Rubbish! Bill Bryson talks about litter in Britain Exercise 1
This video shows Bill Bryson when he appeared on Breakfast with two presenters, Kate Silverton and Bill Turnbull. For many years television channels had few early morning programmes, and this BBC programme was the UK’s first early morning programme, launched as Breakfast Time in January 1983. At one point its name changed to Breakfast News, and now it is simply called Breakfast
Many visitors to Britain comment on how much litter we have in Britain, and how ugly it makes our country. Bill Bryson has described this "as such an unnecessary insult to what is mostly a glorious landscape".
If you do not have much time to spare, just try exercise 1. If you have plenty of time, try both exercise 1 and 2.
Exercise 1 – true and false
1. [Multiple choice]
It is assessed that the amount of litter we drop is costing local authorities about £250m a year to clean up.
(The cost is £500 million a year.
rubbish – waste material; unwanted or worthless things; INFORMAL something that you think is a) very low quality or not true – eg a) Their CD is absolute rubbish. B) He was talking rubbish on the news.
You can also rubbish a person’s ideas – i.e. criticise, denigrate
)
Answers for Quiz [1].
- 1. True
- 2. False (correct)
2. [Multiple choice]
Clearing up litter is a needless expense.
(Because over 5 years it costs the country 2½ billion pounds to pick up ‘stuff that shouldn’t be down there in the first place’.)
Answers for Quiz [2].
- 1. True (correct)
- 2. False
3. [Multiple choice]
Bill Bryson sees the real danger about litter is that dropping litter become so established people won’t even think twice about it.
Answers for Quiz [3].
- 1. True (correct)
- 2. False
4. [Multiple choice]
Kate Silverton suggests there is a risk that if you confront people who drop litter you might get hit by them.
Answers for Quiz [4].
- 1. Yes, that’s right. (correct)
- 2. No, she doesn’t.
5. [Multiple choice]
Many people do not even think of dropping litter as wrong.
(Bryson says that most people litter slyly (=on the sly) because they know it’s wrong.)
Answers for Quiz [5].
- 1. True
- 2. False (correct)
6. [Multiple choice]
Studies have shown 95% of people who drop litter could be persuaded not to.
(The statistic Bill Bryson quotes is 90%.)
Answers for Quiz [6].
- 1. Yes, they do.
- 2. No, they don’t. (correct)
7. [Multiple choice]
Bill Bryson mentions that the Campaign to Protect Rural England is funding a three-year campaign against litter.
(Not in this video, he doesn’t. Bill Bryson is the President of this organisation, and he mentions this fact in another video, but not in the one you have watched.
)
Answers for Quiz [7].
- 1. That’s right, he does.
- 2. No, that’s not right, he doesn’t do. (correct)
8. [Multiple choice]
Kate was really impressed by a friend of hers who bent down and picked up a crisp packet.
(She thought “good for you!”.
Good for you = well done, that is to your credit, that is a good thing to have done / decision to have made. Eg “I’ve decided to re-train as a teacher. “Good for you!”
)
Answers for Quiz [8].
- 1. Yes, she was. (correct)
- 2. No, she wasn’t.
9. [Multiple choice]
Bill Bryson explains an innovative idea about bottle deposit schemes, where you get money back on empty bottles by returning them to shops.
(He mentions this idea, but says the UK used to have these schemes here when he first came to the UK, so it is not new.
An empty – plural empties – bottle previously containing some liquid, especially a drink, and that is now empty. Eg We need to put the empties in the recycling box.
)
Answers for Quiz [9].
- 1. True
- 2. False (correct)
10. [Multiple choice]
Kate Silverton considers the bottle deposit scheme a good one.
(“I can see that working because it’s fun to put the things in and young people would go round scouting for litter.”
scout for sth – go around searching for sth
)
Answers for Quiz [10].
- 1. Yes, she says so. (correct)
- 2. No, she doesn’t.