SESSION 12: EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION AND FINAL TASK
EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION:
HERE ARE SOME QUESTIONS AND STATEMENTS WHICH YOU CAN THINK ABOUT AND TRY ASKING YOURSELF BEFORE YOU COME TO OUR DISCUSSION ON WEDNESDAY:
a) What do you know about other endangered species in the world apart from Gorillas?
b) Why do you think there is a black market with baby gorillas? Who would want to have a baby gorilla? For what reason?
c) What consequences would there be with gorilla extinction? How would this affect the natural balance?
d) Why, if gorillas are protected and live in protected areas is there still a decline of these animals?
e) Why does the Director of Virunga National Park say that they are powerless to control the international trade of baby gorillas? Whose responsibility do you think it is?
f) Some people say that we already have enough problems protecting children and the human being to dedicate time, money and energy to protecting animals as well. Do you agree with this? Why? Why not?
g) Do you think the international comunity should take action and help Congo Government in order to give more resources to the wildlife service in that country?
h) What other apes are in danger apart from Gorillas?
i) What does the writer propose at the end of this text? What does he say about international trade and what would be done in the countries where there is a demand for baby gorillas? Do you agree?
Here is the video of the undercover Operation to Save a Baby Gorilla from a wildlife trafficker mentioned in the text:
PREPARING A DISCUSSION IS FUNDAMENTAL:
THIS MUST BE DONE IN TWO DIRECTIONS:
FIRST, YOU NEED TO LEARN NEW VOCABULARY AND EXPRESSIONS THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO USE FOR THE DISCUSSION.
SECONDLY, YOU HAVE TO PREPARE THE TOPIC BY LOOKING UP INFORMATION IN THE INTERNET, BOOKS, ENCYCLOPAEDIAS.
THIS WAY YOU WILL FEEL MUCH MORE CONFIDENT AND AT THE SAME TIME YOU WILL HAVE MUCH MORE TO TALK ABOUT.
FINAL TASK:
HERE IS ONE FINAL TASK THAT YOU MAY DO IN ORDER TO COVER THE FOUR SKILLS YOU SHOULD FOCUS ON WHEN LEARNING A LANGUAGE: LISTENING, READING, SPEAKING AND WRITING.
Write a composition and leave it in the blog as a comment to Session 12, I will edit it in the blog so that everybody can learn from other people´s opinions.
- We are destroying our home, the world, by destroying nature and the rest of species. Express your opinion.
The world has suffered several changes since it was created in the beginning of the days, especially natural changes, and also lots of species has disappeared and other ones has converted in new ones, according to Darwin and his studies about natural selection. But what is happened currently is really serious, because only human beings are changing the natural world’s work.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, human beings have been able to develop their brain in order to use natural resources to help them in their daily life. For example, they have had the ability of hunting wild animals with the help of tools which were discovered by themselves, or they were capable of cultivating their own harvest so that they could live in the same place for a long period of time. Since then, human beings begin to transform natural places in other ones completely different, although they only did these activities, both to get food and feed their communities.
Nowadays, it is completely different. People cultivate large extension of land; neither feed themselves nor feed another people but to get money. Strange varieties of plants are created in laboratories which are planted afterwards, making them in several cases really dangerous to be consumed. Besides, people are getting poorer, so they are obliged to do illegal things to make a living, so it occurs especially in poor countries, such as, African ones, and an example of this is the topic we are treating this week, in which people steal babies gorillas to his families, which are killed in the majority of the cases without giving importance to this fact. Another important problem we are causing is global warm, which is causing little by little a climate change due to pollution, CO2 emissions and other dangerous gases we spread all over the atmosphere which cause greenhouse effect whose result is that the world is heating a lot. Thus ice is melting in the poles, so it is provoking that sea level is rising, so in the future lots of coastal villages and cities will disappear, making people move to inlands.
To sum up, our life style is being completely aggressive to nature. From valleys, to mountains, from warm seas to cold ones, from civilization to jungle, from rivers to desserts, etc, all of them are being seriously endangered. Wherever we stay, it soon or later will be damaged, so I hope we learn to respect our big house-call earth- because we do not have another one to move.
Miguel Ruano.
It is undeniable that human activities have led to the current rate of species extinction. The consequences are the loss of iconic species such as tigers, rhinos, whales etc... We shouldn’t forget that species and the ecosystems provide services that make human life possible and contribute enormously to our health and well-being as breathable air, clean water, food, fertile soils, climate regulation etc... However, the biggest problem in the world today is how to deal with people’s recklessness, which could be detrimental to our planet.
ReplyDeleteAs I am concerned, there are two sets of causes to remark as the culprits for the current mounting loss of species which undoubtedly are effect of human activity. In all probability and in order of importance those are: direct habitat destruction and global environmental problem.
It is important to point out the habitat degradation and destruction, hence ecosystem, in the sense of cleaning of lands, initially for agriculture, and following by urban buildings and roads in natural and unspoilt areas, although it is also caused by air and water pollution. In fact, the growth of the human population has intensified habitat alteration which has emerged as the main reason of species extinction.
In addition, global environment is clearly pretty grim; by far the most serious problem to tackle is climate change. Indeed, we are now looking at a possible maximum increase in global temperature of 10 or 15 degrees. That means that half of that is enough to wipe out mostly of all the crops of all the plants, of all the animals which the world can support, and that would include us. Hence, we need to reduce the amount of fossil fuel, so that means a drastic change in our own lifestyles: much less transport, much more cycling and more walking, and much less consumption of energy in the home and factories; but this is a very difficult matter people do not seem to be ready.
To summarise, it is essential for our own survival that we use all our strength, our best behaviour and discipline we can manage to resist extinction, because in the not-too distant future the planet runs the risk of the grave implications of what human-being unconsciousness will do.
An Indian proverb says: THE LAND IS NOT AN INHERITANCE OF OUR PARENTS BUT A LENDING TO OUR CHILDREN.