I love this country and relish the opportunity to touch the stones and buildings that have seen so much history, but whenever I visit, I have a hard time getting past the reality of the city I see before me. Each time I want it to be the way I’ve imagined it: grand yet quaint, bustling but without the tourists, and entirely old.
For the more adventurous: I went, on several recommendations, to Roast in Borough Market, which, on a Friday, is a wonderful experience. The bustling market is just waking up and delicious food is sold all around as you enter.
TO BUNDLE UP=> (PHRASAL VERB) If you bundle up, you wear a lot of clothes, usually because of cold weather.
ICICLE=> a long pointed piece of ice hanging down from a surface.
In the picture, you can see a SNOWPLOUGH (in American English SNOWPLOW), a vehicle used to push snow off roads, called also just PLOUGH. This is also the name of a farming tool:
The following listening activity is based on an ABS News video. If you are preparing for IELTS or CAE this will be a great exercise to test not only your listening comprehension but your vocabulary knowledge too. The video is about the frigid conditions in the US at the end of December.
Before watching the video, read the following words and try to guess their meaning if you don’t know it yet.
SKIN – THREATENING – BUNDLED – PLOUGH – FORECAST – TO DIG – COLD SNAP – SNOW BLOWER – ICICLES – DANGEROUS CHILL – TO TURN – DEADLY – UNBEARABLE – TO DUMP – OVERFLOWING – TO DROP
After that, try to fill in the gaps (you have to conjugate the verbs), even not knowing the meaning of all the words. Think if the missing word is a verb, a noun, an adverb, or an adjective, this will help you.
The following step will be watching the video. This isn’t an easy one, they all speak really fast, so probably you won’t be able to fill in the gaps while watching the first time.
You can find the answers in the PDF file.
SKIN – THREATENING – BUNDLED – PLOUGH – FORECAST – TO DIG – COLD SNAP – SNOW BLOWER – ICICLES – DANGEROUS CHILL – TO TURN – DEADLY – UNBEARABLE – TO DUMP – OVERFLOWING – DROP
We begin with that ___________________________ taking hold of half the country tonight.
Part of Pennsylvania and New York still _____________________ out from under five feet.
And now the Arctic invasion across most of the lower 48 states. This fountain you see right there behind New York Public Library, mostly ___________________ to ice.
And take a look at the _____________________ for New Year’s Eve, the coldest in more than 50 years.
When the ball ___________________ in Time Square the wind chill could meet minus 4 and for millions feeling the cold there’s much worse snow in the forecast as well.
Tonight the 200 million Americans _____________________ from head to toe.
That dangerous ________________________gripping more than half the country.
The cold could be __________________, especially for the very young and the very old.
Extreme weather is more than an inconvenience, it remains a serious and potentially life _________________________
Shelters __________________________ with people trying to escape the frigid temperatures.
And in Cotton, Minnesota, an _______________________ 41° below 0.
It feels like your __________________ is gonna be on fire.
Dave S. had to hire a ___________________ to unbury his car.
Heavy snow packed on rooftops, ______________________ nearly everywhere you look.
N. today pushing his _________________________ clearing his home.
All day truck after truck, we’ve seen them coming here, ______________________ their loads. Some of these piles are 12 feet high.
The following activity is based on a short documentary published on the YouTube channel Stories, and its theme is VERTICAL FARMING as a way to reduce water usage and contamination.
Before watching the video I suggest that you read the vocabulary list, you can also download it (PDF file).
VOCABULARY
LEAFY: having a lot of leaves.
HUGE: very large in size, amount o degree.
MASSIVE: very large and heavy. Ex. Falkirk Wheelis a massive boat lift in Scotland.
INDOOR: used, located, done or happening inside a building. An indoor field
NUTRITIOUS: having substances that a person or animal needs to stay healthy and grow properly.
CROP: a plant that is grown by farmers and used as food.
TO STACK:to make things into a neat pile. Insulated food storage containers are stacked for loading onto Red Cross ERVs and Salvation Army canteens.
ROOT:the part of a plant that grows underground.
TO MIST: to cover something with very small drops of liquid in order to keep it wet. Ex. These plants have to be misted regularly.
ROW:a line of things or people next to each other.
TREND: a general direction in which a situation is changing or developing. Ex. Investments showed a positive trend over the period considered.
TO FEED (FED/FED): to give food to a person or an animal.
OVERPOPULATED:with too many people leaving in it.
TO SPROUT: to appear suddenly and in large numbers. Ex. New houses are sprouting everywhere these days.
STEEL:strong metal that can be shaped easily.
MILL: a factory that produces a particular type of material; a building fitted with machinery for grinding grain into flour.
TOUGH: very difficult to deal with; physically and emotionally strong. Ex. Karen’s last pregnancy was tough.
STRIVE:to try very hard to achieve something. Ex. I enjoy watching people strive fortheir dreams.
LANDFILL: a place where waste is buried under the ground.
Fill in the gaps in the following sentences while listening:
NARRATOR: You can’t see it on the outside, but this old industrial neighborhood is an agricultural oasis. Inside this former laser tag arena, about 250 kinds of ______________ greens are growing in _______________ quantities, to be sold to local supermarkets and restaurants. This is AeroFarms, a massive ______________ vertical farm in Newark, New Jersey.
DAVID ROSENBERG: Our mission is to build farms in cities all over the world so people have access to ______________, great tasting, highly __________________food.
NARRATOR:______________ are stacked more than 30 feet high inside this 30,000 square foot space. They’re grown using aeroponic technology.
DAVID ROSENBERG: Typically in indoor growing, the ______________sit in water and one tries to oxygenate the water. Our key inventor realized that if we mist nutrition to the root structure, then the roots have a better oxygenation.
NARRATOR: AeroFarms says the root misting system allows them to use 95% less water than a regular field farm. They also use no pesticides or herbicides. Instead of soil, plants are grown in reusable cloth, made from recycled plastic. And ___________________the sun, there are ______________________of specialized LED lighting.
DAVID ROSENBERG: A lot of people say, sunless? Wait, plants need sun. In fact, the plants don’t need yellow spectrum, so we’re able to reduce our energy footprint by doing things like reducing certain types of spectrum.
NARRATOR: This sophisticated climate controlled system ______________ the growing cycle in half, so crops can be grown all year round, but with a much smaller ______________on the environment.
DAVID ROSENBERG: There are all these stresses on our planet. 70% of our fresh water contamination comes from agriculture. 70% of our fresh water usage goes to agriculture. One third of our arable land has been degraded in the last 40 years. All these macro trends point to the fact that we need a new way to feed our planet.
NARRATOR: One of the early champions of vertical farming is Columbia University ecologist Dickson Despommier. In 1999, Despommier and his students proposed that vertical farms could ______________________________ cities while using less land and less water. They would also cut greenhouse gases by eliminating the need to transport food over long distances. And the idea is finally taking root. Over the past few years, vertical farms have sprouted all over the world, including in Vancouver, Singapore, Panama, the UK, and around the US. Here in Newark, AeroFarms is building out another new farm in a former steel mill, one that’s bigger than a football field. Once it’s fully operational, it’s expected to produce two million pounds of greens a year– all grown vertically.
DAVID ROSENBERG: We listen to the plants very carefully to try and understand what they’re telling us and try and optimize all these different qualities of the plant. It’s a ______________ business, but it’s one that’s going to stay and it’s going to have a bigger and bigger impact.
NARRATOR: Do you think vertical farms will help solve our food production problems?Let us know in the comments below. And check out this next episode to see how this major US city is _________________ to become zero waste.
ROBERT REED: When I started at Recology 23 years ago, the recycling rate was around 38%. Today, we’ve more than __________________that.
NARRATOR: So far, San Francisco has diverted 80% of its waste away from landfills, and its success has been getting global attention.
There may be several reasons that account for this discrepancy between the students’ and the teachers’ opinions. (Source)
We were also able to account fordifferent assumptions about the combined effects of influenza illness and vaccination in modelling the joint risk of GBS if influenza illness were to occur in persons who had been vaccinated. (Source)
School personnel may be unaware of the potential barriers created for parents when written communication methods do not account for parent needs and literacy levels. (Source)
A group of school children from Lancashire, who had been on a school trip to the area, have all been accounted forand are all safe and well, according to staff. (Source)
Once all known victims have been accounted for, it is time again to change the pace of the operation, shifting back to a more cautious, controlled attitude. (Source)
As always, I suggest that you read the vocabulary list before watching the video. You can find a pdf version of this listening comprehension below.
VOCABULARY
To skyrocket: to rise extremely quickly or make extremely quick progress towards success. Ex. Lipstick sales in South Korea have skyrocketed this year.
Fourfold: four times as big or as much. Ex. According to recent figures, 34000 people are infected, and the most aggressive form of the virus, HIV 1, which was unknown in the country until the 1990s, has increased fourfold in the past 13 years.
Slums: a poor and crowded area of a city where the buildings are in bad condition.
Pollution: the process of making air, water, soil etc dangerously dirty and not suitable for people to use, or the state of being dangerously dirty.
To sustain: to provide what is needed for (something or someone) in order to live, to exist, to continue, etc. Ex. She wasn’t capable of sustaining close relationships with men.
Ungrounded: not based on facts. Ex. The socioeconomic exclusion of women, based on ungrounded discriminatory social definitions of female and male roles, affects not only women and their human rights but also the development of sustainable economies and the protection of the natural environment.
Unprecedented: never having happened before, or never having happened so much. We are confronted by an unprecedented situation.
To overrun: to enter quickly and be present in (a place) in large numbers and unwanted. Ex. The enemies overran thecity last night.
Worse off: having less money or being in a more difficult situation. Ex. The rent increases will leave us worse off.
Sanitation: the systems for taking dirty water and other waste products away from buildings in order to protect people’s health. Ex. A lack of clean water and sanitation were the main problems.
Goods: things that are produced to be sold.
Widely: to a large degree; a lot; by a large number of people; in or to many places. Ex. Taking notes while listening to a lecture is an important strategy that students use widely for increasing attention and retaining content.
Flourished: to grow or develop well. Ex. The Etruscans had flourished from the seventh to the first century B.C.
Emancipation: the process of giving people social or political freedom and rights. Ex. Religious fundamentalisms have had a tremendous negative influence on the processes of women’semancipation.
Supply: the amount of something that is available to be used. We have a good and lasting supplyof fresh water.
To lead: to show someone where to go, usually by taking them to a place; to be in control of a group, country, or situation. Ex. Simplicity can lead to greatness and the concentration of one’s powers.
To drop: if a level or amount drops, it becomes less. Ex. Temperatures will drop tomorrow after another scorching day.
Spike: a sudden, rapid increase in something. Ex. Public Health officials in the region warned schools about a spike in flu viruses.
To overlook: to see something wrong or bad but decide to ignore it. Ex. I don’t want to overlook any opportunity.
To catch up: to do something that should have been done before. Ex. New Member States will have a unique possibility to catch up really fast and sometimes to avoid some of our previous mistakes.
From scratch: from a point at which nothing has been done yet. Ex. Actually, maybe we should start again from scratch.
Answer the following questions:
How many people were living on Earth in 1940?
When was the legend of overpopulation born?
What is the demographic transition?
When did the first stage of the demographic transition occur? What happened in this century?
What were the main features of the industrial revolution?
What were the main features of the second stage of the demographic transitions?
What about the third stage?
What is the average of children per family today?
How many years did it take developed countries to reduce fertility from more than 6 children to less than 3? What about Bangladesh?
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