Here is an out of class task for you to complete in your own time at home. Please do this if you want to, and then return it to your class teacher via Moodle or Email attachment. This work is NOT compulsory but we know that some of you are eager to continue with your studies from home.
Best wishes – we are all thinking of you and hope you will enjoy these tasks.
You are going to read about an environmental problem in this part of the world, Central Africa, and how it is affecting the lives of the local people. As we know, our environment and our happiness are very much inter-related. We also know that if people cannot make a good living (get enough money for their work) they and their families suffer.
Follow the steps below and return your completed work to your teacher as soon as you can. You will
· Learn / review vocabulary needed for Module 4 : Academic Connections 4, Unit 1
· Read and answer questions
· Write a response to the reading for your teacher to mark
Click on the webpage below and read the story about Rikki and the shrinking lake.
You will need to write your answers on note paper and you can check them later (Teacher’s notes at the end of the PDF doc.) Complete A, B, C and D.
A – Introduction
B – Vocabulary check. (This is just to help you understand this reading.)
C – Reading
D – Comprehension. (This tests your understanding of the reading.)
When you have completed all above: continue with p.2 below. You will find the same reading with extra vocabulary and tasks to follow.
Adapted from: Rotham, M. (2005). The Shrinking Lake. Retrieved 29 March, 2011, from
The Shrinking Lake
Author: Margaret Rotham
Rikki Mbaza has an English name but his part of central rural Africa is suffering from a problem that few in England would have: a lack of rain so acute that Rikki's livelihood is literally evaporating away.
"I would love to have the English weather here in Chad. Then the lake would not go away."
Rikki Mbaza lives in the town of Bol near the shores of Lake Chad, a lake that has shrunk by 90% in the last 40 years. A lack of rain is only one of many culprits being blamed for this emerging disaster.
"I am a fisherman. For me, it is like watching my life draining away every day. The fishing is getting worse and worse in the lake. The fish are getting smaller and I think the fish breeding has been disrupted by the reduction in area and in depth." Lake Chad is only a metre deep in most places.
Rikki struggles now to provide enough food and income for his wife Achta and their four children. Achta has had to take up pottery in her spare time in order to boost the amount of money coming into the household every month. The area is becoming more impoverished as time goes on and without ways to earn money the people fear they will not be able to maintain their homes and the village will become a slum. Many think the government needs to provide better and cheaper public housing to foster hope in the community.
"Our rent doesn't go down with the level of the lake unfortunately," Mbaza complains. "We still have six mouths to feed but I need assistance from the government. They have left me to fend for myself in a desperate situation."
While one can understand Rikki Mbaza's frustration with his government, his accusatory tone is perhaps a little unfair. The Chad government has often seemed like a powerless, rudderless boat caught in the storm of international politics.
Angela Muscovite at the Center for African Politics at UCLA sees little reason for optimism in the case of the shrinking lake in the African heartland. "The story of Chad Lake is a modern day environmental tragedy. This is a body of water that, in 1960 was over 25,000 km2 in size - now it's less than 10% of that."
"It has been so over-exploited and it is an issue the whole international community, obviously more so those governments in Africa, need to co-operate on to find a radical resolution. And that isn't going to happen any time soon. By the time it does, they'll be arguing over a puddle in the middle of the desert. It's sad but that's how I see things panning out."
The guilty parties, as so often in these cases, blame each other for the problems that now beset the lake. Charlie Vaughan, who teaches Environmental Science at Cambridge University in Britain, explains why the lake is shrinking. "The main culprit is geography funnily enough. Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon all lay claim to the waters of this lake and you only need a five metre shoreline to be able to extract water from it. The whole area has been a target for massive irrigation schemes over the last couple of decades with each country's agricultural ministry blaming the other three for the problems. In an area with plentiful rainfall, it wouldn't be so much of a problem. This is a dry area."
None of this arguing will help Rikki, Achta and their four children in the near future. "I am learning how to fix cars. I don't think cars will be disappearing soon and the car industry will certainly last longer than this lake will," muses the glum-looking fisherman. "There won't be any more fishermen in this area in ten years." And with that, he says he has to go and study how to remove and repair brake pads.
Ø The seven words highlighted in yellow are part of the vocabulary for Unit 1 of our text: Academic Connections 4. You can check the meanings in your textbook, and then write brief notes to give the meaning. The first has been done as an example.
1. Rural ……… country area / not city (not urban)
2. Impoverished ………
3. Slum ………
4. Public housing ………
5. Foster ………
6. Radical ………
7. Industry ………
Ø The ten words highlighted in grey are 1-10 below. Match each with the correct meaning a – j. Number 1 has been done as an example.
1. Culprit e. a. prevailing belief that good is ahead
2. Emerging b. stopped for a time
3. Disaster c. channeling water
4. Disrupted d. developing / beginning
5. Optimism e. person / thing at fault or cause of problem
6. Evaporating f. extremely dangerous happening
7. Tragedy g. very sad happening
8. Over-exploited h. huge
9. Massive i. drying up / water loss
10. Irrigation j. over-used
Writing
Write your recommendations for improving the town of Bol, Central Africa. What do you think the people themselves can do to improve their lives? What should the government do to improve the town of Bol and the lives of the people there?
You should write 200 – 250 words
Use Calibri Font 11, double spacing on a Word document.
Plan your ideas, type them and return everything to your teacher.
GOOD LUCK !!
