Exercise 52 Work in pairs. Make a list of things we take for granted in our daily lives that would not be possible without electricity. Exchange your list with those of other members of the group.

Exercise 53 Speak on the harm done to the environment. Use the table.

People Factories We Some companies Vehicles

dirty poison cut down damage fill burn

woods the air the water the soil

with

radioactive wastes gasses and smoke chemicals fertilizers and pesticides special equipment

Exercise 54 Read and translate the sentences. Place the sentences in the order so that to compose a coherent text. Title it.

1. The materials you choose for a product can make it either useful and long-lasting or dangerous and short-lived. 2. Basically, materials can be divided into two major groups: synthetic and natural. 3. For example, a television has a picture tube made of glass, a cabinet made of plastic or wood, and wires made of copper. 4. When you are completing design briefs, you should consider using more than one kind of material in your solution. 5. Not only it is important to design products with people in mind, but it is also important to choose the right material for your product. 6. People have been researching new materials and new uses for old materials since the Stone Age. 7. Synthetic means that people made the materials, and they cannot be found in nature. 8. You know already that materials were so important that entire periods of history, such as the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, were named after them. 9. A bicycle has rubber tires, steel frames, and a plastic seat. 10. Many kinds of plastics are examples of synthetics. 11. Natural materials, such as copper and wood, can be found in nature. 12. Products are often combinations of many kinds of materials.

Exercise 55 Read two newspaper articles. a) Tell your groupmates about your eating habits.

In recent years I have become more thoughtful about my food. Now I avoid certain things – namely, chicken and beef from the average supermarket.

I belong to a new demographic called ethical eaters*. We join the Slow Food movement and buy books like Eating with Conscience, Portrait of a Burger as a Young Calf, and – one of this year’s most talked about books – Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s* Dilemma. We want our food to have been happy in death. At the same time, we want it so fresh and unprocessed that it still tastes, and nourishes us, like it is full of life.

Boston Magazine, July 1, 2006

*ethical eater n A person who only or mostly eats food that meets certain ethical guidelines, particularly organically grown food and humanely raised meat, poultry, and fish.

*omnivore n An animal or a person that eats all types of food.

b) Is it possible to launch a similar campaign in your native city? Ground your opinion.

Two dozen area communities could be saving money under a program promoted by the state Department of Environmental Protection as a way to reduce the amount of trash.

Known as ‘pay as you throw*,’ the program has been around for more than a decade. Residents buy special garbage bags or stickers for their trash barrels so that the more they toss, the more they pay. Conversely, the more they recycle, the more they save.

State officials said communities that institute the program find as much as a 35 percent reduction in the amount of trash they ship out. The Boston Globe, February 22, 2007

*pay as you throw adj A fee based on how much garbage a household or business generates; a program that implements such a fee.