Electronic Waste

Click on this link to find the reading text. Then try to do some of the exercises below.Compiled and designed by Anne Cairns, courtesy of Inorganic Market.

E-Waste Vocabulary exercises

Click on this link to view or print the worksheets.

TREES

Match the trees with their parts:

OAK TREE - ACORN
PINE - CONE
MAPLE - KEY
HAZEL - CATKINS
CHESTNUT - SPINES
LOCUST - PODS
BASSWOOD - LEAFY BRACT

BIODIVERSITY

Fill in words that fit in the text:

It is essential that we do all we can to help protect ____________. Biodiversity is responsible for the ____________ of the air we breathe, and the water we ____________. We rely on biodiversity to provide us with ____________, both animal and vegetable, as many of the plants we eat require animals to ____________ them. We also have biodiversity to thank for fertile ____________ to plant our crops in, the regulation of ____________ on earth, and also as the source of many of our ____________ for healing. In short, biodiversity provides us with everything we need to ____________.

 

 

Solutions: biodiversity, purification, drink, food, pollinate,
soils,
climate,
medicines,
live.

SPRING WORDS

These word clouds with spring vocabulary will be handy and fun for your literacy students. You can create your own on wordle.net.
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Not Far from the Tree

Not Far From The Tree is an eco-group based in Toronto. They pick up fruits from neighbours' orchards that people don't care about and give them to those who cannot afford to buy them. Their volunteers picked up 3,690 kg of fruit in 2009.

1. Order the following lines into a passage:

or brushed past raspberry bushes on an evening stroll.

You’ve more than likely noticed

which is often viewed by homeowners as a nuisance.

everywhere in Toronto.

spoiled crabapples and rotted plums on sidewalks,

The city is teeming with fruit trees,

Fruit trees grow

but we rarely think of the potential of the fruit,

2. We'd Tap That
"We want to educate people about the urban forest.We don't want to collect a quantity of syrup, but to inspire connections between city dwellers and the trees around them. We will tap only Norway maples because they are abundant.
We will tap only the healthiest trees. Volunteers will drill one or two holes into each tree and insert spiles for the sap to be extracted.The spiles will be removed before spring arrives and the wounds will be sealed."

Comprehension questions:
1. Who is saying this?
2. What is their intention?
3. How will they do that?
4. How do they care about the trees?
5. How will they "inspire connections between city dwellers and the trees around them"?
6. Do you think that trees in the city should or shouldn't be wounded?

3. The following fruits have been gathered by Not Far From The Tree:
sweet and sour cherries, serviceberries, mulberries, apricots, plums, crabapples, pears, black wallnuts and ginko nuts. Find out about those you are not familiar with.

Conserving Nature for Future Generations

John Riley, NCC's chief science officer

When John Riley was a child,
there was a slogan: "Leave no child inside". He spent a lot of time exploring local wild places. It was popular among friends to know stuff about animals and trees. In his high school years, he hitchhiked to British Columbia and back twice, just for sport. Together with his siblings he took care of a big family garden that supplied food for the family.

Now John is the chief science officer at Nature Conservancy Canada. He takes care of spaces and species for future generations.

He says that Canada is multicultural and it is also multi-ecological. The best part of his job is that he can enjoy this diversity across Canada.

"It is urgent to get the job done, before it is too late – to be able to give such an assurance of successful conservation to our supporters and to the youth who are looking over our shoulders", says John.
"Let's make this a year that counts! For nature, for now, for ever." 

 
 

TASKS

1. Explain the meaning of the following words:

A

slogan

wild

popular

stuff

hitchhike

siblings

youth

 

B

species

multicultural

multi-ecological

diversity

urgent

assurance

conservation

looking over one's shoulder

 

2. Comprehension questions:

1. Who is John Riley?
   

1. What is NCC?
   
2. Why is Canada multi-ecological?
   
3. Why are youth looking over their shoulders?
   

   
    

   
    

3. Discussion questions

1. Which wild places in Canada do you know?
   
2. Check the NCC website and find what places and species they have put on their list.
   
3. Why is nature conservancy important for future generations?
   
4. How would you rank the importance of: individuals, conservancy groups and organizations and government in the role of nature conservation? Explain your point.
   

 

4. GRAMMAR

Use the past form of the verbs in brackets:

Beryl Ivey ______ (be) a passionate advocate for conservation, especially in her native South-western Ontario.

She deeply _______ (love) nature. She _______ (create) conservation areas along the Niagara Escarpment.

She _______ ( live) much of her life in London, Ontario. Her mother _________ (grow up) in England's Lake District and _______ (tell) Beryl stories about it. Mrs. Ivey _________ (pass) this passion down to her own four children.

Their work with the Ivey Foundation supports many causes, including the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

Mrs. Ivey ____________ (pass away) on Christmas Day 2007. In her will, she _______ (make) a $1-million

bequest to NCC.

 

 

1. Order the words in this message:
   

   
    

environment     all     role     to     in     a     our

we         have     preserving        play

 

 

 

1. Supply these synonyms for the words underlined in the text:
   

 

cottage, generosity, researchers, endangered, shore, deciduous, properties, habitat, flora, honour, expeditions, Woods, fauna

Conserving nature for a lifetime and beyond ,

The Bickford Oak Forest (1) is one of the NCC pieces of land (2) that's benefited from Mrs. Ivey's passion and unselfishness (3) and is named in her family's respect (4): the Ivey Research Station at Middle Point Woods on the eastern coast (5) of Pelee Island. This mature, 69-acre (28- hectare) leaf shedding (6) forest growing on sand dunes provides essential home (7) for both rare plants (8)- including the nationally threatened Common Hoptree and Wild Hyacinth – and animals (9) - such as the endangered Smallmouth Salamander. It's also the location of a recently renovated country house,(10)

that can accommodate up to eight researchers on multi-day research and restoration trips (11).

Thanks to the financial contributions of Beryl and Richard Ivey, it will be home base for scientists (12)
to study and protect the ecologically diverse and threatened (13) area for many, many years to come.

GREEN PRODUCERS

Avalon Orchards
Avalon Orchards, located in Innisfil, Ontario, was established in 1988 with the objective of producing organically grown apples.
Apple growing in Ontario is challenged by diseases, such as apple scab and pests like codling moth.
Varieties that demonstrated high resistance to those were selected to be grown organically.
Approximately 10,000 trees, including Nova Scotia MacINtosh,Nova Scotia Spy, Redfree, Freedom, Prima and Liberty are grown in the orchard..
These varieties have been developed using traditional techniques of cross breeding, and not through genetic modification.
Kaolin clay is used for pest control.
This clay is diluted with water and sprayed on the fruit.
It is the same clay that is used in toothpaste.
By picking time it is normally washed off by the rain.

TASK: Turn the passive forms in each sentence into active.



Circle Sun Farm

In 1999 Circle Sun Farm was revitalized as an organic dairy farm. Now they raise organic beef for ground beef. In addition, they mix their free-range pastured pork with the beef and their own herbs and garlic to make fine organic sausages. They also raise rare breeds and a variety of poultry, all without using any pesticides, chemical fertilizers, growth hormones or antibiotics.
They care about the land and betterment of the surrounding community.

TASKS:
1. Give your opinion:
a. What is the difference between free-range farm animals and enclosed stock?
b. How does the use of chemicals affect human health?
c. How is the organic farming better for the land and the community?
d. Do you see organic farming thrive in the future?

2. Explain the meaning of these words: revitalize, dairy farm, rare breeds, poultry, pesticides, fertilizers, growth hormones, antibiotics, betterment, community.

A Call to Action

This is an abridged excerpt from an article by Teressa Kerry in "Healthy Choices Lives" by the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. Teresa Kerry is a co-author of "This Moment on Earth"

Just as we human beings must increasingly recognize that we are all internalized into the total environment, we need to understand, too, that the environment itself is internalized, for good and for bad, in us as humans.
What we as individuals do matters, and it matters a lot. I'm a strong believer in the importance of practical actions we each can take. And I believe, too, that we must not allow the pursuit of perfection to impede our commitment to progress.
We must appreciate that our actions may forever be based on incomplete knowledge of all there is to know about the potential effects of the thousands of potential chemical contaminants, and the thousands of various chemical combinations to which our bodies are unwilling hosts. Gertrude Stein cautioned us that "Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense." That's even truer today, and it's critical that we retain our common sense and good judgement.

Having said that, we must also appreciate that the so-called "command-and-control" era has peaked, perhaps even run its course. We simply no longer have the time or resources to expend on programs that in the end might do more than fatten lawyers' wallets than they do to reduce our own toxic exposures and risks.

In that context, our next era of sound environmentalism must be based, like other good public policy efforts, on increased collaboration, among a growing cadre of informed and enlightened interests. It clearly must be based also on prevention and not just after-the-exposure remedial efforts to control potentially harmful exposures.

A recent Business Week cover story tells us that we are "closer than you think" to a world in which "socially responsible and eco-friendly practices actually boost a company's bottom line." Those same practices will boost an entire society's bottom line, not only from a financial, but also from an overall perspective. In this sense, we as a society should move not from the "cradle-to-grave" philosophy that became popular in 1990's, but rather to a "cradle-to-cradle" approach that can lead to an infinite product life cycle of ongoing use and usefulness.

We must realize not only that we as citizens have a "right to know", but also that our governmental leaders have a profound responsibility to tell us more about the chemicals that pervade our society. Here, we must be careful consumers, with a healthy skepticism of what both government and manufacturers tell us. With our right to know comes our responsibility to understand.

Collaboration, again, is the key. There is much we can do together. But we dare not wait or procrastinate before also taking constructive individual actions to manage our own, and our families' adverse chemical exposures.

TASKS:
1. Write the three main ideas of this article
2. Why does the author believe in an individual action? Is it enough?
3. Explain the expressions: internalize, practical action, pursuit to perfection, commitment to progress, potential effects, unwilling hosts, common sense, good judgement, command-and-control, run its course, fatten lawyers' wallets, sound environmentalism, public policy, increased collaboration, enlightened interests, remedial efforts, socially responsible practices, eco-friendly practices, bottom line, cradle-to-grave, cradle-to-cradle, right to know, healthy skepticism,

Meat Production and Climate Change

"Livestock production accounts for 30% of the entire land surface of the planet - equaling 33% of all arable land, and an even larger area devoted to grazing!"
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Toronto Vegetarian Association wants meat consumption to become a higher priority environmental issue given its proven link to climate change. A growing body of research supports the grave environmental costs of meat production:
Raising livestock for food emits more greenhouse gases than all of the world's cars and trucks.
The UN FAO calls the meat industry "one of the most significant contributors to the world's environmental problems", including acid rain, deforestation and water and land pollution.
Going vegetarian would eliminate 1.5 tonnes of CO2 equivalent gas emissions per person, per year - an even bigger difference than switching from a SUV to a hybrid.

EXERCISES:

1. What do the following eat: 1. carnivores, 2. omnivores,3. fructivores, 4. localvores, 5. pescavores, 6. vegetarians, 7. vegans,8. flexitarians, 9. freegans, 10. raw foodists, 11. slow foodists?
   
   ANSWERS:1. meat, 2. all, 3. fruit, 4. local food, 5. fish, 6. no meat or fish, 7. no animal products (like milk or eggs), 8. meat only occasionaly, 9. food they get for free, 10. uncooked food, 11. food that is cooked slowly (as opposed to fast food).
   
   Who are they: gourmands, epicures, connoisseurs, gluttons,orthorexics, gastronomes, chefs? Complete the list with more names for people who eat different foods in different ways. Use a thesaurus.
2. Debate pro/con vegetarianism.
3. Share vegetarian recipes.
4. Count nutritional value of a regular meat-potato lunch as compared to a balanced vegetarian course.
5. Check http://www.amazon.ca/ for vegan/vegetarian cookbooks.
6. Check lifestyle magazines for trends in fine dining.