Vocabulary

VOCABULARIO TEXTOS NIVEL I y NIVEL II DEL MATERIAL TERICO-PRCTICO

PARA ESTUDIAR PARA LOS EXMENES PARCIALES Y FINALES

FICHA TO BE TO HAVE

1. The art of soil management is as old as civilization.

2. There will be an urgent need for dialogue on the problem.

3. Genetic resources are key to have high quality processed products.

4. Soy will be a main player in natural, healthy, and well-balanced diets.

5. These products are completely free of any residues such as toxic solvents.

6. On the issue of livestock globalization, demands and complexities are likely to grow.

7. The processing plant has a computer assisted control system featuring Siemens technology.

8. Beef quality grades are indicators of the expected beef palatability flavor, juiciness and tenderness.

9. Quality and traceability are the top values that this firm wants to offer to its customers in each product.

10. It has to be remembered that all experiments reflect only on a very small section of the behavioral spectrum.

11. The agricultural sector is the major consumer of water in Saudi Arabia using more than two-thirds of available resources.

12. Crop rotation is an important technique to improve soil properties such as nutrient availability, pest control, and porosity increase.

13. Pealed precooked soy beans, soy milks and soups are easy to prepare, and are also rich in proteins and their long useful life make them easy to work with.

14. There is usually little problem with vitamin nutrition of cattle, because the rumen microbes synthesize most of the vitamins required by cattle.

15. Fat thickness measured in inches at the 12th rib has the greatest amount of influence on yield grade and percent retail product than other carcass trait.

16. There are now tighter restrictions on how meat is defined, and a requirement to label products according to their content of meat, fat and offal.

17. Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) is a major winter-sown legume crop grown in the Mediterranean region, and has considerable importance as food and fodder.

18. There is undoubtedly a need for guidelines to encourage good agricultural practice at the farm level and to highlight the problems that can result from misuse of medicines in animal production.

19. Beef grading is different from meat inspection: grading is a voluntary program that facilitates beef marketing; meat inspection is mandatory and its purpose is to assure that the meat is wholesome and safe to eat.

20. Manufacturers of veterinary medicinal products, livestock producers, and regulatory authorities all have responsibility to ensure that human health is not placed at risk by the presence of hazardous residues in food.

FICHA DOS ESTRATEGIAS DE LECTURA

FICHA TIEMPOS VERBALES

Conservationists and farmers: A good match for the health of our soils (fragmento adaptado) A conservationist helps farmers in the following way: he takes samples of soils from various parts of the farm and sends them to a laboratory. There, experts find out what soil chemicals the samples contain. Then, the conservations specialist makes a sketch of the whole farm, showing the different kinds of slopes, hills, flatlands, and soil. Together, he and the farmer make a land-use map and decide what the various parts of the farm are best suitable for.

Then the farmer goes to work. Some fields are suitable only for pasture. So the farmer leaves them in grass. He cultivates other fields in special ways to protect the land and also to restore valuable chemicals to the worn-out soil. Thus, he rotates crops that is, he plants crops like clover or soy beans which restore nitrogen to the soil, then he plows them under, and finally plants grain which needs the nitrogen.

Pesticides and Agricultural development (fragmento) If we look back only some sixty years, farmers had to rely very much on crop rotation and mechanical weed control with hoes, hoping for a good time of dry weather so that the weeds dried and were not merely moved. They also hope to ameliorate insect pests and disease control by the selection of a good crop variety that had some resistance to pest damage. Cultural and biological control of pests were inadequate, so farmers needed a quicker and more reliable method of pest control.

Prior to 1940, some chemicals were available, notably the botanical insecticides, such as the pyrethrins, nicotine and rotenone, but they were not widely used, largely because they deteriorated rapidly in sunlight. A few inorganic chemicals, notably copper sulphate, lime sulphur, and lead arsenate, were also available. However, it was the development of synthetic organic pesticides during and following World War II that revolutionized the control of pests. In 1938 Muller showed that DDT would indeed meet the need for a cheap chemical with persistence in sunlight and low toxicity to man that would kill insect pests quickly. Its first use was for medical purposes, like the suppression of a typhus outbreak in Naples. Soon afterwards it became available for agricultural use and began to be applied extensively on crops.

Recognition of problems associated with the persistence of DDT in the environment were only realized later and highlighted by Rachel Carson in her book Silent Spring (1962).

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1. The cow is calving in the pen right now.

2. They are measuring the feed intake.

3. The agricultural assessor was inspecting the field when the farmer arrived.

4. The husbandmen were weighing the steers when the bull attacked them.

5. The lab technician will be examining the grass samples tomorrow morning in the university lab.

6. When scientists began to realize that careless, wasteful methods of farming and industry were changing the natural environment too rapidly and were destroying our resources, they went to work to renew our soil, our forests and grasslands and our wildlife.

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Human activities are changing the very nature of the Earths blanket of air. Depletion of the ozone layer in the stratosphere is threatening to overload us with ultraviolet radiation. Increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane gases are warming the planet and destabilizing the global climate. Tropical rain forests, and the incredible array of plant and animal species they contain, are disappearing at an unprecedented rate. Groundwater supplies are being contaminated in many areas and depleted in others. In parts of the world, the capacity of soils to produce food is being degraded, even as the number of people needing food is increasing. It will be a great challenge for the current generation to bring the global environment back to balance.

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1. Before the experiment, these animals had received the regular herd concentrate.

2. Advances in analytical techniques have contributed to awareness and concern about toxic residues.

3. Consumer confidence in the safety of food has become a priority issue for all the people involved in the food supply chain.

4. Conservation specialists have learnt that in some regions with scant rainfall and thin soil, it is wise to leave the land in grass as food for the right number of beef cattle rather than to plow up the grass and plant grain.

5. Public concern over the presence of drug residues in edible products of food-producing crops has reached unprecedented heights.

6. Efforts to induce dairy farmers to make greater use of high-quality pastures and reduce their dependency on imported concentrates have met with little success.

7. Certain countries have banned the use of specific compounds, whereas other countries on the base of scientific criteria have permitted the continued use of similar products (e.g., growth promoters are banned in the European Community and permitted in the United States).

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Pesticides have undoubtedly helped to increase agricultural production and control vectors of disease over the past five decades, but there has been increasing criticism since Rachel Carson alerted users to the side effects of some pesticides in the environment.

While developed countries introduced registration of pesticides, requiring detailed scientific data on which to base a risk analysis, many other countries did not have the resources needed to operate a detailed registration system. In consequence, highly toxic pesticides have been used in many countries, especially in tropical areas where protective clothing is unacceptably hot and uncomfortable to wear. This has led to many illnesses and death following exposure to these highly toxic pesticides. Governments and the industrial sector alike have increasingly recognized these problems and they have made efforts to harmonize registration requirements.

Governments, industries and farmers all have largely ignored application technology, and it has been left to engineers to design machinery that is easy to use and is inexpensive as possible for the user. Today, carefully applied pesticides, used only when needed, can contribute to higher productivity and allow us to feed and protect the growing human population. This requires much better education and practical training with certification so that pesticides are applied more accurately.

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Management of an enterprise in agriculture, horticulture and forestry has to take into account a wide range of issues: the management of soils, crops and animals, the selection and use of machinery and implements, marketing arrangements, man management, and local and world commodity prices. Except for subsistence farming, where security of food supplies is all important, the purpose is to make the enterprise profitable.

The objective of soil management is to create suitable conditions for the crops that are to be grown. Soil is required to provide anchorage and the physical and chemical conditions required by the plant. What the farmer does to help meet these requirements depends on what crops he grows, the required yield, the inputs that are available to him, and the soil and climatic conditions.

Management of the soil started with the first farmers. Cultivations, rotations and irrigation are ancient practices. In the past 200 years there have been several innovations: farm machinery has become more powerful, crop varieties have been bred that give higher yields, and fertilizers and chemicals for the control of pests have been introduced.

Soil is the growers main resource and it is in their interests to maintain it in as fertile a condition as possible. In this they are usually successful, but there has been, and still are, examples of bad management. Erosion has been caused by cutting down trees, salts have accumulated in soils under irrigation, and unsuitable soils have been brought into cultivation.

VOCABULARIO TEXTOS NIVEL II DEL MATERIAL TERICO-PRCTICO

FICHA RESUMEN:

The respiratory system, working in conjunction with the cardiovascular and hematopoietic systems, provides the body with the necessary exchange of gases (oxygen and carbon dioxide). A fully functional respiratory system is necessary for cellular respiration throughout the body to be accomplished.

Structurally, the respiratory system is a series of tubes and sacs. Air enters the system during inspiration and exits during expiration. As air first enters through the nares, it passes through numerous folds of tissue called the nasal turbinates. The nasal turbinates are covered with highly vascular mucus membranes that serve to warm, humidify, and filter the inspired air. They are covered with ciliated ipseudostratified columnar epithelium. The epithelium not only produces the mucus to entrap particles from the inspired air, but the cilia provide a constant caudal sweeping motion. This activity helps to ensure that foreign particles and organisms are constantly being removed from the nose to the pharynx, so that they may be swallowed. Through this protective mechanism and sneezing, veterinary patients are able to rid foreign materials from the nasal passages to protect the lower airways. Much of this protection may be lost by open-mouth breathing, because air is not warmed, humidified, or filtered as efficiently. Open-mouth breathing sometimes has advantages, however. Many domestic animals use a specialized form of rapid shallow, open-mouth breathing called panting, which provides them with a means of dissipating heat from their bodies. Unlike a horse, dogs and cats do not have the capacity to sweat profusely for regulating body heat. Panting is by far their best natural defense against body overheating.

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The pre-condition of any civilization, old or new, is energy. First Wave societies drew their energy from living batteries-human and animal muscle power- or form sun, wind, and water. Forests were cut for cooking and heating. Waterwheels, some of them using tidal power, turned millstones. Windmills cracked in the fields. Animals pulled the plow. As late as the French Revolution, it has been estimated, Europe drew energy from an estimated 14 million horses and 24 million oxen. All First Wave societies thus exploited energy sources that were renewable. Nature could eventually replenish the forests they cut, the wind that filled the sails, the rivers that turned their paddle wheels. Even animals were replaceable energy slaves.

All Second Wave societies, by contrast, began to draw their energy from coal, gas, and oil from irreplaceable fossil fuels. This revolutionary shift, coming after Newcomen invented the workable steam engine in 1712, meant that for the first time a civilization was eating into natures capital rather than merely living off the interest it provided.

This dipping into the earths energy reserves provided a hidden subsidy for industrial civilization, vastly accelerating its economic growth. And from that day to this, wherever a Second Wave passed, nations built towering technological and economic structures on the assumption that cheap fossil fuels would be endlessly available. In capitalist and communist industrial societies alike, in East and West, this same shift has been apparent from dispersed to concentrated energy, from renewable to non renewable, from many different sources and fuels to a few. Fossil fuels formed the energy of all Second Wave societies. _________________________________________________

Soil is an invaluable natural resource. It provides raw materials for the plants on which we depend for food. The soil and the living organisms of a region are inter-dependent. On the one hand, soil is affected by the flora and fauna of the region. On the other hand, the type of soil determines the flora and fauna of the region.

Consequently, damage to soil will destroy the balance of nature. It is a danger to human life and to mans economic security. Causes of damage can be physical or chemical. Damage can be caused by man or by natural phenomena.

Unscientific agriculture can cause a loss of minerals. Erosion can be caused by wind or by flowing or falling water. There are several ways of preventing damage to soil, including the use of fertilizers to prevent loss of minerals and the use of grass and other plants to prevent erosion.

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Food Chains The suns energy travels through an ecosystem. The transfer of energy through an ecosystem by

the producers, the consumers and the decomposers is called a food chain. Green plants use the suns energy to manufacture food. They are the first stage, or link, in the food

chain. When an animal eats a green plant some of the suns energy will be passed to the animal. The energy will be used for growth, for movement and other body processes. When a carnivore eats another animal, another transfer of energy is made.

In a predator chain, energy is transferred from the plant to the herbivore and from the herbivore to the carnivore. In a saprophyte chain the energy from the sun is transferred from dead plants and animals to micro-organisms. Man occupies a position at or near the end of a food chain. Some food chains are long. For example, phytoplankton in the sea fixes the suns energy and are eaten by zooplankton. Zooplankton are eaten by small fish. Large fish feed on the small fish and are eaten by man. Other food chains are short. For example, cows milk comes from a short food chain with two links.

Only a small percentage of the suns energy is fixed by plants. In addition, 80-90% of the energy is lost at each link in the chain. Consequently, the input of energy at the end of the chain is only a small percentage of the energy output at the beginning of a chain. The amount of energy at the end of a chain will depend on the length of the chain. When a chain is long each plant provides a small amount of energy. Consequently, one large animal at the end of the chain has to consume many small animals. Small animals have to consume a large number of plants. In this food pyramid one man has to obtain energy from a large number of other organisms.

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In any ecosystem, whether your backyard, a farm, a forest, or a regional watershed, soils have six key roles to play. First, soils support the growth of higher plants, mainly by providing a medium for plant roots and supplying nutrient elements that are essential to the entire plant. Properties of the soil often determine the nature of the vegetation present and, indirectly, the number and types of animals (including people) that the vegetation can support. Second, soil properties are the principal factor

controlling the fate of water in the hydrologic system. Water loss, utilization, contamination, and purification are all affected by the soil. Third, the soil functions as natures recycling system. Within the soil, waste products and dead bodies of plants, animals, and people are assimilated, and their basic elements are made available for reuse by the next generation of life. Fourth, soils provide habitat for a myriad of live organisms, from small mammals and reptiles to tiny insects to microscopic cells of unimaginable numbers and diversity. Fifth, soils markedly influence the composition and physical condition of the atmosphere by taking up and releasing large quantities of carbon dioxide, oxygen, methane, and other gases and by contributing dust and re radiated heat energy to the air. Finally, in human-built ecosystems, soils play an important role as an engineering medium. Soil is not only an important building material in the form of earth and bricks (baked soil material), but also provides the foundation for virtually every road, airport, and house we build.

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Humans have struggled against weeds since the beginnings of agriculture. Marring our gardens is among the milder effects of weeds any plants that thrive where they are unwanted. They destroy wildlife habitats and impede farming. Their spread eliminates grazing areas and accounts for one-third of all crop loss. They compete for sunlight, nutrients, and water with useful plants. They may also hamper harvesting.

The global need for weed control has been answered mainly by the chemical industry. Its herbicides are effective and sometimes necessary, but some pose serious problems, particularly if they are misused. Toxic compounds may injure animals, especially birds and fish. They threaten the public health when they accumulate in food plants, ground water, and drinking water. They also directly harm workers who apply them.

In recent years, the chemical industry has introduced several herbicides that are more ecologically sound than those of the past. Yet, new chemicals alone cannot solve the worlds weed problems. Hence, an increasing number of scientists are exploring biological alternatives that harness the innate weed-killing powers of living organisms, primarily insects and microorganisms.

The biological agents now used to control weeds are environmentally benign and offer the benefit of specificity. They can be chosen for their ability to attack selected targets and leave crops and other plants untouched, included plants that might be related to the target weeds. They spare only those that are naturally resistant or those that have been genetically modified for resistance. Furthermore, a number of biological agents can be administered only once, after which no added applications are needed. Chemicals typically must be used several times per growing season.

Biological approaches may never supplant standard herbicides altogether, but they are sharply limiting the use of dangerous chemicals that reduce the associated risks. They might also make it possible to conquer weeds that defy management by conventional means.

FICHA MODALIZACIN Conservation Management to Enhance Soil Quality In a broader sense, conservation management practices are those that improve soil quality in more ways than just by protecting the soil from erosion. Properties that indicate the level of soil quality, especially those associated with soil organic matter, can be enhanced by such conservation measures as minimizing tillage, maximizing residue cover of the soils surface, providing for diversity of plant types, keeping soil under grass sod vegetation for at least part of the time, adding organic amendments where practical, and maintaining balanced soil fertility. Improved soil quality, in turn, enhances the soils capacity to support plants, resist erosion, prevent environmental contamination, and conserve water. Conservation management therefore can lead to the upward spiral of soil and environmental improvement. Adapting Soil Conservation to the Needs of Resource-Poor Farmers Although the progress in soil conservation has been satisfying in the past decades, soil losses by erosion are still much too high. Continued efforts must be made to protect the soil and to hold it in place. In the United States, some 30 million ha. of highly erodible cropland continue to lose an average of more than 15 Mg/ha. of soil each year from water erosion, and an equal amount from wind erosion. In spite of remarkable progress, conservation tillage systems have not been adopted for more than half of the nations cropland. And no one knows what will happen to the CRP lands when the rental leases expire. The battle to bring erosion under control has just begun, not only in the United States but throughout the world. In much of the world, so little land is available to each farmer for food production that nations cannot afford the luxury of following the land-use capability classification recommendations. Many farmers must use all land capable of food production simply to stave off starvation and impoverishment. These farmers often realize that farming erodible land jeopardizes their future livelihood and that of their children, but they see no choice. It is imperative to either find nonagricultural employment for these people or to find farming systems that are sustainable on these erodible lands. Fortunately, some farmers and scientists have developed. Through long traditions of adaptations or through innovation and research, farming systems that can produce food and profits while conserving such erodible soil resources. Examples include the traditional Kandy Home Gardens of Sri Lankas humid mountains, in which a rain forest-like mixed stand of tall fruit and nut trees is combined with an understory of pepper vines, coffee bushes, and spice plants to provide valuable harvests while keeping the soil under perennial vegetative protection. Another example comes from Central America, where farmers have learned to plant thick stands of velvet bean (Mucuma) or other viney legumes that can be chopped down by machete to leave a soil protecting, water-conserving, wee-inhibiting mulch on steep farmlands. In Asia, steep lands have been carefully terraced in ways that allow production of food, even paddy rice, on very steep land without causing significant erosion. Many examples from the United States and around the world make it clear that when governments cajole, pay, or force farmers into installing soil conservation measures on their land, the results are unlikely to be long-lasting. Usually, the farmers will abandon the unwanted practices as soon as the pressure is off. On the other hand, if scientists and conservationists work with farmers to help them develop and adapt conservation systems that the farmers feel are of benefit to them and their land, then effective and lasting progress can be made. Experience with conservation tillage systems in the United States, much farming systems in Central

America, and vegetative contour barriers in Asia have shown that farmers can help develop practices that are good for their profits: a win-win situation.

FICHA TEMA GENERAL E IDEA PRINCIPAL

Assuring Food Safety and Quality: Guidelines for Strengthening National Food Control Systems. FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) Food and Nutrition Paper NO.76 This publication was prepared to enable national authorities, particularly in developing countries, to improve their food control systems. It replaces the earlier I FAD/WHO publication "Guidelines for Developing an Effective National Food Control System". The Guidelines seek to provide advice to national authorities on strategies to strengthen food control systems to protect public health, prevent fraud and deception, avoid food adulteration and facilitate trade.

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The roots of plants have such a pronounced ability to synthesize complicated organic compounds that, about sixty years ago, scientists began to wonder if roots could grow independent of the rest of the plant. Indeed, they could. Plant physiologists were able to grow roots by themselves in solutions in laboratory flasks.

The scientists found that the nutrition of isolated roots is quite simple. They require sugar (for carbon and an energy source), the usual minerals, and a few vitamins such as B1, and niacin. These roots can get along fine on mineral inorganic nitrogen. Roots are capable of making their own proteins for new cell growth and other organic compounds such as nuclei acids. As far as organic nitrogen compounds are concerned, then, roots can thrive without leaves. All these activities by roots require energy, of course. This comes from sugar. The process of respiration in the cells of the root uses sugar to make the high energy compound ATP (adenosine triphosphate) which drives the biochemical reactions. Respiration also requires oxygen, for the same reasons it does in all plants and animals.

The study of isolated roots has provided an understanding of the relationship between shoots and roots in intact plants. The leaves of the shoot provide the roots with sugar and vitamins while the roots

provide the shoot with water and minerals. In addition, the roots can also provide the shoot with organic nitrogen compound. This comes in handy for the growth of buds in the early spring when leaves are not yet functioning. Once leaves begin photosynthesizing, they produce protein, but only mature leaves can export protein to the rest of the plant in the form of amino acids.

The plant is a wonderful chemical factory. It is the link between the minerals of the soil and the nutrition of animals.

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Caused by severe malfunction of cerebral nerve cells, and characterized (in its most severe form) by general convulsions and shaking of limbs, epilepsy is a surprisingly common disorder occurring in roughly 0.5% of the population.

A ketogenic diet has long been recognized as a possible therapy for those children suffering from epilepsy. High in fat and low in carbohydrates and proteins, the diet provides an alternative to children for whom anti-convulsant drugs are ineffective. This option may also be tried in severely afflicted patients before the extremely dangerous brain operation known as corpus callosotomy (in which a portion of the brain is removed) is performed.

Prior to beginning the diet, the child is required to fast for a period of about 24 hours. This is necessary in order to rid the body of all blood sugar, and to cause the body to start burning fat for energy. When this fat burning starts, ketones, products of fat breakdown are made and circulated throughout the body. It is these ketones which act to suppress epileptic seizures.

A typical meal for a child on a ketogenic diet might consist of 60 grams of sweet cream, 30 grams of egg, 20 grams of strawberries, 20 grams of tomatoes, and 5 grams of oil. Children must be carefully monitored by parents for even one small sip of a drink containing sugar or one use of a toothpaste containing sugar or one swallow of a cough syrup having sugar can defeat the diet and cause seizures to return! It has been shown in trials that the diet helps about 75% of all epileptic children and completely eliminates seizures in about 25%.