Last time I asked you to watch The Story of Bottled Water and answer some questions, relating what you saw in the video with what you have read in your textbook. Here's is an example of a good answer to the first question:
Question 1:According to the Story of Bottled Water, "Municipal water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which does frequent testing, as do local authorities." However, according to How Safe is Your Water?, "...there are no requirements for daily, or even weekly, tests for chemicals, lead or pesticides." Do you think water safety should be more regulated in the United States? Why? Why not?
Possible answers :
Yes, I think water safety should be more regulated in the United States because if water safety were more regulated in the United States, people would not feel the need to buy bottled water. Bottled water is both expensive and wasteful (The Story of Water p. 1,2; par. 7). Also, even if you buy bottled water, you can not be sure it is safe. (How Safe is Your Water? p. 32; par. 6).
No, I don't think water safety should be more regulated in the United States because the water in the United States is already safe. According to The Story of Water: The federal Safe Drinking Water Act empowers EPA to require water testing by certified laboratories and that violations be reported within a specified time frame. Public water systems must also provide reports to customers about their water, noting its source, evidence of contaminants and compliance with regulations. (P. 1; Footnote 3)
Now let's look at the other 4 questions before we move on to today's reading.
Today's reading is called Waste not, want not. In Japanese we have a similar saying, 勿体無い (Mottainai), which expresses regret concerning waste. Mottainai is an important part of Japanese culture. You can see "mottainai" written in many places in Japan including on Pizza Hut boxes.
However, despite the importance of mottainai in Japanese culture, there is a lot of waste, especially food waste.
According to the Japan Times, about 23 million tons of food were discarded in 2007, which was worth about ¥11 trillion ($120 billion). Japan's annual agricultural output is worth about ¥11 trillion too. So that means that Japan wasted as much food as it produced. Furthermore, it cost ¥2 trillion ($21 billion) to process that waste. What do you think of that?
Today we are going to read about reclaimed water.
First, let's study some vocabulary. Please click the link: Cross Cultural Awareness and English 2 Vocabulary.
Now let's read the article and answer the questions.
Finally, please post a comment. Do you waste a lot of things? Is Mottainai important to you? How do you practice Mottainai?
See you next week!
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