Up next in 10
Enrich Your Vocabulary for IELTS & TOEFL #2: Environment
54K views
Feb 24, 2024
This is the second video in the Enrich Your Vocabulary for IELTS and TOEFL series. It focuses on the environment, giving 20 words and phrases with which to enrich your vocabulary. ▬ Contents of this video ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 00:00 Intro 00:46 20 words and phrases for physical health 10:55 Summary 11:49 Outtakes ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Note: slight typo at 01.02, should be 'have led' not 'have lead'. For more information on this topic, including exercises to help you practise, see: https://www.eapfoundation.com/enrich/environment/ For more information on this series, see: https://www.eapfoundation.com/enrich/ Video created using VideoScribe software [affiliate link]: https://tidd.ly/37VdIB7
View Video Transcript
0:00
So today we'll be looking at vocabulary for the environment, a really common topic for
0:04
both the IELTS and the TOEFL tests. As usual, we'll see 20 words and phrases, most of which
0:10
come from recognised word lists for academic study. A couple of special lists for this
0:14
video are the Secondary School Vocabulary List, or SVL, which contains single words
0:19
and the Secondary Phrase List, or SPL, which contains collocations. Mostly those lists
0:23
are a bit too technical for IELTS and TOEFL vocabulary, but for this video they're perfect
0:28
because one of the 8 subjects that they cover is Geography, which is the study not just
0:33
of places, but also the relationship between people and their environment. As always, mid-frequency
0:38
vocabulary will also be a big focus, to help you really enrich your vocabulary and take
0:43
it to a higher level. Okay, let's go. The first word we'll focus on is very straightforward, Environmental, the adjective form of environment
0:56
You might know this word already, but it has lots of really, really good collocations that
1:00
we can use. An example sentence first. Rapid population growth, along with technological
1:05
developments, have led to an increase in environmental problems. So some good collocations with environmental
1:11
environmental problems, which we see in the sentence there, environmental concerns, environmental
1:17
issues, environmental degradation, environmental impact, and environmental protection. The asterisk there by the way denotes words in the academic collocation list, while the plus
1:28
symbol indicates words in the secondary phrase list. Maybe the most difficult word there
1:32
is degradation, which comes from the verb degrade, meaning to lower the quality of something
1:37
That's actually one of the words we'll study today, but we'll come back to it a bit later
1:41
when we're seeing a few other words and phrases. Degrade is in the AVL, SVL, and it's also
1:46
mid-frequency. Something else to highlight for the word environmental is the shifting
1:50
stress when we change from the noun to the adjective. The noun has the stress on the
1:55
second syllable, environment, while the adjective is on the next to last, environmental. So
2:00
that's something to watch out for if you're using either of these words in your speaking
2:05
So some of these words are negative. Environmental impact could be positive or negative, depending
2:10
on the impact itself. While environmental protection is of course a positive thing
2:14
Impact is actually another word that I want us to study today. Let's see it first in an example sentence, along with the phrase human activity. Human activity has had a significant
2:23
impact on the environment. So human activity relates to the things people do that affect
2:28
the world around them. Examples that relate to the environment are transportation, energy
2:33
production, farming, and building houses. Although that's a simple collocation, it's really
2:39
really common in articles about the environment and a great one to use in your writing. So
2:43
the word impact, this is used most commonly in academic writing as a noun, although it
2:47
can also be a verb. And this means a strong influence or effect. The word impact can also
2:52
mean hit. So this word is definitely more forceful than a word like effect. And this
2:57
is a really, really useful word. It's in the academic word list, sub list 2, the academic
3:02
vocabulary list, number 140, and the secondary school vocabulary list for geography, number
3:08
14. So in academic writing, and especially writing about the environment, this is a really
3:12
common word. Make sure you use it accurately. So it goes with the verb to have and the preposition
3:18
on. To have an impact on. It's also a lovely word to study because there are so many collocations
3:24
with this word. For example, significant impact, enormous impact, great impact, major impact
3:32
profound impact, the opposite, little impact, a direct impact, a negative or a positive
3:38
impact. You can see most of those have the meaning big. Note that if we change the structure
3:43
of the sentence and put the impact first, then it's followed by of, the impact of x
3:49
on y. For example, the impact of human activity on the environment is significant. So the
3:55
next words are deforestation, habitat, and greenhouse gases. One activity that affects
4:01
the environment is deforestation, which can lead to loss of habitat and increase in greenhouse
4:07
gases. So deforestation means clearing forests, in other words, cutting down wide areas of
4:12
trees. This word isn't in the AWL or the AVL, but it is in the SVL and it's a good mid-frequency
4:20
word. The pronunciation pattern of this word actually matches environmental with the stress
4:24
on the penultimate syllable, deforestation. Although that's actually a general pronunciation rule for English, any word ending in ation has the stress on the a. So the word habitat
4:35
this means the natural home of a plant or animal. And a couple of nice collocations
4:39
here, natural habitat or habitat loss. Natural is actually another word in our list today
4:45
I've put it in the list for the same reason as environmental. It's a fairly simple word
4:49
but it has some really good collocations on this topic. Natural disaster, such as hurricane
4:54
or volcano. Natural environment or natural world, which have the same meaning and refer
5:02
to all living and non-living things in nature. And natural resources. Natural resources are
5:08
materials that occur naturally in the earth, such as water, land, rock and even sunlight
5:14
So let's go back to greenhouse gases. A greenhouse is a structure that many people have in their
5:19
gardens to grow plants because they trap heat from the sun. And greenhouse gases do the
5:24
same thing. They are gases in the earth's atmosphere that trap heat. The most common
5:29
one is CO2, carbon dioxide, which actually accounts for around 80% of greenhouse gases
5:35
Other common ones are methane, NH4, and nitrous oxide, N2O. Unless you're studying chemistry
5:41
you maybe don't need all of those. But carbon dioxide being the most common is definitely one you should know. Next, the phrase intensive farming, and also
5:49
the word pesticide, which we'll see in the definition. Intensive farming, also called
5:53
intensive agriculture, has helped to improve agricultural production, though it has also
5:58
led to increased pollution and other environmental concerns. And the phrase intensive farming
6:03
means farming that produces as much as possible with the use of chemicals such as fertilisers
6:08
pesticides and medications for animals. So pesticides is also a really useful word. These
6:14
are chemicals which farmers use to kill insects, in other words, pests
6:22
So although intensive farming is a nice collocation, the word intensive and the word farming on
6:26
their own are also very common in academic writing, and also in writing about this topic
6:31
Next, the words urban and rural. Urban, of course, means relating to the city. And rural
6:40
means relating to the countryside. And these again are fairly common words, but again they
6:48
have some really good collocations. Example sentence first. Developing countries often prioritise urban development at the expense of agriculture, thus widening the
6:57
gap between urban and rural areas. So some collocations with urban. Urban area, which
7:03
we can see there. Urban development, which is also in the example. Urban growth. Urban
7:08
sprawl. And urban migration, which is people moving from rural areas to the city. Collocations
7:14
with rural. Again, area. Rural area. Rural community. Rural economy. Rural population
7:22
And rural society. The trend for people to move from rural areas to urban areas is so
7:27
common that there's even a noun to describe it, which is urbanisation, which means the
7:32
increase in the proportion of people living in towns and cities. We can now actually return to a phrase we had earlier, environmental degradation, because
7:40
we have enough other vocabulary to really understand what this means. Environmental
7:44
degradation can be caused by natural disasters, such as drought, hurricanes and volcanic eruptions
7:51
as well as human activity, including deforestation, industrialisation and urbanisation, which can lead to water, air and land pollution. So all of these make the environment worse
8:03
The next two words are utilisation and deterioration. Population growth and urbanisation can lead
8:10
to a variety of environmental problems, including over-utilisation of land, deterioration of
8:16
natural areas, dietary deterioration and increased waste. So utilisation is the noun
8:23
utilise is the verb and these are just fancy words for use. Utilisation is generally followed
8:28
by of, as we can see in the example. Deterioration means becoming worse. And this can be followed
8:34
both by of or by in. Next words are biodiversity and extinction
8:41
Scientists have identified five sudden and dramatic losses in biodiversity called mass
8:46
extinction events, the last of which, 66 million years ago, witnessed the extinction of the
8:51
dinosaurs. The current loss of biodiversity caused by human activity is sometimes referred
8:56
to as the sixth extinction. So biodiversity means biological diversity, in other words
9:02
the range of life on earth. Both of those words, biodiversity, biological, come from
9:11
the same root, the Greek word bios, meaning life. And life on earth really is diverse
9:17
One estimate puts the number of species on the planet at 8.7 million. The word extinction
9:22
a noun, refers to a species having no living members. An obvious example is the dinosaurs
9:27
which went extinct 66 million years ago. Talking about dinosaurs leads us on to our next phrase
9:32
fossil fuels. And we'll also consider here global warming and climate change
9:37
Greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels are the leading cause of global warming. So
9:42
fossil fuels are fuels such as coal, oil or natural gas which are formed in the earth
9:46
from plants or animal remains. Global warming means the long term heating of the earth
9:52
Climate change is similar, and sometimes people use the two phrases as if they mean the same
9:56
thing but they don't quite. Climate change refers to the change in weather patterns over
10:00
a long period of time. So global warming is one aspect of climate change. Other aspects
10:06
would be rainfall, wind, storms and so on. The final phrase we'll look at is renewable
10:10
energy. Renewable energy is expected to play a leading role in future as countries work
10:15
towards lowering their greenhouse gas emissions. So renewable energy is energy from sources
10:21
that will not run out, at least not in the lifetime of mankind. Examples are solar energy
10:27
wind power and hydropower which comes from water. The opposite of renewable energy is
10:32
non-renewable energy which is energy from sources that will run out. A similar phrase
10:37
is alternative energy which is not quite the same because here alternative means an alternative
10:43
to fossil fuels. An example of an energy source which is alternative and not renewable is
10:48
nuclear energy because this uses uranium and uranium is a finite source. In other words
10:53
it will run out. So that's the 20 words and phrases related to the environment. It's useful to categorise
10:59
these words which might make them more memorable. One way would be to look at causes and effects
11:04
and maybe solutions. Causes are deforestation, burning fossil fuels, human activity, intensive
11:09
farming, natural disasters, pesticide use and urban development. Greenhouse gases could be either. Effects are loss of biodiversity or habitat, climate change, environmental
11:18
degradation, dietary deterioration, environmental impact, extinction, global warming. Solutions renewable energy and environmental protection. Another way to categorise would be looking
11:27
at things which are man-made, natural or potentially both. The majority of the causes are actually
11:31
man-made whereas many of the effects, although worsened by human activity, also occur naturally
11:37
Don't forget to check out the website where you can find exercises to practice all of
11:42
these words. Go to eapfoundation.com forward slash enrich. Finally some outtakes. So the topic of the environment is a very rich one and there are many words and phrases
11:56
which I considered including in the video. Maybe you want to study these anyway
12:00
One is the word ecosystem. This is a common word and you might see it if you're reading
12:04
about this topic but it's a bit more difficult than the other words to use in your writing
12:08
The related word is ecological. Ecosystem actually means ecological system. Again this
12:13
is a common word when reading but a bit more difficult to use in your writing
12:17
Another is soil erosion which is maybe a bit technical and again difficult for you to use
12:21
in your writing. All of the 20 words and phrases today were actually either adjectives or nouns
12:27
or noun and noun and adjective and noun combinations. It might have been nice to study a verb and
12:31
the one that I thought may be most useful was minimise. Because something we should
12:35
all try to do is to minimise our impact on the environment
12:39
So that's it. Don't forget to check out the website for a full list of these words
12:43
Some exercises to practice and much, much more
#Dictionaries & Encyclopedias
#Education
#Foreign Language Resources
#Green Living & Environmental Issues
#Language Resources
#Training & Certification
#Word Games