CAE lesson 24

For questions 1-6, read the extract and choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text. Put the letter of the answer in the blank space.

Our Time

Since 1950, the global population has grown at up to
a hundred times the speed it grew after the invention
of agriculture, and ten thousand times as fast as it
did before that. This is a great human achievement.
: The huge increase in population in the last century,
and continuing in this, however, is a problem caused
by success- the success of vaccination and clean-water programmes, and of the ‘green revolution’ in
agriculture. Without the latter, it has been estimated
that mankind would have needed extra farmland the
size of North America to feed itself. To put it another
way, some two billion people are alive because of it.
Yet most observers believe so many billions of humans
are too many for the planet to sustain indefinitely; we
need too much water, we consume too much carbon-based energy, and we take over too much land to feed
ourselves, for the biosphere to cope.
By far the best known problem in our world today is
climate change. This is mainly caused by the burning
of fossil fuels, which results in the production of
greenhouse gas. This stops the planet cooling itself as
efficiently as it needs to, thereby raising temperatures.
By how much and exactly with what effect are
unknown. An increase in ‘wild’ or unpredictable
weather patterns may be one of the consequences.
Looking at possible projections, this is either a problem
rather over-stated today and which can be dealt with
by greener ways of regenerating energy; or it is an
imminent catastrophe that could make this the last
human century.
Then there are the problems of deforestation and the
extinction of species. Humans have always destroyed
forests, both because they wanted the wood and to
expand their farmland . Northern Europe was once
covered in trees. But the deforestation of the 20th
century was particularly dramatic, removing perhaps
half of the remaining total; and was concentrated
in tropical areas. The importance of forests for
maintaining the health of the atmosphere, and coping
with the carbon problem, is now well understood. In
addition, these rainforests contain a high proportion
of endangered plant and animal species, which may in
turn harbour many useful secrets for human survival.
If, as many scientists predict, around 30 per cent of
current species become extinct over the next century,
then that would be a huge planetary event, another
mistake by the human ape.
Two last problems must be added to this woeful litany.
Overfishing and the acidification of the oceans are
causing an environmental disaster that would be a
worldwide scandal if we were able to see clearly below
the waves; and it is a disaster affecting an important
source of food. Add to this the atmospheric pollution
in the megacities that increasingly dominate as human
habitations (more than half of us now live in cities),
which has caused a huge loss of life, albeit generally
in the older and weaker. The historian j. R. McNeill
estimates a 20th century toll from air pollution of up
to forty million people, equivalent to the combined
casualties of both world wars, or about the same as the
1918-19 flu pandemic. Like other problems, this was
a ‘failure of success’, in this case caused by the arrival
of cars, air travel and a lifestyle more materially rich;
many of those affected by pollution have migrated
from villages and small towns and cities, prepared to
live in slums or shanty towns simply to have the chance
to exploit the greater opportunities of urban life.
Today’s parents in the West are the first generation to
worry that their children will live more meagre, if less
wasteful, lives than they have. A world population of
around today’s size, or bigger, is plausible; and a wide
range of scientific fixes, such as those mentioned for
tackling global warming, and genetically modified food,
would help the planet cope. What is not plausible is
the notion of a bigger population enjoying the new
freedoms of car use, air travel and foods flown in from
around the globe that many of us now enjoy.

Vocabulary 

Compound adjectives 

Match groups a-f with 1-6 to make compound adjectives.

Use the compound adjectives below to complete the sentences.

Negative adjectives

Write the opposites of words a-h using a negative prefix.

Match the words below with their similar meaings

Match the correct adjective that would fit in the gaps.