b2 lesson 3

Lesson 1: Global warming

ExpressionsVocabularyNatureListeningandSpeaking

The topicUseofEnglishListeningGlobalwarming

Writing

ReadingClimateChangeDoubtersReadingcomprehensiontest

GrammarRelativeclausesA.Definingrelativeclauses

B.NondefiningrelativeclausesC.RelativePronouns

D.RelativeAdverbs

Phonetics

Extra informationCulturalfocus

GamesAdditionalmaterial

UN

IT

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UNIT 4 Lesson 1

Expressions

Vocabulary Nature

Listen to the following expressions and repeat them:

o Til now man has been up against Nature; from now on he will be up against his own nature, Dennis Gabor.

o Just living is not enough; one must have sunshine, freedom, and a flower, Hans Christian Anderson.

o In an underdeveloped country, dont drink the water. In a developed country, dont breathe the air, Jonathan Raban.

o With Laissez faire and price atomic Ecologys Uneconomic

But with another kind of logic

Economys Unecologic, Kenneth E. Boulding.

o Our modern industrial economy takes a mountain covered with trees, lakes, running streams and transforms it into a mountain of junk, garbage, slime pits

and debris, Edward Abbey.

The listening is available in the virtual classroom

Choose the correct definition of the previous expressions:

o Til now man has been up against Nature; from now on he will be up against his own nature, Dennis Gabor:

a) From now on Nature will be against mankind.

b) Until now, Nature and man have been enemies.

c) From now on man has to fight against himself.

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UNIT 4 Lesson 1

o Just living is not enough; one must have sunshine, freedom, and a flower, Hans Christian Anderson:

a) There is nothing better than having a good quality of life.

b) Without a flower, one cannot have a good life.

c) One has to care for Nature.

o In an underdeveloped country, dont drink the water. In a developed country, dont breathe the air, Jonathan Raban:

a) An underdeveloped country is a place where there is no water.

b) A developed country is a place where there is no air.

c) It is better to be in a developed country than in an underdeveloped country.

d) None of the previous answers is correct.

o With Laissez faire and price atomic Ecologys Uneconomic

But with another kind of logic

Economys Unecologic, Kenneth E. Boulding:

a) Price atomic has to be understood here as atomic price, thats why its not

logical.

b) The fact ecology is not economics is completely illogical.

c) The fact ecology is not economical is completely illogical.

o Our modern industrial economy takes a mountain covered with trees, lakes, running streams and transforms it into a mountain of junk, garbage, slime pits

and debris, Edward Abbey:

a) This is a modern version of the famous saying with Mohammed and the

Mountain.

b) Our modern economy ruins our landscapes.

c) If our faith doesnt move the mountain, our industry will.

Check your answers in the Key Booklet

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UNIT 4 Lesson 1

Listening and Speaking

Listen and repeat the following quote by Bjorn Lomborg: On average,

global warming is not going to harm the developing world.

The listening is available in the virtual classroom

o Who is Bjorn Lomborg? What does he mean? Describe your point of view and record yourself. The recording must be at least one minute.

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UNIT 4 Lesson 1

The topic

Use of English

Match the following words with their correct definition:

A. To fluctuate 1. To support.

B. To cycle 2. To move up and down.

C. To advocate 3. To send outrays of heat.

D. To drive up 4. To approach by driving a car.

E. To radiate back 5. To ride on a bicycle.


Listening Global warming

Listen to the video which explains what global warming is. Listen to the

video once before we start to work with it and write down all the

vocabulary you can understand connected to the environment.

The video is available at:

http://youtu.be/0F3QPY83NZQ

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UNIT 4 Lesson 1

Listen to each of the following four expressions and then repeat them

again at the same time as the presenter pronounces them.

o The planets temperature has risen unusually fast (minute 0:10). o even since the industrial revolution began (minute 0:27). o by the end of the century (minute 2:08). o Although much remains to be learned about global warming (minute 2:37).

Have a look at the following words, expressions and phrasal verbs that

appear in the video and use the dictionary to look up the meanings.

Vocabulary Expressions Phrasal Verbs

To fluctuate Global warming To drive up

To cycle Greenhouse effect To release into

Fossil fuels To come in second To radiate back

To trap To hit highest levels To reflect back

To intensify By the end of the century To come in (second)

String Around the house

To shrink Ever since

To advocate

To switch

To cut

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UNIT 4 Lesson 1

Writing

Answer the following questions using full sentences. Write your answers

and compare them with the suggested ones.

o According to the video, what has happened in the last century? o What effect do the greenhouse gases have?


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UNIT 4 Lesson 1

Reading

Climate Change Doubters

Al Gore calls BS on Climate Change Doubters

Adapted from: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/08/al-gore-calls-bs-on-climate-

change-doubters/

ABC News' Amy Bingham reports.

The ice caps are still melting, the ozone layer is still disappearing and Al Gore is getting pissed.

In a speech at the Aspen Institute last week the former Vice President hid no emotion when he

disputed claims that global warming was not happening by repeatedly shouting bullsh*t.

They pay pseudo-scientists to pretend to be scientists to put out the message: This climate

thing, its nonsense. Man-made CO2 doesnt trap heat. It may be volcanoes. Bullshit! It may be

sun spots. Bullshit! Its not getting warmer. Bullshit! Gore said, without knowing that his

comments were being streamed online.

One audience member said Gore's speech was a "tour de force of ideas expressed with humor,

passion and insight," according to the conference's coordinator Charlie Firestone, the executive

director of the Aspen Institute's Communication and Society Program.

Gore went on to say that the organized activity of these pseudo-scientists has polluted

public opinion on climate change.

There is no longer a shared reality on an issue like climate even though

our very existence of our civilization is at threat. People have no idea,

Gore said. Its no longer acceptable in mixed company, meaning

bipartisan company, to use the godd*mn word climate. They have polluted

this to the point where we cannot possibly come to an agreement on it.

While the jury may still be out on the publics opinion, President Obama has shown that he, at

least, is on Gores side. The Obama Administration has poured more than $90 billion into clean

energy in the past three years, almost all of which came from stimulus funds in the Recovery

Act.

But in the five years since Gore released his climate change documentary An Inconvenient

Truth, just how much progress has been made toward his goal of reducing carbon emissions?

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UNIT 4 Lesson 1

Not much, if you look at the big picture of overall greenhouse gas emissions. In fact from 1990 to

2009 emissions increased 7.3 percent, according to a 2011 Environmental Protection Agency

report.

There is a glimmer of progress, though. In both 2008 and 2009 emissions decreased by 2.8

percent and 6.1 percent respectively. The report noted that the decrease was probably due in

large part to the economic recession which caused a decrease in energy consumption, suggesting

that emissions could rise again as the economy picks up.

The two largest contributors of greenhouse gases were the transportation and electricity

generation sectors, which together account for about 60 percent of all emissions.

The president announced today a new set of energy efficiency standards that could help

decrease transportations share of emissions by reducing oil consumption by 530 million barrels

over the lifespan of heavy trucks and buses produced between 2014 and 2018, the

administration claims.

The new standards will require reductions in fuel consumption by 23 percent for semi-trucks, 15

percent for heavy-duty pick-up trucks and vans, and 10 percent for buses, delivery trucks and

garbage trucks.

Obama unveiled new efficiency standards last month requiring cars and light-duty trucks to

achieve 54.5 millions-per-gallon by 2025.

Considering the United States consumes almost 7 billion barrels of oil every year, these new

efficiency standards will be just a drop in the barrel toward the sweeping greenhouse gas

reductions that Gore has been advocating for over the past decade.

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UNIT 4 Lesson 1

Reading comprehension test

Answer the following questions:

o According to Al Gore what has the effect of these pseudo scientists been? o How much progress has been made to reduce carbon emissions since Al Gores

documentary An Inconvenient Truth was made?

o What was the reason for the decrease of emissions of 2008 and 2009?


This is one of the paragraphs from the article. Which other discourse

markers could be used instead of the one in bold?

There is no longer a shared reality on an issue like climate even though our very existence

of our civilization is at threat. People have no idea, Gore said. Its no longer acceptable in

mixed company, meaning bipartisan company, to use the godd*mn word climate. They have

polluted this to the point where we cannot possibly come to an agreement on it.


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UNIT 4 Lesson 1

Have a look at the following words, expressions and phrasal verbs that

appear in the text and use the dictionary to look up the meanings:


Ice cap Tour de force To get pissed (USA= to get angry/UK= to get drunk/UK to get angry = to get pissed off)

To melt To be at threat To go on to do something

Bullshit To have no idea To put out

To pretend to be To be on someones side

To get warmer

Nonsense To look at the big picture

To come to (an agreement)

To stream A drop in the ocean (here the barrel!!)

To be out (a jury)

Insight To pour into

To pollute To pick up

Goddamn To account for

Glimmer of hope/progress

To advocate for

Greenhouse gases

Lifespan

A Standard

Garbage truck (US)

To unveil

Light-duty truck

Sweeping

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UNIT 4 Lesson 1

Grammar

Relative clauses

The boys, who studied English, went to England.

The boys who studied English went to England.

Whats the difference in these sentences?

The first sentence we find between commas is a non-defining relative clause,

which does not define or limit the noun it follows. The sentence implies that

all the boys went to England.

On the contrary, the second sentence is a defining relative clause, which

defines or limits the noun (boys). Only the boys who were studying English

went to England.

A. Defining relative clauses

They qualify a noun, and tell us exactly which person or thing is being referred to. They

add necessary information to identify something or someone.

There is no pause before or after a defining relative clause and no commas when we

write. You could omit the relative when the relative functions as the object not as the

subject.

The man who came was Oscar.

The horse which won the race was black.

The car that runs faster is mine.

If the relative pronoun is the object it can be omitted.

The person (whom) you saw yesterday is Peter.

The dog (which/that) I saw yesterday was white.

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UNIT 4 Lesson 1

Prepositions usually come at the end of the relative clause and usually the relative

pronoun is omitted.

This is the man to whom I lent the money.

This is the man I lent the money to.

B. Non-defining relative clauses

They add secondary information to a sentence. Usually, they are written between

commas. Never use that.

Myles, who is a student, lives very far from school.

These glasses, which I found in the bus, are similar to Lauras.

John, who I have never seen studying, will have problems to pass.

My bike, which was broken yesterday, has been repaired today.

As in the defining clauses, prepositions come at the end of the relative clause.

Hotel Ibis, at which we stayed, was a dreadful place

Hotel Ibis we stayed at was a dreadful place

C. Relative Pronouns

Relative pronoun

Use Example

WHO Subject or object pronoun for people. I told you about the woman who lives next door.

WHICH Subject or object pronoun for animals and things.

Do you see the cat which is lying on the roof?

THAT

Subject or object pronoun for people, animals, and things in defining relative clauses (who or which are also possible).

I dont like the table that stands in the kitchen.

WHOSE Possession for people, animals and things.

Do you know the boy whose mother is a nurse?

WHOM

Object pronoun for people, especially in non-defining relative clauses (in defining relative clauses we colloquially prefer who).

I was invited by the professor whom I met at the conference.

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UNIT 4 Lesson 1

That preference to which:

After the superlative Who is the silliest boy that has ever been in this school?

After first, second, all, everything, only, etc.

This is the first student that...

All that he said was...

After 2 or more nouns Isabel tell us about the people and the countries that she has seen

D. Relative Adverbs

A relative adverb can be used instead of a relative pronoun plus preposition. This often

makes the sentence easier to understand.

This is the shop in which I bought my car.

This is the shop where I bought my car.

Relative adverb

Meaning Use Example

WHEN In/on which Refers to a time expression.

The day when we met him.

WHERE In/at which Refers to a place. The place where we met him.

WHY For which Refers to a reason. The reason why we met him.

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UNIT 4 Lesson 1

Exercises

Complete the sentences using the appropriate relative pronoun, where

necessary:

o There's something wrong with the Ipad _____ I bought yesterday. o Selena, ____ parents live in New York, often travels to see them. o The button ____ he pressed was the correct one. o Many gadgets __ have changed our lives produce pollution. o All the information ____ is kept in the computer can be recovered very quickly. o Mark , ____ has always been good at History, is looking forward to going to

university.

o Is that the cottage ____ you are thinking of renting? o King Juan Carlos , ____ reign lasts for over 0 years, was born in 1938. o This painting, _____ I am very fond of, was painted by my boyfriend. o I dont want to know anything ___ Brian told you.


Join both sentences into one using a relative clause

o Have you found the keys? Did you lose them? o Martha is wearing a pink skirt. I dont like the skirt. o The museum in Madrid was being rebuilt. We wanted to visit it. o She showed me a photograph of her daughters. Her daughters are engineers. o That man over there is an actor. I dont remember his name. o Sallys mother goes to the gym every day. Sallys mother is 65. o I got the job. I applied for the job last month


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UNIT 4 Lesson 1

Phonetics

Fall (A Falling Tone)

A falling tone is by far the most common used tone of all. It signals a sense of finality,

completion, belief in the content of the utterance, and so on.

A speaker, by choosing a falling tone, also indicates to the addressee that that is all he

has to say, and offers a chance (turn-taking) to the addressee to comment on, agree or

disagree with, or add to his utterance, without soliciting a response.

Nonetheless, it would be polite for the addressee to at least acknowledge in some

manner or form that he is part of the discourse.

Now, let us see the areas in which a falling tone is used. The following is a proclamation

in which a teacher is informing a student of the consequences of his unacceptable

behaviour.

Exclamations: Watch OUT!

Exclamations

When someone expresses strong emotions by yelling, roaring, hollering, etc. this can be

described as an exclamation. Exclamations are usually manifested in high tones, and

can convey a wide range of mental states including joy, outrage, hysteria, excitement,

etc. As far as the intonation, exclamations tend to favour a rise in tone immediately

followed by a steep drop. ( )

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UNIT 4 Lesson 1

Listen to the following and practice:

o How ridiculous! o What great news! o Youve got to be kidding! o No way! o Sounds great! o Thats awful!

Watch the following video by Victor Borge:

The video is available at:

http://youtu.be/6bpIbdZhrzA

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UNIT 4 Lesson 1

Extra information

Cultural focus

Read the following articles about recycling in European countries:

Europe as a Recycling Society - Present recycling levels of Municipal

Waste and Construction & Demolition Waste in the EU

Adapted from: http://scp.eionet.europa.eu/publications/wp2009_2/wp/wp2009_2

Conclusion All the old EU Member States and Norway and almost all of the new EU Member States have

increased the recycling of municipal waste in the last 10 years; Both in terms of absolute weight

and as a percentage of generation.

There are still significant differences between recycling levels, both within the old EU Member

States and within the new EU Member States. In general the level is higher in old Member

States. However, some of the new EU Member States have relatively high recycling levels.

Some of the old EU Member States with a lower recycling level have had a quite high yearly

growth (> 0.75 percentage point) in the total recycling since 2000. Similarly, some of the new

EU Member States have had a quite high yearly growth (>0.50 percentage point) since 2000.

These changes indicate that even if the starting point is lower some positive changes are going

on in these counties.

Recycling of paper and cardboard and bio waste constitutes a large part of recycling in the

countries with overall high levels of municipal waste recycling. In a few of the old EU Member

States recycling of bulky waste is also significant.

There is a difference between what fraction of packaging waste countries include in their

municipal waste recycling figures. This indicates that some countries would have a higher

recycling level if they reported the recycling of packaging waste as recycling of municipal waste.

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UNIT 4 Lesson 1

Waste

Adapted from: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/index.htm

As European society has grown wealthier it has created more and more rubbish. Each year in

the European Union alone we throw away 3 billion tonnes of waste - some 90 million tonnes of

it hazardous. This amounts to about 6 tonnes of solid waste for every man, woman and child,

according to Eurostat statistics. It is clear that treating and disposing of all this material -

without harming the environment - becomes a major headache.

Between 1990 and 1995, the amount of waste generated in Europe increased by 10%, according

to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Most of what we

throw away is either burnt in incinerators, or dumped into landfill sites (67%). But both these

methods create environmental damage. Landfilling not only takes up more and more valuable

land space, it also causes air, water and soil pollution, discharging carbon dioxide (CO2) and

methane (CH4) into the atmosphere and chemicals and pesticides into the earth and

groundwater. This, in turn, is harmful to human health, as well as to plants and animals.

By 2020, the OECD estimates, we could be generating 45% more waste than we did in 1995.

Obviously we must reverse this trend if we are to avoid being

submerged in rubbish. But the picture is not all gloomy. The EU's

Sixth Environment Action Programme identifies waste prevention

and management as one of four top priorities. Its primary objective is

to decouple waste generation from economic activity, so that EU

growth will no longer lead to more and more rubbish, and there are

signs that this is beginning to happen. In Germany and the

Netherlands, for example, municipal waste generation fell during the 1990s.

The EU is aiming for a significant cut in the amount of rubbish generated, through new waste

prevention initiatives, better use of resources, and encouraging a shift to more sustainable

consumption patterns.

The European Union's approach to waste management is based on three principles:

Waste prevention: This is a key factor in any waste management strategy. If we can reduce the amount of waste generated in the first place and reduce its hazardousness by reducing the

presence of dangerous substances in products, then disposing of it will automatically become

simpler. Waste prevention is closely linked with improving manufacturing methods and

influencing consumers to demand greener products and less packaging.

Recycling and reuse: If waste cannot be prevented, as many of the materials as possible should be recovered, preferably by recycling. The European Commission has defined several

specific 'waste streams' for priority attention, the aim being to reduce their overall

environmental impact. This includes packaging waste, end-of-life vehicles, batteries, electrical

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UNIT 4 Lesson 1

and electronic waste. EU directives now require Member States to introduce legislation on

waste collection, reuse, recycling and disposal of these waste streams. Several EU countries are

already managing to recycle over 50% of packaging waste.

Improving final disposal and monitoring: Where possible, waste that cannot be recycled or reused should be safely incinerated, with landfill only used as a last resort. Both these

methods need close monitoring because of their potential for causing severe environmental

damage. The EU has recently approved a directive setting strict guidelines for landfill

management. It bans certain types of waste, such as used tyres, and sets targets for reducing

quantities of biodegradable rubbish. Another recent directive lays down tough limits on

emission levels from incinerators. The Union also wants to reduce emissions of dioxins and

acid gases such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur dioxides (SO2), and hydrogen chlorides

(HCL), which can be harmful to human health

o Do you recycle? Do you think it is important to recycle? Why? Is it easy to recycle where you live?

Look at the following vocabulary which appeared in the video:


Starting point To become/be a headache To go on

Cardboard To reverse the trend To throw away

Bio waste The picture is (not all) gloomy To discharge into

Overall In the first place To be linked with

Municipal waste Green products To lay down

Bulky waste Waste streams

Packaging waste End-of-life

Hazardous As a last resort

Solid waste

To dump

Landfill sites

Landfilling

Soil

Decouple

A cut

A shift

Hazardousness

Monitoring

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UNIT 4 Lesson 1

A directive

To set guidelines

To ban

To set targets

Biodegradable rubbish

Tough

Games

Look at the following pictures and describe the similarities and

differences between these two pictures:

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UNIT 4 Lesson 1

Additional material

Listening

Listening version of part of the speech by Al Gore mentioned in the reading:

http://youtu.be/8SfWdDP5v_A

Punctuation class with Dean Martin: http://youtu.be/lQ91SVKryYU

Read and listen to the following text:

Information on coral reefs

Adapted from http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/coral-reefs-will-be-gone-by-end-

of-the-century-2352742.html

The claim is made in a book published tomorrow, which says coral reef ecosystems are very

likely to disappear by the end of this century in what would be "a new first for mankind the

'extinction' of an entire ecosystem". Its author, Professor Peter Sale, studied the Great

Barrier Reef for 20 years at the University of Sydney. He currently leads a team at the United

Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health.

The predicted decline is mainly down to climate change and ocean acidification, though local

activities such as overfishing, pollution and coastal development have also harmed the reefs.

The book, Our Dying Planet, published by University of California Press, contains further

alarming predictions, such as the prospect that "we risk having no reefs that resemble those

of today in as little as 30 or 40 more years".

Though not all scientists agree with the precise timescales set out by the book, the crisis is

clear. "When you're talking about the destruction of an entire ecosystem within one human

generation, there might be some small differences in the details it is a dramatic image and

a dramatic statement," Professor Rogers says. "But the overall message we agree with. People

are not taking on board the sheer speed of the changes we're seeing."

b2 lesson 3

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