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Oil Spill

Date: Jun 18 2010

Themes: News

Grammar: Present Progressive Tense

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Intro

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On April 10, 2010, a nightmare became reality. An explosion rocked an oil rig platform off the coast of Louisiana, in the Gulf of Mexico. Eleven people died in the explosion and the damage to the environment that has followed has already been catastrophic.

With thousands of barrels of oil still gushing into the water, the disaster in the Gulf is only getting worse. Listen to Marni and Devan share their anger and shock over the spill.

Dialog

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Marni

Devan

Marni: So I am just astounded that the Gulf…the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is still happening.

Devan: It’s pretty unbelievable. You’d think that before they start offshore drilling, they would know what to do ahead of time in case of emergencies like this. But they seem completely clueless as to how to solve this problem, and it’s like, how did that never come up in discussion before about what to do if this happens?

Marni: I absolutely agree with you, it just seems like there’s so much…you know, there’s no accountability right now with BP, and I can’t believe that they’re not being held accountable for this. It’s just like, they need to pay, they need to clean up the spill, and it needs to be dealt with.

Devan: The thing I’m interested to see as to what happens is what it’s going to mean for the future, as far as like our environmental policies and if we’re gonna continue to do offshore drilling, or if we’re gonna seize this opportunity to be like, OK, now it’s time to really get serious about clean energy.

Marni: Yeah, because obviously the consequences are just too great. We’re seeing the worst oil spill in US history, and the effects…I mean, the Gulf of Mexico is trashed. Louisiana is, you know, just completely destroyed yet again. And now all the oil is actually seeping as far east as Florida. So it’s just…you know, who knows where this is gonna end up. It’s just really baffling.

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Discussion

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Marni and Devan can’t believe that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is still happening. Two months after the explosion, oil continues to gush into the water off the coast of Louisiana.

Marni thinks that BP, the company responsible for the spill, needs to do more to stop it. She thinks that it is their responsibility to fix the problem and pay for the damage that has been done. Marni thinks the oil company needs to be held accountable.

Devan wonders what will happen in the future as a result of this spill. She hopes that this disaster will lead the US and other countries to invest more in clean energy.

What do you think about the oil spill? How much damage do you think it will cause? Should the US and other countries change their policies on energy and the environment?

Comments

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Ahshan

China

the oil spill is really disaster to the planet on environment! and the president Obama said that" now ,i know whose ass to kick for the oil spill"

what we can see is that all the americans are angry with the oil spill!

karmil

Syrian Arab Republic

its gona end up with solving this problem .. no need to worry :) ..we can see everybody in US working hard on this . And i think this who talked about reason of this was right, yes..new US politics and stratejies going to help…and maybe avoid going into other natural disasters, who knows! i think nature sometimes goes mad for being careless with it, as if it has human souls and abilities!

rmtzn

Turkey

if US stayed at home instead of being in afghanistan or irak, it wouldn't be necessary to search or take out so much oil. please try to learn how much oil us needs for a mount in afghanistan or ırak.

clear energy is clear politics first of all.

while all the people are eating 1 bread a day, if you eat 1000 bread a day, you can not compline baker (BP) to cut the forest.

rmtzn

Turkey

while all the people are eating 1 bread a day, if you eat 1000 bread a day, you can not compline baker to cut the forest.

rmtzn

Turkey

if US stayed at of instead of being in afghanistan or irak, it wouldn't be necessary to search or take out so much oil. please try to learn how much oil us needs for a mount in afghanistan or ırak.

clear energy is clear politics first of all.

usamedin

Macedonia

the lesson teaches that people should be more careful about the nature and live it in an enjoyable way….

spacedragon

Brazil

humans r the worst thing in the earth indeed !!!!!!!!

jamch

Honduras

It s really sad what's happening in gulf of Mexico

miss violet

Saudi Arabia

i like this lesson

SharkYao

China

It's really a nightmare.With the development of the economy of the world,people ought to consider more about the environment and surroundings around us.

Sheep1207

Germany

There is no need to use clean energy; there is a need to make the oil rig platforms safety … and to make BP hold accountable for that disaster.

I saw an interview the other day about the captian of that platform who discovered the explotion; he told about the ignorance from BP; they ignored many problems of the platform. The explotion and the offshore drilling happened because those problems were never fixed.

That is the problem and not the way how the world gets their energy.

branden

South Korea

Human has depended on oil, we have to change our enegry policies and invest the clean and green energy.

We should try~

RPGMorpheuS

Hungary

That "BP" company's done for.

Everybody hate them at the moment, due to the incident.

They won't long last. And why's that for? 'Cause they didn't want to kill money in some hundred dollar worth equipment, and didn't want to pay for too many people…

Though, i doubt that the world would learn from this…

"clean energy" doesn't really exist, and until big companys don't want to, it won't come into the picture.