IELTS Practice tasks 4

Practice tasks 4

The environment
In addition to the words and phrases which appear in the General Vocabulary section of this book, you may also find some useful words and phrases on pages 73 and 74.
You will find some sample answers on the following two pages, but try to do the tasks first.

SPEAKING
PART 1
Answer these questions. Try to speak for about 4 or 5 minutes in total.
• Are you interested in environmental issues?
• Have you ever taken part in an environmental event?
• Do you do anything to reduce your impact on the environment?
• If you could do one thing to help your environment, what would you do?

PART 2
Look at this task and spend one minute thinking about what you are going to say (you can make notes if you like). Then talk about the topic for between one and two minutes.
Describe something that is having a major and negative impact on the environment in your home town or country.
You should say:
what the problem is and what is causing it
where it is happening
what effect it is having on people and / or wildlife
and explain what you think could (or should) be done about it.

Part 3
Answer these questions. Try to speak for about 4 or 5 minutes in total.
• Do you think that governments around the world are doing enough to prevent environmental problems?
• What steps could big businesses and organisations take in order to be more environmentally friendly?
• Do you think that classes on environmental issues should be compulsory in schools?

WRITING
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Write about the following topic:
Governments alone should not be responsible for reducing global environmental damage. Everyone, from individuals to major industries, should play their part.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Write at least 250 words.
 

Practice tasks 4: Sample answers
PART 1

• Are you interested in environmental issues?
Most environmental issues interest me to a greater or lesser degree, but I’m particularly interested in wildlife conservation. The damage we’re doing to our environment is having a major negative impact on wildlife around the world, and a lot of endangered species are facing extinctionas a result. I’m particularly interested in the ‘keystone’species. That is, those species on which our ecosystems rely. Take the bee, for example. In addition to providing us with honey and wax, bees are important plant pollinators. In fact, one third of the food we eat wouldn’t be available if we didn’t have bees. However, modern farming practices are contributing to their decline in numbers. I think we really need to end this threat to them.

• Have you ever taken part in an environmental event?
Last year my college held an international environment awareness day, and I was on the committee that organised it. My job was to arrange for some specialists to come to the college and give a talk. One person I approached – actually a friend of mine who had worked on a turtle sanctuary in Sri Lanka – came and gave a really interesting talk on what local people were doing to save these marine animals. Another person, who worked at a local wildlife park, gave a brilliant presentation on the sea otter, an important keystone species. The event was a big success except for one thing. The students who organised the food and drink for the event used environmentally unfriendly non-recyclable polystyrene cups and plates. How ironic!

• Do you do anything to reduce your impact on the environment?
I suppose that like many other people I recycle whenever possible. There are recycling banks across my home town where you can take things like glass, tin foil, paper, plastics and other materials. The problem is that many people are unable or unwilling to do this, so they just put everything in the bin. Some countries like the United Kingdom actually have home collections where you can put out your recyclable materials with your other rubbish and it gets taken away. I think that’s a really good idea, and I would love to see it in my country.

• If you could do one thing to help your environment, what would you do?
Well, actually, there are a couple of things I would do. The first would be to start a home collection for recyclable materials similar to the one I’ve just described. People would have a special box or bin where they could put their recyclable materials, and these would be collected on their usual bin day. Another thing I would do would be to introduce a plastic bag charge in shops and supermarkets. Shops usually just give these free to their customers, so people take them and then throw them away. These end up in rivers and the sea, causing terrible harm to wildlife. I think there are already bag charges like this in places like the United Kingdom, and I would like to see something similar in my country.

PART 2
Describe something that is having a major and negative impact on the environment in your home town or country.
You should say:
what the problem is and what is causing it
where it is happening
what effect it is having on people and / or wildlife and explain what you think could (or should) be done about it.

Practice tasks 4: Sample answers
PART 3
• Do you think that governments around the world are doing enough to prevent environmental problems?
I think that depends on where you are. Some governments are doing a lot, others are doing very little or nothing at all. In my country, the government allowed industry to develop unregulated, and now we are all paying the price because of the appalling levels of pollution. However, all my government does is talk about what it should do, but doesn’t actually do anything. Other governments have taken far more positive action. One example that springs to mind is Singapore, where clean air laws and regulations, together with an excellent public transport system and protected green spaces, keep this small but crowded island comparatively clean and green. In fact, in some parts of the island, you would find it hard to believe you were in a city of over 5 million people.

• What steps could big businesses and organisations take in order to be more
environmentally friendly?
There are several things that businesses could do, and they don’t have to be expensive. For example, they could use products that reduce their reliance on natural resources. So instead of using oil or gas for heating, they could use solar power. And instead of using tap water, they could have rainwater tanks and use that water instead. They could also make better use of recycled products. That would include everything from of ice paper to of ice furniture. Additionally, if their employees have to travel a lot for conferences, they could perhaps consider ways in which this could be avoided. For example, instead of travelling to another country to meet their clients, they could hold a conference call instead. Little things like that would really help, I think.

• Do you think that classes on environmental issues should be compulsory in
schools?
I completely agree with this. I think it’s really important that children learn from an early age how important the environment is, how fragile it is, what sort of impact they have on it and how they could reduce that impact. I remember that when I was at school we had environment days where a whole day each term was devoted to learning about environmental issues. We had visiting speakers who gave talks and presentations, and we watched videos, did quizzes and played games, and we held class and group discussions and debates. Those days were great fun and really interesting, but most importantly they made us aware how important it was to be environmentally responsible.

WRITING
Our planet’s environmental system is under threat like it has never been before. Pollution is killing life in our rivers, seas and oceans, deforestation is destroying the natural habitat of many species of land animals and the overuse of pesticides is killing insects, which are vital for the well-being of our ecosystem. Our planet’s temperature is rising too as a result of pollution. This has resulted in declining Arctic sea ice, a 17 cm sea level rise in the last 100 years, and more extreme weather events around the world.

These devastating changes should be prompting everyone – individuals and industrial organisations alike – to take immediate action to reduce their impact on the environment. Instead, however, apathy and indifference seem to prevail. The general attitude is to keep doing things the same until told to do otherwise. After all, people say, if things were really that bad, the government would do something about it.
Many governments are doing something, of course. In fact, thanks to legislation in my country, large areas of natural land are now protected from development, heavy fines are imposed on industries which cause excessive pollution, and homeowners are given subsidies to install environmentally friendly solar panels to heat and light their homes. 

However, it is also the duty of individuals and organisations to take responsibility. Individuals can recycle their household waste, they can turn down their heating, they can turn off lights when not using them and they can walk, cycle or take the bus instead of driving everywhere in their cars. Companies and organisations can look at the way they operate to reduce their impact on the environment. For example, they can switch to a green energy supplier, they can use recycled products, they can use video-conferencing to cut down on travel, their employees can share cars on the journey to work and so on.

In conclusion, therefore, I believe that we should all play our part and consider ways of reducing our impact on the environment. We should not rely on our governments alone to do this.