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Real English Discussions Course
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Introduction
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Real English Discussions Course
Week 1 - Bushfires & Australia's Ecosystems5 Topics -
Week 2 - Deadly & Harmless Australian Spiders5 Topics
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Week 3 - Political Corruption in Australia5 Topics
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Week 4 - How Climate Change Has Worsened in Dad's Lifetime5 Topics
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Week 5 - Australian Pub Drinking Games5 Topics
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Week 6 - The Australian Open5 Topics
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Week 7 - Early Exploration of Australia5 Topics
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Week 8 - Tasmanian Devils & Tigers5 Topics
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Week 9 - How Australia Got Camels5 Topics
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Week 10 - Women vs Men's Sport in Australia5 Topics
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Week 11 - Australia's Most Dangerous Animals5 Topics
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Week 12 - Australia's Worst-Ever Bushfire Season5 Topics
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Bonus SectionBonus 1 - Origins of the Coronavirus5 Topics
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Bonus 2 - Why the War on Drugs Never Worked5 Topics
Lesson Progress
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- A bushfire – a fire in scrub or forest, especially one that spreads quickly.
- Background – the circumstances or situation prevailing at a particular time or underlying a particular event.
- Kick in – come into effect or operation.
- On which side of the political fence you sit – (figurative) whether you’re left or right politically.
- Live through something – endure or survive an experience or troubling time.
- A hectare – 100 square metres of land.
- Ash Wednesday – bushfires that occurred in Australia on 16th of February, 1983 and killed 75 people.
- A Honeymoon – a holiday spent together by a newly married couple.
- Make a mental note – make an effort to pay attention to something so you remember it for later.
- Human-interest stories – a news story or report designed engage you emotionally because its about people.
- Stats – statistics – a fact or piece of numerical data.
- The scale (of something) – the size or extent (of something).
- Livestock – farm animals, e.g. goats, sheep, cows, etc.
- A fire front – the leading edge of a wildfire.
- Black Saturday – bushfires that occurred on the 7th of February, 2009, and killed 173 people.
- Unheard of – never previously known of or done.
- Fuel – material which can be burned by fire.
- Dry lightning – lightning strikes that occur in the absence of rain.
- A malfunction – (of a piece of equipment or machinery) fail to function normally.
- The electrical grid – the interconnected network for delivering electricity from producers to consumers.
- Bushfire season – the period of the year when wildfires occur.
- A conflagration – an extensive fire which destroys a great deal of land of property.
- A decade – a period of 10 years.
- In drought – (of a location) to be experiencing below average rainfall.
- Water restrictions – a legal limiting condition or measure on the use of water.
- Tank or bore water – tank water = water stored in a tank/metal container; bore water = water from underground wells.
- Mains water – the water supply system for houses, buildings, etc.
- When the drought broke – when the drought stopped (i.e. rainfall increased).
- Indigenous Australians – people originally from Australia and its surrounding islands.
- Transition from something to something else – change from something to something.
- Traditionally – typically.
- Irrigation – the supply of water to land or crops to help growth, typically using channels.
- Typically – usually; generally.
- Undergrowth – a dense growth of shrubs and other plants, especially under trees in woodland.
- All you need is a spark and it goes – you just need any small fiery particle and it completely burns.
- Eucalypt forests – forests made up mostly of fast-growing evergreen Australasian trees – Eucalypts.
- An adaptation – the process of change by which an organism or species becomes better suited to its environment.
- A hub – the central part of a car wheel.
- Fuel – material that can be burnt by fire.
- A kiln – a furnace or oven for burning, baking, or drying, especially for firing pottery.
- Fire (pottery) – bake or dry (pottery, bricks, etc.) in a kiln.
- Ceramic – made of clay and permanently hardened by heat.
- An acre – a unit of land = 0.405 hectares; 4,480 square yards.
- Going on with something – happening or occurring with something.
- Vertebrates – animals with backbones.
- A visibility of 400m – the ability to see only 400m distance from yourself.
- Up in flames – burning; on fire.
- An air mass – a large quantity of air.
- Come in – arrive.
- Haze – a slight obscuration of the lower atmosphere, typically caused by fine suspended particles.
- Air quality index (AQI) – used to communicate to the public how polluted the air currently is or how polluted it is forecast to become.
- Hazardous – dangerous.
- Isn’t that just crazy? – isn’t that astonishing, impressive, surprising?
- Smoke inhalation – a serious injury caused by breathing a lot of smoke.
- A prompt – something that reminds of something or to do something.
- Cope with something – deal with or endure something.
- Bushland – forested land; land with lots of trees.
- A precaution – a measure taken in advance to prevent something dangerous, unpleasant, or inconvenient from happening.
- A fire plan – a plan for what you will do if there’s a bushfire.
- A medical condition – a broad term that includes all diseases, lesions, and disorders.
- Asthma – a respiratory condition marked by attacks of spasm in the bronchi of the lungs, causing difficulty in breathing.
- Trigger something – cause something to happen.
- A dust storm – a strong, turbulent wind which carries clouds of fine dust, soil, and sand over a large area.
- An asthma attack – a sudden worsening of asthma symptoms caused by the tightening of muscles around your airways (bronchospasm).
- Particulates – matter in the form of minute separate particles.
- Clump together – form small groups by coming together.
- Asthmatic – suffering from asthma.
- Static electricity – a stationary electric charge, typically produced by friction, which causes sparks or crackling or the attraction of dust or hair.
- Coincident with something – occurring together in space or time.
- Bizarre – strange; peculiar.
- A heavy smoker – someone who smokes a lot of cigarettes.
- Exacerbate something – make (a problem, bad situation, or negative feeling) worse.
- Quote, unquote – used parenthetically when speaking to indicate the beginning and end of a statement or passage that one is repeating.
- Inhale something – breathe something in.
