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Integrated Writing

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25 views5 pages

Integrated Writing

nnu

Uploaded by

Faiery
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as ODT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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1.

ANIMALS FOR EARTHQUAKES' PREDICTION


People asked themselves for many years if they can use animals' behaviour. in any way to predict an
eartquake in order to prepare for such catastrophies.
People from all over the world noticed that many animals, including pets have a strange behaviour just
before a major event. Because of their sensitivity, it is believed that they can percept the movements of
tectonic plates. However, there is no scientific proof that animals can actually predict an earthquake.
Many pet owners claim that their pets disappeared just before the earthquake. Californian scientists
studied this hypothesis. This way, it was proven that the numebr of missing pets, such as dogs, before
an earthquake is not greater than the common one. The difference is just one in people's mind, as they
are more likely to remember insignifiant details that happened before a major event. Their pets might
have been missing before, but they didn't notice because there wasn't any earthquake to point it out.
One famous example of dogs that helped people to predict an earthquake is the one of evacution of the
city of Haicheng. Althought is it believed that the authorites evacuated the city because of the dogs, it
actually happened because there were foreshocks, small earthquakes that precede a bigger one, noticed
by the scientists.

2. ANIMALS AND LANGUAGE


One of the abilities that distinguish people from other animals is the language. However, there were
many prooves that other animals, such as apes, can learn a language.
People tend to believe that animals don't have a language or the ability to learn one because they don't
own the means to express themselves. Researchers who have worked closely with apes, noticed that
they can actually understand our language, and there are prooves that gorillas use signs to express
humour, to insult, to threaten. Famous examples are Koko, Michael and Washoe who can produce sign
responses to what they hear.
However, it still can be said that there are no enough studies about the topic. Of course, the people who
can talk about the understandinf of language in apes, are the ones who spend a lot of time with them.
So, the result might be suggested only by scientists' emotional attachement to their animal companions.
It's important to notice that the most important characteristic of a language is it's communicative
adaptability. We say that someone knows a language when he/she knows how to produce self responds
in unexpected situations, when it's impossible to use a pattern. Hence, there commes the dilemma: do
apes know a language or only a pattern?
Anyway, the results of the studies are remarcable but they need further study. One way to do this is a
neuroscientifically: we can scan people's brain while they use the language at its finest and apes' one
and see how the brains actually perceive the communication in both cases.

3. SALMON
The salmon fish has been threaten by exinction more and more nowadays. One of the factors that
influence the decrease of salmon fish is inability of the smolts, young salmon, to get to the sea in time.
Salmons lay their eggs in freshwater, places far away from the ocean they live in. The smolts need the
strong flow from the melting snow in order to get to the ocean. While they are still young, their body is
not adapted to salt water. During 6-20 days the scales solidify so they need to get to the ocean, although
their body is adapted for salt water, but they live is freshwater.
As people has built more and more dams, stocking water from the melting snow in order to produce
electricity, they interfered with the flow of freshwater in the ocean. Hence, they affected the migration
of salmon fish, reducing the population: as there are less and less smolts that get tot the sea, there are
less and less salmons to come back and lay eggs in two years.
There were solutions proposed to this problem. One of them was to transport the smolts by barge, but,
in the end, it occurred that this method actually killed more salmons than saved. Also, relesing water
behind the dam, or reducing its level in order to increase the flow of water are seen as partial solution.
However, the companies do not agree with those as long as it would affect their productivity, although
it would be for only a couple of days.

4. DDT
DDT is an insecticid first used during the World War II when it showed his effectivness against insects
that infect people with diseases, such as malaria and typhus. After people used it for 50 years, they
stopped doing so because they think that it affects the environment and may event produce cancer in
human population.
However, more recent studies has showed that none of those is true or can't be proven. One of the
reason used to stop the usage of DDT was that it affected the population of animals, specially birds of
prey such as bald eagles and peregrine falcons. Actually, the population of bald eagles had decreased
before people used DDT. Furthermore, 50 years after the beginning of this insecticid, there was noticed
an increase among the population of these birds. In the end, there was no difference in birds' number
after using DDT.
Nowadays, there is no proof that there is any connection between DDT and any form of cancer. In
order to create any effects in the environment, there should be used a massive amount of DDT, more
than had ever been used. What is more, further studies showed that if DDT is overused, it loses its
effectiveness, so there is no way it could affect the environment by remaining there for too long.
People should reconsider using DDT against insects which transport diseases such as malaria, which
has become a more alarming threaten, because the previous beliefs has been proven wrong.

5.TIDAL POWER
Tidal power is an alternative source of energy which doesn't create any greenhouse gases. It couldn't
provide all the energy needed by human population, but it would provide a good enough fraction. It
consists of a dam or barage and some turbines which would be turned by the difference of water
created behind the dam.
However, there are some side effects that should be considered by people before they build the dams
needed to create the difference of water level that is the most important point in creating tidal power.
The most important side effect is that the environment would be affected: the quality of the water
would change and along with that, the local life.
First of all, the salinity of the water would change and the accumulations of mud and sedments would
be different. This would affect the local population of plants and the algae. The fish migration would
also be stopped, because the fish wouldn't be able to cross from the ocean to the river, which would
lead to a decrease in their population. Local people can be affected, too. They won't be able to fish
because their fishing boats wouldn't be able to move freely.
Although tidal power seems to be a good alternative to fossil fuels and technologies that creates
greenhouse gases, in the end, it would create more damage to the environment than it would help.

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