Environment Listening Practice: How Green Are You? (Audio)
Taught by Katie Wood — Cambridge CELTA · Cambridge DELTA · Cambridge-accredited Teacher Trainer
Recorded and taught by a team of British and North American English teachers, based in Oxford (UK) and Barcelona (Spain).
In this episode: Six speakers answer 'how green are you?' — recycling, too many flights and one self-confessed hypocrite — then Katie and Tom debate global warming. Level 3.
What you'll hear in this episode
The question "How green are you?" comes up twice, with different people each time. In the first conversation, Donnie, Katie and Amanda answer it. Donnie separates plastics, glass, paper and aluminium, but points out that he has taken more flights this year than most people a generation ago took in their lives, and argues that governments should "take more responsibility" rather than leaving it all to individuals. Katie confesses that she keeps buying reusable bags at the supermarket and then forgetting to bring them — though in her defence, the carrier bags become bin bags. One of the speakers describes being sent to the grocery store as a child with plastic boxes instead of bags, and feeling "a little dorky" doing it.
The second round brings in Cathy, Tom and Alec. Cathy talks about children in cities who don't know what a tomato plant looks like, and about giving up veganism because it was "really extreme". Tom admits he eats meat almost every day while trying to cut down. Alec is "ninety-five percent vegetarian" — the exception being Friday brunch and a packet of sausages.
In between, Katie and Tom take on the bigger picture: global warming, water shortages, southern Spain turning into desert, and whether industrialised nations can impose emissions limits on China, India and Brazil. Tom thinks the developing countries "got a fair point". Katie's conclusion: "answers on a postcard please anybody."
Quick facts
| Episode | Zapp! English Listening 3.31 – The Environment |
| Pack | Listening 3 |
| Level | 3 |
| Duration | 16 minutes 27 seconds |
| Speakers you'll hear | Donnie, Katie, Amanda, Tom, Cathy, Alec |
| Recording | Unscripted conversations, made outdoors with background sound |
| Workbook | Four listening tasks, extra questions, vocabulary exercise and glossary |
| Audio | Free to download |
What you'll learn
This is a unit about hedging — the language people use when they know their answer is a bit embarrassing. Listen to how often the speakers soften a claim before they've finished making it: "I suppose that's something in my favour", "in my defence", "I guess", "I don't know how effective that actually is". Native speakers rarely commit fully to a self-flattering statement, and this recording is full of examples.
You'll also practise listening for agreement. In Task 1 and Task 3 the job is to find what all three speakers mention — a real listening skill, because you have to hold three long answers in your head and compare them rather than following one line of argument. The answers are recycling in the first group, and recycling, not driving and flying in the second.
Task 4 gives you something different: a fast, overlapping discussion where Katie interrupts Tom mid-sentence ("sorry to interrupt you there") and Tom finishes her sentence for her with a single word, "Industry." Following who thinks what in that kind of exchange is much harder than following a monologue, so the task simply asks whether the two of them are optimistic or pessimistic. You'll also pick up the standard vocabulary of environmental discussion: greenhouse gases, emissions, fossil fuels, polar ice caps, sea levels.
Vocabulary from this unit
The workbook glossary covers these:
- diligent (adjective) – hard working and careful. Donnie's flatmates are less diligent than he is about separating the recycling.
- melted (past participle) – went from being solid to liquid because of heat. Used twice over: plastic bottles are melted down, and later the polar ice caps are melting.
- hypocrite (noun) – someone who says one thing and does the opposite. Katie's own description of herself.
- carbon footprint (noun) – the amount of pollution (as carbon dioxide) an individual or an organisation creates as a result of their actions. Bigger than it should be, because of the flights.
- fossil fuels (noun) – fuels like oil that come from animals and plants that died millions of years ago. Tom mentions them depleting.
- droughts (noun) – periods where no rain falls and there is no water. Part of Katie's water argument.
- impromptu (adjective) – with no preparation or planning. Alec keeps cloth bags on him for an impromptu shop.
- vice (noun) – a bad habit. Flying is Alec's, by his own admission.
In the workbook
The workbook for this unit is part of the Zapp! English all-in-one pack. It takes you through four listening tasks, each with a question to answer before you listen and the answer given afterwards: two rounds of "How green are you?", one on the single most important environmental issue, and one on whether there is any solution. The full transcript of every conversation is included, so you can check anything you missed word for word.
After that come the extra materials: eight further comprehension questions covering details such as why Cathy stopped being a vegan, how often Tom eats meat now and where Alec keeps his reusable bags, with answers at the back. Then a meaning-from-context exercise on five expressions taken straight from the conversations — dorky, knock on effects, cut down on, a drop in the ocean and get on board — followed by the eight-word glossary above.
The pack includes the workbook for every episode, at all levels, for €39.
Get the complete courseAll workbooks and audio — €39
Common questions
Is the audio really unscripted?
The conversations are unscripted — nobody was given lines, which is why you hear coughs, false starts and people changing their minds halfway through a sentence. The teaching sections that set up each task and give the answers are scripted, so the instructions stay clear.
What level do I need to be?
This is a Level 3 unit. The speakers talk at natural speed with no simplification, and there is background sound from the recording, so you'll get the most from it if you're already comfortable with everyday listening.
Do I have to pay for the audio?
No. The audio is free to download. The workbook that goes with it is part of the paid pack.
How long should this unit take me?
The audio runs 16 minutes 27 seconds, but with the workbook tasks, the extra questions and the vocabulary exercise, expect to spend considerably longer than that on it.
Can I use this for speaking practice too?
Yes — the two questions in the unit, "How green are you?" and "What do you think is the single most important environmental issue we face today?", are both worth answering out loud yourself before you hear how the speakers handle them.
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