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GENERAL ENGLISH · GENERAL ISSUES · ADVANCED (C1-C2)

PLANT
SURVIVAL
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1 Warm-up

Watch the video trailer from this popular recent TV miniseries. What do you know about the historical
events which this story is based on?

2 Reading for the main idea

Read only the introduction to the article (first three paragraphs), which poses the question, "So why is
plant life so resilient to radiation?" (resilient = able to return to good condition after a negative event)

The article will answer this question. Before you read the rest of the article, look at the sentences
below and predict which two are true.

a. Some plants are able to "go to sleep" during dangerous times and wake up later when the danger
has passed.
b. When plants are damaged by radiation, they can make new cells more easily than animals can.
c. Scientists have discovered that only living things which can move around are affected by radiation.
d. Plants make their own food from sunlight, so they were not part of a radioactive food chain.
e. Plants have experienced high levels of radiation in previous periods of Earth’s history and have
adaptations to help them survive.
f. There were already so many plants in the area that it didn’t matter if some of them died.

Now read the rest of the article quickly (skim) to see if your ideas were correct.

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Why plants don’t die from cancer

Adapted from TheConversation.com

1.
INTRODUCTION 7.
Plants, however, develop in a much more flexible
Chernobyl has become a synonym for catastrophe. way. Because they can’t move, they have to adapt
The 1986 nuclear disaster, recently brought back to the circumstances in which they find themselves.
into the public eye by the popular TV show of the Rather than having a defined structure as an animal
same name, caused thousands of cancers, turned a does, plants make it up as they go along. Whether
populous area into a ghost city, and resulted in the they grow deeper roots or a taller stem depends on
2
setting up of an exclusion zone 2600km in size. chemical signals from other parts of the plant and
other plants nearby, as well as light, temperature,
2.
But Chernobyl’s exclusion zone isn’t empty of life.
water and nutrient conditions.
Wolves, boars and bears have returned to the lush
forests surrounding the old nuclear plant. And
when it comes to trees, flowers and other plant
life, only a small proportion died, and even in the
most radioactive areas of the zone, it was recovering
within three years.
3.
Humans and other mammals and birds would have
been killed many times over by the radiation that
plants in the most contaminated areas received. So Parts of a plant.
why is plant life so resilient to radiation? 8.
Critically, unlike animal cells, almost all plant cells are
4.
HOW RADIATION AFFECTS CELLS able to create new cells of whatever type the plant
To answer this question, we need to understand needs. This is why a gardener can grow new plants
how radiation from nuclear reactors affects living from cuttings, with roots sprouting from what was
cells. Chernobyl’s radioactive material is "unstable" once a stem or leaf.
because it is constantly firing out high energy
particles that smash cell structures or produce
chemicals which attack the cells’ machinery.
5.
Most parts of the cell are replaceable if damaged, but
not DNA. At higher radiation doses, DNA becomes
garbled and cells die quickly. Lower doses can cause
less severe damage in the form of mutations altering
The structures inside a plant cell.
the way that the cell functions – for example, causing
it to become cancerous, multiply uncontrollably, and
9.
This means that plants can replace dead cells or
spread to other parts of the body. tissues much more easily than animals, whether the
damage is due to being attacked by an animal or to
6.
In animals this is often fatal, because their cells and
radiation.
systems are highly specialised and inflexible. Think of
animal biology as a machine in which each cell and
10.
And while radiation can cause tumours in plants,
organ has a place and purpose, and all parts must mutated cells are generally not able to spread from
work and cooperate for the individual to survive. one part of the plant to another as cancers do, thanks
A human cannot manage without a brain, heart or to the rigid walls surrounding plant cells. Nor are such
lungs. tumours fatal in most cases, because the plant can
find ways to work around the malfunctioning tissue.

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ADVANCED (C1-C2)
PLANT SURVIVAL
11.
Interestingly, in addition to this resilience to radiation,
some plants in the Chernobyl exclusion zone seem
to be using extra mechanisms to protect their DNA,
changing its chemistry to make it more resistant to
damage, and turning on systems to repair it if this
doesn’t work.
DNA, a chemical in living cells which contains genetic
instructions for the reproduction of new cells.
12.
Levels of natural radiation on the Earth’s surface were
much higher in the distant past when early plants
were evolving, so plants in the exclusion zone may
be using adaptations dating back to this time in order
to survive.
13.
A NEW LEASE OF LIFE
Life is now thriving around Chernobyl. Populations
of many plant and animal species are actually greater
than they were before the disaster.
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14.
Given the tragic loss and shortening of human lives
associated with Chernobyl, this resurgence of nature
may surprise you. Radiation does have harmful
effects on plant life, and may shorten the lives of
individual plants and animals. But if resources are
plentiful, then life will flourish.
15.
Crucially, the negative effects of radiation at
Chernobyl are less severe than the benefits resulting
from humans leaving the area. Now one of Europe’s
largest nature preserves, the ecosystem supports
more life than before, even if each individual cycle of
that life lasts a little less.
16.
In a way, the Chernobyl disaster reveals the true
extent of our environmental impact on the planet.
Harmful as it was, the nuclear accident was far less
destructive to the local ecosystem than we were.
In driving ourselves away from the area, we have
created space for nature to return.
Adapted from The Conversation, by Stuart Thompson,
Senior Lecturer in Plant Biochemistry, University of
Westminster
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3 Vocabulary

Find the words in bold in the text which have these meanings.

Catastrophe Health Doing well

places where nuclear energy serious diseases that people
is made (nouns): or animals in Chernobyl may
nuclear ......... suffer from:
nuclear ......... ............... (plural noun)
............... (adjective)
very green and growing well,
about plants (adjective):
..........

synonyms for catastrophe changes in the DNA of a cell to grow in a strong and
(nouns): (plural noun): healthy way (verb):
nuclear ......... ........... ..........
nuclear .........

what was released at what cells do when a person growing and developing very
Chernobyl: has this disease (verb + successfully (participle):
............... (noun) adverb): ...........
............... (adjective) .....................

a place people can’t what grows in someone’s not affected by something

visit without permission body when they have this dangerous (adjective):
(compound noun): disease (plural noun): ...........
............... ...................

dangerous or dirty a synonym for the word able to return to good

(adjective): above, when part of the condition after a negative
............... body does not work event (adjective)
correctly (adjective + noun): ...........
....................

mixed up, in the wrong order a new period of activity after

(adjective): a difficult time (noun):
........... ...........

causing death (adjective): getting better after an illness

........... or disaster (verb -ing):
...........

fix something that has been

damaged or broken (verb):
...........

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4 Reading for detail

Answer these questions with information from the text. Use the vocabulary from the last exercise to
explain your ideas but phrase the answers in your own words as much as possible.

1. What are the effects of radiation on living things?

2. Why are plant cells more resilient to radiation than animal cells?
3. How do plants decide what types of cells to produce?
4. Why is it difficult for cancer to spread in plants?
5. What extra ability do plants have, that developed long ago, that’s particularly useful in Chernobyl?
6. According to the writer, which has been more destructive to the environment at Chernobyl –
radiation or other human activity?

5 Talking point

Discuss any of the questions below.

1. Would you be interested to visit the Chernobyl exclusion zone if you could? Why/not?
2. In your opinion, is nuclear energy a good option for the future? Why/not?
3. What other ways does your country generate energy? Do these have any disadvantages of their
own?

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TEACHER MATERIALS · ADVANCED (C1-C2)

PLANT SURVIVAL

Key

1. Warm-up

5 mins. The trailer is approximately 90 seconds long. Students may or may not have an awareness of the serious
nuclear accident which took place on 26 April, 1986 in Ukraine. This warm-up activity is intended to introduce
the topic of the article, so as long as students understand that this event took place, and that nuclear energy is
potentially dangerous and therefore controversial, they will be prepared to engage with the lesson content.

2. Reading for the main idea

10 mins. Predicting information and reading the introduction first allows students to focus on the main themes of
the article, without getting overly concerned with the technical details at this stage. ANSWER: B and E are true.

3. Vocabulary

20 mins. The vocabulary in this article can seem daunting, but many of the words in this exercise have a high
surrender value for advanced students in a number of different lexical and functional areas, including health,
energy and the environment, and describing ways of doing well.
Split students into groups of three and ask each student in a group to work with the words in a different column.
They should use the context to work out the definition of the words, and just use English-English dictionaries for a
few minutes as a final check on both meaning and pronunciation, if they need to. Then students can work in threes
to teach each other the words in their columns and record the answers on their own worksheets. The stressed
syllables have been underlined in the text; check that students are pronouncing each word correctly, including
vowel phonemes.
Catastrophe: nuclear plant, nuclear reactors, nuclear accident, nuclear disaster, radiation, radioactive, exclusion
zone, contaminated
Health: cancers, cancerous, mutations, multiply uncontrollably, tumours, malfunctioning tissue, garbled, fatal
Doing well: lush, flourish, thriving, resistant, resilient, resurgence, recovering, repair

4. Reading for detail

10 mins. The aim here is for students to demonstrate understanding of the detailed information in the article by
reformulating key points, while at the same time activating the vocabulary from the previous exercise. Students
can check answers in pairs first to provide practice formulating answers in their own words. Encourage students
to use the illustrations to support their understanding.
Sample answers:

1. Radiation garbles the DNA of living things, which in turn causes cells to multiply uncontrollably. The result is
tumours or cancers. Often cancers are fatal, especially in animals.
2. Plant cells are more resilient because they are generalised and develop in a more flexible way than specialised
animal cells.
3. The plant can respond to local conditions (including radiation from a nuclear disaster) to produce the structures
that the plant needs to be successful where it is growing.
4. The structure of a plant cell includes strong walls which do not allow any cancerous cells which may have
developed to move into another part of the plant.
5. Plants seem to have an adaptation which makes them resistant to the higher levels of radiation which were
present in the ancient Earth. In addition, these adaptations help plants to repair damage caused by radiation.

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6. The writer’s choice of words with positive connotations, e.g. thriving, resurgence and flourish, suggests that
the natural environment at Chernobyl is doing better since the accident than it was before. This implies that other
human activities were more damaging to nature than the radioactive contamination has been.

5. Talking point

If students are curious about visiting Chernobyl (discussion question 1), they may enjoy reading this recent article,
free online: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2019/may/28/chernobyl-wildlife-haven-tour-belarus-created-
nuclear-disaster-zone
Discussion questions 2 and 3 could lead into an opportunity for students to do independent research, if they feel
they need more information.

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