IELTS Preparation Series 1, Episode 6: Greenhouse Gases
(Bấm vào đây để xem/nghe bài kế tiếp)
Xem lời thoại bên dưới:
0:14
Hello. I'm Margot Politis. Welcome to Study English, IELTS preparation.
0:20
Today we're going to talk about the environment. Global warming is caused by the presence of
0:26
greenhouses gases in the atmosphere. One of the worst greenhouses gases is carbon dioxide.
0:32
We're going to look at the language of cause and effect while we find out why these greenhouses
0:38
gases are a problem.
0:40
The main problem is our use of fossil fuels. So what we've done is put the whole natural
0:46
system out of balance by digging up coal and oil that took about 200 million years to accumulate
0:50
and we're releasing it all in about 100 years. So it's put the whole system out of balance
0:57
at the moment, which has resulted in higher levels of these gases in the atmosphere.
1:03
That was Dr Roger Francey talking about the natural system. He says that the natural system
1:09
is out of balance.
1:12
He also talked about the causes and effects of this.
1:15
Listen for the main cause of the natural system being out of balance.
1:20
The main problem is our use of fossil fuels.
1:25
He says: The main problem is our use of fossil fuels.
1:30
So if we look at a table of cause and effect, we can say that the use of fossil fuels is
1:37
a cause, and the natural system out of balance is an effect.
1:43
Listen again.
1:44
The main problem is our use of fossil fuels. So what we've done is put the whole natural
1:51
system out of balance by digging up coal and oil that took about 200 million years to accumulate
2:01
and we're releasing it all in about 100 years.
2:01
So the natural system has been put out of balance by people digging up and burning coal
2:07
and oil. This releases gases into the atmosphere. Coal and oil are fossil fuels.
2:13
So if we go back to the table of cause and effect, we can say that digging up and burning
2:20
coal and oil is another cause.
2:23
See if you can hear another effect.
2:26
The main problem is our use of fossil fuels. So what we've done is put the whole natural
2:33
system out of balance by digging up coal and oil that took about 200 million years to accumulate
2:42
and we're releasing it all in about 100 years. So it's put the whole system out of balance
2:43
at the moment, which has resulted in higher levels of these gases in the atmosphere.
2:49
It's put the whole system out of balance, which has resulted in higher levels of gases
2:55
in the atmosphere.
2:57
So here, the natural system out of balance is now a cause.
3:02
It has resulted in, or caused, higher levels of gases in the atmosphere.
3:07
This is an effect.
3:12
To express these relationships, there are many different word choices.
3:16
We can use verbs like causes, leads to, results in.
3:23
So we can express the relationship like this:
3:26
A causes B A leads to B
3:30
A results in B
3:32
Listen to an example here:
3:35
The main problem is our use of fossil fuels. So it's put the whole system out of balance
3:36
at the moment, which has resulted in higher levels of these gases in the atmosphere.
3:41
Our use of fossil fuels has resulted in higher levels of gases.
3:46
But we can also express the cause/effect relationship the other way round:
3:53
Higher levels of gases are the result of our use of fossil fuels.
3:58
Notice that we use a noun phrase here. This is very common.
4:03
We can use nouns like the result, the effect, the consequence.
4:09
If we look at these effect relationships, we can say:
4:13
B is the effect of A B is the result of A
4:17
B is the consequence of A
4:20
Remember that it's always important to have a variety in your language. Make sure you
4:25
use both nouns and verbs to express causes, and effects. This will make you written work
4:31
and your speech sound more interesting.
4:33
OK, so Dr Francey and his team have designed a new way of measuring one of the worst greenhouse
4:44
gases in the earth's atmosphere: carbon dioxide.
4:47
Listen for what they're trying to find out.
4:51
We need to understand what happens in the tropics - that's where the biggest forests
4:55
are and that's where some of the biggest changes are occurring in terms of human modification
5:02
of those forests through conversion to agriculture and regular burning of these forests.
5:10
Our interest is not so much in that diurnal or daily variation. We're interested in what's
5:16
happening on time scales of days or months or years.
5:19
They are interested in what's happening over days, months or years.
5:24
Their interest is not so much in diurnal or daily variation.
5:30
The conjunction 'or' here works to connect alternative meanings.
5:35
In this sense, 'or' means that is, I mean.
5:42
We're interested in diurnal, that is daily, variation.
5:48
We're interested in diurnal, I mean daily, variation.
5:54
The second word defines the first. It tells the reader or listener what the more unfamiliar,
6:01
technical word means.
6:02
Listen again for what diurnal means.
6:07
Our interest is not so much in that diurnal or daily variation.
6:12
He says diurnal or daily.
6:16
Diurnal means daily.
6:17
See if you can work out the meaning of CO2 here.
6:23
One of the main causes of global warming is CO2, or carbon dioxide.
6:29
CO2 or carbon dioxide
6:33
CO2 is carbon dioxide
6:38
When you're looking at environmental issues, like global warming and greenhouses gases,
6:42
it's often necessary to be familiar these kinds of chemical terms.
6:47
You should try to learn the more common ones, like CO2.
6:51
You might want to keep a copy of the periodic table in your notebook. That's the list of
6:57
all chemical elements and their abbreviations.
7:01
Here are some of them:
7:03
hydrogen is H but helium is He
7:07
Notice that with abbreviations of elements, the first letter is always a capital, and
7:15
the others are always small.
7:18
See if you can guess these ones:
7:20
oxygen that's O
7:24
and carbon is C. But they're not always that easy:
7:29
lead is Pb
7:33
and sodium is Na
7:35
OK, now let's listen to Dr Francey talk about the new CO2 measuring device.
7:42
Then we'll look at the names of countries and nationalities.
7:46
There's been interest from Korea, Japan, France and Malaysia, where the analyser could be
7:51
installed on a 100metre tower on the island of Borneo.
7:55
She says there's been interest in their device from Korea, Japan, France and Malaysia.
8:03
It's important to learn and recognise the English names of the major countries of the
8:07
world, their nationalities, and how to spell and pronounce these.
8:12
It's a good vocabulary exercise to make lists of these families of words.
8:18
To help you remember them, try grouping countries according to how the nationalities are formed.
8:24
Notice that they're all spelt with capital letters.
8:28
We have the -an group:
8:31
Australia, Australian
8:35
Korea, Korean
8:37
Malaysia, Malaysian
8:40
Fiji, Fijian
8:42
We have the -ese group:
8:46
Japan, Japanese
8:48
China, Chinese
8:51
Vietnam, Vietnamese
8:54
Then there's the -i group:
8:58
Bangladesh, Bangladeshi
9:01
Kuwait, Kuwaiti
9:04
And some nationalities are formed in an irregular way:
9:07
France, French
9:10
New Zealand, New Zealander
9:13
Philippines, Filipino
9:15
And watch the change in spelling with that one!
9:17
Why don't you start your own list of English names for countries and their people. Some
9:23
countries also take separate adjectives that you can learn along with them.
9:28
And that's all for Study English today.
9:30
I'll see you next time. Bye bye.
