Lesson 3Lesson 3

Unnatural DisastersUnnatural Disasters

which of the disasters in the key words do you think are:

(a)caused by people? (b)made worse by people? (c)natural?

Key words: disasters droughts, earthquakes, floods, Forest fires,hurricanes. Landslides, tsunami, typhoon, Volcanic eruptions, windstorms

Read the article and check your answers to exercise 1.

reading strategies:completing Texts with sentence gaps

(a)read the text to get the general idea. (b)read a paragraph with asentence gap and identify the topic, e.g. disasters. (c)read the sentences before and after the gap and look for clues about the missing setence, e.g. is it an example of what is mentioned before? (d)certain words may help you: time references(then). pronoun references(it, that),linking words(however), (e)decide which sentence goes in the gap.check that it fits the sentences before and after it.

ANSWERS:

Caused by people: forest fires

Made worse by people: hurricanes

Natural: floods, droughts, windstorms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, forest fires, hurricanes

Use the strategies to complete the gaps in the text(1-5)with theseSentences(a-g). There are two extra sentences you do not need.

(a) But geological evidence shows that 73.000years ago there was a much greater eruption.(b) Even prosperous europe has suffered and large areas of france, britain and germany have all been under waer.(c) That is probably not the most important factor either.(d) third, the other bits of land you might have been able to farm are now useless.(e) On top of all that, add climate change and the spectre of global warming.(f) For example, the yellow river, once notorious for tlooding the chinese landscape, failed to reach the sea at all on 226 days in 1997(g) One answer is over-population.

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

Read the text again and answer these questions.

1 What is the attitude of the journalist towards the future?

2 Who are most likely to be the victims of natural disasters?

3 Why are there now more hurricanes, floods and droughts?

4 Why are volcanoes and earthquakes more dangerous now?

5 What could be the biggest threat to the planet in the future?

6 What effects might this threat have?

Answers

1.Pessimistic

2.Poor people

3.Overpopulation and mismanagerment of the world’s resources

4.Because half the world’s population lives in cities within range of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes

5.A volcanic eruption

6.It might plunge the planet into winter for years.

Look at the words form the text(1-10) and the other examplesIn brackets, match the prefixes with the meanings(a-j).

(1) overpopulation(overgrown, oversleep)(2) Substandard(subway, submarine)(3) deforestation(defuse, dehydration)(4) downhill(downstream, downgrade)(5) undernourished(underpaid, undercooked)(6) rebuild(replace,rewind)(7) Unstable(unusual, uncommon)(8) Semi-active(semi-circle, semi-final)(9) Multinational (multi-purpose,multi-racial)(10)Mismanagement (misunderstand, misplace)

(a) Again (f) opposite of an action(b) Wrongs (g) not enough(c) Below (g) downwards(d) Too much (i) opposite of an adjective(e) Many (j) partly / half

Answers:

1.d)2.c)3.f)4.h)5.g)

6.a)7.i)8.j)9.e)10.b)

Complete the sentences with words form exercise 5 in a suitable form.

(1) After the storm they had to hundreds of houses which had been damaged.(2) Many people in the developing world suffer from diseases because they are of the competition.(3) Our team was knocked out in the of the competition.(4) The bomb was about to go off but the experts managed to it.(5) I the question and failed the exam.(6) I yesterday and arrived an hour late for class.(7) A lot of houses collapsed in the erathquake because of construction.(8) Floods are not these days; they happen more and more often .

Answers:

1. Rebuild 2.undernourished 3.semi-final

4.Defuse 5.misunderstood 6.overslept 7.sub-standard 8.unusual

Work in pairs. Discuss these questions.

(1) What natural disasters have happened in the last few months?

(2) What do you think governments can do to help prevent natural disasters?

(3) What organisations do you know that provide environment?

(4) What can we do as individuals to improve the environment and help victims of natural disasters?

Natural disasters

Exercise 2 in page 56