Close menu
24

Unit 24: The future
Seven ways of talking about the future

Select a unit

  1. 1 Go beyond intermediate with our new video course
  2. 2 Reported speech in 90 seconds!
  3. 3 If or whether?
  4. 4 5 ways to use 'would'
  5. 5 Let and allow
  6. 6 Passive voice
  7. 7 Unless
  8. 8 Mixed conditionals
  9. 9 The zero article - in 90 seconds
  10. 10 The indefinite article - in 90 seconds
  11. 11 The. That's right - the! Learn all about it in 90 seconds
  12. 12 The continuous passive
  13. 13 Future perfect
  14. 14 Need + verb-ing
  15. 15 Have something done
  16. 16 Wish
  17. 17 Word stress
  18. 18 Different ways of saying 'if'
  19. 19 Passive reporting structures
  20. 20 The subjunctive
  21. 21 When and if
  22. 22 Inversion
  23. 23 Phrasal verbs
  24. 24 The future
  25. 25 Modals in the past
  26. 26 Narrative tenses
  27. 27 Phrasal verb myths
  28. 28 Conditionals review
  29. 29 Used to - review
  30. 30 Linking words of contrast

Session 2

Wild bees in the US have declined in many farming areas, according to the first national effort to map their numbers. Neil and Catherine discuss this and give you the words and phrases the world's media are using to talk about the story.

Sessions in this unit

12345

Session 2 score

0 / 3

  • 0 / 3
    Activity 1
  1. Activity 1

Activity 1

News Review

US wild bee numbers decline as land is converted for biofuel

Wild bees in the US have declined in many farming areas according to the first national effort to map their numbers. The study suggests that between 2008 and 2013, the numbers of wild bees went down across almost a quarter of the US.

Language challenge

A bee buzzes - but what sound does a cricket make?

Watch the video and complete the activity

The story

A new study suggests that the number of wild bees in the United States has declined in many farming areas because of a boom in biofuels.

The report says that over five years up to 2013, the abundance of wild bees fell across almost a quarter of the US as land was converted to grow corn for ethanol.

Prof Taylor Ricketts - one of the authors of the study

Farmers are growing more corn and they're turning semi-natural habitats or places where bees could have nested and found flowers back into corn. And that has been shown to reduce bee populations.

Key words and phrases

abundant/an abundance of
A large amount of; more than enough

decline/on the decline
a reduction in the amount of something

dwindle
get smaller over time

To do

Try our quiz to see how well you've learned today's language.

News Review quiz

3 Questions

Now you've watched the video, try to answer these questions about the language in the news

Congratulations you completed the Quiz
Excellent! Great job! Bad luck! You scored:
x / y

Downloads

You can download the audio and PDF document for this episode here.

Language challenge - answer

A cricket 'chirps' or 'chirrups'.

More

Learn more about this story with BBC News.

End of Session 2

Join us in Session 3 for Lingohack - our video which teaches you words from the news using the latest BBC World News bulletins.

Session Grammar

View full grammar reference

Session Vocabulary

  • abundant/an abundance of
    a large amount of; more than enough

    boom
    major increase

    biofuels
    fuel made from living things

    decline/on the decline
    a reduction in the amount of something

    dwindle
    get smaller over time

View full vocabulary reference

Download centre

Latest course content