The Reading / Listening - Air Quality - Level 1

The WHO found something shocking - almost everyone on Earth breathes unhealthy air. The WHO's air quality update says 99 per cent of people breathe air that breaks quality limits. Researchers checked over 6,000 cities in 117 countries. People in poorer countries breathe the unhealthiest air. Millions in these countries die from pollution-related diseases. The WHO said: "It is unacceptable to have 7 million preventable deaths…due to air pollution."

The WHO says high gas prices, energy security and climate change mean we must move away from fossil fuels. It asked governments to cut air pollution and move to cleaner energy. The WHO made many suggestions. It said we should use clean energy for cooking, heating and lighting. We should also make public transport greener. This means building more roads that pedestrians and cyclists can use safely.

Try the same news story at these levels:

    Air Quality - Level 0 Air Quality - Level 2   or  Air Quality - Level 3

Sources
  • https://www.who.int/news/item/04-04-2022-billions-of-people-still-breathe-unhealthy-air-new-who-data
  • https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/99-worlds-population-breathes-poor-quality-air-83860782
  • https://www.ft.com/content/eb93b458-0bb2-4e93-ae5a-4da42e7bfe8d


Make sure you try all of the online activities for this reading and listening - There are dictations, multiple choice activities, drag and drop activities, sentence jumbles, which word activities, text reconstructions, spelling, gap fills and a whole lot more. Please enjoy :-)

Phrase Matching

Paragraph 1

  1. almost everyone on Earth breathes
  2. 6,000 cities
  3. People in poorer
  4. Millions in
  5. die from pollution-
  6. It is
  7. 7 million preventable
  8. due to air
  1. countries
  2. related diseases
  3. pollution
  4. in 117 countries
  5. deaths
  6. these countries
  7. unhealthy air
  8. unacceptable

Paragraph 2

  1. high gas
  2. energy security and climate
  3. we must move away from fossil
  4. we should use clean energy
  5. heating and
  6. make public transport
  7. building more
  8. pedestrians
  1. change
  2. roads
  3. prices
  4. greener
  5. and cyclists
  6. fuels
  7. lighting
  8. for cooking

Listening — Listen and fill in the gaps

The WHO (1) ___________________ - almost everyone on Earth breathes unhealthy air. The WHO's (2) ___________________ says 99 per cent of people breathe air (3) ___________________ limits. Researchers checked over 6,000 cities in 117 countries. People (4) ___________________ breathe the unhealthiest air. Millions in these (5) ___________________ pollution-related diseases. The WHO said: "It is unacceptable to have 7 million preventable deaths... (6) ___________________ pollution."

The WHO (7) ___________________ prices, energy security and climate change mean we (8) ___________________ from fossil fuels. It asked governments to cut air pollution and move (9) ___________________. The WHO made many suggestions. It said we should use clean energy (10) ___________________ and lighting. We should (11) ___________________ transport greener. This means building more roads that pedestrians and cyclists (12) ___________________.

Put a slash (/) where the spaces are

TheWHOfoundsomethingshocking-almosteveryoneonEarthbreathe
sunhealthyair.TheWHO'sairqualityupdatesays99percentofpeoplebr
eatheairthatbreaksqualitylimits.Researcherscheckedover6,000citie
sin117countries.Peopleinpoorercountriesbreathetheunhealthiestair
.Millionsinthesecountriesdiefrompollution-relateddiseases.TheWH
Osaid:"Itisunacceptabletohave7millionpreventabledeaths...duetoa
irpollution."TheWHOsayshighgasprices,energysecurityandclimatec
hangemeanwemustmoveawayfromfossilfuels.Itaskedgovernments
tocutairpollutionandmovetocleanerenergy.TheWHOmademanysug
gestions.Itsaidweshouldusecleanenergyforcooking,heatingandlight
ing.Weshouldalsomakepublictransportgreener.Thismeansbuilding
moreroadsthatpedestriansandcyclistscanusesafely.

Student survey

Write five GOOD questions about this topic in the table. Do this in pairs. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper. When you have finished, interview other students. Write down their answers.

(Please look at page 12 of the PDF to see a photocopiable example of this activity.)

Discussion — Write your own questions

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

(a) ________________

(b) ________________

(c) ________________

(d) ________________

(e) ________________

(f) ________________

(g) ________________

(h) ________________

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

(i) ________________

(j) ________________

(k) ________________

(l) ________________

(m) ________________

(n) ________________

(o) ________________

(p) ________________

Free writing

Write about this topic for 10 minutes. Comment on your partner’s paper.

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Answers

(Please check your answers against the article above.

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