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--- lesson 47 Too high a price? |
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--- Listen to the tape then answer the question below. |
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--- What does the writer describe as an 'amusing old-fashioned source of noise'? |
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Pollution is the price we pay for an overpopulated, over industrialized planet. |
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When you come to think about it, there are only four ways you can deal with rubbish: |
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dump it, burn it, turn it into something you can use again, attempt to produce less of it. |
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We keep trying all four methods, but he sheer volume of rubbish we produce worldwide threatens to overwhelm us. |
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Rubbish, however, is only part of the problem of polluting our planet. |
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The need to produce ever-increasing quantities of cheap food leads to a different kind of pollution. |
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Industrialized farming methods produce cheap meat products: beef, pork and chicken. |
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The use of pesticides and fertilizers produces cheap grain and vegetables. |
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The price we pay for cheap food may be already too high: |
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Mad Cow Disease (BSE) in cattle, salmonella in chicken and eggs, and listeria in dairy products. |
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And if you think you'll abandon meat and become a vegetarian, |
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you have the choice of very expensive organically-grown vegetables |
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or a steady diet of pesticides every time you think you're eating fresh salads and vegetables, or just having an innocent glass of water! |
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However, there is an even more insidious kind of pollution that particularly affects urban areas and invades our daily lives, and that is noise. |
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Burglar alarms going off at any time of the day or night serve only to annoy passers-by and actually assist burglars to burgle. |
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Car alarms constantly scream at us in the street and are a source of profound irritation. |
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A recent survey of the effects of noise revealed (surprisingly?) that dogs barking incessantly in the night rated the highest form of noise pollution on a scale ranging from 1 to 7. |
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The survey revealed a large number of sources of noise that we really dislike. Lawn mowers whining on a summer's day,late-night parties in apartment blocks, |
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noisy neighbours, vehicles of all kinds,especially large container trucks thundering through quiet villages, planes and helicopters flying overhead, |
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large radios carried round in public places and played at maximum volume. |
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New technology has also made its own contribution to noise. |
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A lot of people object to mobile phones, especially when they are used in public places like restaurants or on public transport. |
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Loud conversations on mobile phones invade our thoughts or interrupt the pleasure of meeting friends for a quiet chat. |
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The noise pollution survey revealed a rather surprising and possibly amusing old fashioned source of noise. |
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It turned out to be snoring! |
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Men were found to be the worst offenders. |
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It was revealed that 20% of men in their mid-thirties snore. |
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This figure rises to a staggering 60% of men in their sixties. |
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Against these figures, it was found that only 5% of women snore regularly, |
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while the rest are constantly woken or kept awake by their trumpeting partners. |
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Whatever the source of noise, one thing is certain: silence, it seems, has become a golden memory. |
