Global Warming and Climate Change

The unit opens with three pictures:

1. A polar bear standing on a small, broken piece of floating ice in a dark sea, with no land in sight.
2. A steep, rocky mountain with only thin patches of snow left in its gullies.
3. A town after a storm: houses with their roofs torn off, palm trees snapped or bent, people walking among the wreckage.

Together they show three consequences (results) of a warming world: sea ice melting under the animals that need it, snow and glaciers disappearing from the mountains, and storms growing more violent.

Global warming and climate change

Global warming is the rise in the average temperature of the Earth’s air and seas over many years. Climate change is wider: the long-term change in the pattern of weather in a place, its heat and cold, rain and drought, snow and storms. Warming is the cause; the changed climate is what we live with. (Weather is what happens today; climate is the weather a place has year after year.)

The causes. Some gases in the air, mainly carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane, trap heat like a blanket: this is the greenhouse effect (Figure 17.1). Without it the Earth would be frozen. But since the 1800s people have made the blanket thicker:

• burning fossil fuels (coal, petrol, diesel, gas) in vehicles, factories, power stations and kitchens, which adds carbon dioxide;
• cutting down forests, which took carbon dioxide out of the air;
• farming and waste: rice paddies, cattle and rotting rubbish in landfills give off methane.

The consequences. The world is now about 1.3 °C warmer than in the late 1800s (as of 2025), and:

• glaciers and ice sheets melt, and sea level rises, flooding low coasts;
• heat waves, droughts and very heavy rain come more often;
• storms grow stronger, because warm seas give them more energy;
• plants and animals must move or die out: the polar bear hunts from sea ice, which melts earlier every summer;
• people suffer: crops fail, water runs short, and diseases such as dengue spread to new places.

In Nepal. Nepal’s mountains are warming faster than the world’s average. Its glaciers have been shrinking for decades, and new glacial lakes have formed behind walls of loose rock: if one of these walls bursts, a flood rushes down the valley. In 2016 the Nepali Army lowered Imja Tsho in Khumbu by about 3.4 meters to make it safer. ICIMOD, the mountain research center in Lalitpur, has warned that the glaciers of the Hindu Kush Himalaya could lose a third to a half of their ice by 2100 even if warming is held to 1.5–2 °C, and up to 80% if emissions stay high (2023).

Before you read

What kind of text it is

A movie review is a short article that tells readers about a film and judges it: what it is, what it shows, what is good and bad about it, and whether it is worth seeing. This one is about a documentary, a film about real events and real people, not a made-up story. Like most published reviews, it starts with a box of details:

Detail	What it means	In this review
Title	the film’s name	Chasing Ice
Genre	the kind of film	documentary, biography (the story of a real person’s work)
Language		English
Director	the person in charge of making the film	Jeff Orlowski
Producers	the people who organize the money and the team	Jerry Aronson, Paula DuPré Pesmen, Jeff Orlowski
Writer	who wrote the words and planned the story	Mark Monroe
Release	when it was first shown	2012: first at the Sundance Film Festival in January, then in cinemas from November
Runtime	how long it lasts	1 hour 14 minutes
Produced by	the companies that made it	Exposure, Diamond Docs

The review was written by Andrea Seikaly. The photo beside it shows a climber, tiny against walls of blue ice.

The review, part by part

Paragraph 1: why the film matters now

The review begins with Hurricane Sandy, the huge storm that struck the Caribbean and the east coast of the United States in October 2012, killing more than two hundred people and flooding New York. In the wake of (just after) such a storm, the review says, everyone can see how powerful and unpredictable nature is, and that weather patterns keep changing. Since weather and global warming are now prevalent (common, everywhere) in talk and the news, a film that shows evidence comes at the right time. The review calls it James Balog’s documentary, because it follows the work of that photographer (its director was Jeff Orlowski): it gives striking (very noticeable, impressive) pictures of glaciers shrinking as the climate changes.

Paragraph 2: the photographer’s plan

The film follows Balog’s journey as he tries to capture (record) on photos and video how the glaciers of the Arctic (the region around the North Pole) are disappearing. To accomplish (achieve) this, he started his own project and dubbed it (gave it the name) the Extreme Ice Survey. The endeavor (a serious attempt) began as work for National Geographic magazine and grew into something much bigger: an attempt to show the whole problem.

Paragraph 3: the cameras

The survey began with 25 cameras to be watched over three years. Each was housed (put) in a protective box, so the harsh Arctic weather would not destroy it, and the team came back from time to time to download the footage (take the pictures off the cameras). Balog had photographed glaciers before, and he wanted to return to the same places to see how they had changed. The team set up cameras in Greenland, Iceland, Alaska and Glacier National Park in Montana, in the United States. Each camera took a photo about once every hour of daylight, for years: played one after the other, the photos make a time-lapse film, in which years pass in seconds and the ice can be seen shrinking.

Paragraph 4: a doubter at the start

The film opens with striking and intense clips of natural disasters. Then Balog explains that he himself was once skeptical: he doubted that the climate was really changing and did not trust the scientists’ research. That makes him relatable (easy to understand and feel close to: viewers who doubt can see themselves in him), and it increases his credibility (how much people believe him). A man who set out doubting and ended up finding the evidence himself is hard to dismiss.

Paragraph 5: facts and pictures together

The film combines data and scientific facts with beautiful pictures, and that makes climate change feel real. Balog’s photographs and time-lapse footage of glaciers calving, breaking apart into icebergs, let viewers see and experience what is happening far away. The reviewer’s advice: watch it on the biggest screen you can, because most people will never see such places with their own eyes.

Paragraph 6: easy to follow

Balog refrains from (holds back from) overwhelming the audience with too many scientific details, and makes the data easy to understand. He explains how he works and what his results mean without coming across as boring (seeming dull). When you watch an avalanche on screen, or see a glacier lose so much ice in so short a time, you cannot help realizing that Balog is onto something (has found something real and important).

Paragraph 7: the risks the team took

The film also shows the extreme lengths the team went to: a glaciologist (a scientist who studies glaciers) and a climatologist (a scientist who studies climate) worked with Balog. There are scenes where Balog cries out in disappointment because cameras have failed, and others where he puts himself in precarious (dangerous, likely to fall) positions, climbing down into holes and caves in the ice to get the best shot. Not to mention (and on top of all that) the knee surgery that threatens to stop him hiking on the ice at all.

Paragraph 8: the verdict

Chasing Ice is worthwhile (worth the time it takes). It combines intriguing (very interesting) theories and exquisite (extremely beautiful) images. People who are skeptical about theories on the environment may be reluctant (unwilling) to watch it, but even they will gain something: the film makes viewers think critically about climate change and what it may mean for our future.

Words from the review

Word	Meaning here
prevalent	common; found everywhere
erosion	the gradual wearing away of soil and rock by water, wind or ice
accomplish	to succeed in doing; to achieve
dub	to give a name to
endeavor	a serious attempt to do something
footage	film of a particular event
intense	very strong; showing strong feelings
skepticism	doubt that something is true
relatable	easy to understand and feel close to
credibility	the quality of being believed and trusted
calving	a glacier’s ice breaking off into the sea or a lake as icebergs
refrain from	to stop yourself from doing
overwhelming	too great or too much to deal with
avalanche	a mass of snow, ice and rock falling fast down a mountainside
glaciologist	a scientist who studies glaciers
climatologist	a scientist who studies climate
precarious	not safe; likely to fall
intriguing	very interesting, making you curious
exquisite	extremely beautiful or finely made
reluctant	unwilling, hesitating to do something

A. Match the words

C. Complete the sentences

D. Answer the questions

E. Slowing climate change

The letters oo spell two different vowel sounds:

Sound	How you make it	Examples
/ʊ/, short	quick and relaxed, lips only a little rounded	book, foot, good, put, could
/uː/, long	held longer, lips pushed forward and rounded, as for a whistle	food, moon, school, blue, true

The two dots in /uː/ mean long. Nepali has both lengths too: the short उ of उठ and the long ऊ of ऊन (though in everyday speech they are often said alike).

A. The conversation

Two students, a boy and a girl, talk in speech bubbles:

• Boy: Who is that man? — Girl: He is wearing a chef’s uniform. He works in a restaurant. He must be a chef.
• Boy: Do you think they have returned home? — Girl: Their car is not at home. So, they can’t have returned.

The girl isn’t told the answers: she works them out from what she can see. This is called deduction, and English uses the modal verbs must, may, might, could and can’t to show how sure you are:

How sure	About now	About the past
sure it’s true (about 95%)	He must be a chef.	He must have been tired.
perhaps (about 50%)	She may / might / could be at home.	She may / might / could have missed the bus.
sure it’s not true (about 95%)	They can’t be at home.	They can’t have returned. (or couldn’t have)

Notice the shape: modal + be (or the plain verb) for now; modal + have + past participle for the past.

B. Situations

C. At a party

The things in C have already happened, so the answers are about the past: must have, might have, can’t have + past participle.

You met the future forms in Unit 1. This unit practices three of them:

Form	How it is made	What it says	Example
simple future	will + plain verb	a future fact, a prediction, a decision or promise	The team will reach the glacier on Friday.
future continuous	will be + -ing	an action in progress at a future time, or over a stretch of future time	This time tomorrow, we will be flying over Khumbu. The workers will be building the bridge for the next two months.
future perfect	will have + past participle	an action finished before a future time	By 11 p.m., she will have prepared the report.

The time words are the clues:

• by (by Friday, by the time he finishes, by 2030) usually means the future perfect: it will be done before then.
• this time tomorrow / next week, at 10 tonight, for the next … usually mean the future continuous: it will be going on then.
• tomorrow, next year, soon, in an hour, I think … with a single event: the simple future.

A. Fill in the gaps

B. Visiting Her Majesty

The paragraph is a funny, made-up story told in the past: the writer disguises himself (dresses up so as not to be recognized) as a prince, walks into Buckingham Palace in London, gets directions from a chambermaid (a woman who cleans bedrooms), and surprises the Queen with a hearty slap on the back. Then he tips his hat (touches or lifts it, a polite greeting), bows, and pays her the usual compliments; they open a bottle of champagne, exchange pleasantries (polite friendly remarks), talk about their families for over an hour, show each other his stamp album and her historic jewels, trade (exchange) email addresses, and he kisses her goodbye, on the fingertips of her white gloves. (The Queen then was Elizabeth II, who died in 2022.)

To put it in the future, change every past verb to will + the plain verb. Where two verbs share one subject (I tipped my hat, bowed, and delivered…), one will covers them all. Words like After receiving and After uncorking don’t change: -ing has no tense.

You wrote a book review in Unit 12. A movie review has the same two jobs, to inform and to judge, and the same rule: never give away the ending. Its parts:

1. The details, in a box or a first paragraph: title, genre, director, main actors (or the real people in a documentary), language, year, runtime.
2. What it is about: the story or subject in a few sentences, in the present tense (Balog sets up cameras…).
3. What is good: the acting, the story, the pictures (cinematography), the music, the message, with examples.
4. What is weak: be fair, and give reasons.
5. The verdict: is it worth seeing, and who will enjoy it?

Useful words: gripping, moving, hilarious, beautifully shot, well acted, slow, predictable, a must-see, worth watching, I’d recommend it to…

Before you read

The picture shows a man in a cap and a dark jacket, bent over, digging in a garden with a spade; there is a heap of fresh soil in front of him.

What kind of text it is

A Noisy Party is a short comic play (a funny dialogue). Its joke is a misunderstanding: a husband and wife lie awake listening to the noise next door, and with each new sound they guess what is happening, each guess darker than the last, until the truth turns out to be quite ordinary. It is also full of the language of certainty from this unit’s Speaking:

Very sure	Fairly sure	Unsure
I’m sure…, I’m certain…, there is no doubt that…, It must be…, It can’t be…	I’m pretty sure…, I think…	Maybe…, He might be…, Who could it be?

The play, part by part

Half past one: the party

Ramila wakes her husband Ramesh, calling him “Silu’s Papa” (in many Nepali homes, husband and wife call each other by their child’s name: Silu’s father). Ramesh thinks it can’t be eight o’clock already: it is only half past one. The noise is from the people next door, having another party. Ramila is angry: they are surely waking up the whole street, the noise is disgusting (horrible), somebody should call the police. Ramesh pretends he wasn’t asleep, and is a little jealous: they must be having a good time, and they never invite us, do they?

Nearly three: the row

Later the guests leave. Ramesh hopes for some sleep at last, but at nearly three o’clock there is more noise: he thinks the neighbors are having a row (a noisy quarrel). Ramila isn’t surprised: they always have rows after parties, she says. Ramesh is certain they are throwing pots and pans; Ramila is sure that crash was a plate, maybe even the TV. They’ll be sorry in the morning.

Before dawn: the spade

Later still, Ramila hears someone in the garden next door. Ramesh guesses it must be the milkman; Ramila is certain it isn’t, because it’s too early. Ramesh looks out: Gosh! It’s Mr. Dahal, and he is carrying a spade. Now their imaginations run wild. Has he killed his wife after the row? If so, he might be burying the body. He can’t be planting potatoes at this hour, can he? Ramesh wants to call the police; Ramila tells him to ask Mr. Dahal what he is doing first.

The truth

Ramesh calls out politely: You are up early this morning. Mr. Dahal hasn’t been to bed: they had a party, and he hopes they didn’t keep the neighbors awake. Oh, no, says Ramesh, who has been awake all night, we didn’t hear anything, nothing at all. Mr. Dahal explains: it was a noisy party, and while they were clearing up, his wife knocked over the goldfish tank. The poor fish died, and he is burying them before his children wake up.

Words from the play

Word	Meaning here
matter	what is wrong; a situation you must deal with (What’s the matter?)
disgusting	very unpleasant, horrible
row (rhymes with now)	a noisy quarrel
gosh	a word of surprise
spade	a tool with a flat metal blade for digging
goldfish	a small orange or red fish kept as a pet
bury	to put something under the ground

A. Find the words

B. Choose the correct answers

C. True, false or not given

D. Disturbed at night

A. Before you listen

Six pictures show six kinds of weather: in the first row, a house and trees under a bright sun; trees bending in the wind; a sky of big, piled-up clouds. In the second row, children in warm clothes round a fire with snow falling; a gray forest hidden in mist; heavy rain streaming from dark clouds.

Most weather adjectives are made by adding -y to the noun: sun → sunny (double the n), wind → windy, cloud → cloudy, snow → snowy, fog → foggy (double the g), rain → rainy.

The recording

A man who grew up in England and once lived in Dubai, a desert city of the United Arab Emirates, talks about how people in the two places think about the weather. Read the sentences in B first, then listen, as many times as you need.

Words you will hear: can’t deal with (can’t cope with, can’t manage); heat wave (a spell of unusually hot days); emergency (a sudden dangerous situation needing quick action); weather forecast (what the weather is expected to be); desert, rainforest.

B. Match the halves

Making wh-questions

A wh-question asks for information, not yes or no. It starts with a question word:

Asks about	Word	Example
a person (the subject)	who	Who found the camera?
a person (the object)	whom (formal) or who	Whom did they invite?
a thing or an action	what	What did Dawa find?
one of a known few	which	Which tent did Lhamu choose?
belonging	whose	Whose is this bag?
a place	where	Where does Mr. Chaudhari live?
a time	when, what time	When did they go to Spain?
a reason	why	Why are the glaciers shrinking?
a way or a manner	how	How can I send the application?
an amount, a length	how much, how many, how long, how far	How long have you been living here?

To ask about the underlined part of a statement:

1. Choose the wh-word that fits the underlined part, and take that part out.
2. Put the helping verb before the subject: They are having lunch → What are they having?
3. No helping verb? Add do, does or did, and use the plain verb: They went → Where did they go?
4. But if the wh-word is the subject (who, what about the doer), keep the statement’s order and add no do: Who went to Spain? (✗ Who did go…?)
5. Change I/you, my/your as the speaker would: You can send it by mail → How can I send it?

A. Make questions

Reporting a wh-question

You reported yes/no questions in Unit 6. A wh-question is reported the same way, but it keeps its wh-word (no if or whether):

1. Reporting verb: asked, enquired, wanted to know, wondered.
2. Keep the wh-word, then put the words in statement order: subject before the verb, and no do/does/did: “Where are you from?” → She asked me where I was from.
3. Move the tense back after a past reporting verb: is → was, does → did, have been → had been, will → would, can → could.
4. Change pronouns and time and place words: you → I/me, here → there, now → then.
5. No question mark: the reported question is a statement.

Direct	Reported
“Where is the bank?”	He asked where the bank was.
“What does your father do?”	Rohan enquired what my father did.
“Who will bell the cat?”	The mouse asked who would bell the cat.

B. Report the questions

C. Your own questions

A notice is a short, formal announcement for many people at once: a school’s students and parents, a ward’s residents, the members of a club. It is put up on a notice board, read out, or shared online. It must be clear, short and complete: the reader should know at a glance what, when, where, who and what to do.

A. The parts of a notice

The model notice, from a school in Bhanu, Tanahun, has all the parts:

1. The name and address of the organization giving it: Shree Janajagriti Secondary School, Bhanu-10, Tanahun.
2. The date it was written: 14 June 2021.
3. The heading NOTICE.
4. The message, in one or two short paragraphs: who it is for (all the students and parents), what (the school will remain closed for the summer vacation), when (from 15 June to 15 July 2021), and what next (regular classes will resume from 16 July).
5. Who it is from: the signature and title, Head Teacher.

Notices use formal phrases: This is to notify/inform all … that …, will remain closed, will resume, Interested students are requested to …, For more information, contact …

B. Write a notice

A linking verb joins the subject to a word that says what it is or what it is like. It shows no action; it simply links: in The ball is red, is links the ball to red. The word after a linking verb is called the complement: an adjective (red, tired) or a noun (a chef, a doctor).

The most common linking verbs:

Kind	Verbs	Example
being	be (is, are, was…)	The glacier is huge.
becoming	become, get, grow, turn	The sky turned gray. He became a pilot.
seeming	seem, appear	The neighbors seem angry.
staying	remain, stay	The roads remained closed.
the senses	look, feel, sound, taste, smell	The soup smells good. You look tired.
proving	prove	The forecast proved wrong.

A test: replace the verb with is (or was). If the sentence still makes sense, the verb is linking: The soup smells good → The soup is good. ✓

Practice on this unit in the style of the final exam. Try each one as in the exam, then open the answer.