Name _______________________________

Unit test TOTAL ___/ 70

Vocabulary
1 Complete the sentences with the words below. There is one extra word.
coastal dam divert glaciers hydroelectricity inland irrigation melt reservoirs
1 ____________________ is a renewable energy powered by the movement of water.
2 Fishing and boating are permitted on many ____________________.
3 ____________________ communities around the world are at risk of flooding due to rising ocean levels.
4 The ____________________ wall was damaged after heavy rain.
5 Rocks were used to ____________________ the flow of the river.
6 Outside, dark chocolate will ____________________ faster than white chocolate because the color
absorbs the light from the sun.
7 The park has an ____________________ system to water the grass and flowers.
8 Most people come from the hotter ____________________ areas to stay by the ocean in the summer.

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2 Choose the correct words to complete the instruction guide for tourists staying in a private apartment.

Instructions for Visitors  A Few Dos and Don’ts

Please don’t ...
 1
overload / underload the 2 drought / dishwasher — it won’t clean everything properly. And please
make sure you use the economy 3 load / setting.

Please do ...
• keep windows open when cooking. Don’t panic if the fire alarm goes off — there’s a big, red switch
4
underhead / overhead in the kitchen to turn it off.

• feel free to 5 evaporate / soak in the bathtub, but make sure you don’t leave the 6 footprint / faucet
running! Our last visitors did that and water 7 overflowed / underflowed everywhere, flooding our neighbors
below, and nearly turned the building into an 8 overwater / underwater hotel!

• enjoy your stay. Our apartment is conveniently located close to the 9 overground / underground subway
train which we recommend as the quickest way to get around the city.

• get in contact with any questions you have, if we’ve 10

overlooked / underlooked anything!

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3 Answer the questions with your own ideas.

1 Is the water salty or fresh near where you live? Describe where you find it.
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
2 Name one thing your school does to reduce the water footprint of staff and students.
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________

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 Unit test

Grammar
1 Complete the sentences with the words and phrases below.
considerably nearly as nothing like as roughly as slightly
1 A rowboat is ______________________ big as a cruise ship.
2 The population of India is ______________________ bigger than the population of Madagascar.
3 At 1 meter 55, I’m ______________________ tall as my mother, who’s 1 meter 60.
4 You live ______________________ close to school as me, so it should take us the same amount
of time to get there.
5 My score was ______________________ lower than yours. I only got 1% less.

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2 Look at the chart. Choose the correct words to complete the student’s report.

Bottled water consumed per year (billion gallons)

China 10.42
U.S. 10.13
Mexico 8.23
Indonesia 4.82
Brazil 4.80
Thailand 3.99

The Chinese consume 1 way / slightly more bottled water than people in Thailand. Following China are the
Americans, who buy 2 roughly / considerably as much as the Chinese. Mexicans consume 3 slightly / quite less
than their neighbors in the north, but 4 far / a little more than the Brazilians, who drink 5 nearly / nowhere near
as much as Indonesians. As the campaign against single-use plastic gets bigger and 6 biggest / bigger, it will
be interesting to see how this impacts sales worldwide in the future.

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3 Complete the second sentence so that it gives the same information as the first.
1 Your instructions are slightly less confusing than the website.
Your instructions aren’t ______________________________ as the website.
2 The amount of land to build new homes on is decreasing.
There’s less ______________________________ land to build new homes on.
3 Camping is nothing like as expensive as staying in a hotel.
Camping is way ______________________________ than staying in a hotel.
4 The park is much bigger than my backyard.
My backyard is nowhere ______________________________ as the park.
5 The lines for the checkout are growing.
The lines for the checkout are getting longer ______________________________.
6 The water in the lake is roughly as high as it was a month ago.
There’s about ______________________________ water in the lake as there was a month ago.

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 Unit test

4 Answer the questions so they are true for your country.

1 Which country has a climate which is roughly as hot as yours?
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
2 Which month is slightly wetter than the others in summer?
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
3 Which city is considerably more polluted than other places?
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________

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 Unit test

Listening
1 3.08 Listen to a radio debate about a controversial project to build a dam. Check () three of the things
that Yasmin says will be affected by the dam.
a areas of historical significance ☐
b important sports arenas ☐
c people’s homes ☐
d supply of drinking water ☐
e the natural habitat ☐
f local transportation on the riverways ☐
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2 3.08 Listen again. Answer the questions.

1 Why do you think that Lucas supports the dam?
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
2 How many square kilometers of land will be flooded?
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
3 How many people are predicted to lose their homes?
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
4 How much will the dam contribute to the national energy supply?
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
5 Why does Lucas say the dam is environmentally-friendly?
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
6 Which industry will the dam help to restore?
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
7 By how much might the two lakes reduce in size?
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________

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 Unit test

Reading
1 Read the text and look at the title. Choose the best option to complete the sentences.
1 The title refers to the serious problems cities are facing / the crisis of coastal communities /
flooding in cities.
2 The article discusses how drought is affecting the developed world / reservoirs are used in crises /
poorer countries have much less access to water than richer countries.

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Megacities in Deep Water

The water supplies of large parts of the developed world and its many megacities are under threat as a result of
climate change. We also currently consume twice as much water as there is in all of the rivers worldwide — and
this is increasing as the global population grows. Experts predict that by 2050 more than five billion people will be
paying dearly for global inaction and will be facing a water crisis way more dramatic than anything they’ve seen
so far.

Much of the world is already suffering from water shortages. There is a so-called drought belt which includes
Mexico and parts of the U.S., southern Europe, southern Africa, China, and Australia. The World Wildlife Fund
states that Los Angeles, Seoul, and Beijing are three of the world’s megacities most at risk. They depend upon
reservoirs and dams for their water supplies but these are drying up and ground water supplies are running out,
too. So how have different countries been responding?

In 2019, following a long drought, dam levels in the most populated state of Australia, New South Wales, were
operating at only half of their capacity. The government responded by telling residents that they had to cut down
on their water use and the irrigation of gardens was prohibited during certain times.

However, these measures were nowhere near as strict as those imposed by the South African government.
For three years Cape Town had been having low rainfall and a drought lead to a severe water shortage. The
government announced a campaign to prepare the city for “Day Zero” — the day when its faucets would run
dry and people would be forced to go to communal points to collect their water. Businesses and four million
inhabitants were instructed to immediately cut down on the water they were consuming. After years of people
dragging their feet in response to warnings on climate change, they finally took action. Residents were only
allowed 50 liters per person per day — far less than the average use of 320 liters per day in the developed world.

To meet this challenge, people started to recycle washing machine water and take showers while standing over
buckets in order to re-use that water. The residents pulled out all the stops and they managed to avoid Day Zero
from ever happening, but the people of Cape Town reported that they’d never take water for granted again.

It was a different story in São Paulo, Brazil, however, back in 2015 after the country suffered its worst drought in
80 years. Although Brazil has between 12–15% of the world’s fresh water — more than any other country in the
world, its Cantareira reservoir nearly dried up completely and a large proportion of the city’s 20 million residents
had no access to water for 12 hours a day. Things soon got out of hand and led to street fighting and stealing
from emergency water trucks, showing the kind of chaos that water shortages can lead to.

The American author Jeremy Rifkin argues that we need to start talking about “water change” rather than “climate
change” in order for people to fully get a handle on the severity of the crisis. He states that as glaciers melt and
the flow of rivers decrease, as rainfall patterns change and ocean levels rise, we need to rethink our relationship
 Unit test

with water and how we use water resources. The message is clear. We need to reduce our water footprint before
it’s too late.

2 Read the text again. Choose the correct answers.

1 People “will be paying dearly” means that they will ... .
a be having to buy resources on the black market
b be forced to pay higher prices
c suffer the consequences

2 What does the writer say puts Beijing, Seoul, and Los Angeles under threat of water shortages?
a they haven’t constructed dams
b their water stores are declining
c they are inland

3 The South African government referred to “Day Zero” as the day when ... .
a people wouldn’t be able to access clean water from their homes
b the city would have no water supplies at all
c inhabitants would have to reduce their water use

4 What does it mean to say people had been “dragging their feet”?
a they had been protesting on the streets
b they had been having to walk long distances to collect water
c they had been acting too slowly

5 If the inhabitants of the city “pulled out all the stops”, what did they do?
a they did everything possible to make the campaign successful
b they permanently turned off all the faucets
c they found ways to stop using water at home

6 Why did the crisis arise in São Paulo?

a it only had 15% of its usual supply of fresh water
b there hadn’t been enough rain to fill its main reservoir
c the usual transportation of water couldn’t get to people

7 What does it mean by “things soon got out of hand”?

a people weren’t able to keep hold of personal water supplies
b the situation couldn’t be controlled
c the chaos spread to other parts of the country

8 To “get a handle on” a situation means to ... .

a find a way to actively stop it
b deal with the stress of it
c get a clear understanding of it
Unit test

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 Unit test

Writing
TASK Your teacher has asked you to write an essay on this subject: The causes and effects of
a lack of access to clean drinking water.

1 First, plan your essay:

 Paragraph 1: introduction
 Paragraph 2: causes (for example, natural causes, human-made causes,
over-use of water resources, poverty, etc.)
 Paragraph 3: effects (for example, poor sanitation, spread of disease, high child mortality,
time spent on collecting water — not going to school or work, etc.)
 Paragraph 4: conclusion

2 Now use your notes to write the first draft of your essay. Use a variety of language to express cause
and effect. Write 140–190 words.

3 Read through your first draft. Check it and revise it if necessary. Then write your final draft.

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