CUE CARD: ENVIRONMENT

Đề: Describe an environmental problem that has occurred in your country.

You should say:

• The cause of the problem

• What effect it has had on your country

• The steps, if any, that have been taken to solve this 

Explain why you think this problem is so important to solve.

Model answer:

Ok, I'm going to talk about a problem with the environment in my country.

One of the most serious problems at the moment is flooding. This is starting to happen every year and each year it seems to get worse. I think it may be caused by a number of factors. Firstly there has been a lot of deforestation in the north of the country, a lot of it from illegal logging. Because of this, when it rains the water has nothing to soak it up so it just runs down the mountains and into the villages and towns. Another factor may be global warming. Scientists believe that this is causing more severe weather so this may account for the increasing amount of rain that we seem to be seeing. It also means the soil is drier so again the rainwater runs off it rather than being soaked up.

Unfortunately, there have been really serious effects on my country. As I said, the excess water runs into the villages and the towns through the rivers and the rivers then overflow causing massive flooding. This affects thousands of people who then become homeless. Several hundred usually die each year as well. It travels through the country as it starts in the north and goes down to the sea, so it can affect many towns and the capital city too. This also has repercussions for the government as they have to spend so much money managing the disaster each year.

The government is trying to tackle the problem, but it is not easy. They are trying to stop so much deforestation but a lot of the damage has already been done so what can they do? They are also starting to build defences such as walls along some of the major rivers that run through the town to try to stop them from overflowing. Another thing they are doing is trying to improve their response systems. In most towns, there is now a government organization responsible for coordinating relief operations and making sure they are prepared in advance.

I think this problem is a top priority to solve because it has such devastating impacts. As I mentioned before, it causes suffering for so many people and it is also a huge expense for the government and as we are not a rich country we cannot afford this. It means that other services suffer because of a lack of money. There are other problems that my country has but I think that is by far the worst.

So, that is a serious problem in my country, and I only hope that it does not continue to get worse.

TỪ VỰNG TRONG BÀI

• Deforestation /diːˌfɔːr.əˈsteɪ.ʃən/ (n): nạn phá rừng (the cutting down of trees in a large area, or the destruction of forests by people)

• Logging /ˈlɑː.ɡɪŋ/ (n): khai thác gỗ (the activity of cutting down trees in order to use their wood)

• Excess /ˈek.ses/ (adj): dư thừa, quá mức (extra)

• Repercussion /ˌriː.pɚˈkʌʃ.ən/ (n): ảnh hưởng, hậu quả (the effect that an action, event, or decision has on something, especially a bad effect)

• Tackle /ˈtæk.əl/ (v): giải quyết (to try to deal with something or someone)

• Relief operation: hoạt động cứu trợ

Nguồn: IELTS Buddy