ACADEMIC LISTENING TEST PRACTICE
ENVIRONMENT - THE GREAT PACIFIC
GARBAGE PATCH
ENVIRONMENT - THE GREAT PACIFIC
GARBAGE PATCH
For Students Preparing for Academic Tests / IELTS and TOEFL
Listen as you read the script.
Playing Time: 2 minutes 20 seconds
For the past century or so, factories have been manufacturing ever increasing numbers of disposable toothbrushes, pens, cans, bottles, and plastic wrappings. As a result, proper garbage disposal has become a major issue in almost every country in the world. And if you think that garbage is everywhere, well, you’re right. It is everywhere! An excellent and very disturbing example of this is the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch." Its name almost sounds fictional, but, it’s a real thing! It is an area of floating garbage in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and California that is about the same size as Texas or France. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch was first discovered by Charles Moore in 1997. There are many kinds of garbage in the Garbage Patch, but plastic fishing nets, bottles and bags, and other things made of plastic, cause the biggest problem. "What’s the problem?" you may ask. After all, the garbage is so far from land that most people will never even see it.
The answer to this is that there isn’t just one problem. There are, in fact, three problems. First, plastic bottles and bags may take hundreds or perhaps even thousands of years to break down. Second, plastic isn’t a natural substance, it’s made from chemicals. And as the plastics break down over time, chemicals enter the water and these chemicals enter the fish that live in the water and make them sick. Finally, the third problem, is that the people (who eat these contaminated fish) themselves become sick.
So then, what can we do? Well, there are many things we can do! We can try to clean up our oceans. One young man named Boyan Slat, from the Netherlands, founded an organization called Ocean Cleanup and has raised tens of millions of dollars to do just that! As individuals, we can also stop buying so many plastic products. And we can make a greater effort to recycle more. The important thing is to do something and to do it now!
The answer to this is that there isn’t just one problem. There are, in fact, three problems. First, plastic bottles and bags may take hundreds or perhaps even thousands of years to break down. Second, plastic isn’t a natural substance, it’s made from chemicals. And as the plastics break down over time, chemicals enter the water and these chemicals enter the fish that live in the water and make them sick. Finally, the third problem, is that the people (who eat these contaminated fish) themselves become sick.
So then, what can we do? Well, there are many things we can do! We can try to clean up our oceans. One young man named Boyan Slat, from the Netherlands, founded an organization called Ocean Cleanup and has raised tens of millions of dollars to do just that! As individuals, we can also stop buying so many plastic products. And we can make a greater effort to recycle more. The important thing is to do something and to do it now!
Note: For more cool ESL resources about our oceans, visit my All Things Topics site.
