Green is GREAT - Part 2

Richard is blown away by the cutting edge of green technology, and sees how London's Olympic Stadium wins gold in the green Games.

Transcript

It looks like something from outer space, but it’s a wind turbine and it’s revolutionary!

Wind power has been around for centuries, but this is something new. Big wind farms have managed to harness the power of the wind off-shore or on high ground where it’s windy, but what about places where there’s not so much space or wind?

Award-winning British company ‘Quiet Revolution’ have developed a turbine with an upright axis which can be put practically anywhere and is near silent.

Harnessing wind energy in urban areas and tight spaces is a challenge. As wind travels past buildings, it changes speed and is difficult to catch. That’s where this micro turbine is clever. The turbine is small and so catches small wind… But it surprisingly generates a lot of power.

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And all that energy can be used on site, so it’s good for the environment and it saves money! Plus, I think it looks like a work of art; I wouldn’t mind one in my back garden!

The sun is another important source of renewable energy. Solar Century is a leading solar energy company. The panels use the sun's rays to generate power. This technology is becoming more efficient as a way of creating energy.

Behind me is the incredible Olympic Park where much of the action will take place during London’s Olympic Games.

This whole park has been designed to be the greenest Olympic Park in the history of the Olympic Games. Protecting and preserving the environment has been a priority during the planning, construction and building stages. The legacy of this ‘environmentally friendly’ park will last for a very long time.

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David Stubbs is Head of Environment and Sustainability for LOCOG, the Olympic organisers. 
   
Richard: This is really impressive. What was here before?

David: Polluted rivers, contaminated land, broken-down factories. There were a few small industries here, but largely speaking it was a vast area of emptiness.

Richard: David, give me some examples of why these are the greenest Games ever.

David: We put a lot of attention to the buildings, to the design, to all the materials used in them, to the energy that was used in them, so there's a lot of attention to making sure that we minimise waste upfront and then we recycle and reuse as much as possible. Across the board, I think we've done a lot of different things which add up to a sustainable Games.

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Let’s find out what the people of London think about the world's greenest Olympics taking place right here, on their doorstep.

Man: I think that it's great that they've really taken into account the local area, the local people, that they've taken into account the environment.

Woman 1: I think the technology they're using here for the green... will be very good for the rest of London and the rest of the country once it's all going.

Woman 2: Well, I think it's a wonderful idea that other countries can take a lesson from and because... when you recycle and repurpose, then the waste, it doesn't become waste, it doesn't become garbage, and it sets an example for the rest of the world.      

So the future for Great Britain really is green.

Task 1

Which of these things appear in the video?

Exercise

Task 2

Select True, False, or Not given, based on the information in the video.

Exercise

Task 3

Use the vocabulary given to complete the sentences.

Exercise

Task 4

The last woman to speak on the video is American. She says "when you recycle and repurpose, then the waste doesn't become garbage". The word 'garbage' is American English - in British English we say 'rubbish'. Another example is 'movie' (American) and 'film' (British). Complete each sentence by writing the British English words which have the same meaning as the American English words (in brackets).

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Exercise

Discussion

Average: 4 (1 vote)

Submitted by meknini on Fri, 15/07/2022 - 05:49

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Sadly, my country Malaysia although has all the renewable energy resources to turn the country green, we don't nearly make any significant efforts to turn our country into sustainable. As a peninsular, we are bordered by seas and oceans in all directions except north, covered with hills and mountains and got sunlight throughout the year, yet we have no interest in leveraging these. There are a sprinkle of high-end residentials and office buildings that installed solar panels but I am bound to think that they did that not for sustainability more for economy.

There are not many big things I could do to make my home greener except to avoid single-use plastics, bring my own carrier while shopping, walk to nearby places, mind the electrical appliances, keep the electricity bill low, dry laundry under the sun and other little mundane acts that I think overtime would highly likely accumulate and account for something significant.

What people think of green issues? Nowadays everyone is too preoccupied with making ends meet that whatever else is considered inconsequential as survival is uppermost. Maybe after all these economics upheavals have passed then we'll have more energy t think about future generations welfare as of now our main aim is t get through the day with food on the table and roof over our heads.

Submitted by alexun on Sat, 08/08/2020 - 12:51

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Hi Kirk! How are you? I would like to ask you about this sentence: "Award-winning British company ‘Quiet Revolution’ have developed" Does it work with have? Does it need to use "has"? Thank you so much in advance! Alex

Hello Alex,

This is the way that most speakers of British English would say this. Even when the subject is singular, if it refers to a group of people (e.g. a company, the government, a sports team), people in the UK tend to use the plural form of the verb.

In American English, this would sound quite strange, though. In other words, in American English, the verb should be 'has'.

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by Nicolei on Wed, 14/11/2018 - 20:35

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Hi guys, I think we all have to save our environment. We have only one planet and our children have to get the same chance as us. For that reason, I'm driving to work with my bicycle. Additionally, we tried to reduce our production of waste. I hope that more people will improve the understanding of our enviroment.
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Submitted by btriton on Mon, 21/05/2018 - 08:53

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Time to Time many countries are installing wind turbines and other renewable sources of energy, include my country (Peru) mainly by environment concerns and because the governments are changing their policies respect the energy sources (fossil fuels to renewable energy) . This type of energy is becoming cheaper and is being widespread specially in countryside by farm owners. Currently in my country, many people have taken aware about environment and try to care their nature around them.