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Complete PICLE corpus of essays by Polish advanced EFL students (330,000)

/^t/Earth is being polluted in many different ways and it would be rather difficult to find anybody who would claim otherwise. World has become too loud. Man, from his very beginning, has been surrounded by sounds; the are crucial part of his natural environment, just like visual signs or tangible objects. However, something went wrong in this balanced system, and sounds, together with the other elements of human environment, are turning into waste. Although people do not deny having destroyed ecological balance, they refuse to admit that noise is a part of this dangerous process as well. "Noise pollution" is an awkward term for many. It is neither visible nor tangible, so it is neglected. Meanwhile noise is in attack. There are virtually no quiet places nowadays. Days and nights people are exposed to hum, buzz, thump, crack and every other imaginable disturbing voice. They intrude everywhere and cause stress and nervousness, let alone harm to ears. Especially dangerous as the fact, that a person does not realise that, e.g. the incessant humming of the fridge is distracting and tiring. Drilling or zooming of a plane are easily recognized as horrible, so one can at least try to avoid them. However, the noise that does not draw attention immediately seems to be much more dangerous, because it is neglected. Those are all the sounds that go on and on constantly and human ears get used to them. Traffic is unbearable, but only when one thinks about it. So are children shouting, dogs barking, quarrels next door and music.