I can understand a text about an ecologist.
1 Look at the book cover. What do you think the book is about?
2 Read the article and answer the questions.
1 What was her great interest as a young girl?
2 What is Silent Spring about?
🎧2.34
Rachel Carson, an ecologist, a biologist, and a writer, was born in 1907 in Springdale, Pennsylvania. As a small girl, she was an avid reader and soon showed a keen interest in the natural world and 5 writing. 1_________ She graduated from Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham University) in 1929, studied at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, and received her MA in zoology from Johns Hopkins University in 1932.
10 Initially, Rachel Carson worked for the US Bureau of Fisheries as a part-time science writer. 2_________ She then spent the next few years serving as a marine scientist and editor for the US Fish and Wildlife Service. There, she became famous 15 for her writings on environmental pollution and the natural history of the sea, 3_________ Climate change, rising sea-levels, melting Arctic glaciers,
Reading Strategy
When you are doing a gapped-sentence task:
1 Fill in the easiest gaps first.
2 When you have filled all the gaps, try the extra sentences in each gap again to make sure they don't fit.
3 Read the whole text again, checking your answers.
decreasing animal populations are part of her work. In her most influential book, Silent Spring (1962), Rachel Carson strongly disapproved of the 20 widespread use of pesticides such as DDT. 4_________ and called for new policies to protect humans and the environment. She then was criticised by the chemical industry and some government officials, but never gave up. 5_________ Additionally, it helped 25 spark the environmental movement, resulting in the establishment of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. That's why she was called the mother of modern ecology.
Rachel Carson died of breast cancer in 1964. 30 However, her work continues to inspire new generations to protect all the living world.
3 Read the Reading Strategy. Match sentences A-F with gaps 1-5 in the text. There is one extra sentence.
A Part of her job was to interest the public in marine and freshwater biology via radio programmes.
B Firstly, Silent Spring suggested a much needed change in people's way of life.
C She warned the public about its negative long-term effects
D She had her first story about animals published in a magazine when she was in the fourth grade.
E in which she always concerned herself about the impact that humans made on the natural world.
F The book eventually prompted a change in national policy, leading to the enactment of a national ban of pesticides on agricultural farming.
4 Read the text again. Are the sentences true or false? Write T or F.
1 Rachel Cason realised the real danger of pesticides when she was still a young girl.
2 She majored in the scientific study of animals and their behaviour when she took her MA in 1932.
3 Most of Rachel Carson's works were about environmental issues.
4 Her opposition to using pesticides on agricultural farming was supported by the chemical industry.
5 Silent Spring brought about positive changes in the government's policies.
6 A lot of people keep on protecting the planet after her death.
5 VOCABULARY Complete the verb + preposition combinations with the words below. Check your answers in the text and in the sentences in exercise 3.
Verb + preposition about about in up for for to of
1 work_________ (a business, etc.) (line 10)
2 disapprove_________ (line 20)
3 call _________ something (line 22)
4 give _________ something (line 25)
5 result _________ something (line 26)
6 warn somebody_________ something (sentence C)
7 concern oneself _________ something (sentence E)
8 lead _________ something (sentence F)
→ Vocabulary Builder Verb + preposition: page 110
6 SPEAKING Work in pairs. Discuss these questions and report your ideas to the class.
1 Do you think it is necessary for pesticides to be banned? Why?
2 Do you agree with the views Rachel Carson expressed in Silent Spring? Why? / Why not?
3 Would you like to be an ecologist? Why? / Why not? If so, what would you most concern yourself about?
