Unit 6 Earth first

Using language

7 Listen to the lecture and choose the topics that are covered.

Lecturer: Good evening, everyone, and thank you for coming to today's talk. I'm Dr Brown and I'm going to talk about air pollution in cities—what we all know as "smog". Please feel free to stop me if you have any questions. So, first of all, a bit of history. The term "smog" was first used

in the 1800s in cities that had problems with smoke and fog.

Student A: Sorry for interrupting, but I believe it was in the 1900s.

Lecturer: Sorry, I made a mistake. You are right. It was in the 1900s. Thank you. London was one of the cities where smog caused big problems. In December 1952, it suffered from "The Great Smog". It was a very cold winter, so a lot of coal was burned at home and in the factories. The problem was that there was no wind, so thick smog covered the city. Nowadays...

Student B: Excuse me, but can I just ask—did the smog cause any deaths?

Lecturer: I'm afraid so. According to research, about 4,000 people are known to have died as a result of the smog, but that number could be much higher. It was terrible! Nowadays, smog still exists, but is produced by chemicals coming from traffic and factories. However, governments are taking measures to reduce smog as much as possible. Now, let's look at what smog does to our health...

Student A: If I could just stop you again... Can you give us examples of these measures?

Lecturer: Well, for example, factories must follow rules about what chemicals they use. In some cities, when there's smog, people have to pay to drive in the centre. Now, let's move on to the impact of smog on our health...