English Listening Practice - Level B1 EP20 - The Natural World and Environment – YouTube Dictation Transcript & Vocabulary

1.[Music] [Music] hello I'm ranne and Welcome to our third podcast in the series on Recycling and with me are Sam and Maya to answer today's question can we live without plastic Maya h i I don't think we can live without it plastic can be really useful sometimes but we can definitely use less and we all need to get better at reusing plastic like the other day I found a pair of my old boots in the garden my mom was reusing them to grow flowers in I think they actually look quite cool and I think we can buy things that we can reuse instead of using once like reusable pens and pencils and yeah I decided never to buy bottled water again so I've got a really cool drinks bottle and I take it everywhere and I just reuse it we can all make changes like that so try to reuse plastic maybe for something different and if you can't do that then recycle it I'm sorry I really don't agree we have to stop using plastic full stop and I think there are two reasons one only about 9% of plastic is ever recycled and two getting oil to make plastic really damages the planet so if we stop making new plastic we stop damaging the planet there are lots of materials like wood for toothbrushes paper or metal for cups which are easier to recycle and we don't have to damage the planet to use them you know lots of our clothes originally come from plastic too most supermarkets don't give plastic bags anymore so why are we still buying plastic clothing I believe we have to make big changes my whole family now only buys clothes made from natural materials look this jumper is really soft and here's another really easy one how about changing from plastic chewing gum to Natural gum better for your stomach and for the [Music] planet another thing that's worth seeing this week is pollution pods an art exhibition by Michael Pinsky with pollution pods you go on a journey through through five cities in different parts of the world Pinsky presents each City in a separate dome which looks like a big tent with a round roof when you walk into the Dome you can feel the temperature and also smell the air of this city some are hot and wet others are cold and dry of course it was impossible to bring the real air from these places so Pinsky worked with a group of chemists and perfume makers and together they created the smell of the Cities the first dome has the cleanest air it's torta an island in the north of Norway it's the only place where it's safe to breathe all other domes let you smell the air in big cities first there's London when you walk inside you notice it's foggy and gray it also smells horrible like car pollution then you move to New Delhi India which is one of the most polluted cities in the world the air smells like burnt plastic it's difficult to stay there and breathe for a long time the next Dome takes you to Beijing China in November the air has the smell of wood and coal which people burn to heat their homes there's also o a smell of smoke from factories the last Dome is sa Paulo Brazil there's the smell of car pollution too inside the Dome my eyes immediately get red and I almost start to cry it's because there's a lot of ozone in the air which hurts your eyes and your throat we all hear how bad the air pollution is but this exhibition lets you see it or smell it for yourself you can feel what it's like to live in the places where the air is so polluted that it can make you sick New Delhi or Beijing are just examples in fact more than 92% of people live in places where air isn't safe for them at the end of the exhibition you can see a list of six simple things you can do for the environment don't buy so many clothes eat less meat use electric cars buy local food recycle and care for the planet when we do some of them the air can get [Music] better hi Grandpa you won't believe what happened on Monday our school Eco Club talked to the town authorities about the seed bombing project we wanted to do they loved our idea that that's wonderful but what seed bombing it's a project which helps to plant new trees and flowers in the places where not many of them grow what a great idea but how exactly does it work first you have to make seed bombs these are little balls made of different plant seeds and some Earth then you throw these balls and hope to see new plants soon our school club wanted to use seed bombs to plant flowers near the old factories on Market Street this place looks quite ugly so we met with the town authorities and they said we could do it great news well yeah we were very excited to make these seed bombs on Wednesday we were ready we had a 100 seed bombs we went on Market Street but when we were throwing them the police came they thought we were throwing rocks at the windows oh no that's terrible were you in big trouble kind of we were really scared they took us to the police station I'm so sorry to hear hear that did you tell them about the meeting with the town authorities yes we were trying to explain but they didn't believe us oh what a disaster then we called our teacher and he brought the document that we got from the town authorities the police apologized and said we could go home the next day a local newspaper came to school and asked us about the seed bombs they wrote an article about us we also got a prize for helping the environment how fantastic have you got this article somewhere here I have to read it I'm so proud of [Music] you on today's program we're talking about unusual weather Our Guest is Professor Alice Barnes who writes about natural disasters including earthquakes hurricanes heat waves and more today Alice is talking about hurricanes good morning Alice welcome to the program good morning thank you for having me Professor what is the worst experience of a hurricane that you can remember well my worst hurricane experience was also so my first experience it was more than 30 years ago when I was a child it was 1989 and I was in the Caribbean with my parents we were visiting my aunt how did you prepare my aunt knew exactly what to do we bought enough food and water for a few days then we put wood over the windows and brought outdoor objects inside huh what was it like before the storm well it was very strange I remember it was a beautiful day until around 5:00 in the afternoon then everything changed the wind blew strongly all night and all day and we were very very frightened what did you do while you were waiting for the storm to end we stayed inside listened to the radio played games and ate food that was the best bit all the food my aunt is a brilliant cook on the first night I was very tired but I couldn't sleep the wind was so noisy when did you leave the house we stayed inside for 2 days on the third day we went out to check that my aunt's friends were okay it was a terrible sight buildings had no roofs trees and plants lay everywhere my aunt's friends were frightened like us but luckily they weren't hurt after that we stayed with my aunt for another week and helped her clear up before we went [Music] home wow Dan you're eating salad are you okay yeah look the first tomatoes from our school Eco food Club how fantastic no what a disaster what do you mean well we decided to start with the easy things you know potatoes carrots tomatoes but it was a very wet winter and nothing grew oh I'm sorry to hear that yeah and when the carrots fin started growing the rabbits ate half of them oh no that's terrible yeah and now in the summer I have to carry water from school every day but at least I'm fitter I suppose great news yeah but last month I failed two of my exams because I was so busy in the garden oh no I'm sure your parents aren't very happy about that poor you no but they are happy to see me eating more healthy food they also like the idea of local food so they're going to give us some gardening tools and containers to collect rain water next year that sounds [Music] amazing hello and welcome to science alive on the 21st of December the shortest day of the year the sun came up at just after 7:00 and it'll go down before 4: the sun's really important in our lives but we don't really know very much about it so today we've got Dr Andrea Thornton from London University in the studio to take some of your questions good morning Dr Thornton good morning could you tell us something about the sun well it is 4.6 billion years old and it's quite a small star some stars are a thousand times bigger the diameter of the Sun is 1.4 million kilm H where is it in the universe we're in a galaxy called the Milky Way 4.2 light years from our nearest neighbor that's a long way it would take hundreds of years to get there in a spaceship and how does the sun actually produce energy well a process of fusion takes takes place that's when two hydrogen atoms join together which creates a lot of heat the temperature on the surface of the Sun is 6,000 de centigrade and 14 million de at the center so how does the Sun affect us on Earth well we get radiation from the Sun and that creates life through a process called photosynthesis with the sun's energy plants use carbon dioxide to grow and they produce oxygen that we breathe what about our health is the sun good for us or bad for us well 85% of skin cancer is caused by the Sun but if you take care of your skin if you put on sun cream the sun is good for you how it gives us vitamin D and that's good for our bones and our immune system you can take vitamin pills but the sun's much better and it makes you feel good too doesn't it yes when you don't get enough Sun you feel down some people even get depression because of too little son for example people working in offices all day without ever taking a break outside so we need to get outside take a walk take part in some sort of outdoor activity that's right one last question what about energy from the Sun how can we take advantage of it well the sun produces thousands of times more energy than we need green groups say we need to take action now on solar energy according to Green Piece at least 25% of our energy will be solar by the year 2050 that'll be great thank you very much Dr Thornton not at [Music] all hey Ruby have you seen all those new bike Lanes in the center yes I have but bike lanes are great don't you think so no I don't Tim there's less room for cars now well that's a good thing isn't it no it isn't bike lanes are like those horrible Road humps they slow everything down now there'll just be more traffic jams and more pollution I don't think that's a very good thing neither do I but bike lanes are good I mean I think people should cycle more don't you yes I think so too if they want to but people like their cars because they're nice and comfortable that's true but people need to get out of their cars and start walking and cycling how how can you get people to do that well a congestion charge would make people drive less and reduce traffic I'm not so sure well I think it would be good I don't it' be okay for rich people who can pay it but not for everybody else but they've got to do something the pollution is terrible in this city and it's really bad for People's Health don't you agree yes I do but cars are just more convenient than public transport and the buses aren't very good around around here are they no they aren't especially at night well with the money from a congestion charge they could improve the buses and with less traffic people will walk and cycle more they'll be healthier too not in this city with all the pollution I like cycling but I never cycle in the center because of the smog and it's dangerous too but if fewer people use their cars the pollution won't be so bad and it'll be safer it's not that bad bad anyway I use my bike all the time but you don't go into the center every day do you no but Ruby I give up you're so negative and pessimistic no I'm not there you are you disagree with everything I say no I don't well I think you [Music] just I'm on my way to Lane Cove where between 20 and 30 whales have come ashore and can't get back out to sea again when I get to Lane Cove I'm meeting Sam Collins from the marine life service I'm going to help Sam and a team of local people to try and save these whales okay I've just arrived and talked to Sam it's quite cold so I think I'll change into my wet suit before going down onto the beach to work with other people who've come here to help these whales so far about 50 people have turned up and more are coming if more people come we'll have a chance of succeeding so I'm in a team of four people and we're looking after just one poor whale Sam says it's female and what we've done is we've covered her with wet towels and we're pouring buckets of water over her to keep her cool we have to be careful where we put the towels if we cover her blow hole she won't be able to breathe Sam says our whale is in good condition and he thinks she'll survive the Tide's coming in soon I'm going to help dig up sand around the whale to make a hole when the water comes in it'll fill up the hole better get going yes success the tide came in our whale floated again there were about five of us we pushed and pushed and she fought back a bit then she took off what a great feeling she's swimming back out to sea I think she's going to be [Music] okay one I live in Zambia and we have fantastic river systems here I love rafting on the zambesi river it's one of the best white water runs in the world on my very first trip we had a real surprise we were coming down fast from a section of Rapids and we could see calm water ahead then I saw a big hippo near the river bank it's best to avoid hippos if you can we started paddling away quickly because it was coming towards us we were going around a small island in the middle of the river when suddenly two I began diving when I was about 12 I actually learned to dive on holiday in Mexico my parents went there to explore the underground lakes or Cotes my brother and I were sitting around on the beach getting bored so we took a diving course then we did our first dive in the easy codes while my parents were exploring the dangerous stuff it wasn't deep underground and the Sun was shining in through an opening in the roof of the cave it was really calm and beautiful I felt like staying there all day I was concentrating on doing everything right I didn't notice that I [Music] was now you may remember seeing the name bunder noon in the news headlines a while ago bunder noon is a small town near Sydney Australia it has its own supply of water from an underground water reserve some years ago the residents of the Town discovered that a water company had applied for permission to extract this water bottle it and sell it as drinking water we spoke to bundanoon resident Pauline tiller earlier this week about what happened next Pauline why didn't you want this water company to go ahead with their plans basically because we were drinking the water in our homes direct from our Taps we didn't want to buy bottled water especially when it was already our own Town's water supply and how did you get involved in the story well I was using an old newspaper to mop up a water leak one morning when something in the paper caught my attention I stopped and read this astonishing letter Hugh Kingston had written about banning bottled water Hugh Kingston is a local businessman in bundon is that right yes he had come up with this revolutionary idea he wanted the town to fight the water company and he also wanted us to ban bottled water completely as soon as I read his letter I knew that was the answer and what did you do next a few residents got together to investigate how we could go bottled waterf free at that time we didn't know we were Pioneers while we were looking for information we heard about another Australian town that had gone plastic bagree this really encouraged and inspired us then we found out that the carbon footprint of bottled water is 300 times greater than and tap water it became obvious that bottled water is a crazy idea so we had a town meeting to discuss the whole thing and the town decided to become bottled water free H and I believe journalists from a national newspaper arrived while you were holding the meeting yes a lot of national and international newspapers had heard about our story after they wrote about us we got a lot of support from environmental movements and in September 2009 we became the first bottled water-free town in Australia so you banned bottled water but now what do people visitors to the town for example do if they want to get a drink of water all the water in our town is free so you can get it from the tab and if you want to take some water with you our shops sell our own bundanoon reusable bottles [Music] good morning our guest on Earth matters today is Peter Jenkins of the rainforest Society good morning Peter and thank you for taking a break from your work to come and talk to us we'll be taking questions from listeners later on but first what exactly is a rainforest good morning Michelle thank you for having me to answer your question a rainforest is a forest which gets at least 200 cm of rain a year and how big are they well they cover 2% of the Earth's surface which is 6% of all the land the biggest rainforest is the Amazon in South America which produces 20% of the world's oxygen that's why rainforests are so important they take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and give us oxygen and they are home to lots of animals and plants that's right scientists have found about 250,000 species of plants in the world and 170,000 of these are from rainforests 50% of all species live in rainforests I can give you an example in Europe there are 321 species of butterfly in one National Park in Peru there are 1,300 species of butterfly amazing it is they are amazing places but there are problems I know you have taken action to save the rainforests why are they so important for a number of reasons deforestation leads to the extinction of species scientists think that about 137 species disappear every day the second problem is the effect on climate change because of the extra carbon dioxide third thirdly is the water cycle effect water goes from the ground into the trees and then into the atmosphere when the forest disappear this process stops and the rain stops that's when desertification starts and the land is no use for anything finally the rainforests are home to local people who we can learn from what kinds of things people living in rainforest know a lot about the plants there they can help us to find plants that we can use do you know that 25% of the medicines we use are from rainforest ingredients really yes and although we eat about 200 different kinds of fruit from rain forests people living there eat about 2,000 different kinds so why are they disappearing why don't governments take more care of them again there are a number of reasons the wood from the trees is worth a lot of money a lot of land is used for farming although it isn't good land and after a few years is nothing will grow there anymore so the farmers have to destroy more forest in countries like India people need more land to live on because the country is so crowded thank you very much we're now going to start taking questions the number [Music] is and now at 5 8 here on Breakfast Television it's time for our weather report from Samantha site good morning Sam hello Charlie and good morning to all of you watching as usual everything depends on where you live this morning some of you will be luckier than others we've got everything rain heavy snowfall freezing conditions But Sunshine too right so let's start with the southwest of the country as you can see from the chart it started quite cold about 3° Centigrade but it'll warm up as the day goes on reaching about 8° by the afternoon it's going to be cloudy with sunny periods I think but it's going to be a cold night though down below freezing about minus one I should think so be warned in the Southeast things are much the same though not quite as warm as in the southwest but I don't expect temperatures to fall below freezing tonight that's because of a warmer Breeze coming in from the channel in the middle of the country things are a bit more confused right now it's about 5° Centigrade cloudy and with some light rain but that situation is going to change as the day goes on and by the end of the day it will probably be raining quite heavily and the rain will continue through the night only easing up tomorrow morning but don't expect much dry weather in the next few days things aren't quite so bad in Wales in the west here the rain will gradually die away in the late afternoon so people can expect quite a dry night though tomorrow looks like being a day of scattered showers up the east coast of the country in the north and further north into Scotland it's pretty cold already as anyone there knows it's about -2° Centigrade with heavy Cloud but that should go up to about 1° during the morning but the Outlook doesn't look good expect some snow by midday starting quite light but gradually increasing so that by the evening it will be heavy with blizzard-like conditions on the roads so do be careful in fact the police have just issued advice to motorists not to travel at all unless their journey is absolutely necessary temperatures tonight will drop to about- 6° and what of tomorrow as I said in the middle of the country it's going to be wet and cloudy scattered showers with the occasional burst of heavier rainfall in the north and east people should settle in for a cold spell with more snowfall over the next few days not quite so bad in the South and West though here there will be some sunshine when it isn't raining that is and that's the end of this morning's forecast Charlie thanks Sam by the way you won't be worried about the weather for the next few days will you no Charlie I won't I'm off on holiday to the sunny Caribbean this afternoon for 10 days well have a nice time Sam we'll miss you and now back to our main news story this morning the Prime Minister has announced that he will be resigning