Intro

Usually when we talk about the future, we think about what new things will be in the world. But people are thinking more about the environment and what it will look like in the future. We are seeing more extreme! types of weather and how they can be examples of climate change.

Climate change affects the entire planet! in many different ways. Scientists have said that we must work to stop making it worse. Humans may find it very difficult to live on Earth due to  natural disasters! that happen because of the change in the environment. 

Marni and Lily talk about this serious issue and how we need to work towards changing it. Learn more in today’s English lesson about the environment.

Dialogue

Marni: Lily, whenever I look at my young beautiful child, I always wonder what the world is going to be like. What kind of planet !are we leaving behind for our young children?
Lily:  Oh, gosh. 
Marni:  I was thinking about global warming. I think the more accurate scientific term these days is climate change, since it can present itself as a cooling. 
Lily:  Yeah, it’s scary to think about. Because you read all of these things about how there’s a decline! in the polar bear population. Greenland’s glaciers !are melting.! And it’s really hard not to get discouraged. 
Marni:  Yes. I recently watched a program that profiled the melting ice in Greenland. And the scientist they interviewed said that they are 60 years past the worst case scenario.! There’s this irrefutable! scientific evidence, and yet still we, as a nation and as a global community, seem to still do nothing about it. It’s pretty depressing.
  Lily:  Some people don’t actually believe in it. 
Marni:  Things have hit a critical mass.! And we can’t put our heads in the sand! anymore. 
Lily:  Exactly. 
Marni:  We’ve got to acknowledge this and take some action.

Discussion

Marni is worried about the world that her child will live in as an adult. The environmental situation is heading to a critical mass. !Lily and Marni talk about a difficult TV program they both watched. They learned about melting! glaciers! and the decline! of polar bears.

They both agree that it is time to take action. Lily agrees that there are irrefutable! signs of climate change. They want to make sure that the planet !will still be around for their children.

Are you worried about climate change? Have you noticed its effects where you live?

Grammar Point

Count and Noncount Nouns

Marni says, “I recently watched a program that profiled the melting ice in Greenland.” She uses the noncount noun “ice,” and the count noun“ program.” 

Count nouns are nouns you can count. They are individual units, and they can be cut into parts. Some examples of count nouns include tree, house, boy, girl, country, city, or idea.

Count nouns can be pluralized. We can have three trees, two girls, or many ideas. It is possible to use the articles a and an with count nouns, when there is only one of them. For example, “I met a cute boy today,” or, “That’s an interesting idea.”

Noncount nouns are nouns that can’t be counted or broken into parts. These nouns cannot be pluralized. They have no plural form. Liquids such as coffeeor water, concepts such as love or peace, and collective nouns such as furniture or luggage are all examples of noncount nouns.

Noncount nouns cannot be used with the articles a or an. To show the quantity of a noncount noun, we use expressions like some, much, less, a lot of, a little of, etc. For example, “I have a lot of furniture in my house,” or, “This guidebook doesn’t include much information about French culture.”

With noncount nouns, we cannot use the expressions “a few,” “many,” “both,” “several,” “one of,” or “a couple of.”

Which is correct, “I would like to order two cups of coffees,” or, “I would like to order two cups of coffee”?