CORRECTION Axe 2 Les univers professionnels, le monde du travail Sky's the

limit seconde

Séance 5 : Compréhension écrite : Changing lives in South Africa

1) Describe the photo and guess what the girl is talking about:

There is a girl standing in front of a display where it is written what must be her name, Kiara, and
what she is doing: experimenting in chemistry. She must be talking about her invention, which has
something to do with fighting drought (sécheresse)

2) Read the text and pick out information about the girl :
Name – education – place of living

Name: Kiara Nirghin. Education: high school junior. (collège) Place of living: Johannesburg,
South Africa.

3) Find references to nature. Use your notes to identify the problem she noticed and what
her invention does.
References to nature: intense drought – crops ( récoltes)– access to water – dry weather –
 planted – mini reservoirs of water in the soil – plants grown taller and healthier – more
flowers.
She noticed that not only South Africa but the whole world was being affected by the
drought and that nothing seemed to exist to make the problem go away. This problem
meant that crops were being damaged by the lack of water. Her invention, which involved
transforming biodegradable and superabsorbent material such as orange peel and
avocado skins into a polymer, can hold 300 times its weight (poids) in water. By
planting it with crops, it keeps the soil moist (humide) . Consequently, plants can keep
growing, even in times of drought.

4) Make a one-minute presentation of a problem that you would like to find a solution to.

I would like to find a solution to urban pollution. Everyday people who live in urban areas are
forced to breathe in air pollution that is bad for their health. I feel that more efforts need to be made.
We need a proactive and multi-pronged approach as there isn’t one magical solution