Practicing the English grammar using a text

Green Valleys; fresh clean air; birds; wild animals; flowers; natural energy from the sun, sea, wind; clean beaches; fish... How wonderful the world can be!

Is that what we see today? Or...

...are the air, sea and land polluted?

...is most of the oil, gas and coal quickly finishing?

...are animals dying?

The situation of the planet is close to a serious ecological disaster. Some action has to be taken, because either we stop killing the Earth or we will kill ourselves.

Conferences like "Rio 92" try to gather world leaders, ecologists, "green" organizations and people who want to save the planet. The main issues discussed in this meetings are: wildlife, pollution, health, energy and land.

Pollution is one of the most serious problems. It causes, for exemple, the "greenhouse efect", which makes the Earth hotter. It also causes "acid rain", which contains lots of chemicals and kills fish and trees.

People do not pollute the atmosphere only. They also pollute themselves with alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, junk food, etc.

We have to do something to protect the Earth's life. The ecological responsibility is mine and yours!

EXERCISES

1. There's an interesting picture above the text. Ask the students to describe everething they can see. Here, they are going to use the present continuous and also the simple present most of the time. As well as improve their vocabulary when referring to the different features of the picture. Eg.: "There's a person thowing trash on the river" and "I can see some dead animals".
2. Still, in this same activity, you can ask questions, such as: A) Do you think this picture shows fictitional or real situations? B)Have you seen any of these situations happen near you? C)Have you ever done some anything that is shown in the picture? D) If saw someone doing any of these actions, what would you do?
3. In the text, we could see different verb tenses, relative pronouns (Who/which), some possessive pronouns, and also other structures of the English language. However, there are two sentences in the text that can summarize its idea: "(...) either we stop killing the Earth or we will kill ourselves." and "People do not pollute the atmosphere only. They also pollute themselves (...)". These sentences contain two reflexive pronouns: ourselves and themselves. As you know, we use the reflexive pronouns when the subject and the object of a sentence are the same. But we can also use it to emphasize that person and nobody else, or that thing and nothing else. Eg.: "He cleaned the room himself".

The reflexive pronoun is also used idiomatically. Eg.: "They left home to live by themselves". Here, by + reflexive pronoun = alone .

You'll see some sentences that contain the reflexive pronoun in its different usage. Mark:

(1) if it's being used when the subject and object are the same;

(2) if it's being used to emphasize the subject;

(3) if it's being used idiomatically mening alone.

a- ( ) He hid under the bed to protect himself.

b- ( ) Kafka wrote this letter himself.

c- ( ) I did the dishes myself.

d- ( ) I want to do the homework by myself.

e- ( ) Some people like to live by themselves.

f- ( ) She wants to see herself as others see her.

g- ( ) An animal hurt itself when it tried to get out of the zoo.