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.

#II21Ieltsprepseries1