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Task 7. Talk about the importance of learning about sedimentary rocks.

Task 8. Give a short summary of the text from Task 2.

Grammar focus
Numerals and Measures in English

Task 1. Read and translate the following sentences. Pay special attention to the way
of reading numbers and measures in English. What measures are used in the sentences?
1. Granitic magma may erupt at temperatures as low as 700 °C.
2. Basaltic magmas also erupt at higher temperatures than granitic magmas—usually at
temperatures between 1100 and 1250 °C and are completely solid when cooled to
1000 °C.
3. Although the dark components generally make up less than 10 percent of most granites,
dark minerals appear to be more prominent than their percentage would indicate.
4. Most formed millions of years ago as volcanic ash spewed from large volcanic structures
in an avalanche style, spreading laterally at speeds approaching 100 km per hour.
5. Although the rate of temperature change varies considerably from place to place, it
averages about 25 °C per kilometre in the upper crust.
6. To explore this idea, a pioneering investigation into the crystallization of magma was
carried out by N. L. Bowen in the first quarter of the 20th century.
7. A large truck would pull up to your home and unload 12,965 lbs. of stone, 8945 lbs. of
sand and gravel, 895 s. of cement, 395 lbs. of salt, 361 lbs. of phosphate, and 974 lbs. of
other nonmetals. In addition, there would be 709 lbs. of metals, including iron, aluminum,
and copper.
8. When demand for copper is strong, the mine operates nonstop, processing 700,000 tons of
rock each day and producing about 840 million pounds of copper per year.
9. Continental rocks have an average density of about 2.7 g/cm3, and some have been
discovered that are 4 billion years old.
10. Writings about fossils, gems, earthquakes, and volcanoes date back to the Greeks, more
than 2300 years ago.

Task 2. Read the following dates in the sentences correctly.
1. Our scenario begins about 13.7 billion years ago with the Big Bang, an incomprehensibly
large explosion that sent all matter of the universe flying outward at incredible speeds.
2. In the mid-1600s James Ussher, Anglican Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of all Ireland,
published a major work that had immediate and profound influences.
3. Occasionally the rocks adjust, releasing energy in the form of a great earthquake of the
type that devastated San Francisco in 1906.
4. During the 17th and 18th centuries, catastrophism influenced the formulation of
explanations about Earth.
5. As early as 3700 BC, Egyptians began mining gold, silver, and copper; and by 2200 BC
humans discovered how to combine copper with tin to make bronze, a strong, hard alloy.
6. In fact, Roman smelting of lead and copper ores between 500 BC and AD 300 caused a
small but significant rise in atmospheric pollution, as recorded in Greenland ice cores.

TRANSLATION FOCUS