What the River Carries
Grammar: Rhetorical structures: tricolon, anaphora, antithesis
A Level 6 English lesson exploring science.
What's in this lesson
A Level 6 (proficiency) ESL lesson on science, practising rhetorical structures: tricolon, anaphora, antithesis. The worksheet has a reading, target vocabulary and discussion questions.
From the reading: What the River Carries
Every autumn, millions of Pacific salmon fight their way upstream through the rivers of Alaska and British Columbia, carrying in their bodies a cargo that has crossed an ocean. When they die — and they always die — their decomposing flesh releases marine-derived nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon into the surrounding forest. The trees absorb it. The bears eat it. The eagles take it to distant canopies. A single salmon, in other words, is not merely a fish: it is a consignment note, a vessel, a declaration of origin. What the ocean produces, the forest eventually receives. What is consumed at one end replenishes something at the other. What appears to be an ending is, in fact, a delivery.
Vocabulary
- broaden the market
- consume
- have their say
- stopped
- absorb
- carry
- release
- set off
- transforms
Discussion questions
- Have you ever thought about where the things you buy have actually been?
- Does distance make something more or less valuable?
- What is something your country exports that surprises foreigners?
What the River Carries
Grammar: Rhetorical structures: tricolon, anaphora, antithesis
What's in this lesson:
Full lesson plan with reading, grammar, vocabulary, and discussion.
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