Green Living Starts with Me
FoundationSave water and electricity, bring your own bag, sort rubbish for recycling — everyone's effort makes the Earth healthier.
- The Earth is our home; everyone protects the environment.
- Switch off lights and taps to save resources.
- Bring your own bag and bottle to make less rubbish.
文體小知識：說明文教我們節約和回收的方法，還有綠色生活四原則幫你記住。
§Text Passage
1The Earth is our common home. But rubbish keeps piling up, and the air and sea are polluted — the Earth is sick. We do not have to wait until we grow up; primary students can start today.
2Saving resources is the easiest: turn off the tap while brushing teeth, switch off lights and fans when leaving a room, and set the air conditioner at twenty-five to twenty-six degrees in summer. Write on both sides of the paper before recycling it, and give old clothes to people who need them.
3Bring your own shopping bag instead of plastic bags; drink from your own water bottle instead of paper cups; take only as much food as you can eat, and finish it. Then the rubbish gets smaller day by day.
4Sort the rubbish too: paper, metal and plastic go into their own recycling bins, and used batteries go into battery recycling boxes. Remember the four green rules: reduce, reuse, recycle and replace. Everyone's little effort adds up to a healthier Earth.
1Summary 重點摘要
Save water and electricity, bring your own bag, sort rubbish for recycling — everyone's effort makes the Earth healthier.
2Vocabulary cards Vocabulary
Everything around us, such as the air, water and land.
Using resources such as water, electricity and paper without wasting them.
Collecting used things to make them into new things.
Separating rubbish into paper, metal and plastic.
A bag you bring shopping, instead of taking a plastic bag.
When the air, water or land becomes dirty and harmful.
Using the same thing again and again, such as a shopping bag.
Something that stores electricity; put used ones in battery recycling boxes.
3Step by step Steps
- Step 1: Save waterFresh water on Earth is very precious, so we should form the habit of saving it from a young age. Turn off the tap while brushing teeth and save a big cupful each time; keep the water from washing vegetables to water the plants, wasting not a drop. If you see a tap dripping, close it tightly and tell an adult to fix it. When everyone saves water, the reservoirs and rivers keep enough water, sea creatures keep a clean home, and the precious fresh water is left for the next generation.
- Step 2: Save electricityMaking electricity burns fuel and sends waste gas into the air, so saving electricity protects the Earth. Switch off lights and fans when leaving the classroom or a room; in summer, twenty-five to twenty-six degrees of air conditioning is cool enough, and a lower setting uses far more power. Skip lights in bright daytime, and unplug appliances that are not in use. Every bit of electricity saved means less pollution and a healthier Earth — and the family's bill is lower too.
- Step 3: Make less rubbishPlastic bags and throwaway cutlery take many years to break down, and piling up in landfills hurts the land. Bring a food box for bread and your own bag for shopping, saving a few plastic bags every day, which adds up to a remarkable number in a year. Choose goods with simple wrapping and refuse needless boxes and bags; carry a water bottle so no bottled water needs buying. The fewer throwaway things we use, the less rubbish in the landfill, and the cleaner the Earth becomes.
- Step 4: Sort the rubbishSorting rubbish for recycling turns old things into useful resources. Newspapers and worksheet paper go into the blue paper bin; cans into the metal bin; plastic bottles into the plastic bin. Before recycling, empty the bottles and cans, rinse them clean and flatten them, so the recycling work becomes easier and faster. Sorting seems troublesome, but with a few collection bags at home it soon becomes a simple habit; resources go round and round, and rubbish naturally gets less day by day.
- Step 5: Give old things new lifeMany old things need not be thrown away; think a little and they become useful again. Wash old clothes and give them to charity, use glass jars as vases or for storage, turn boxes into pen holders, and pass toys and books to children who need them. Before throwing something out, ask: can it be used in another way? This thinking sparks creativity and cuts waste at the same time. Giving old things new life is green and fun, and passes kindness on — many gains in one.
- Step 6: Travel greenCar exhaust pollutes the air and makes the weather hotter. Walk or cycle to the nearby park and shops, take public transport to school more often, and ride the family car less, and the air stays fresher. Green travel exercises the body and protects the Earth at once; when going out with your family, remember to suggest walking, cycling or public transport whenever possible, so the whole family becomes little green pioneers together.
4Diagrams Diagrams
5Worked example Example
Example: Ming throws a sheet of paper into the bin after only a few strokes, saying that paper is cheap. How would you persuade him?
- Explain the reason first: one sheet looks small, but paper is made from trees, so wasting paper wastes trees as well as the water and electricity used in papermaking.
- Suggest a concrete way: paper with only a few strokes can be turned over as rough paper and recycled only after both sides are filled.
- Build the habit: unused sheets go back on the shelf for next time, never thrown away casually.
- Final reminder: paper that is truly finished goes into the blue paper recycling bin, to be made into new paper.
- Answer: Ask him to think where paper comes from: it is made from trees and not easily earned. Use both sides before recycling, then put it in the paper bin to be made anew; cherishing paper is caring for the forests.
6Common mistakes Mistakes
7Quick check Quick check
Q1How do we save water while brushing teeth?
Q2Which bin should newspapers go into?
Q3How do we make less rubbish when shopping?
Q4Can used batteries be thrown away anywhere?
Q5What can we do with old clothes?
8Recap Recap
- The Earth is our home; everyone protects the environment.
- Switch off lights and taps to save resources.
- Bring your own bag and bottle to make less rubbish.
- Sort paper, metal and plastic for recycling.
- Reduce, reuse, recycle and replace.