Unit 8 The Environment
Unit 8 The Environment
Part B
Passage 1
Exercise 1
1. What does the passage mainly tell us?----C
2. What is the purpose of launching the Use Fewer Bags Campaign?------A
3. According to a campaign coordinator, what should people carry when they go to buy food in the markets?-----D
Passage 2
Exercise 1
Listen to the passage and choose the right answers to the questions you hear.
1.Which of the following headings best describes the main idea of the passage?-----D
2.Which event served as a wake-up call to countries along the Rhine that they should get
together and restore the health of the river?-----C
3.According to the passage, what plays a key role in the effort to clean up the Rhine?----B Exercise 2
1. How important is the Rhine to Western Europe?
It is Western Europe?s most important waterway.
2. What happened to the Rhine from the 1950s to the 1970s?
It was seriously polluted. Fish disappeared and it was dangerous to swim in it.
3. What happened in 1986?
A fire broke out at a chemical plant in Basel, which caused tons of pesticides to leak into the
Rhine.
4. What was the good result of what happened in 1986?
The countries along the Rhine realized that they should work together to clean it up and keep it clean.
5. How often is the water at various points in the Rhine extracted and checked?
Every six minutes, 24 hours a day.
Part C
1. What does the passage mainly discuss?----C
2. What should we do to reduce waste when we go shopping?----B
3. Why should we buy durable goods according to the passage?----D
4. Which of the following is true according to the passage?----D
Script:
For a cleaner environment it?s necessary for us to keep in mind the three Rs. They are: reduce, reuse, and recycle.
Reducing is the best way to protect the environment. However, if you can?t reduce something, reuse it. And if you can?t reuse it, you can recycle it.
Reducing waste means shopping with the environment in mind. Consider the environmental impact of each product before you buy it. Remember to make a list of what you need before you go shopping; this will reduce impulse buying. Buy in bulk, which means buying in large quantities and not packed. It?s much cheaper and eliminates small containers and excess packaging. Avoid buying things that can?t be recycled.
Second, learning to reuse is easy after you make a little practice. For example, you can reuse shopping bags. Buy canvas bags and use them when you shop. Buy durable, high-quality goods for a longer life. Although durable goods may cost a little more at first, they will save you money and help save the environment in the long run. Before throwing anything away, think about how each item can be reused.
The last of the three Rs that we must keep in mind is recycling. Recycling means collecting, processing, marketing, and ultimately reusing materials that were once thrown away. Check the yellow pages or the Internet to find information about local recycling programs in your community.
Part D
Time to Talk
Look at these pictures and describe them one by one. If possible, try also to find something relevant to talk about.
Hints:
1. A: sandstorm, Beijing, wear masks, become quite an annoyance (烦恼，可厌之事), attack
several times a year, can?t see far
B: trees have been cut down, according to some statistics (数据), the world forests are
disappearing at a faster pace, the main reason, sandstorms, take action, save our forests and protect our environment
2.windmills (风车), human smart inventions, don?t use fuel and don?t cause pollution, can
generate electricity, to drive machines, irrigate fields, grind wheat into flour, think of more ways to use the solar energy, to protect our environment, make the world a clean place to live in
3.beach, blue sky, water, green hills, bottom of the picture, something black, oil which leaked
from a broken oil vessel (油轮), oil spill (漏油事件), man-made disaster, to animals, live in the sea, on the seashore
Demo:
1. A: The picture on the top shows a sandstorm attacking the city of Beijing. People have to
wear masks to keep the sand from their faces. In recent years, sandstorms have become quite an annoyance for China, attacking places like Beijing and other northern areas several times a year. When a sandstorm comes, the sky turns yellow and you can?t see very far.
B: The picture below shows that a tree has been cut down. According to some statistics, the world forests are disappearing at a faster pace. This is the main reason for the appearance of sandstorms. So if we want to get rid of sandstorms, we should take action to save our forests and protect our environment.
2. This is a picture of windmills. They are one of the human smart inventions. They don?t
use fuel and they don?t cause pollution. They can generate electricity to drive the machines, to irrigate the fields, and to grind wheat into flour. Nowadays, we use too much gas and coal.
Maybe we should think of more ways to use the solar energy or wind to generate power for our activities. It?s our duty to protect our environment and make the world a clean place to live in.
3.This picture shows a beach —blue sky, blue sea water, white waves and green
mountains in the background. But if you take a closer look at the bottom of the picture, you?ll find that the beach is covered with something black. It?s oil, which leaked from a broken oil vessel. This is called an “oil spill”. An oil spill is a man-made disaster. It?s a disaster to the animals living in the sea and on the seashore.
Movie Time
Word Bank
endanger v.濒临危险
evolution n.进化
natural selection 自然选择，物竞天择
bizarre a.奇怪的
organism n.生命体
beetle n.甲虫
bubble n.水泡
aqualung n.水中呼吸器
rhinoceros n.犀牛
adapt v.改变以适应环境
Script:
Today, planet Earth is dominated by humans. There are over 6 billion of us. But what would happen to the planet, if there were no people? Just imagine that people were to disappear from this world. Many familiar animals: the big cats, the bears and the wolves, already endangered, already under threat from us, will disappear in a few thousand years. The planet, and the survivors, will carry on without us and evolution, natural selection, will create new and bizarre life. These future worlds, millions of years from now, are populated by strange creatures. But they are not just fantasy. These worlds are experiments in the imagination of some of today?s top scientists, based on what they know about the world now.
“When we look around the world right now, we see a huge number of very different things, organisms you would never in your wildest dreams invent, organisms you couldn?t possibly imagine could make their lives that way. And beetles that live off tiny bubble aqualungs under water, or the rhinoceros. Imagine the rhinoceros, if you didn?t know they existed, would you have drawn one?”
But how could scientists predict the future course of evolution?
“From studying the past, we can see certain trends in animals and animal evolution and we can say that, in the future, certain things are going to result because of circumstances developing in a certain way.”
“So there are a whole series of …rules? as it were,of how life has evolved, how life has changed and adapted through time, that we can test by taking our understanding of the present day and looking back into the past. It is no great leap of faith, then, to turn around and go in the other direction, to the future. To go forward and create some of the organisms which are unusual, imaginative, but possible.”
Exercise A
The following statements summarize respectively each speaker’s main points. Fill in the blanks according to what you hear from the video clip.
Keys for reference:
(1)there were no people
(2)new, strange, bizarre creatures
(3) a huge number of very different things
(4)studying the past and its trends
(5)how life has evolved, how life has changed and developed
Exercise B
Answer the following questions.
Questions:
1. What is the relationship between humans and animals on this planet?
2. What kind of animals had once dominated this world in history?
3. Who would dominate the world in the future, humans or a new species of animal?
Hints:
1.There should be a harmonious relationship betwee n humans and animals. It?s our duty to
protect all species of animals on this planet.
2.Dinosaurs once dominated the world and then suddenly died out about 60 million years ago.
3.The most intelligent species of animals would dominate this planet in the future.