Global Issues: Environment, Poverty and Homelessness

Two halves of one topic

This topic has two halves and the exam can ask about either. One is the environment: waste, pollution and the energy that might replace what causes it. The other is poverty and homelessness. The vocabulary lists look long, but most of the environment words are built from two nouns joined together, which you already met with the construct state. Once you can say that something exists, you can talk about all of it. For example, יש זיהום אוויר means there is air pollution.

Words for the environment

Six words for the first half of the topic. Several are two nouns joined, which is the pattern you already know.

Match the environment word

Air or water?

Which of these means water pollution?

• זיהום המים
• זיהום אוויר
• פסולת נייר
• פסולת אורגנית

Which half is it from

Sorting a word into the right half of the topic is half the battle in a listening or reading question, because it tells you what the passage is about before you have understood every word.

Match the second half

Pick the environment words

Select the TWO words that belong to the environment half of this topic.

• פסולת נייר
• מקורות אנרגיה חילופיים
• עני
• להיות חסר בית

When the noun takes the article

Here is a rule that costs marks whenever it is half-remembered. In Hebrew an adjective follows its noun and has to match it. That much is familiar. What surprises people is what happens when the noun becomes definite. The specification gives the pair itself: בית גדול means a big house, and הבית הגדול means the big house. The article does not go on the noun alone. It goes on BOTH words. If you write it on only one of them, the phrase is wrong however good the vocabulary is.

The topic in words

The Hebrew for rubbish or waste is _____. The word for poverty is _____. Someone who is out of work is _____. A person who has had to leave their country is _____. And the verb meaning to protect is _____.

Say that it exists

Put these three pieces in order to say there is water pollution. The pattern is the same one used in יש זיהום אוויר, meaning there is air pollution.

• יש
• זיהום המים
• and then the reason, if you have one

Where does the article go?

The phrase בית גדול means a big house. Which of these means THE big house?

• הבית הגדול
• הבית גדול
• בית הגדול
• בית גדול

Reading the passage

A reading question gives you a short passage and asks in English what problem it describes. Suppose the passage contains יש זיהום אוויר and later the word אנרגיה סולרית. Model answer: the passage says there is air pollution, and it then mentions solar energy, so it is describing a problem and a possible answer to it rather than only complaining about the problem. Notice what earned the mark. Not translating every word, but spotting which half of the topic the passage sits in and then noticing that a second word changes the direction of the argument. In a reading paper you will meet words you do not know. Working out the direction from the ones you do know is the skill being tested.

Find the one that does not fit

Three of these words belong to the environment half of this topic. Select the ONE that does not.

• אשפה
• קבצן
• חיסול יערות
• פח אשפה

Choosing the right word

You are preparing a short spoken answer about a global issue. Work through the choices.

• You want to say that a problem exists before describing it. Which word do you need first?
• You want to name a problem affecting the air rather than the water. Which do you choose?
• You want to suggest something that might help. Which word points at a solution rather than a problem?
• You then want to add an adjective to a definite noun. What has to happen?

Explain your choices

Answer in ENGLISH. You are preparing to speak about a global issue in Hebrew. Explain what you would say and why, naming the Hebrew words you would use.

• Name the half of the topic you would talk about, and say why you chose it
• Name two Hebrew words you would use, and give their meanings in English
• Explain how you would say that the problem exists, and which word does that work
• Name one word you would use to point at a possible solution rather than a problem
• Explain what happens to an adjective when the noun it follows takes the definite article