Describing the world

Climate
I dry
On a journey from north to south across this huge region. you
2 ten d ing to hav e a
would pass tluough a fascina ting serie s of hot tropic landscapes.
particular negative
Pl enty of rain falls in the far south, w hereas the arid I northerly
characteristic
region is prone t01 serious drought ). (West Africa )
) pe rio d w ithout rain

Vegetation
I a rea in north w it h no t rees and
bout one third of the lan dscape ot Canada lies
A within the Arctic Circle and can remain frozen
fo r up to nine months of the year. In these cold
2
pe rma ne n tly frozen grou nd
plant life
) trees that a re evergreen (green all
areas, known as the tundra ', any vegetation] is
limited. However, further south, large a reas of year round ) a nd produce cones,
land are cove red by dense, coniferous] forests, u n like d ecidu ous trees, w h ich lose
known as taiga. Towards the border with the USA their leaves in w inter
4 flat gr assland s in Ca na da a nd
lie th e mi xed , temperate forests and the
norther n USA (simi la r to ste ppes iD
grasslands of the prairies' . (Canada)
Asia 01" pampas in South America]

C Agriculture
, field s planted w ith rice
In th e so u th th e main crop is rice, though tea, cotto n.
grow ing in w ate r
fru it and vegeta bles are als o g rown. The rice is planted in
2 type of g rass cultiva ted to
Ilooded pad dy fiel ds ' . Two cmps of rice an d o ne of
p roduce a grain, i.e. a food
vegetab les are harvested in a go od year. In the no rth a nd
plant like rice, wheat o r
wes t, whi ch is drier a nd hillier. fanners g ro w a sin gle
ma ize
crop of ce rea ls- a nd tend) sheep a nd cattle. (China)
) take care of an ima ls

Industry
Iprod ucin g goods In
Q mneanufacturing
o f the wo rld 's leading indu st rial natio ns. Fra nce has large
' . steel and chemical industries and stands a t th e large nu m ber s
2 in an important
forefront 2 of enginee ring and techn ology. The co untry is a major
producer of cars and airc raft . France has a large nuclear industry which positio n
ge nerates) about 75 per cent of the country 's electrical po wer. (France) ] produces

E Population
of Brazil is a mixture o f , a re relate d to
T HE POPULATION
peoples. Some are descended from '
n ative In d ia n s who have a lways liv ed in
1 relatives from ea r lier rim es: we are ou r
a nces tors ' descendants
Bra zil . others from the Po rtuguese w ho 1 pe ople who m ove to live in another count'

rul ed there for 300 years. Ma ny Bra zilia n s
have African ancestors! who w ere brought
OVer in the 17th century to w o rk as s la ves
on sugar plantations. Du ring the 20th
century large numbers of Europ ean
m ig rants ) settled" in the so u th. (Brazil )
(a n emigran t is some o ne wh o leaves a
country a nd a n im m igran t is someone Wb-
m ov es to live in a country - emigra nts fm
Britain cu rr ently o u tn um be r immigrants
comi ng ro live here )
4 m ade thei r homes

84 Engfish Vocobulory in Use (Advonced)

 War and peace
Changes in attitudes to war
ne area in which great
O changes occurred in the
twentieth century is in the pUblic
attitude to war and peace. The
vocabulary in which war is
spoken about has ceased to be
one of courage, patriotism I and
pride, and has instead become
one of failure or of unimaginable
disaster. The 'War Office' has in
general become the 'Ministry of
Defence'; the greatest destrue·
live weapons ever invented
have become 'deterrenta,2.
Most people went out of the
century with a view of the military
'virtues'. of the place of war in a
civilised society, fundamentally
different from that of the
nineteenth century and ear1fer.
The inventor of dynamite at
the end of the nineteenth
century believed that his
invention would outlaw) war,
since the devastation it could
produce would make any major
outbreak destructive beyond
imagination. After 1918" the
same view was held about
aerial wartare s. My childhood
was dominated by the conviction
that a major war would end up
wiping out the cities of the
industrial world. Since 1945'.
the possibility of nuclear
annihilatlon1 has seemed to
make war between the great
powera8 an act of collective
suicide. These factors alone
have contributed to a revulsion
against' large-scale military
operations among thinking
people in all nations - though
the world is unquestionably sti
full of national, ethnic and
political causea 'O whose
supporters see a resort to
I
bullets and bombs as the only
means of gaining their enda ll .
New Internationalist 1999

Iloyalty ro your own country 1 rota I destruction by nuclear weapons

2ways of discouraging people from doing 8 most important political powers (used
something because of the negative results about the USA and the Soviet Union from
) make war illegal or impossible the 1940s ro 19905)
" end of the First World War 9 feeling of rotal disgust towards
S fighting a war using aeroplanes 10 movements, organisations
6 end of the Second World War 11 achieving their aims

Other words and expressions relating to war and peace

to wage war: ro fight a war
hostilities: acts of war hostilities begin / break out / end / cease
to besiege: to attack a place by surrounding it (noun = siege)
to ambush: to attack unexpectedly from secret positions (noun = ambush)
a truce: an agreement during a war to stop fighting for a time
a ceasefire: agreement between two armies or groups to Stop fighting
to rout: to defeat totally (noun = rout)
peacekeeping troops: neutral soldiers engaged in keeping the peace in a divided society
an international observer: outside, neutral person or body
a campaign: planned group of military activities to plan/organisellaunch a campaign
an incendiary device: bomb They may be placed / set off / thrown.
germlbiological warfare: using germs to cause disease among enemy soldiers or crops

C The metaphor of warfare

The government is waging war on drunken driving.
Paparazzi are besieging the Princess's home.
A major advertising campaign was planned to launch the new cosmetics range.
The Brazilian football team routed all the others in the World Cup.
The companies are battling to win market supremacy.
We have a major fight on our hands if we are to save the company from bankruptcy.
It's rime [0 rally the troops and get them to do some overtime. Icall rogether people/workersl

I 14 English Vocabulary in Use (Advanced)

 Exercises

48.1 Answer these questions about the text in A.

1 How had people's view of the place of war in civilised society changed by [he year 20aD?
2 The inventor of dynamite was the Swedish scientist Alfred obel, who also founded the
obel prizes. How does the text help to explain why he made one of those prizes a
Peace Prize?
3 What twentieth-century changes in the nature of warfare does the text mention?
4 What is the connection between these changes and the general attitude to war?
5 What kind of people do not share this general attitude to war?

48.2 Complete the word formation table below based on words used in A.

verb noun adjective

1 deterrent
2 warfare
3 oudaw
4 power
5 nuclear
6 revulsion
7 annihilation
8 cause

48.3 These nouns in the text in A can also have rather different meanings or be used in

• di.fferent contexts. Write a phrase whieh reneets their use (a) in the text and (b) in onc
other context. Use a dictionary if necessary.
EXAMPLE
1 area
ends - to go.l.n Motu' MS; The. tl.Sl1udH ~o.s fulL of cUj"'e/U end..>.

2 operations
3 society
4 cause
5 outbreak
6 resort
7 act
8 means
48.4 Write sentences using eight of the words and expressions about war in B.

48.5 Choose a word from the box to complete the sentences below.

ambush truce bomb 6:plode siege

1 I heard Nick _ with laughter when he saw Tom trying to dance.

2 Jane decided to _ _ Sam on his way our of the office and invite him to
have a drink with her on his way home.
3 The winning football team have been under ._ _ _ from photographers.
4 Surely we've been arguing for long enough. Let's call a .

-
5 If we along the motorway we'll be there in under an hour.

I
Find out about how the UN presents its peacekeeping role by going to this websfte:

. www.un.oci!peace. Note down any useful vocabulary that you see there.

English Vocabulary in Use (Advanced) I 15