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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

Sunday 9 December 2018

Why are we taking so long to tackle climate change?

Level: upper-intermediate B2

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

The United Nations Climate Change Conference is taking place in Poland.
But why is it taking so long to agree on what to do?

Watch this short BBC video about it and then answer the following questions:

1) How long has Matt McGrath been going to climate conferences?
2) What animal does he compare the UN with?
3) How many countries are involved?
4) How long do scientists say we have to cut our emissions of carbon?
5) What are the three key things that Matt McGrath thinks need to happen?

And a bonus question:
How much money has the World Bank announced it will give for climate action over the next five years? (You will have to do some extra research for this one!)


Answers below!





1) More than ten years
2) (A giant) tortoise
3) 200
4) Twelve
5) Finance, transparency, and greater ambition.

Bonus question: 200 bn USD ($200 billion)