Referring to Nouns – Lead In

Answer Key

1 environment: climate, global warming, ozone depiction;
satellites: fully-equipped, observation, launch, monitoring, outer space, instrument, operational costs, precise
2 1. in 2002; 2. ten/10; 3. ERS 1; 4. ERS 2; 5. fifteen/15 years; 6. two/2 cups
3 1 a 2 The 3 the; – 4 this 5 None
4
1 Sentence 1 = the first time it is mentioned; sentence 2 = the same satellite we have just mentioned.
2 We use the with superlatives; we mean scientists in general, not a specific group.
3 2.3 billion euros 4 There are more than two countries

Transcript

Good morning everyone. As part of the conference on environmental awareness, I’d like to talk to you this morning about an exciting development in monitoring climate change: Europe’s technological showpiece, Envisat.

Envisat is a fully-equipped observation satellite and it is the largest, most technologically advanced, and most powerful one that the European Space Agency (the ESA) has ever created.

The satellite was launched in 2002 and is on the trail of climate change, delivering up-to-the-minute information about our changing environment. Seeing the earth from outer space highlights how tiny and fragile this planet of ours is. Envisat helps people to understand that and encourages us to protect our blue planet as our place of birth, and as the ancestral home where our children and grandchildren will live after us.

With its ten instrument systems, Envisat is equipped with the best eyes possible and offers everything that scientists could wish for. This unique flying environment station follows in the footsteps of the successful remote sensing satellites ERS1 and ERS2, which were both launched in the 1990s.

Climate protection is a challenge for our entire society. The ESA contributes to such endeavors and has provided impressive scientific results in the field of atmosphere, ozone, and climate monitoring, and more. The total cost of the Envisat program is 2.3 billion euros over 15 years.

Included in this sum is the development and construction of the instrument systems as well as the cost of the satellites, the launch, and the operational costs. Each European citizen has therefore invested seven euros in the environment or about the cost of two cups of coffee per year. For that, every citizen will have access to precise information about changes in the environment, including global warming, ozone depletion, and climate change. This information is absolutely essential and long overdue as the basis for political decisions.

The gas envelope around the earth is not determined by political boundaries, and none of our countries is able to ignore the implications of global warming.