📙 Part 2: Describe a law on environmental protection

This episode's vocabulary

Hostile (adj.) - unfriendly and not liking something.

Specialist (adj.) - having a lot of experience, knowledge, or skill in a particular subject or business area.

Understatement (noun) - a statement that describes something in a way that makes it seem less important, serious, bad, etc. than it really is, or the act of making such statements.

Emission (noun) - the act of sending out gas, heat, light, etc.

To skirt (verb) - to avoid discussing a subject or problem, usually because there are difficulties that you do not want to deal with.

Commitment (noun) - a promise or firm decision to do something.

Be versed in sth - to know a lot about a particular subject or be experienced in a particular skill.

Subsequent (adj.) - happening after something else.

Detrimental (adj.) - causing harm or damage.

To retard (verb) - to make something slower.

Restriction (noun) - an official limit on something.

Burden (noun) - something difficult or unpleasant that you have to deal with or worry about.

Lay the groundwork (for sth) - to do work in preparation for work that will be done later.

Comprehensive (adj.) - complete and including everything that is necessary.

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Questions and Answers

M: Rory is going to say what the law is how he learned about the law, who benefits from the law on environmental protection, and he's going to explain how he feels about this law. Rory.

R: I am ready to deal with this hostile environment.

M: You are on fire today. Fire away.

R: Hopefully, the world is not on fire. Well, I have to say this is not my specialist subject. In fact, that might be something of an understatement. But the one law I'm aware of is the Paris Climate Agreement where many countries agreed to limit their emissions of certain types of gases. I think their main focus was on CO2, which is carbon dioxide. But I'm sure there were other ones as well. And it was all over the news a few years ago, and it occasionally comes up in certain videos that you see online, especially with regards to some countries trying to skirt on their commitments that they made in the agreement itself. I'm not very well versed on the details, but I'm pretty sure that we're all supposed to get something out of it in terms of lower emissions, leading to reduced climate change, and a subsequent reduction in the detrimental impact that that might have on the planet. And I think as well, that it's worded in such a way that poorer countries don't suffer too much by having their industrial development retarded by the restrictions or just restrictions in general, and richer nations shoulder a greater burden due to their, well, just due to the amount of emissions that they produce, I suppose. And that seems practical. But whether it actually works or not, I suppose remains to be seen, because I think it was only in something like 2015 that we reached this agreement. And of course, America seems to come in and out of the agreement as the wind changes. I doubt it will save the planet. But it's always good to see countries at least trying to cooperate. And it would be nice, and I hope to see much more such cooperation in the future. Perhaps it will lay the groundwork for something a little bit more comprehensive than just looking only at emissions. At least this is based on my understanding of what the actual agreement is.

M: And what about your friends? Do they support this law?

R: I have absolutely no idea. We don't really talk about environmental protection too much.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your answer!

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Discussion

M: Oh, that was tough.

R: That was the most difficult task I've had.

M: Yeah, yeah. Dear listener, yeah. It's a fresh IELTS topic. And, yes, it's possible that you can get this one. So what you can talk about? What law on environmental protection can you talk about? I'm thinking of some law on like, smog reduction. You know, there's this smog in the cities. So there's a law to reduce smoke in large cities, for example, right? Or can I talk about a smoking ban? That smoking has been banned inside?

R: Not really. Smoking is more of a personal habit than something that affects the environment, although, arguably, we'd be better off if we weren't all dying of cancer.

M: So this is where you should do some reading.

R: Yeah.

M: Yeah.

R: Read up about your local environmental protections. Well, I was thinking about it there. In almost all countries there are littering laws to stop people from dropping rubbish.

M: Oh, yes. Littering laws.

R: Although I wanted to talk about the Paris Climate Agreement because I wanted to show how it was possible to talk about something that you didn't know so much about.

M: Yep. Yeah. So you can talk about universal laws, right. So like, planet's world organization on environment. Yeah. Or you can talk about some of the Clean Air Act, or laws on cleaning air, or water, or you can talk about something local, something which is done in your city. But again, this requires some research. So could you think about it now as you listen? So what law could you talk about in your city.

R: I think in addition to littering laws there are also laws that reduce the amount of cars in cities. Like there are congestion taxes, for example.

M: Oh, right, in London, for example.

R: Do we have this in Moscow?

M: No, no.

R: Okay.

M: Like big trucks aren't allowed in the Moscow center as far as I know, but nothing like, no. We're a big country. We don't care. We have a lot of air. Go ahead, pollute it.

R: Is there's not like an area in the southwest where they burn everything? All of the trash.

M: Yeah, it's like a garbage pit, garbage dump.

R: Yeah. But it's like super unhealthy. Like, if you smell it, if you go there.

M: Yeah, I've never been. Have you been?

R: I used to live in Novoyasenevo. And I never smelled anything but people said that that's a bad area. But I liked it. I thought it was fine. And I didn't understand why it was such a problem. Anyway, the point is, if you're not sure, there are ways to talk about this. So for example, I started with saying that, I have to say, this isn't my specialist subject. And that is your get-out-of-jail-free card for making up things as you go along. And then you could say that something of an understatement to emphasize the point further.

M: Yes. And actually, you can talk about this Paris Climate Agreement. You can talk about this one. Yeah, so Rory has just told us everything about it.

R: I don't know if I have or not, I didn't do any research. I just assumed, like based on what I heard.

M: Oh, all right. Okay, even without any research, so, but still, you can talk about the Paris Climate Agreement.

R: And you could say, like, I'm not well-versed in the details or on the details.

M: Yes. I'm not well-versed, well-versed meaning, like, I don't know many details.

R: Or any of them to be honest with you.

M: So it's okay not to know things. So you just like should tell the examiner. Like, okay, look, this isn't my specialist subject, but I know this law, blah, blah, blah. And then I'm not well-versed in the details, but I'm pretty sure that bla, bla, bla, bla, bla. Yeah? And because this law is on environmental protection, you're supposed to use a specific vocabulary. Right. And Rory did say this, like countries agreed to limit their emissions.

R: Yes, emissions is just, well, in general emissions are things that are put into something from somewhere. Usually, we talk about emissions in terms of carbon dioxide or gas emissions, because that's... It's just the most common topic where this comes up, the most common subject of discussion where this comes up. So you emit gas, but you can also emit radiation, for example.

M: CO2, right, usually?

R: If you live in Russia, or Belarus, or Ukraine, you could talk about Chernobyl. Because it's against the law to go to Chernobyl for environmental reasons.

M: Okay, but is it a law on environmental protection not to go to Chernobyl?

R: Well, they're protecting people from being irradiated like...

M: Hmm, well, yeah, why not? Okay, I have to say this isn't my specialist subject. So I'm gonna tell you about how you're not supposed to go to Chernobyl. It's a bit weird. Talk about the Paris Climate Agreement. So then you go like, in terms of lower emissions, this could lead to reduced climate change and a reduction in the detrimental impact. Wow.

R: Yes. So reduction of the detrimental impact just means fewer bad things happening.

M: Yep. So detrimental means bad.

R: You could talk about whaling. Whaling is banned all over the world, except for like the Faroe Islands and in Japan.

M: Whaling - like catching whales?

R: And killing them.

M: Oh right, we can talk about animals. That's right.

R: So basically, unless you're Japanese, or from the Faroe Islands, then you could talk about whaling.

M: Right, so whaling is illegal, right. So we should protect whales.

R: Mm-hmm.

M: Yeah. They are endangered species. Something like that. Yep. Yes. So it might have a detrimental effect. A detrimental effect is a negative effect, a bad effect on the environment. Yeah. So we talk about laws on environments. We can paraphrase laws, like restrictions or rules, strict rules, regulations, you can say, not to repeat this law, law all the time. And now I'm looking at this Paris Agreement. It's the Paris Agreement, within the United Nations on climate change... Yeah. So it like, deals with climate change. Okay. So several countries got together and agreed let's stop global warming.

R: I don't think it was just several, I think it was like dozens of countries.

M: And it was signed in 2016. So...

R: Oh, yeah. Well, but the agreement was drafted in 2015, wasn't it?

M: Oh, it says like it was signed.

R: Ah, okay.

M: So maybe they agreed. So 196 state parties.

R: That's almost everybody except from America.

M: I wonder if Russia was there.

R: Yeah.

M: Anyway, I'm not sure the examiner is going to be an expert on the Paris Climate Agreement. Yeah. And all the details. So you can talk about that. Yeah. Climate change, stopping climate change. If you wish, again. At the end of your talk, you said, I doubt it will save the planet but...

R: So again, talking about things that you're not sure about, you can say like, I'm not sure, I doubt. But again, creating a complex sentence just using but, I doubt it will save the planet but and then other the positive side of it. And there are some nice paraphrases and synonyms there. At least trying to cooperate. And I hope to see such cooperation in the future.

M: Nice. Yeah, countries cooperate. And it's nice to have cooperation on environment, environmental protection, and its environmental, right, protection.

R: Yes. Because it's an adjective to describe what kind of protection it is.

M: We say the environment. We should protect the environment, but laws or rules, regulations on environmental protection. Nice. But what if you know, if a person is not listening to this episode, and then the person goes to the examiner, and they have this topic, and they have no idea what to say, you know, like, really like, nothing like zero in the head? What can you do then?

R: Well, we already talked about phrases that came up. If they haven't... Well, what do you mean, if people haven't listened to this episode? What advice can we give to people that don't listen? Like?

M: If I have nothing on laws, if I like, have zero, and then the example goes, could you start speaking now, and then you go. Well, you know, I have to say, this isn't my specialist subject. So I have no idea about any laws on environmental protection. But I think that it's important to protect the environment, because blah, blah, blah, emissions, reduce climate change, blah, blah, blah.

R: Well, I suppose that it's a bit of a disaster, isn't it? But ultimately, it will only really affect your task response score. Like that's the biggest area of difficulty.

M: But task response is not in the criteria, fluency, and coherence is in the criteria.

R: Oh, that's what it is. I'm sorry. It's the first one. I always get them confused.

M: Fluency is assessed. But then you see, the examiner may understand that you don't have enough vocabulary, for example.

R: Yeah. But we're trying to think about, like, if you don't know anything about a subject, you can't talk about it fluently. But, part two is one part of the three-part exam.

M: Yeah, yep.

R: So there's still time to claw back some points, but it might not go entirely your way.

M: Yeah, yeah, you can get a good score if you're fine in speaking part three, even if you like, if the speaking part two was a disaster, and you spoke like for one minutes or 30 seconds, but then the examiner is gonna ask questions, right? So this might help in speaking part two. So you see, listener, like, it's okay. Right? It will balance.

R: Well, it's not okay but it's not like it's the end of the world if you have a bad task two, you know. That's why there are three parts. If it was all, it all hinged on one thing, then it wouldn't be a very good test, would it?

M: Yep. That's why the task has three parts for you to demonstrate that, okay, I can do well in speaking part one. All right, I can mess it up in speaking part two, but then I'm okay in speaking part three talking about topics in general, analyzing, comparing, giving examples, giving my opinion, right, on more sophisticated topics, right. Because speaking part three is, well, complex.

R: Yeah. Anyways, dear listener, so think now what law on the environmental protection you can talk about. If you have no idea talk about whales. Okay, so whaling is the process of hunting whales, and it's illegal in all countries, right?

R: I think so. There's only two I can think of. Maybe Norway does whaling as well, but like, it's so limited. There are so few countries that do this.

M: Commercial whaling. All right, yes, so you can talk about illegal hunting. Right. So it's illegal to hunt, I don't know. What? The Amur tiger. Certain species. Seriously, I have to Google it myself, to be honest. I would talk about whaling if I were in the exam.

R: I think whaling is the most relatable one. And you can combine vocabulary that we've talked about in other episodes like umbrella species, danger, poaching.

M: Poaching, yeah.

R: Harvesting, this kind of thing. So that would help I think.

M: Yeah, we talked about wild animals so...

R: I picked the Climate Agreement because I think it's useful to show people like you can muddle through. It's not a great deal of background knowledge.

M: You can muddle through, you can just go through it. Yeah. Even if it's difficult.

R: I should say, though, it's much better to actually know things, though.

M: Yeah, yeah. That's why we're having this episode. And I've chosen this tricky one. Now you're prepared.

R: But that was the most difficult task I've ever done.

M: Cool. It's gonna be much easier in the exam.

R: We talked a lot about advice here, but I just thought about a piece of vocabulary that might be quite useful. So the first thing is to shoulder a burden. That's when you take on a large responsibility.

M: So it's like, Rory, you have shouldered a burden of writing the scripts for our podcast.

R: I'm ready to shoulder the burden.

M: Yeah, you're shouldering the burden. Or different countries should shoulder the burden of protecting our environment, right? Yep.

R: In the same way, less developed countries might have their industrial development retarded by excessive restrictions. So if something is retarded it just means it goes in reverse.

M: People can also be retarded.

R: It's not very politically correct.

M: Are you retarded or what? He's retarded. So he's, like, stupid.

R: But it is actually I think... I think it's actually illegal to use that word in certain countries.

M: Really? Retarded?

R: Yeah.

M: Are you a retard? Stop being a retard.

R: It's actually grossly offensive in a lot of countries.

M: Yeah, it's pretty bad. So if you do use this word, use it very carefully. Alright?

R: Well, just use it to describe how development has affected in a negative way.

M: Are you drinking Coca-Cola?

R: I am drinking Coca-Cola. We've had McDonald's in the studio. It was nice.

M: Okay, so we're recording and he is having McDonald's, he's drinking Coca-Cola while recording. Okay, fine. Yes. All right. Okay, thank you very much for listening. Hope you liked this episode. In the next one, we're gonna be discussing rules, regulations, and laws in general. Bye!

R: Bye!

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