Задание № 39 ЕГЭ (чтение текста вслух) по иностранному языку (английский)

Imagine that you are preparing a project with your friend. You have found some interesting material for the presentation and you want to read this text to your friend. You have 1.5 minutes to read the text silently, then be ready to read it out aloud. You will not have more than 1.5 minutes to read it. In December, 400 musicians, young and old, marched onto the stage of the 23rd Street, in Philadelphia. One hauled out a cello with dangling strings. Another cradled a trumpet wrapped in duct tape. Others carried broken violins, flutes, and drums. They took their seats. Then they played music written specifically for broken instruments. The concert was part of a project called Symphony for a Broken Orchestra. The damaged instruments had been sitting unused in the city’s schools. In March 2015, Symphony for a Broken Orchestra was created to give the instruments a second chance to live. The goal is to get the entire city of Philadelphia to care about these broken instruments. With the money raised, they can be repaired. So far, these efforts have raised more than $250,000. That’s enough to cover the cost of 800 repairs.

Imagine that you are preparing a project with your friend. You have found some interesting material for the presentation and you want to read this text to your friend. You have 1.5 minutes to read the text silently, then be ready to read it out aloud. You will not have more than 1.5 minutes to read it. The earliest fireworks can be traced to around 2,000 years ago in China. People then are said to have roasted bamboo stalks. The stalks turned black and sizzled. The air inside the hollow stalks would explode. Years later, Chinese chemists took fireworks a step further. This happened sometime between 600 and 900 A.D. People filled bamboo shoots with gunpowder. They threw them into a fire pit. Steel dust or iron shavings were added to make them sparkle. In China, these firecrackers were often used in celebrations. In the 13th century, fireworks spread to Europe. In the centuries that followed, Europeans began moving to North America. So it was no surprise that when July 4th began to be celebrated as America's Independence Day, fireworks were part of the plan. John Adams said he hoped the anniversary of the country’s independence would be marked for years to come by “bonfires” and “illuminations.”

Imagine that you are preparing a project with your friend. You have found some interesting material for the presentation and you want to read this text to your friend. You have 1.5 minutes to read the text silently, then be ready to read it out aloud. You will not have more than 1.5 minutes to read it. Monarch butterfly populations in California reached a historic low in 2018, according to a new count. It estimates that the number of monarchs dropped 86% from 2017. Experts say monarchs are in danger of extinction in the next several decades if nothing is done to save the species. Each year, environmental groups count monarch butterflies in California. They do so at 97 sites across the state. Last year, they counted fewer than 30,000 butterflies. 2018 was a tough year to be a monarch butterfly in the West. Weather conditions may be one reason for the drop in numbers. But other factors could also be at play. These include habitat loss and pesticides. Climate change could also be making an impact. What people can and should be working on is addressing and reversing widespread habitat loss and pesticide use throughout the monarch’s range.

Imagine that you are preparing a project with your friend. You have found some interesting material for the presentation and you want to read this text to your friend. You have 1.5 minutes to read the text silently, then be ready to read it out aloud. You will not have more than 1.5 minutes to read it. Each weekday, more than 30 million students eat meals served in school cafeterias in the United States. And when lunch period is over, they fill the trash cans with uneaten food. Half-eaten apples, chicken tenders, and turkey sandwiches come at a cost. That’s why Раздел 5. Устная часть 271 schools across the U.S. are trying to reduce the amount of food that gets thrown away. About $1.2 billion worth of school food is wasted every school year. Wasted food is money. It’s also a missed opportunity to feed hungry people. And it’s bad for the environment: farming, packaging, and transporting food produces greenhouse gas emissions, which pollute the air. Plus, food packaging often ends up in a landfill. Schools have developed strategies to cut back on waste. Since students are often hungrier after active play, scheduling lunch after recess can reduce the amount of food that’s wasted by 30%.

Imagine that you are preparing a project with your friend. You have found some interesting material for the presentation and you want to read this text to your friend. You have 1.5 minutes to read the text silently, then be ready to read it out aloud. You will not have more than 1.5 minutes to read it. Antarctica is the driest place on Earth. Parts of the continent have seen no rain for two million years. A desert is technically defined as a place that receives less than 10 inches of rain a year. The Sahara gets just 1 inch of rain a year. As well as the driest place on Earth, Antarctica can also claim to be the wettest and the windiest. Seventy percent of the world’s fresh water is found there in the form of ice, and its wind speeds are the fastest ever recorded. The unique conditions in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica are caused by so-called katabatic winds. These occur when cold, dense air is pulled downhill simply by the force of gravity. Though Antarctica is a desert, these completely dry parts of it are called, somewhat ironically, oases. They are so similar to conditions on Mars that NASA used them to test the Viking mission.

Imagine that you are preparing a project with your friend. You have found some interesting material for the presentation and you want to read this text to your friend. You have 1.5 minutes to read the text silently, then be ready to read it out aloud. You will not have more than 1.5 minutes to read it. Who invented the steam engine? Heron from Egypt. Heron lived in Alexandria and is best known as a mathematician and geometer. Unfortunately for Heron, no one was able to see its practical function, so it was considered nothing more than an amusing novelty. Amazingly, had Heron but known it, the railway had already been invented 700 years earlier. The principle of railways was then completely forgotten about for almost another 500 years, until people had the idea of using them in mines in the fourteenth century. The historian Arnold Toynbee wrote a brilliant essay speculating what would have happened if the two inventions had been combined to create a global Greek empire, based on a fast rail network. Heron also invented the vending machine – for four drachmas you got a shot of holy water – and a portable device to ensure that no one else could drink the wine you brought along to a bottle party.

Imagine that you are preparing a project with your friend. You have found some interesting material for the presentation and you want to read this text to your friend. You have 1.5 minutes to read the text silently, then be ready to read it out aloud. You will not have more than 1.5 minutes to read it. How many nostrils do you have? Four. Two you can see, two you can’t. This discovery came from observing how fish breathe. Fish get their oxygen from water. Most of them have two pairs of nostrils, a forward-facing set for letting water in and a pair of «exhaust pipes» for letting it out again. The question is, if humans evolved from fishes, where did the other pair of nostrils go. The answer is that they migrated back inside the head to become internal. To do this they somehow had to work their way back through the teeth. Similar gaps between the teeth can also be seen at an early stage of the human birth. When they fail to join up, the result is a cleft palate. So one ancient fish explains two ancient human mysteries. The most recent research on noses, incidentally, shows that we use each of our two external nostrils to detect different smells.

Imagine that you are preparing a project with your friend. You have found some interesting material for the presentation and you want to read this text to your friend. You have 1.5 minutes to read the text silently, then be ready to read it out aloud. You will not have more than 1.5 minutes to read it. Thirty years ago, there were some 2 million king penguins on France’s remote island of Ile aux Cochons. It is located in the Indian Ocean, between Africa and Antarctica. But satellite pictures show that the population has almost entirely disappeared. A recent study published in the journal Antarctic Science estimates that only 200,000 of the penguins are left. The reason for the decline is unknown. Scientists say disease could be a factor. Another reason could be overcrowding. King penguins relocate when they can no longer compete for food. But an even more alarming trend may be playing a part: climate change. Penguins like to hunt and fish in icy waters. But as air temperatures get warmer, so do the oceans. The penguins have to swim farther away from the island to reach cold water.

Imagine that you are preparing a project with your friend. You have found some interesting material for the presentation and you want to read this text to your friend. You have 1.5 minutes to read the text silently, then be ready to read it out aloud. You will not have more than 1.5 minutes to read it. The giraffe may soon join the lion and elephant on the endangered species list. In April, Wildlife Service said it would consider putting it there. Designating giraffes as endangered would restrict people from bringing the animals into the United States. It would also set aside federal money. This would be used for conservation efforts. Giraffes capture our imaginations from childhood on, but many people don’t realize how few are left in the wild. Giraffes currently live in 21 African countries. They have been wiped out in at least seven others. Conservationists say habitat loss and poaching are major threats. Since 1985, giraffe populations have decreased by 40%. There are only about 68,000 adult giraffes left. That’s less than a quarter of the African elephant population.

Imagine that you are preparing a project with your friend. You have found some interesting material for the presentation and you want to read this text to your friend. You have 1.5 minutes to read the text silently, then be ready to read it out aloud. You will not have more than 1.5 minutes to read it. The highest mountain is located on Mars. The giant volcano Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in the solar system and in the known universe. At 14 miles and 388 miles across, it is almost three times the height of Mount Everest and so wide that its base would cover Arizona, or the whole of the area of the British Isles. The crater on the top is around 45 miles wide and over nearly 2 miles deep, easily big enough to swallow London. We traditionally measure mountains by their height. If we measured them by their size, it would be meaningless to isolate one mountain in a range from the rest. That being so, Mount Everest would dwarf Olympus Mons. It is part of the gigantic range which is nearly 1,500 miles long.