Environment & Sustainability
Environment & Sustainability — 20 high-frequency words, with pronunciation, collocations, easy-to-confuse words and four interactive exercises.
📌 In this lesson
🎯 Lesson goal
The most common topic in English exams 🌍. Twenty words to discuss climate, energy and waste precisely, plus the collocations that examiners reward: reduce emissions, renewable sources, carbon footprint. 🚀
🗂️ Word Bank
Tap 🔊 to hear the British pronunciation. The IPA transcription is under each word.
📖 Words in context
A school that changes its habits · tap a highlighted word to hear it.
Last September our school decided to measure its carbon footprint. The results were uncomfortable: heating still depended on fossil fuels, and almost nothing was sorted before going to landfill.
The students' council proposed three measures. First, ban single-use cups in the canteen. Second, recycle paper and plastic properly, and weigh the food waste every week. Third, install panels so that part of the electricity comes from a renewable source, which should cut our emissions significantly.
The science teachers used the project to explain how greenhouse gases drive global warming, why deforestation damages biodiversity, and how drought and flooding are two faces of the same crisis. The aim was not only to become more sustainable, but to raise awareness: climate change is not a topic for the exam — it is the exam.
🔗 Collocations & chunks
Words travel in pairs, not alone: learn the whole chunk.
| Chunk / collocation | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| cut carbon emissions | to send less carbon into the air | The law aims to cut carbon emissions. |
| renewable energy sources | energy that nature replaces, like sun and wind | Invest in renewable energy sources. |
| tackle climate change | to try to solve the problem of climate change | Governments must tackle climate change. |
| environmentally friendly | not harmful to nature | These products are environmentally friendly. |
| have a negative impact on | to cause harm to something | Tourism has a negative impact on the coast. |
| phase out | to stop using something step by step | They will phase out petrol cars. |
⚠️ Easy-to-confuse words
| English word | Real meaning ✅ | Easy to mix up with ❌ |
|---|---|---|
| consistent | always the same; steady | It does not mean “large”: that is substantial |
| eventually | in the end, after a long time | It does not mean “possibly” |
| polluted | dirty or harmful because of pollution | Not “with many people living there”: that is populated |
| estate | a large area of land owned by one person; all the money and property a person leaves | Not the hot season: that is summer |
🎚️ Register: when to use them
| Expression | Register | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| It's a total mess. | informal | between friends, with no facts |
| It's a serious problem. | neutral | always suitable |
| This poses a significant threat to… | formal | exam essay, report |
| Evidence suggests that… | academic | the safest way to give data in an essay |
🚫 Common mistakes to avoid
| Mistake ❌ | Correct ✅ |
|---|---|
| The pollution are increasing. | Pollution is increasing. |
| We must safeguard the ambient. | We must protect the environment. |
| This is a big problematic. | This is a serious problem. |
| We do the separate collection. | We separate our waste for recycling. |
🎮 Vocabulary gym
Four ways to practise the same 20 words. Your progress is saved on this device.
Tap the card to flip it.
Tap an English word, then its meaning. Eight pairs per round.
Complete the ten sentences with the right word. The clue under each sentence will help you.
- affects every continent.💡 Long-term change in the weather affects every continent.
- is accelerating.💡 The rise in the Earth’s temperature is speeding up.
- Cars produce large amounts of .💡 Cars produce large amounts of gases that trap heat.
- The plan aims to cut by half.💡 The plan aims to cut the gases sent into the air by half.
- Flying increases your .💡 Flying increases the amount of carbon dioxide you cause.
- Wind is a source of energy.💡 Wind is a source of energy that never runs out.
- We must move away from .💡 We must stop using coal, oil and gas.
- This town aims to eighty per cent of its waste.💡 This town wants to process eighty per cent of its rubbish so it can be used again.
- Food is a huge problem.💡 Throwing away food is a huge problem.
- Too much plastic ends up in .💡 Too much plastic ends up buried with rubbish.