Expressing facts and figures Units of measurement a) Say the figures and add the correct information. Start like this: “Four point six billion years is the … .” • the average volume of water used to flush a toilet • the distance half of all British plastics travel to be recycled in China • the area of rainforest destroyed each year • the predicted rise in temperature by the end of the twenty-first century • the length of time the Earth has been in existence • the proportion of household waste that could be recycled • the weight of nitrogen added to the land as fertiliser for every metric tonne of cotton harvested b) Collect groups of words used to express units of weight, length and volume. Write down the words in their full form, as you would say them, into your learning journal and also their abbreviations. c) In the US and the UK, you might need to understand non-metric measurements. Look up the information you need and work out the metric equivalent of: 1. a 12 ounce steak 2. thirty miles an hour 3. a pint of apple juice 4. a ten-foot six-inch alligator 5. a gallon of petrol 6. 45 miles to the gallon Designing an environment quiz Use information from this chapter and other sources to write multiple choice questions about the environment (e.g. the question how long plastic lasts, the total population of the Earth, …). The answers should all be measurements. Use your quiz to test other students at your school. The language of statistics a) Look at the question below. What would you expect the answer to be? Explain why. Question: Which is more environmentally friendly: a T-shirt made of cotton or one made of polyester? Answer: Generally, people do not work out 1 the environmental cost of the clothes they wear, and most 2 consumers would probably think cotton is more environmentally friendly than polyester. Growing cotton does cost a smaller amount of 3 energy than producing polyester from oil. Cotton uses about 4 a quarter of the world’s insecticides, however, and the land also needs fertiliser – on average, 200 kg for every 5 tonne of cotton – which releases a powerful greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. Such things 6 mean that the carbon cost of producing a new cotton T-shirt is actually the same as 7 the cost of producing a polyester one, but then wearing and using cotton has a bigger 8 cost because of the extra energy needed to wash it at a warmer temperature and also to iron it. When you put all the numbers together 9 , therefore, the whole 10 figure shows that cotton is actually the wrong choice for the environment! b) Reports giving facts and figures use special expressions. Make the answer above more formal by replacing the highlighted words/phrases with the ones below and make a list. (Two words/phrases are not needed.) Tip In English, you use … • a decimal point (not a comma like in German). Example: 2.1 litres • commas to separate long numbers into groups of three figures. Example: 2,100 people Abbreviations • l = litre • kg = kilogramme • km = kilometre • °C = degree Celsius/ centigrade T 1 13,000 km 4/5 6°C 4.6 billion years 7 l 63,000 sq. miles 200 kg j 2 3 approximately add equal to compared to average higher factors per total the majority of calculate less 39 Language skills Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjU2NDQ5MQ==