The Environment: Game Zero 3

The Environment: Game Zero (Part 3)

Introduction

Jack: Hello my name’s Jack

Rowan: My name’s Rowan

Rich: and I’m Rich and welcome to this week’s Premier Skills English podcast.

Jack: In the Premier Skills English podcast, we talk about football and help you with your English. 

Rowan: Don’t forget you can find the transcript for all our podcasts on the Premier Skills English website.

Rich: This week we are returning to our series of podcasts connected to the environment.

Jack: We will be talking about a football match called Game Zero. This is a Premier League match played between Tottenham and Chelsea and it’s quite a special match.

Rowan: It’s special because it is the world’s first major football match to be carbon neutral or carbon zero. Its aim is to not have any negative environmental impact on our planet.

Rich: In our roleplays this week, Rowan gets three tickets for Game Zero and we have to decide how we get to the match and what we do when we are there while thinking about how our actions affect our planet.

Jack: This week’s podcast comes in three parts. After each part, we have a task for you to do which will give you a chance to talk about the topic and the language connected to the environment which we will introduce.

Rowan: On the Premier Skills English website, you’ll be able to find all these podcasts and the transcripts and extra activities that go with them. 
 
Rich: So if you are listening to us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or any other podcast platform,  check out our website!

Jack: And don’t forget to listen to the end of the podcast because we have a new football phrase for you to guess!

SOCIAL

Jack: Before we start this week’s roleplay we’d just like to thank everyone for all their comments on the Premier Skills  English website. It’s great to know that you’re enjoying the podcasts and all of the free learning materials we have on the site.

Rich: We’d like to give a shout-out to some of our listeners and tell everyone what they’ve been saying.

Rowan: The first person I’d like to say a big hello to is Priscila who sent us big hugs all the way from Brazil. Priscila wrote her first comment on the website this week and told us that she really enjoys listening to the podcasts. Thanks for listening, Priscila and we send big hugs back to you!

Jack: I’d like to say hi to Amirreza_goal7 from Iran who has been telling us about some of the extreme weather in his country and how the environment has been changing. Thanks for your comments Amirreza!

Rich: Finally I’d like to say thanks to AdlRhmn from Egypt, HSN from Turkey and Douglas from Brazil for their comments and tips about evaluating what they read online.

Rowan: This was the task about fake news which was the topic of last week’s podcast. You can find this podcast and task in the podcast section on the Premier Skills English website.

Jack: OK, I think it’s time to reveal last week’s football phrase and see who got the right answer.

Last Week’s football Phrase

Rich: Right, our football phrase. If you’ve not listened to the podcast before, every week we set our listeners a challenge. We explain a football phrase or word and you have to guess what it is.

Jack: Last week’s football phrase was one game at a time. This phrase is a very common cliche and is often used in interviews by managers after winning a match. The journalist asks if the team are going to do well this season, or win the league or cup and the manager says something like ‘we can’t look that far ahead … we just need to take one game at a time and see where that takes us. The cliche is used by managers because they don’t want their team to get too confident and lose concentration in matches that, in theory, should be easy.

Rowan: Thanks for all your answers and guesses last week. The first listener with the correct answer was AbdlRhmn from Egypt. Well done Abdlrhmn!

Rich: Congratulations also go to Tiago Delazari from Brazil, HSN and Mobeckham from Turkey, Emmanuel from France, Mycpro from Hong Kong, and Gerardo94 from Cuba.

Jack: Later on, at the end of the podcast, we’ll have this week’s football phrase for you.

Introduction to Roleplay

Rich: As we said earlier, in this week’s podcast we’re talking about the environment and the world's first net-zero carbon football match - the Premier League match between Tottenham and Chelsea.

Jack: You are about to hear this week’s final roleplay. It’s half-time and I haven’t arrived yet. Rich and Rowan are getting a bite to eat. 

Rowan: While you listen we want you to answer a question: The question is: How did Jack get to the match?

Roleplay

Rich: Wow! Loads of things to choose from. Remember we’re going plant-based today for game zero. What are you going to have?

Rowan: I’m going to go for the falafel and hummus wrap. What about you?

Rich: The curry. The tofu katsu curry. Shall we get something for Jack? He should be here in a minute. Let’s wait - he might not want anything.

Rowan: As part of game zero it says here that most of the ingredients are locally sourced which means fewer food miles.

Rich: And that any unavoidable environmental impact is offset by the company. Offset?

Rowan: It means the impact is cancelled out by the company investing in other projects that reduce or capture carbon.

Rich: Oh, yeah! I was reading the other day about the world’s biggest carbon capture machine. It’s in Iceland. It captures carbon dioxide and turns it into rock. 

Rowan: Really? How does it do that?

Rich: The machine just sucks the CO2 out of the air - I’m not really sure what the process is but it sounds amazing. Just imagine if we could have these machines everywhere.

Rowan: It would be cool, but for now I think we should think about what we can do to stop producing so much CO2, like what we’ve done today - getting on our bikes and eating more plant-based food.

Jack: I’ll have the beetroot burger, guys!

Rowan: Jack! You made it at last!

Jack: I didn’t miss much I see. 0-0 between my two favourite teams - Tottenham and Chelsea.

Rowan: You must be exhausted!

Jack: No, just a bit embarrassed about going the wrong way. I’ve got my e-bike, haven’t I? 

Rich: Our food’s ready. Let’s go and watch the second half.

Language Focus

Rowan: Before the roleplay, we asked you a question. The question was: How did Jack get to the match? 

Jack: The answer is my e-bike. I was very happy that I had my electric bike otherwise I’d have probably missed the whole match and not just the first half.

Rich: This is our first bit of language from the roleplay - e-bike. The e stands for electric. Jack has an e-bike. He has an electric bike. Can you think of any other words that use the letter e in this way?

Rowan: I can think of e-commerce. E-commerce is business that is done over the internet.

Jack: I suppose email is a similar word. When we write e-bike or e-commerce we write a hyphen after the e but we don’t do this with email. 

Rowan: OK, let’s look at some of the language we used connected to the environment and game zero.

Rich: An important word here is offset. In part one of this podcast, we spoke about the idea of an event being net-zero.

Jack: The match between Spurs and Chelsea has been described as net-zero because any carbon emissions produced have been balanced by actions that protect the environment.

Rowan: This process is known as offsetting. Companies and individuals can offset the damage they cause to the environment by doing good things for the environment somewhere else.

Rich: Individuals often pay extra for air travel to offset the damage they are doing by travelling by air. This money is then collected for environmentally-friendly projects such as planting trees.

Jack: We spoke about food in this roleplay. One aim of game zero is to encourage more people to eat plant-based food. This is food that doesn’t come from animals.

Rowan: Eating plant-based food and not eating meat reduces your carbon footprint.

Rich: This is especially the case when the food is locally sourced. Locally sourced food means it is grown nearby - near where it is eaten.

Jack: This means there are fewer food miles attached to the food which again reduces its carbon footprint.

Rowan: Food miles is a term that is used to describe a food’s environmental impact due to transport - the more food miles attached to a product the bigger its carbon footprint.

Rich: OK, I think that is enough language for now. You can look at this vocabulary and in more detail on the Premier Skills English website. You’ll also find free activities,  the transcript and a quiz to help you understand.

TASK

Jack: Right, it’s time for your task. In the roleplay, the three of us were eating plant-based meals.

Rich: Your task this week is to tell us a plant-based dish from your country that you think other listeners would like to try.

Rowan: Tell us how often, when and where you normally eat this dish and why it’s so delicious.

Jack: And tell us the ingredients we need and how to prepare this plant-based dish.

Rich: Write all your answers on the Premier Skills English website.

Football Phrase

Rich: OK, it’s time for our football phrase. If you’ve not listened to the podcast before, every week we set our listeners a challenge. We explain a football phrase or word and you have to guess what it is.

Jack: When you know the answer, go to the podcast page on the Premier Skills English website or the review section on Apple Podcasts and write the word or phrase in the comments. If you’re correct we’ll announce your name on next week’s podcast. So what is this week’s football phrase, Rich?

Rich:  This week’s football phrase is just a word and it’s a *****. Generally, this word is used to describe two of the same thing and comes from shooting – a ***** of pistols means two pistols, a ***** of birds are two birds that have been shot for food. In football, you can score a ***** - two goals in one match. Last weekend, Cristiano Ronaldo and Odsonne Edouard both got a ***** for their clubs.

Jack: If you have a football phrase that you would like us to use in the podcast, just get in touch and let us know.

Rich: Before we finish we just wanted to say that we hope you found this lesson useful and we hope all of you stay fit and healthy.

Rowan: Bye for now and enjoy your football.