номер 2, страница 53 - гдз по английскому языку 9 класс рабочая тетрадь Комарова, Ларионова

Unit Five. Reading. Exercise two.

The Thames Barrier. Saving London from flooding.

The nineteen fifty-three floods.

The North Sea floods of nineteen fifty-three were one of the worst natural disasters to affect the UK. A combination of storms and high tides caused sea levels to rise over three meters above normal levels. Three hundred people died and the flooding damaged one thousand six hundred kilometers of coastline and twenty-four thousand properties.

London.

The River Thames has flooded many times in the past, causing damage and death. But if London flooded today, it would be difficult to calculate the cost of the damage. Many of the capital's iconic sites on the banks of the river would be destroyed. Transport systems would break down, and millions of lives would be affected. This is why engineers have spent a lot of time and money on projects to prevent London flooding. The most important is the Thames Barrier.

The Thames Barrier.

The Thames Barrier crosses the river at Woolwich in the southeast of London. Four thousand people worked on the project, which cost five hundred million pounds to build and officially opened in nineteen eighty-four.

The Thames Barrier stretches from one bank of the river to the other, a distance of five hundred and twenty meters. It is the second biggest movable barrier in the world, after one in the Netherlands.

The barrier has nine concrete piers, dividing the river into ten channels. At the end of each pier, there are large gates which are normally open. If there is a flood threat, the gates will close, shutting off the river within thirty minutes. Since the Thames Barrier opened, it has been used more than one hundred times.

The future.

Engineers believe that the Thames Barrier will protect London from the worst effects of flooding until twenty thirty. However, environmentalists believe that a combination of the increase in sea levels as a result of the melting of the ice caps and more frequent storms caused by climate change will increase the risk of flooding. If things don't change soon, the barrier will not protect London for long.