英語趣味課堂：地球一小時-Earth Hour

Rachel: So Steven, we've been talking about Costa Rica and how beautiful nature is there and how important it is to preserve it. What do you do in your life to save the environment or to protect the environment?

Steven: It's almost daily that I think about this question that you just asked me. For example in my university I made this project for promoting Earth Hour which is just turning off the lights for one hour and enjoy a concert or some activity that doesn't require electricity. This Earth Hour is actually produced or created in Australia but we just trying to promote eco-systems, eco-friendly programs to the world.

Rachel: That sounds great, so how many people attended the event?

Steven: More than two hundred people from the university came in and watch and enjoyed and actually all of them stayed and we also attracted faculty people which we never thought they would ever come and it's impressive that all these people actually wanted to make a change to the world.

Rachel: So that sounds like an amazing project Steven. If other students in universities around the world wanted to organize something like it, what were the steps you went through to organize that event?

Steven: Well, this even was mostly already planned by this organization called earth hour of course. However, in order to make the idea to actually work, we went through lots of paperwork. We tried to recruit as many people through advertisement and trying to be as eco-friendly as possible by reducing paper, and also we tried to recruit activities from the university in order to promote people to come in and enjoy this wonderful concert, and of course we had some marshmallow, chocolate, cracker which attracted most of the people.

Rachel: That sounds wonderful. So you had the barbeque as well as the concert and then candlelight as well. Is that right?

Steven: Yeah, I actually had candles which is lighting the concert and of course the barbeque. This was the main attraction for people but also because of this they learned that by turning off one hour of light they can actually survive. They can actually survive without the internet or turning on the lights and doing their homework

重點詞匯：

Learn Vocabulary from the Lesson

not require

The event doesn't require electricity.

When something is not required, it means we don’t need it or it’s not necessary in order to do something else. Notice the following.

In many countries, teaching English doesn’t require a Master’s degree.

My calculator doesn’t require batteries.

impressive

It is impressive that all these people came.

Something or someone we respect or admire is impressive. Note the samples.

After only a year abroad, her English skills are impressive.

The band’s live performance was impressive.

go through steps

What were the steps you went through?

The steps you go through tell what you do first, second, third, etc., to complete something. Notice the following.

You need to go through several steps to get a visa.

It was a four step process to gain acceptance to the university.

paperwork

We went through lots of paperwork.

Paperwork usually means administrative tasks such as sending e-mail, writing reports and updating or managing files. Notice the sample sentences.

I’m a secretary, so I spend most of my day doing paperwork.

These days, most paperwork is digital.

recruit people

We tried to recruit people through advertisements.

When we recruit people, we try to get them to join our group or organization. Here are two examples of the phrase ‘recruit people’.

Our company often recruits people at university job fairs.

The salary is low so it’s difficult to recruit people for that job.