Задание 10 из ЕГЭ по английскому языку: задача 5

2. Place-name study is helpful

3. How to get involved

4. Used to have more than one

5. Restoration rolling on

6. Community benefits

7. Helping an endangered species

8. Coping with flooding

A. Though most visitors to London think only of the River Thames, the city is a myriad of waterways. Old maps show a skein of rivers and brooks that provided “blue corridors” traversing the city for centuries, providing both sources of food and recreation. But as London boomed, these waterways faded from consciousness — encased by walls, turned into polluted backwaters or simply covered over to run unseen beneath busy streets.

B. But these “secret” rivers are imprinted on London’s geography. Marylebone started life as St Mary by the bourne; while Bayswater, Knightsbridge, Westbourne and Holborn are all named by waterways that ran through them. Deptford was the site of a deep ford over the Ravensbourne, while Wandsworth is named after the River Wandle. East Ham and West Ham get their names from an old word for an area between rivers — in their case, the Lea and the Roding. And while Britain’s leading newspapers have left Fleet Street, the River Fleet still runs beneath.

C. Across London, ongoing river restoration projects offer volunteering opportunities for visitors: The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) regularly enlist citizen scientist volunteers to help for anything from a few hours to days in ongoing river conservation work across London. The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) are looking for people to help restore a 3 km blue-green corridor along the River Crane, close to Heathrow airport in West London. Various canals also form a part of London’s “secret” network of waterways, and The Canal River Trust have regular callouts for volunteers to carry out restoration work.

D. Esther Adelman, co-founder of the Haggerston volunteer group, explained some of the key work they are doing here. “We change the river flow and get rid of invasive habitats,” she said, pointing to fallen trees that have been used to create partial river barriers — called berms — that add beneficial complexity to the water flow. “This creates a variety of habitats, such as areas of gravel where fish spawn,” said Adelman. “We are imitating natural processes — like human beavers.”

E. Between 2020 and 2022, meanwhile, Thames River Trust trained around 100 citizen science volunteers to survey eels during the Thames Catchment Community Eels Project. As part of surveying an impressive 107 km of river, the volunteers recorded 119 barriers hindering eel movement — 66 previously undocumented. This has helped create strategies to support this iconic but endangered species. Similarly, the River Hogsmill Connectivity Project spurred the removal of 17 out of 18 obstacles on this west London waterway, making it a far easier commuter route for fish.

F.Creating new wetlands also helps reduce flood risks across London, by providing areas that can naturally hold excess water from extreme rainfall increasingly linked to climate change. A key example is the Firs Farm Wetlands created after the rediscovery of Moore Brooke. Found buried within a wilderness in a little-used park in the north London borough of Enfield, this “lost” tributary of Pymmes Brook was freed by Enfield’s watercourse team to create a 3,300 sq m wetland area. That has significantly reduced flood risk for thousands of people in the area.

G. London’s river restorations are boosting wider community wellbeing too, with schools using restored banks and new wetlands for hands-on, feet-wet education. “This was just fields before, where kids could run around — but not learn anything,” said Shorey about Albany Park. “Now they come down to the water to see what’s going on.” Such public benefits are an immeasurable but vital part of London’s river restorations. The work draws so many people. It’s boosting wellbeing generally through connection with nature, along with education around biodiversity and rewilding.