MerelyEnglish

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MerelyEnglish

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Contents

Engage .............................................................................................................................. 3

Engage Questions ......................................................................................................... 3

How many trees, How much paper and How many books? ......................................... 3

Discuss Your Ideas ....................................................................................................... 3

Reading Comprehension .................................................................................................. 4

How Many Trees Does It Take To Make A Textbook? ............................................... 4

Reading Comprehension Questions .............................................................................. 5

Grammar ........................................................................................................................... 6

Countable And Uncountable Nouns ............................................................................. 6

Quantifiers .................................................................................................................... 6

Correct The Sentences Below ....................................................................................... 7

Can You Ask And Answer Some Questions Using Countable And Uncountable

Nouns With Quantifiers? .............................................................................................. 7

Your Turn ......................................................................................................................... 8

Use The Internet To Answer These Questions ............................................................. 8

Debate ............................................................................................................................... 9

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Engage

Engage Questions:

1. What’s your favorite book? Why?

2. Who’s your favorite author? Why?

3. Are you reading a book at the moment? Which book?

4. What was the last book you read?

5. Do you prefer paper books or digital books? Why?

How many trees, How much paper and How many books?

Have you ever wondered how many trees you need to make a book? Or how much

wood do you need to make a page of paper? Or how much paper you need to make a

book?

I have and next we are going to read about that, but before look at the highlighted words

above what do you notice about them?

How much paper?

How much wood?

How many trees?

How many books?

Discuss Your Ideas

What is the difference in the use of how much and how many?

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Reading Comprehension

How Many Trees Does It Take To Make A Textbook?

Adapted originally written By Graham Brown

When carrying a backpack loaded with science textbooks from class to class, a student

can sometimes feel like they’re carrying around an entire redwood tree. In reality,

however, each textbook requires only a small fraction of a full tree to be produced.

Average Measures

According to a study conducted by Californian high schools, the average weight of

physics textbook is 4.8 pounds or 2.2 kilograms. Taking into account the most common

modern paper-making techniques, it takes 12 trees to produce one ton of paper,

according to Conservatree. So from each tree about 167 pounds or 76 kilograms of

paper can be produced. This figure represents paper made using the "mechanical" or

"ground wood" process.

Doing The Math

Using the average figures for an average textbook weight and an average tree output,

you can calculate that 2.9 percent of an average tree is needed to make one textbook.

Similarly, 34.8 textbooks can be produced from each tree. On an average campus of

10,000 students, each with six textbooks, a total of 1,724 trees worth of paper is being

used, equivalent to 287,908 pounds or 130,600 kilograms of paper.

There Are Many Variables

These calculations are based on average figures, and a number of variables can affect

the result. The most obvious of these variables is the textbook and the tree size, with

larger textbooks requiring more raw materials and larger trees producing more wood

suitable for production. The paper-making method also plays a substantial role, as

modern "mechanical" techniques are about twice as efficient in their wood usage as the

traditional "freesheet" process. Additionally, paper that has a glossy coating may use

about half as much wood fiber per pound as uncoated paper because its clay coating

makes up a large part of its weight.

http://www.ehow.com/facts_7210331_many-trees-make-textbook_.html

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Reading Comprehension Questions

Answer the questions below according to the text:

1. What is the average weight of a textbook?

2. How many trees does it take to produce one ton of paper?

3. How much paper can be produced from one tree?

4. How many textbooks does an average student have?

5. How much paper is used on an average campus for textbooks?

6. How many trees are used for text books on an average campus?

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Grammar

Countable And Uncountable Nouns

Use the link below to see how we use countable and uncountable nouns

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXM6eUSUMK4 (Elementary)

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne85m0xbD_4 (Elementary

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWzVuFPLBx8 (intermediate +)

Quantifiers

Use the link below to see how we use quantifiers with countable and uncountable nouns

http://www.slideshare.net/monira21/quantifiers-34973618?related=3

Put the quantifiers in the correct column below:

You can add more if you like ;)

Much, Many, A few, Some, Any , A lot of , Too much, Too many,

Enough, Few, Not much, Not a lot of, A bit of, a lot.

Countable Nouns Uncountable

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Correct The Sentences Below

1. How much trees does it take to produce a ton of paper?

It takes too many trees, only about 12 trees.

2. How many wood does it take to make a textbook?

It takes 2.9% of a tree to produce one textbook, that’s enough.

3. How much pages are there in an average book?

There is around 500 pages, it’s too much.

4. How many paper does it take to make 60,000 books?

It takes enough paper, about 130,600 kilograms.

Can You Ask And Answer Some Questions Using Countable And

Uncountable Nouns With Quantifiers?

Try below:

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Your Turn

Use The Internet To Answer These Questions

1. How much sand does it take to make a glass bottle?

2. How much rubber does it take to make a car tire?

3. How many newspapers are sold each year?

4. How much would it cost to feed the world?

Share and discuss your research with your classmates / work group / school / college or

the world!

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Debate

Watch the video below and discuss whether digital libraries are positive or negative for

society?

https://www.ted.com/talks/brewster_kahle_builds_a_free_digital_library#t-30195