[00:01.080]--- lesson 47 Too high a price?
[00:05.960]--- Listen to the tape then answer the question below.
[00:11.520]--- What does the writer describe as an 'amusing old-fashioned source of noise'?
[00:19.160]Pollution is the price we pay for an overpopulated, over industrialized planet.
[00:25.280]When you come to think about it, there are only four ways you can deal with rubbish:
[00:30.200]dump it, burn it, turn it into something you can use again, attempt to produce less of it.
[00:37.360]We keep trying all four methods, but he sheer volume of rubbish we produce worldwide threatens to overwhelm us.
[00:45.680]Rubbish, however, is only part of the problem of polluting our planet.
[00:50.120]The need to produce ever-increasing quantities of cheap food leads to a different kind of pollution.
[00:56.960]Industrialized farming methods produce cheap meat products: beef, pork and chicken.
[01:04.080]The use of pesticides and fertilizers produces cheap grain and vegetables.
[01:10.160]The price we pay for cheap food may be already too high:
[01:14.600]Mad Cow Disease (BSE) in cattle, salmonella in chicken and eggs, and listeria in dairy products.
[01:24.320]And if you think you'll abandon meat and become a vegetarian,
[01:28.160]you have the choice of very expensive organically-grown vegetables
[01:32.760]or a steady diet of pesticides every time you think you're eating fresh salads and vegetables, or just having an innocent glass of water!
[01:42.640]However, there is an even more insidious kind of pollution that particularly affects urban areas and invades our daily lives, and that is noise.
[01:53.960]Burglar alarms going off at any time of the day or night serve only to annoy passers-by and actually assist burglars to burgle.
[02:03.560]Car alarms constantly scream at us in the street and are a source of profound irritation.
[02:09.800]A recent survey of the effects of noise revealed (surprisingly?) that dogs barking incessantly in the night rated the highest form of noise pollution on a scale ranging from 1 to 7.
[02:23.800]The survey revealed a large number of sources of noise that we really dislike. Lawn mowers whining on a summer's day,late-night parties in apartment blocks,
[02:36.440]noisy neighbours, vehicles of all kinds,especially large container trucks thundering through quiet villages, planes and helicopters flying overhead,
[02:47.840]large radios carried round in public places and played at maximum volume.
[02:53.920]New technology has also made its own contribution to noise.
[02:58.280]A lot of people object to mobile phones, especially when they are used in public places like restaurants or on public transport.
[03:07.080]Loud conversations on mobile phones invade our thoughts or interrupt the pleasure of meeting friends for a quiet chat.
[03:15.200]The noise pollution survey revealed a rather surprising and possibly amusing old fashioned source of noise.
[03:23.000]It turned out to be snoring!
[03:26.160]Men were found to be the worst offenders.
[03:29.280]It was revealed that 20% of men in their mid-thirties snore.
[03:34.360]This figure rises to a staggering 60% of men in their sixties.
[03:39.800]Against these figures, it was found that only 5% of women snore regularly,
[03:46.040]while the rest are constantly woken or kept awake by their trumpeting partners.
[03:51.520]Whatever the source of noise, one thing is certain: silence, it seems, has become a golden memory.