Àrea d'anglès
Grammar and Communicative activities on
GRETA THUNBERG’S SPEECH
In support of
FRIDAYS FOR FUTURE STUDENTS’ MOVEMENT
ACTIVITY 1. Do you still remember Greta’s words?
We use conditional sentences to talk about probable or improbable situations. Fill in the gaps with the verbs in the box below. Do you feel Greta is expressing low or high probability?
there is will ask start focusing can get are cannot solve treat can should change don’t go wanted to have
1. If a few children don’t go to school, they are headlines all over the world.
2. Imagine what we can all do together if we really wanted to.
3. If solutions within this system cannot solve so impossible to find then we should change the system itself.
4. We treat a crisis unless we there is it as a crisis.
5. Unless you start focusing on what needs to be done rather than what it’s politically possible, can get no hope.
6. If I have children, in my 75th birthday with me, maybe they will ask why you didn't do anything while there still was time to act.
ACTIVITY 2. What about you? What’s your opinion about climate justice action?
Work in pairs and finish these conditional sentences with your own ideas:
A. If all students take action together around the world...
If all students act together around the world we believe that there could be a considerable change since the population of students in the world represents a quarter of the world population and that supposes a large number of people who together could generate an important change.
B. If politicians start caring for our planet…
If politicians start to take care of the planet as they take care of their wallets, we could reach a utopia where climate change is not an imminent crisis.
C. There is no hope, unless politicians....
We believe that if politicians agree to face climate change, they could reduce the emission of harmful gases and stop climate change.
D. If we all start caring about climate justice now, in year 2078...
In 2078 we could live without worrying about temperatures or sea level since if we reduce our medianviental impact now in 27 years it would be almost nil.
ACTIVITY 4. Never too late..!
Complete Greta’s words and the rephrasing sentences below with TOO or ENOUGH:
You (people) are never too small to make a difference.
People are always big (powerful) enough
You (politicians) are too scared of being unpopular.
Politicians are not brave too.
You (politicians) are not mature enough to tell it like it is.
Politicians are too immature.
ACTIVITY 5 Class debate.
Fill in the gaps with Too or Enough and talk about it with your classmates:
1. Do you really think people are too small to make changes in the world?
2. Do you agree with Greta that politicians are too scared about losing popularity? Why?
3. How do you feel about a 15 year-old girl telling politicians they are not mature enough?
ACTIVITY 6. “Our civilization is being sacrificed. Our biosphere is being sacrificed.”
Work in pairs. Fill in the gaps and answer the questions with your partner.
Greta Thunberg doesn’t say WHO is sacrificing our civilization and our biosphere. She uses a passive structure so there is no active subject. Who do you think it is?
I believe that the taxpayer who does the action directly is us, humans due to a capitalist culture based on consuming and throwing away creating a large number of waste and pollutants at the time of chanting matter.
According to her words, is the sacrificing happening in the past, present or future?
She says the sacrifice has to be made today by projecting it daily for a better future and cleaning up the mistakes of the past.
What else is being sacrificed in our planet at the moment? Write it down below. Can we stop it? How?
FINAL ACTIVITY. “The year 2078 I will celebrate my 75th birthday”, says Greta. How old will you be in 2078? What will climate be like then? And the planet? What will people be doing? And politicians? Keep positive and imagine life in 2078. Write about it, using will and future continuous.
In 2078 I will be 75 years old because I was born in 2003 and I imagine the future with people more aware of the environment and politicians applying laws and restrictions taking into account the carbon footprint and the emission of gases.
