Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and do the exercises.
Preparation
A Plastic Ocean
A Plastic Ocean is a film to make you think. Think, and then act. We need to take action on our dependence on plastic. We've been producing plastic in huge quantities since the 1940s. Drink bottles, shopping bags, toiletries and even clothes are made with plastic. 1) _____. What happens to all the rest? This is the question the film A Plastic Ocean answers. It is a documentary that looks at the impact that plastic waste has on the environment. Spoiler alert: the impact is devastating.
The film begins as a journey to film the largest animal on the planet, the blue whale. But during the journey the filmmakers (journalist Craig Leeson and environmental activist Tanya Streeter) make the shocking discovery of a huge, thick layer of plastic floating in the middle of the Indian Ocean. 2) _____. In total, they visited 20 locations around the world during the four years it took them to make the film. The documentary premiered in 2016, and is now on streaming services such as Netflix.
It's very clear that a lot of research went into the film. There are beautiful shots of the seas and marine life. 3) _____. We see how marine species are being killed by all the plastic we are dumping in the ocean. The message about our use of plastic is painfully obvious.
4) _____. In the second half, the filmmakers look at what we can do to reverse the tide of plastic flowing around the world. They present short-term and long-term solutions. These include avoiding plastic containers and 'single-use' plastic products as much as possible. Reuse your plastic bags and recycle as much as you can. The filmmakers also stress the need for governments to work more on recycling programmes, and look at how technology is developing that can convert plastic into fuel.
We make a staggering amount of plastic. In terms of plastic bags alone, we use five hundred billion worldwide annually. Over 300 million tons of plastic are produced every year, and at least 8 million of those are dumped into the oceans. 5) _____. Once you've seen A Plastic Ocean, you'll realise the time is now and we all have a role to play.
The documentary films I would recommend are Animals Kingdom and Wild Birds.
There are manny documentary I see. But i think plastic dump documentary is deserve to see. I hope government will work more on recycle
There are lots of videos on online about plastic. Everyone knows that use of plastic is disastrous. But we need to immediately take action on this. Countries should make strict law about this.. and who use plastic deal with strictly.
nice. I think so
We need to take care our environment. Our seas are trashed a lot. Our forests are burning! We're making a plenty of trashes and don't recycle them! First of all, we need to teach aour children to take care the nature. Cause they will grow like a conscient persons.
This topic is actually quite interesting because we (humans) have taken nature for granted, i.e., we haven't respected it as we should, and the result, as mentioned in the text, has been devastating: animals and plants have been dying. Nevertheless, there's still time for changes, such as those already commented above. By respecting nature, we respect our existence!
Hi Vanessa Rodrìguez,
Thanks for letting us know. I've just checked the page and it seems fine, so it may have been a temporary error. Can you see the reading text now?
If not: which picture can you see - is it (1) the picture of rubbish on a beach, or (2) the picture of a seal with a plastic bottle? Do you find the same problem with other pages (e.g. this one)?
If it is still not working, one solution is to try opening the page with a different web browser and see if it works. I hope it works now but please let us know again if not, and I will investigate further. Thanks :)
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team