1. Technical English Episode 10 Plastic-Eating Worms May Cut Pollution

2. Plastic-Eating Worms May Cut Pollution
Before reading the text
All warms eat plastic
Plastic don`t cause environmental pollution
Plastic is an organic compound
Eating and digesting food is a chemical process
_True_ False No idea
______ _______ ________

3. Plastic-Eating Worms May Cut Pollution
Researchers may have found an unusual way to reduce plastic pollution, one bite at a time. It turns out that the common wax worm can eat plastic. Also known as the Galleria mellonella, these worms may help reduce the waste caused by plastic bags.
Each year, one trillion plastic bags are used around the world. They are made from polyethylene -- one of the strongest kinds of plastic. The wax worm is the larvae, or young form, of an insect called the greater wax moth. These kinds of worms are also called caterpillars. Federica Bertocchini is with the Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology of Cantabria in Spain. She says researchers found that the larvae of the Galleria mellonella are able to biodegrade the plastic bags. To “biodegrade” means to break down by natural processes or bacteria.
Accidental discovery
They discovered this by accident, Bertocchini explains. She says the plastic bags holding the wax worms “became riddled with holes.” In other words, the bags had holes all over them when the worms were inside. Bertocchini, a beekeeper, says she made the chance discovery after removing the worms from beehives, where they live. She put the worms in a plastic shopping bag, which became full of holes.
Bertocchini worked with other researchers from the Spanish National Research Council and Britain’s University of Cambridge’s Department of Biochemistry. She carried out timed experiments on the worms. She says the worms can “do damage to a plastic bag in less than an hour.” When 100 worms were placed in a normal British plastic shopping bag, the holes began to appear in just 40 minutes.

4. Plastic-Eating Worms May Cut Pollution
After 12 hours, researchers saw “an obvious reduction in plastic mass.” They say a single enzyme produced by the worm is responsible for the chemical process that breaks down the plastic. They also found that the worms turned the polyethylene into a different organic compound called ethylene glycol. It is used in making polyester fibers as well as antifreeze for vehicles. It is not clear if the worms produce enough for commercial use.
Plastic is not the worm's natural food
Plastic is not the natural food for the wax worm. But the researchers say that since they lay their eggs in beehives, the larvae feed on beeswax. “Wax is a polymer, a sort of ‘natural plastic,’ that has a chemical structure that is not dissimilar to polyethylene,” Bertocchini says.
Researchers say they still need to better understand how wax is digested, or processed, in the worm. Finding that out could lead to a solution for dealing with plastic waste. Bertocchini says they are planning to use this research to find a way to get rid of plastic waste. She says they are “working towards a solution to save our oceans, rivers and all the environment” from the problems of plastic waste. But, she adds, we should not throw polyethylene into the environment, “just because we now know how to biodegrade it.”

5. Plastic-Eating Worms May Cut Pollution
Underline the words you do not know.
 WORDS TO LEARN
larvae
caterpillar
biodegrade
Beehives
beekeeper
polyethylene
ethylene
fiber
antifreeze
riddle
USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
an unusual way
one bite at a time
may help reduce
to break down
riddled with holes
Carry out timed experiments
to get rid of

6. Larva – (Larvae-plural)- : /ˈlɑː.və/
Definition:
a form of an insect or an animal such as a frog that has left its egg but is not yet completely developed

7. Caterpillar : /ˈkæt.ə.pɪl.ər/
Definition:
a small, long animal with many legs that feeds on the leaves of plants, and develops into a butterfly or moth

8. biodegrade: /ˌbaɪ.əʊ.dɪˈɡreɪd/
Definition:
To decay naturally and in a way that is not harmfull
Sample sentence:
Some plastics are designed to biodegrade when their useful life is over.

9. Beehive :
Definition:
a container shaped like a box in which bees are kept so that their honey can be collected

10. ethylene : /ˈeθ.əl.iːn/ Definition:
a gas with a slightly sweet smell that burns easily, used in industry and to make fruit ripe (= ready to eat)

11. Fiber : /kəmˈpænjən/ Definition:
any of the thread-like parts that form plant or artificial material and can be made into cloth
Sample sentence:
Glass fibre is often used as roof insulation.

12. antifreeze : /ˈæn.ti.friːz/
Definition:
a liquid that is added to water in order to lower the temperature at which it freezes, used especially in car radiators (= cooling systems) in very cold weather

13. Answer the Questions :
1- What have researchers recently announced about the common wax worm?
That their waste contains polyethylene
They can live in plastic bags.
Their larvae become moths
That the worms can eat plastic
2- How did the scientist discover a new fact about worms?
She tried putting the worms into a beehive to see what they would eat.
She did tests with different kinds of worms to see which would eat plastic.
Accidentally. She put them in a plastic bag, which they started eating.
After many years of research on bees, she found a larvae eating the hives.

14. Answer the Questions : 3- What allows the worms to break down plastic?
The presence of ethylene glycol
The enzyme they produce in a chemical process
The fact that they break it down over a long time
That the plastic has a large number of holes in it
4- What do the researchers still need to learn?
How the worms break down the plastic as they digest it
A faster way to get the worms from beehives
What the natural food is for the wax worms
How to get the worms to eat plastic in oceans and rivers

15. TEXT ANALYZING Listen and repeat exercises. Reading laudly.
Understand the text
-- Underline the verbs (Use pink colour)
-- Circle plural words (Use blue color)
-- Underline two times the words you do not know.
-- Highlight good expressions. (Use brown color)

16. Assignment - Assessment
Learn all vocabulary.
Listen to the text 10 times while reading, and listen to the same text 10 times without reading.
Then record your voice while reading.
Undersand the text deeply (TEXT ANALYZING)
Write the text on the right of your notebook, then analyze it on the left...
.. verbs, tense, plural nouns, - my favourite sentence, good expressions, words to learn
6. Summarize the text

17. ASSIGNMENT Make a sentence with the given expressions
help reduce the waste
became riddled with holes
working towards a solution
not throw polyethylene into the environment