UNIT 6

NOISE POLLUTION

Activity 1. Brainstorming
Answer the following questions.
1. What is meant by Noise Pollution?
2. Can you propose a possible solution to the problem?

For teacher: This activity is given in order to know student’s understanding about the
noise pollution. The answers of the questions are in the form of description which
may involve the use of determiners. Teacher can observe how students use
determiners in their utterance.

Activity 2. Determiners

What is Determiner? Simply put, in English, a determiner is a word that

introduces a noun or provides information about the quantity of a noun. It always
comes before a noun, not after, and it also comes before any other adjectives used
to describe the noun. There are four different types of determiners in English: articles,
demonstratives, quantifiers, and possessives.

1. Articles
Articles are among the most common determiners. There are three singular
articles: a, an, and the. Articles specify (or determine) which noun the speaker is
referring to.
A and an are indefinite articles and are used when you are talking about a
general version of the noun. A is used before words that begin with consonants
while an is used before words beginning with vowels or vowel sounds.
Examples:
 A cat is a domestic animal.
 She’s a good girl.
 An ostrich would beat a chicken in a race.
In these examples, the sentence is talking about cat or ostriches in general, meaning
any cat. When your meaning is general, use an indefinite article. On the other hand,
the is a definite article, meaning the speaker is referring to a specific noun.

Examples:
 We went to the best restaurant in town.
 The dog is barking too loudly.
 She didn't like the music.
 We are going to the hospital.
Here the speaker is referring to a particular dog and a particular restaurant. It's not a
general category, but only one animal or place that's important. When the meaning
is specific, use a definite article.

2. Demonstratives
Demonstrative pronouns are also used as determiners in English. There are four
of them: this, that, these, and those. Demonstratives are used in situations where
the speaker can point to the item they mean, making them even more specific than a
definite article. This and that are singular while these and those are plural.
Examples
 Do you want this piece of chicken?
 I don't want to go to that movie.
 These black raspberries are sour.
 He wanted those boys to go away.

3. Quantifiers
Quantifiers indicate how much or how little of the noun is being discussed.
They include words such as all, few and many.
Examples:
 He took all the books.
 She liked all desserts equally.
 Few children like lima beans, so the cafeteria stopped serving them.
 Many kittens are taught to hunt by their mothers.
All can be used with other determiners to specify which particular items are
meant (i.e. all the books in this pile). In this case, the quantifier always comes before
the article or demonstrative. It's also possible to use all alone to refer to items
generally, as in the second example.

4. Possessives
When referring to a noun that belongs to someone or something, you can use
possessive pronouns to show ownership. Possessive pronouns include my, your, his,
her, its, our, and their.
Examples:
 Where is your car?
 The dog growled and showed its teeth.
 My best friend is a cat.
 Which one is his house?
 Honesty is her best quality.
 The tree shed its leaves.
 It's our secret recipe.
 Their house was just around the corner.
 As always, the determiner comes before the noun and any modifying adjectives.
In English, you can use the same possessive whether the noun it references is
singular or plural.

Activity 3. Reading Comprehension

Read the text and answer the following questions!

Noise Pollution

Noise pollution is an invisible danger. It cannot be seen, but it is present

nonetheless, both on land and under the sea. Noise pollution is considered to be
any unwanted or disturbing sound that affects the health and well-being of
humans and other organisms.
Sound is measured in decibels. There are many sounds in the environment,
from rustling leaves (20 to 30 decibels) to a thunderclap (120 decibels) to the wail
of a siren (120 to 140 decibels). Sounds that reach 85 decibels or higher can harm a
person’s ears. Sound sources that exceed this threshold include familiar things,
such as power lawn mowers (90 decibels), subway trains (90 to 115 decibels), and
loud rock concerts (110 to 120 decibels).
Noise pollution impacts millions of people on a daily basis. The most common
health problem it causes is Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL). Exposure to loud
noise can also cause high blood pressure, heart disease, sleep disturbances, and
stress. These health problems can affect all age groups, especially children. Many
children who live near noisy airports or streets have been found to suffer from
stress and other problems, such as impairments in memory, attention level, and
reading skill.
Noise pollution also impacts the health and well-being of wildlife. Studies have
shown that loud noises can cause caterpillars' dorsal vessels (the insect equivalent
of a heart) to beat faster, and cause bluebirds to have fewer chicks. Animals use
sound for a variety of reasons, including to navigate, find food, attract mates, and
avoid predators. Noise pollution makes it difficult for them to accomplish these
tasks, which affects their ability survive.
Increasing noise is not only affecting animals on land, it is also a growing
problem for those that live in the ocean. Ships, oil drills, sonar devices, and seismic
tests have made the once tranquil marine environment loud and chaotic. Whales
and dolphins are particularly impacted by noise pollution. These marine mammals
rely on echolocation to communicate, navigate, feed, and find mates, and excess
noise interferes with their ability to effectively echolocate.
Some of the loudest underwater noise comes from naval sonar devices. Sonar,
like echolocation, works by sending pulses of sound down into the depths of the
ocean to bounce off an object and return an echo to the ship, which indicates a
location for object. Sonar sounds can be as loud as 235 decibels and travel
 hundreds of miles under water, interfering with whales’ ability to use echolocation.
Research has shown that sonar can cause mass strandings of whales on beaches
and alter the feeding behavior of endangered blue whales (Balaenoptera
musculus). Environmental groups are urging the U.S. Navy to stop or reduce using
sonar for military training.
Seismic surveys also produce loud blasts of sound within the ocean. Ships
looking for deep-sea oil or gas deposits tow devices called air guns and shoot
pulses of sound down to the ocean floor. The sound blasts can damage the ears of
marine animals and cause serious injury. Scientists believe this noise may also be
contributing to the altered behavior of whales.
Among those researching the effects of noise pollution is Michel Andre, a
bioacoustics researcher in Spain who is recording ocean sounds using instruments
called hydrophones. His project, LIDO (Listening to the Deep Ocean Environment),
collects data at 22 different locations. Back in the lab, computers identify the
sounds of human activities as well as 26 species of whales and dolphins. The
analysis aims to determine the effects that underwater noise is having on these
animals. Andre hopes his project will find ways to protect marine animals from the
dangers of ocean noise.

Source: https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/noise-pollution

1. Based on the passage, what is meant by noise pollution?

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2. Can you explain how noise pollution can affect human’s health?
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3. How can noise pollution affect animal’s ability to survive?
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4. Can you mention the things that may contribute to noise pollution in the ocean?
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5. According to the passage, what is expected to be able to protect animals from
the dangers of ocean noise?
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Activity 4. Grammar Exercise 1

1. Direction: use the before the specific names of seas, oceans and buildings. Fill in
the blank space with a, an, or the, or leave the space blank by writing dash (-).

I am from Rome. Rome is in 1…………… southern Italy, and it is 2……………… Capital of

Italy. It is 3………………. very large city. It has about 4…………………… three million people.
Rome usually has warm weather because it is close to 5…………… Mediterranean Sea.
Rome also has many famous things to see. For example, ………………..Vatican,
6

…………… Colosseum, 8…………………. Fountain of Trevi are in Rome. 9…………………..

7

Romans like to walk in 10……………. parks and we like to sit in 11……………….. cafes. Rome
is 12…………….. great city to have fun in.

2. Directions: Fill in the spaces with my, his, their, he, it, or they.

1
…………. classmate’s name is Beat Sarlos of Zermatt, Switzerland. When 2

…………… was a child, 3 …………… best friend was Wilhelm Rizzoli. 4…………… lived on the
same mountain, and 5
…………. was about 400 meters high. 6
………… went to
elementary, secondary, and high schools together. 7
…………. parents were also
friends, so 8
…………. slept at each other’s house very often. 9
………… favorite activity
was skiing; 10
………. did 11
……….. every day during the winter and spring. To have fun,
12
……….. used to put sticky stuff on the bottom of tourists’ skis so the skis wouldn’t
slide. When 13
……….. got older, they dated girls together every weekend. Today, 14

………. are still good friends, Wilhelm wants to get 15

…………. law degree in the United
States, and Beat wants to get his medical degree here too.

Activity 5. Grammar Exercise 2

Put in much/many/little/few (one word only).

1. She isn’t popular. She has few friends.

2. Anna is very busy these days. She has _____________ free time.
3. Did you take ____________ pictures at the wedding?
4. This is a modern city. There are __________ old buildings.
 5. The weather has been very dry recently. We’ve had _________ rain.
6. I don’t know London well. I haven’t been there for _____________ years.
7. The two cars are similar. There is ____________ difference between them.
8. I’m not very busy today. I don’t have _______________ to do.
9. It’s a wonderful place to live. There are ____________ better places to be.
10. We didn’t eat ________________.

Activity 7. Structured Assignment

From the reading text in Activity 3, make a list of ten difficult words and their
meanings. Then, compose sentences using those words. Don’t forget to practice your
knowledge of determiners by using them in your sentences!

No Word Meaning Sentence