Read the scientific article about desertification and fill in the blanks.
Definition
It is when __________ land is turned into _______.
Solutions
● Encourage farmers to build ________;
● Plant more _________ and bushes;
● Set up centres to do some scientific _________;
● Better _________ the areas that are likely to turn to desert;
● _________ people in responsible water usage;
● ___________ information and solutions between countries;
● Use ___________ to pick out areas.
Your opinions
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Appendix:
Information Source One (Listening Part)
Desertification is what call it when usable land (farmland, forests, ect.) becomes dry and turns into a desert.
Although desertification is everyone’s problem, it is an especially big problem in Africa.. Thirty percent of the land in the USA is in danger of becoming desert. A quarter of the area of south America is threatened as well. Here in China, we also must deal with it. Since the nineteen fifties, seven hundred thousand hectares of farmland, two point three five million of range land (that is where animals go to eat the grass), and six point four million hectares of forest have been lost—all that land has turned into desert!
Europe has been affected too, because the sand from deserts in Africa actually gets carried to Europe by the wind, and it is very unhealthy to breathe.
It is worse for the people who live in these desert areas. Not only do they breathe in this dusty air, but they also lose their homes and farms because the land is too dry to use. Many families starve, and others move to the cities to find work. These people’s lives are being ruined because of desertification.
There are many reasons why this is happening. Some parts of the world are naturally becoming drier—this has always happened, but the actions of humans are making it much worse. People plant too much on the land without giving it a rest; too many animals depend on the same land to eat; and people cut down trees for fuel and to make space for more farms—all of this dried out the land. When it gets too dry and there are no trees to stop the wind, the top soil (the part of the earth we grow food in) blows away.
