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fault – розривне порушення cavity – порожнина, тріщина в
породі
yield groundwater – permeability - проникність
пропускати ґрунтові або
підземні води
burrow - нора percolate downward –
просочуватись вниз

Task 2. Read the text.

Importance of Groundwater and its Distribution
Groundwater is a valuable natural resource that provides
about half of our drinking water and is essential to the vitality of
agriculture and industry. In addition to human uses, groundwater
plays a crucial role in sustaining streamflow, especially during
protracted dry periods. Many ecosystems depend on groundwater
discharge into streams, lakes and wetlands.
Geologically, groundwater is important as an erosional
agent. The dissolving action of groundwater slowly removes rock,
allowing surface depressions known as sinkholes to form as well
as creating subterranean caverns. Groundwater is also an
equalizer of streamflow. Much of the water that flows in rivers is
not direct runoff from rain and snowmelt. Rather, a large
percentage of precipitation soaks in and then moves slowly
underground to stream channels. Groundwater is thus a form of
storage that sustains streams during periods when rain does not
fall. When we see water flowing in a river during a dry period, it is
water from rain that fell at some earlier time and was stored
underground.
When rain falls, some of the water runs off, some returns to
the atmosphere by evaporation and transpiration, and the
remainder soaks into the ground. Some of the water that soaks in
does not travel far, because it is held by molecular attraction as a
surface film on soil particles. This near-surface zone is called the

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