- •Earth is Dearer than Gold
- •I. Active Vocabulary
- •1. Match the following words and phrases with their definitions:
- •2. A) Insert the missing words and phrases into the text:
- •Environmental Pollution
- •2. B) Are the statements True or False?
- •3. Match the words with their synonyms:
- •4. Find words that best complete the sentences. Each line corresponds to one letter.
- •5. Complete the following sentences with a word or expression from the box. There are some that you do not need.
- •7. Match the words from the two columns to create phrases or collocations. Then use them in sentences of your own.
- •8. For each sentence, choose the best word to complete the gap :
- •9. Fill in the correct animal from the table, then try to explain the meaning of the phrases.Write two sentences of your own using these phrases.
- •II. Listening
- •1. Listen to the “Rainforest song” by j.P Taylor. Then do the exercises below.
- •2. A) Make sure that you know the meaning of the words below:
- •III. Video listening
- •1. A) Study the words and phrases below:
- •IV. Reading
- •1. A) What do you know about rainforests in general? What role do they play? Where are they situated?
- •The Importance of Rainforests
- •Vocabulary
- •2. Define whether the sentences true or false:
- •3. Choose the topic sentences in each of the paragraphs and write a short summary of the text.
- •Read the text without a dictionary.
- •Speaking
- •Look at the words below and decide which are good or bad for the environment.
- •Think of three environmental problems. Say:
- •3. A) Match the headlines to the environmental problems.
- •Match the problems to their effects and their solutions. Then in pairs discuss, as in the model.
- •VI. Writing
- •1. Find some information to write a short article about any environmental problem. State the problem, then write what has caused it and what people can do about it.
- •2. Write an essay on one of the topics below. Use your active vocabulary.
1. Match the following words and phrases with their definitions:
a) overfishing 1. energy in the form of heat or light that is sent out
as waves that you cannot see
b) habitat 2. the animals, plants etc that exist in a place, and are
dependent on each other to live
c) recycle 3. energy from the sun, used to make electricity
acid rain 4. to use materials that have already been used, in
order to make new products
e) solar power 5. rain containing chemicals which pollute the
environment.
f) radiation 6. the process of taking too many fish from the
sea, a river etc, so that the number of fish in it
becomes too low
g) ecosystem 7. materials and products that can be broken into
small parts and absorbed naturally into the
environment
h) biodiversity 8. used to talk about anything that is good for the
environment, or about ideas and issues relating to
protecting the environment
i) biodegradable 9. the natural home of a plant or animal
j) green 10. the variety of plants and animals in a place
2. A) Insert the missing words and phrases into the text:
Weather patterns ; survival ; greenhouse effect ; power stations ; layer ; carbon dioxide ; acid rain ; pollution; ultraviolet |
Environmental Pollution
There are three types of environmental pollution: air, ground, and water (1) … .
Historically, air pollution comes from industries and transport. Factories, (2) … and cars burn oil and coal. This rises into the air as different forms of sulphur and nitrogen. The sulphur and nitrogen combine with water in the air to make sulphuric or nitric acid. This falls to the ground as (3) … .
We burn large quantities of coal and oil, and this creates millions of tonnes of acid rain. The wind carries the rain long distances, and this creates problems. One country makes acid rain, and it falls to the ground in another country, for example, Canada gets a lot of acid rain from the USA, and Norway gets a lot of acid rain from Britain.
Industrial countries also cause the (4) ... (also called “global warming” or “climate change”). Burning coal and oil produces (5) … (CO2). The (CO2) increases in the Earth’s atmosphere, and retains heat from the sun (it works like the glass in a greenhouse- it lets heat in, but doesn’t let the heat out).
The Earth is getting hotter (6) … are changing: some places have no water for years, and some places have floods. When a country has no water, the effects are very hard- in Chile in 1999, the result was electricity cuts around the country. There was no water for the hydro-electric power stations.
The ozone (7) … is a band of gas around the Earth. It protects us from dangerous (8) … (UV) radiation from the sun. It is vital to human and animal (9) … . Unfortunately, we are producing chemicals which destroy the ozone layer. The damage starts in the Antarctic and spreads. Sheep in the Magallanes are becoming blind because the ozone layer is thinner. In Australia, a lot of people are getting skin cancer from the sun.