新编剑桥商务英语(高级)第三版8.1

Module 8

8.1 being responsible

V ocabulary environment problems

1 in which of the following areas are you environmentally conscious? What things do you do which are not so environmentally friendly? Give examples.

Action with impact on the friendly less friendly

environment

1 saving energy I use low-energy

light bulbs.

2 using public transport

3 limiting how much you fly

4 conserving water

5 recycling waste

6 purchasing green products

7 supporting local shops and

Businesses

2 which of these environment problems:

A are natural?

B are man-made?

C could be either?

Earthquakes oil spills at sea nuclear radiation leaks hurricanes landslides smog declining fish stocks drought extinction of different species

Flooding chemical explosions volcanic eruptions

3 which of these problems has your country experienced in recent years? How were they handled? What precautions have been taken against future occurrences? Reading

4 of these groups in society, who can do most to combat pollution nd climate change?

A individual consumers

B large companies

C governments

5 below is an extract from the little earth book suggesting a possible way to control man-made pollution. Read the text quickly. Which of these sentences do you think the author would agree with?

A Americans pollute more because they produce more of the world‟s wealth.

B the USA‟s pursuit of wealth is damaging the planet for everyone else.

C there are more important problems than damage to the environment.

D damage to the environment is the most important problem in the world tody.

E we can solve the problem if we all do something to help in our own lives.

F this problem requires concerted action from governments and international

organisations.

Trading pollution quotas

How can we eliminate pollution? The biggest threat the world has ever faced is the rising level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. We must reduce

emissions to a level that the world can sustain. There is no alternative. Thee

gases are n essential part of a balanced ecosystem; it is only in excess that they become dangerous. But to get them back to a safe level, emissions will have to be reduced by over 60%. Since financial markets are so powerful, they should be designed to reward countries for reducing emissions. A mechanism for doing this is quirt simple and obvious, and is only obscured by industrial countries

attempting to avoid paying a fair price for their resources. Here is how such a

market could operate.

▪On average everyone in the world is responsible for 4.21 tonnes of carbon emissions year.

▪If the atmosphere can only sustain limited quantity of carbon dioxide,

should one person be allowed to emit a lot more than another? Everyone should have an equal allowance, ie 4.21 tonnes at present, but reducing with time.

▪an Indian emits 0.81 tonnes on average and therefore has surplus of 3.4

tonnes available for sale.

▪an average American emits 19.53 tonnes. He therefore needs to buy 15.32

tonnes in order to maintain his lifestyle.

Multiplied by population this means that India has 3.2billion tonnes of CO2 for sale and the US needs to buy 4.1 billion tonnes. The US needs to buy the whole of India‟s surplus and more besides. Alternatively the US must reduce its

emissions. Trading on this basis means that money would flow from the rich

nations, which are causing the climate havoc, to poor nations that re suffering from it. The UN development programme commented, …such flows would be

neither aid nor charity. They would be the outcome of a free-market mechanism that penalises the richer nations.‟ Thus fair market system for tradable quota

would result in a fairer world. Each nation‟s allowance could then gradually be reduced on an equal percapita basis to a globally sustainable level.

6 underline the sentences in the text that support your answer to exercise 4 above.

7 which of the sentences in exercise 5 above do you agree with?

8 do you think such a trading system would work? Why? Why not?

9 how do you pronounce the following figures?

1 60%

2 4.21tonnes per year

3 3.2bn tonnes of CO2

Reading

1 read the conclusion to the passage” trading pollution quotas‟ blow. In most lines there is an extra word that is unnecessary or grammatically incorrect. But some lines are correct.

▪ I there is an extra word write the word in the margin.

▪ if there is no extra word in the line write CORRECT in the margin.

TRADING POLLUTION QUOTAS