1. Lexics to the text:
• either : or - лиибо : либо, или : или
• place organisms - отнести организмы (распределить)
• kingdom - мир
• nutritional - питательный
• to require - требовать
• complex compounds -сложные соединения
• to depend on - зависить от
• to take place - происходить
• to carry out - осуществлять, проводить
• to take in - питаться
• protoplasm - протоплазма
• cellulose - клетчатка
• furthermore - к тому же
• vacuoles - вакуоли
• sap - сок (растений)
• disc-shaped - дискообразный
• chloroplasts - хлоропласты
• nucleus - ядро
2. Read and try to understand the text:
Although you may place organisms without difficulty in either the plant or the animal kingdom, it is essential to know the basic nutritional differences between these two groups.
Plants require sunlight energy to build up their complex organic compounds (starch, for example) from the simplier inorganic foods they absorb. This process is not only dependent on sunlight, but requires the presence of the green pigment chlorophyll, and a supply of water and carbon dioxide within the plant, before it can take place. Animals do not carry out such synthesis; they take in ready-made organic compounds by feeling on other organisms either living or dead. Thus, feeding plants are the only organisms capable of making organic compounds and animals are dependent on them, either directly or indirectly, for their supply of these substances.
Animals also differ from plants in the structure of their cells. Those of animals are bounded by a very thin layer of special protoplasm (a protoplasmic membrane), those of plants have a much thicker layer of dead material outside the protoplasmic membrane. This thick layer (the cell wall is usually made of an organic substance called cellulose. Furthermore, plant cells generally have spaces or vacuoles full of cell sap within their protoplasm. Chlorophyll is not found in animal cells, but is present in small disc-shaped bodies (chloroplasts) in the protoplasm of many plant cells.
The nucleus is a more or less spherical body present in both cell types.
3. Answer the questions:
• What do plants require to build up starch?
• Do animals carry out such a complex synthesis?
• What do animals take in?
• What are animals dependent on?
• Do animals differ from plants in the structure of their cells?
• Is chlorophyll found in animal cells?