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Welcome! This site is for students to practice their English and keep up to date with environmental issues.

TEN MINUTES OF ENGLISH A DAY!
You can find a mixture of reading, crosswords, videos and short English lessons: these will normally be vocabulary, but I may also treat you to some grammar!

There are now over 260 lessons on this blog. Look through the Blog archive, Post labels and Popular Posts to find what you want.

If you want to print a lesson, click on the lesson title and then look for the Print Friendly icon.

''Let nature be your teacher''
William Wordsworth, poet, 1770-1850

''Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift''
Albert Einstein, physicist, 1879-1955

''... to find the word, or words, by which [an] idea may be most fitly and aptly expressed''
P.M. Roget, lexicographer, 1779-1869

Tuesday 11 July 2017

World population day in numbers

Level: intermediate B1

Please click the 'Print Friendly' icon at the bottom of the page if you want to print this exercise.

July the 11th is World Population Day, when the United Nations tries to bring attention to the issues of population.
How much do you know about the world's population and what it will be in the future?

Watch this short video (one minute and twenty seconds) and then answer the following questions:

1) What is the current world population?
2) How many people are added to the world's population every year?
3) What will the population be in 2050?
4) What is the fertility rate in Africa?
5) What is the current population in China?



Answers below!







1) 7.6 billion
2) 83 million
3) 9.8 billion
4) 4.7
5) 1.4 billion

Wednesday 14 June 2017

Exhibition on Prague's role as an animal smuggling hub

Level: upper-intermediate B2

Please click the 'Print Friendly' icon at the bottom of the page if you want to print this exercise.

A exhibition has opened at Prague airport featuring large photos of celebrities morphed with animals endangered by poaching and illegal trafficking.

Listen to this short radio interview (three minutes) about it and then answer the following questions:

1) When was Wild for Life launched?
2) Who is the main organiser?
3) Who is Thu Minh?
4) A lot of rhino horn goes through Prague; where does it come from and where does it go?
5) What can ordinary people do to take part in the campaign?



Answers below!




1) Last year
2) UNEP
3) A Vietnamese singer
4) South Africa to Vietnam
5) Visit the website, share your photo, tell your friends and family about the issue.

Wednesday 3 May 2017

Washed up whale 'most contaminated' on record

Level: intermediate B1

Please click the 'Print Friendly' icon at the bottom of the page if you want to print this exercise.

A dead killer whale (Orcinus orca) found on the Scottish coast had 20 times the expected levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in her system.

Watch this short (one-minute) BBC video about her and then answer the following questions:


1) What do high levels of PCBs do?
2) What were PCBs used for?
3) When were they banned?
4) What does 'leach' mean?
5) What is bioaccumulation?


You can read more about this story here.

Answers below!






1) They weaken an animals immune system, affect the brain and stop whales from reproducing.
2) Everything, from plastics to electrical goods and cement.?
3) From the 1970s
4) Leach: (with reference to a soluble chemical or mineral) drain away from soil, ash, or similar material by the action of percolating liquid, especially rainwater. (Oxford Dictionaries)
5) Bioaccumulate: (of a substance) become more concentrated inside the bodies of living things (Oxford Dictionaries)