Listening

Warm Up

Helpful Words and Phrases

Listen and repeat.

  1. climate change
    • ex. Summers are getting hotter and hotter because of climate change.
  2. a satellite
    • ex. The US launched another satellite into space.
  3. carbon dioxide
    • ex. Many companies are now making eco-friendly cars that produce less carbon dioxide.
  4. absorb
    • ex. I bought a cloth that quickly absorbs spilled water.
  5. a hectare
    • ex. The huge fire destroyed thousands of hectares of forest.

Article

Read the article below and answer your tutor's questions.

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A new study found that planting trees is the most effective way to stop climate change. Researchers used images from satellites to see how many trees can be planted on empty land. Then, they estimated how much carbon dioxide the trees could absorb.

Results showed that almost 1.8 billion hectares of empty land are available for planting. In those areas, more than 500 million trees can be planted. According to the researchers, 500 million new trees could absorb over 300 billion tons of carbon dioxide. That includes carbon dioxide that was produced by factories more than 100 years ago!

However, the researchers warned that the benefits of planting new trees will mainly be seen in the future. They explained that it will take a long time for the trees to fully grow and absorb the estimated amount of carbon dioxide. The researchers stressed that it’s also important to protect our current forests. Every year around 10 billion trees are cut down without replacement.

Discussion

Choose a topic and discuss the questions with your tutor.

Climate Change

  • Do you think that climate change is greatly affecting your country? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • Should world governments pay more attention to climate change? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • Other than planting trees, what can regular people do to help stop climate change? Why? Discuss.

Planning for the Future

  • Do you think that it’s more important to think about now or the future? Why? Discuss.
  • What should people do now to have a better future (ex. exercise, study)? Why? Discuss.
  • Do you think that more politicians should be younger so that they can work on more projects for the future? Why or why not? Discuss.