Answer Key: How Much Do You Know About Waste?

1. False. (When plastic bags have been washed and dried thoroughly, they can be reused safely again and again.)

2. False. (The use of personal computers has actually increased the amount of paper that people consume.)

3. C: Your own reusable bag from home. (People can save the trees used to make paper bags and the energy use to make plastic ones, by taking their own shopping bags to the store).

4. C: Both A: and B: (Reusing paper reduces the need to buy more paper.)

5. True. (You can reuse a mailing envelope by sealing it with tape, glue, or some other means).

6. False. (Many cities recycle latex paint and use it to paint public buildings or cover up graffiti).

7. A: True. (Used tires are often shredded and mixed with asphalt to make roads that last longer and need less repair.)

8. B: Steel. (People called steel cans “tin cans” for a long time, but they are actually made of steel)

9. D: All of the above. (Before the twentieth century, most paper was made from cloth rags).

10. True. (Many types of plastic are recycled into furniture, carpets, clothing, and other items.

11. D: All of the above.

12. D: All of the above.

Task 16. Global Warming Controversy. Predicted Effects of Global Warming: Beneficial or Detrimental?

Role Play: Supporters – Opponents. There is disagreement among researchers as to whether the effects of global warming will be beneficial or detrimental (harmful). What actions should be taken now to prevent or mitigate global warming?

Supporters of the global warming theory (GWT) assert that:

– the historical temperature record shows a rise of 0.4-0.8 C over the last 100 years;

– the current warmth is unusual in the past 1000 years;

– the warming observed over the past 50 years is likely caused by human activity;

– humankind is performing a great geophysical and if it turns out badly we cannot undo it;

– action should be taken now to prevent or mitigate warming.

 

Opponents of GWT maintain that:

– climate science is not yet able to provide us with solid answers to all the major questions about the global climate;

– the Earth’s climate has been both colder and warmer than today, and these changes are adequately explained by mechanisms that do not involve human activities;

– climate models will never be able to predict the future climate until they can predict solar and volcanic activity;

– more weight should be given to data such as paleoclimatic studies, temperature measurements made from weather balloons, and satellites;

– if global warming is real and man-made, no action need be taken now because: a) future scientific advances or engineering projects will remedy the problem before it becomes serious and for less money; b) a small amount of global warming would be benign or even beneficial.

Text 3. Hello, People of the World!

Task 17. Read, translate and speak about the text to develop reading comprehension skills:

 

1. There are five billion people in the world and they live in all different corners of it. They live on the snow and ice on the Poles and in the tropical jungles on the equator. They have climbed the highest mountains and walk on the sea bed. Some of them even left the earth and visited the moon and cosmos.

2. The human species is the most numerous and the most powerful of all the animals on earth. How did this happen? In many ways, animals can do things better than we can. Dogs can smell and hear better than we can. Cats can see in the dark. Birds can fly thousands of miles away and return to the same every year. But we are different. No other animal builds cathedrals, plays football, tells jokes, gets married, writes symphonies, elects presidents, or goes the moon.

3. There is one thing above all that makes people and animals different. People love to talk – talk – talk. We are the great communicators! And we can communicate so many things in so many ways – with our faces, our hands, our bodies, and our voices. Most important of all, we can record what we say and think in writing, so that we can communicate through time. We have a sense of past and future, not just present.

4. We are the only species that can change the world, and we are the only species that can choose either to look after our world or to destroy it.

 

Task 18. Here are four questions which introduce the four paragraphs in the text. They are not in the right order. Write down the correct question for each paragraph.

 

1) How are people and animals different?

2) How many people are there?

3) What can people choose to do?

4) What is the biggest difference between people and animals?

 

Task 19. Answer the following questions, solve the problems, do the tasks.

1) Check your lists of what people and animals can and can’t do.

2) What ideas do you have that are not in the text?

3) How do people communicate?

4) Why is writing a special kind of communication?

5) Do animals have a sense of past and future?

6) How do animals communicate?

7) In what ways are we looking after the world, and in what ways are we destroying it?

 

Work in pairs

Task 20. Work in pairs and make up short dialogues about “The World of Nature. Environment Protection”:

1) Air Pollution, Soil Pollution, Water Pollution.

2) Nanotechnology. 3) Climate Changes. 4) Environment Degradation. 5) Recycling as an important issue nowadays.