Joy English · Level C1 · Healthjoy-english.com
Urban noise and public health
Name:Date:
Follow a talk with passive verbs, research language and a final contrast.
Listen to each sentence and write what you hear.
Audio and answer checking: https://joy-english.com/listening-lessons/urban-noise-and-public-health
Words to know
- chronic
- Lasting for a long time.
- exposure
- The state of being in contact with something harmful.
- heightened
- Made higher or stronger.
- planner
- A person who decides how a city is built.
Answer key
- Researchers have long known that loud environments irritate people, but the effects on physical health are only now becoming clear.'Have long known' is present perfect with an adverb. 'Environments' is stressed on the second syllable: en-VI-ron-ments.
- Chronic exposure to traffic noise has been associated with disturbed sleep, raised blood pressure and heightened levels of stress.'Has been associated with' is a passive form. 'Chronic' starts with a k sound.
- Importantly, these associations remain even after researchers have accounted for income, age and the quality of housing.'Accounted for' means taken into consideration. 'Associations' can have an s or a sh sound in the middle, and ends in 'shunz'.
- Planners can reduce the problem by laying quieter surfaces on busy roads and keeping green space between homes and traffic.'By laying ... and keeping ...' joins two -ing actions. 'Surfaces' ends with -iz.
- Even so, noise is rarely treated as seriously as air pollution, partly because its harm is so hard to see.'Even so' means despite this. 'As seriously as' is a comparison: 'az-seriously-az'.