.
He raised a fat finger,
and one of his staff hurried to switch on a large television set.
The screen flashed into life,and Saleem's engineer appeared.
The man talked by satellite directly to his master
although they were thousands of miles apart.
'It's all ready to blow,Mr Saleem,'he said.
'Just say the word.''Wait,ordered Saleem,
while he considered the situation.
His engineer was standing above a wide valley in South America.
A few months ago,Rakan Valley had been a rain forest.
Then Saleem's men had come.
They had cut down all the valuable trees
and forced the villagers to move out.
Across the bottom of the valley,a dam had been built.
This would provide hydro electric power
for the many factories which Saleem planned to build in the area.
Saleem finished his mental review of the situation.
It was an operation which would bring vast profits.
He cared nothing for the destruction of the environment.
That was not his problem.
He saw no reason to delay.
He ordered the engineer to press the button.
The camera panned away into the distance,and then a cloud of dust rose up,
followed shortly by a dull explosion.
A mighty river changed its course,
and water flooded into the doomed Rakan Valley.
In the big office,there was a short silence.
But Saleem never wasted time.
'Good,that's that.Turn it off.
Now,get that doctor in here,he commanded,
and his staff fell over themselves to obey their bullying employer.
The doctor,a tall,thin,American with a worried look,
came in and started to examine his wealthy patient nervously.
'You're doing very well,Mr Saleem.'he said finally.
'The new medicine is a great success.
The only problem is getting more of it.'
Saleem asked the doctor if he would be able to get more.
'Money is no problem,you know,'he said.'
Tell me what you need,and we'll get it.'
But the doctor explained that the main ingredient of this new,life saving medicine came from a plant.
'It's a small,green orchid,'he said,
'which has just been discovered.
We'll need many plants to make enough medicine.'
'Well,get them!'ordered Saleem.'What's the problem?'
'Er,there's no problem,sir said the doctor,'except that they are very rare.
There's only one place in the world where they grow.'
'Where?'demanded the fat businessman,impatiently.The doctor smiled.
He was pleased to have good news.
'Well,luckily the orchids come from some land which you own,sir,
so there won't be any difficulty.
They're from a place in South America known as Pakan Valley.'
LISTENING SKILLS Page 82 Changing a text
SPEAKING page 88A Saying the sounds and
1 ear air hear hair
cheers chairs beer bear
pier pear clear claredear dare tear(n) tear(v.)
steered stared
2 here year idea appear
easier nearly Austria engineer
3 care square wear where
there scarce stairs
4 a dear chair a bearded engineer
5 He has very scarce hair.She can't bear the taste of beer.
Clare's here and Lear's over there.
MORE LANGUAGE INPUT
A Reading page 92 Helping the Environment
These days we are all aware of the many threats to the environment
and the need to act in a responsible manner
to protect the world which we all share.
Many people say that they are in favour of the'green'movement.
However,it is often difficult to find anything practicalwhich you can do to help.
If you live in a big city,
you may feel that you cannot take any action to support the cause.
But one thing you can do is to try to buy'green'products.
For example,let us consider the problem of the ozone layer.
Around the earth,there is a thin layer of ozone.
This gas protects us from many of the harmful rays of the sun.
A few years ago,scientists in the Antarctic first became aware of holes in the ozone layer.
If these holes continue to get bigger,
more and more harmful rays from the sun will reach us.
As a result,more people are likely to get skin cancer.
Further research into the problem showed that the ozone layer is being destroyed by gases called CFCs.These gases are released into the atmosphere by the chemicals used in aerosol cans and refrigerators.
When this became known,
many manufacturers stopped using CFCs in their aerosol cans.
They switched to other less harmful chemicals,
and labelled their cans'ozone0friendly'or'no CFCs'.
So when you next buy any type of spray can
(such as a deodorant or insect spray),look for these labels.
The problem of refrigerators was more difficult to solve.
These machines could not be adapted as quickly as aerosol cans.
However,a German manufacturer,working with Greenpeace,
has now produced an ozone safe fridge.
It has been named the'Qreenfreeze'fridge and will soon be available.
Other manufacturers are rushing to produce similar models.
So the next time you or your parents go out to buy a fridge,
choose one of the ozone friendly models.
Then you will be doing something to help the environment.
B.Listening page 93