Ecology

Exercise1. What can you see in the pictures? Which pictures show the virgin nature? What is shown in the pictures?

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Exercise2. How green are you? Do the following quiz to find out how ‘green’ you are. Check the answers with your teacher afterwards. One point for every correct answer.

1) You are busy in your house tidying up going from room to room spending 5 to 10 minutes in each. Which is the best way to save energy? a) Switch the lights on and off every time you move from room to room b) Keep the lights on as you move about the house 2) You are hungry and want to bake a potato. Which method is ‘greener’? a) Put it in an electric oven for an hour b) Quickly zap it in the microwave 3) You are thirsty so you go to a café to buy a drink. What do you choose? a) A bottle of mineral water b) A cup of coffee in a polystyrene cup 4) You need a new shirt / blouse and there are two that you like in the shop. You look at the label and see that one is made of 100% pure natural cotton and the other is 50% polyester. You want to be as environmentally friendly as you can. Which one do you choose? a) The 100% cotton shirt b) The 50% polyester shirt 5) Do you leave the tap on when you brush your teeth? a) Yes b) No 6)  As well as putting their health and the health of those around them in danger, smokers also put the environment in danger. a) True b) False 7) Which is the ‘greenest’ way to wash your clothes? a) Machine wash in cold water b) Hand wash in hot water 8) Which form of transport is better for the environment? a) Driving by car b) Flying by plane 9) When you go to the supermarket how do you take your shopping home? a) In plastic carrier bags from the supermarket b) In your own bag or basket 10) If you have the choice, how do you prefer to buy a cold drink in a café? a) In a can b) In a glass bottle

How many did you get right?

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You have a lot of changes to make if you want to be greener.	Not bad! You know about how you can help the planet by you are quite green.	Well done! You have a very green head on your shoulders!

Reading comprehension:

The man who planted trees

About forty years ago, I was taking a long trip on foot over mountain heights quite unknown to tourists. All around was barren and colorless land. Nothing grew there but wild lavender. After five hours’ walking I had still not found water. All about me was the same dryness, the same coarse grasses. I thought I saw in the distance a small black silhouette. It was a shepherd. Thirty sheep were lying about him on the baking earth. I was given a drink and taken to his cottage on the plain.

I noticed that he carried for a stick an iron rod as thick as my thumb and about a meter and a half long. He began thrusting his iron rod into the earth, making a hole in which he planted an acorn; then he refilled the hole. He was planting oak trees. His planting was resumed after the midday meal. I suppose I must have been fairly insistent in my questioning, for he answered me. For three years he had been planting trees in this wilderness. One hundred thousand oak trees had been planted. His name was Elzeard Bouffier. He was 55. I told him that in thirty years his ten thousand oaks would be magnificent. He answered that if God granted him life, in another thirty years he would have planted so many more that these one thousand would be like a drop of water in the ocean.

After 5 years I returned there. Elzeard Bouffier was extremely well. The oaks were then ten years old and taller. It was an impressive spectacle. I was literally speechless, and as he did not talk, we spent the whole day walking in silence through his forest. It measured eleven kilometers in length and three kilometers at its greatest width. When you remembered that all this had come from the hands and the soul of this one man you can be aware our nature could be saved and a man is responsible for its rebirth.