英語(yǔ)播客 A Cup of English A green duty.
Recycling is something that I do willingly. My children know all about it. At school the teachers tell them about how to not be wasteful, and how they can become involved in recycling. About every two weeks, my daughter and I load up the car with our large recycling boxes. One has glass jars, another metal cans, another has cardboard, and the last has plastics. It has become a real habit. If we don't do it, our garage will be full of garbage. Just think what a huge amount of things we throw away, when we could be recycling it all. It's alot of stuff! It makes me happy to think that we can save many trees, and help to keep the air and water clean if we make the effort to recycle. In most towns there are areas or large containers where you can take materials that you don't need anymore. It's a great idea.
Related vocabulary: recycling, waste, wasteful, involved, dumpster, garbage, materials, effort.
Verbs: to do (do, did, done); to know (know, knew, known).
Advanced.
It's funny, in retrospect, how you can become absorbed in an activity without realizing. I wish sometimes that I could see myself more objectively, as others do. I say this, because, I believe that often we could catch ourselves doing good, a good that we don't recognize anymore. Take recycling, for example. It has become, out of necessity, a bi-monthly habit in our household. If we didn't do it, our dumpster would get twice as full as it already does. It is truly amazing how many materials we use and throw away. Often, they pass through our house without even showing signs of use or damage. And out they go! Well, all this useful stuff, thankfully now is being transported down to the local recycling center. I usually do it with my daughter. She is only four, so it is like a game for her, as most things are. She loves to throw the plastic bottles into the huge, metal containers. Children love to throw things around, and often get into trouble for it. But there, it can be encouraged; and they love it. Occasionally, a fellow recycler is doing his or her duty down there, with whom I will exchange a smile or a hello. It's as if, without knowing eachother, we have some good things in common. I'm glad that it has become a normal activity for my kids, a little easy well-wishing for the earth.
Grammar notes.
Useful expressions: in retrospect, to become absorbed, objectively, out of necessity, to show signs of damage/ life/ illness etc; a fellow .... ex; a fellow painter.
