Joy English · Level C2 · Environmentjoy-english.com
Rewilding and its discontents
Name:Date:
Follow cause, effect and counter-argument in an environmental lecture.
Listen to each sentence and write what you hear.
Audio and answer checking: https://joy-english.com/listening-lessons/rewilding-and-its-discontents
Words to know
- rewilding
- Allowing nature to recover by itself.
- predator
- An animal that hunts others.
- herbivore
- An animal that eats plants.
- offset
- To balance or cancel out a loss.
Answer key
- Rewilding proposes that, rather than managing a landscape, we should step back and let natural processes resume.“Proposes that” is followed by “we should step back”. “Rather than managing” is an inserted phrase.
- Reintroducing a single predator can ripple through an ecosystem, altering how herbivores graze and, in turn, how rivers flow.“In turn” means as the next step. “Herbivores”: HER-bi-vorz, with a soft v.
- Not everyone welcomes the idea, however, particularly farmers whose livelihoods depend on land that would be left untended.“Not everyone” means some people do not. “Whose” links farmers to livelihoods.
- Proponents respond that compensation schemes and tourism can offset such losses, although the evidence so far is mixed.“Proponents” are supporters. “So far” stresses “far” and means up to now.
- What is beyond dispute is that the debate forces us to ask what we truly mean by nature.This cleft sentence delays “that the debate forces us…”. “Beyond dispute” means nobody disagrees.