Our Changing Planet
Lesson 3.1 opens Unit 3 with environment vocabulary, the passive voice and a Part 1 on the natural world.
- Use 10 environment collocations
- Form the passive voice for impersonal description
- Answer Part 1 questions about nature and climate
Get Ready
- What's the weather like where you live?
- Has the climate changed in your lifetime?
Vocabulary · Environment & climate
Pathway focus · Academic environment lexis
Use these in Academic Task 2 essays on environment topics.
Grammar · The passive voice
- Factories release greenhouse gases.
- Researchers monitor sea levels.
- Greenhouse gases are released by factories.
- Sea levels are monitored continuously.
When the action matters more than the doer (typical in academic and report writing).
Listening Skills — A Lecture on Glacial Retreat
You will hear part of a university lecture about glaciers and climate change. The lecturer, from New Zealand, gives figures and dates, so listen carefully for numbers.
- Predict that answers will include dates, percentages and place names.
- Note that spelling of proper nouns (e.g. glacier names) may be given directly.
- Listen for signpost phrases such as 'the key point is' or 'to give you an example'.
- Watch for self-corrections — the speaker may restate a figure.
Listen first — the transcript stays hidden so this works like the real exam.
Listening audio
Tap play to generate and listen.
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.
- Since 1980, the Franz Josef Glacier has retreated by ____ kilometres.
- Mountain glaciers have lost about ____ billion tonnes of ice since 1961.
- The annual measurement of ice gained versus lost is called the ____.
- The Zermatt glacier has lost about ____ percent of its volume since 1900.
- Scientists combine satellite imagery with ____ measurements.
- Glacial meltwater supplies drinking water and ____ to many people.
- Students must prepare a case study on the ____ for next week's seminar.
- The lecturer says the retreat accelerated sharply after the year ____.
Answer key
Speaking · Part 1
- Do you spend much time outdoors?
- Is recycling common where you live?
- Do you think your country does enough about pollution?
Exam Strategy
- Exam Tip
Use passive in formal writing, active in speaking.
Independent Practice
Rewrite 5 news headlines in the passive voice.
Key Takeaways
- Passive = focus on the action, not the actor.
- Band 7 upgrades — vocabularyTurn safe Band 6 wording into precise Band 7 wording.
- Sentence & summary completionWord-limit discipline: NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS.
- Trend language workoutDescribe movement precisely — verbs, adverbs and noun phrases.
Optional — this doesn't affect your lesson or course progress.