Are All Endangered Species Worth Saving?

Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJqwozMBrKQ

I. Study the active vocabulary:

loss
conservation
habitat
carbon dioxide
growth
backwards
facilitate
biodiversity
reflect
fail
breed
scoff
delicious
dreadful
greenhouse gas
emission
reduce
rate
pointless
parrot
predator
mammal
harsh
trajectory
species
ІІ. Watch the video and fill in the gaps in the text.
Polar bears, should we 1)______ them? Well, that’s a really difficult 2)______.
Change is not equivalent to loss. In many conservation philosophies you see people
trying to 3)______ habitats to something that they used to be some 4)______ ago
or some thousands of 5)______ ago. In reality they can’t do it. It’s 6)______ to
restore any biological community, any 7)______, to exactly what it was a
8)______ hundred years ago because too much has 9)______ since. The
10)______ has changed, the carbon dioxide in the 11)______ has changed, which
affects the growth of every 12)______ on the 13)______. So we can’t go
backwards. We have to have a forwards 14)______ conservation about how we
facilitate the 15)______ of biodiversity rather than always reflecting backwards as
to: “How can I stop 16)______? How can I go backwards?” Because 17)______
that’s going to 18)______.
So saving the 19)______ bear is not about taking some into 20)______ and
breeding them. It’s not about releasing them into Antarctica where there’s lots of
21)______ and lots of penguins they can scoff. And that would be absolutely
22)______ but dreadful for 23)______. What we need to do is to reduce the
24)______ gas emissions and reduce the rate at which the 25)______ is warming.
And, in fact, reduce the final 26)______ in temperature that takes place so that
there is still enough 27)______ ice for them to survive. Otherwise you’re going to
be left with a kind of zoo 28)______ forever. And ultimately that kind of becomes
a pointless 29)______. So one of the 30)______ which one might wonder whether
it is worth trying to 31)______ is something like the flightless kakapo parrot in
New 32)______. So this particular species of 33)______ can only live in
effectively predator free environment or that is to say environments that lack
34)______ living mammals.
The really harsh 35)______ is: “Is the saving the kakapo going to affect the future
of 36)______ of birds and the long-term future of birds?” I would say no. So if the
kakapo dies out, some people are 37)______. It is a loss of 38)______ identity in
New Zealand, but it’s not going to change the future evolutionary trajectory of
39)______ on the earth because that is the future of birds is in those species that
can 40)______ and can survive in the presence of 41)______. When we find that
we’ve got an endangered 421)______, I think it’s important that we don’t throw
good 43)______ after bad and keep, as I say, treating the symptoms rather than the
cause of the problem. And if the cause of the decline of a species cannot be
44)______, then you get to some hard 45)______.
ІV. Watch the video and answer the questions.
1. What is the main idea of conservation philosophies? What problems do
people face when they try to restore natural habitats?
2. What factors have affected the changes in natural habitats?
3. What ways of saving polar bears does the speaker discuss? Are these
ways effective in his opinion?
4. What are the special or unique features of the flightless kakapo parrot in
New Zealand?
5. Does the speaker think that flightless parrots are necessary for the
survival of birds on our planet?
6. Does the speaker think that flightless parrots should be saved?

V. Study the table below.

a) Find and underline the examples of the usage of modal verb should in task III.

Meaning Additional information Examples

1. obligation with Less categorical than must You should
shades of advisability/ In affirmative sentences do it.
desirability Generally refers an action to the You should
future (Simple Infinitive) be doing it.
To refer to the present should +
Continuous Infinitive is used