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Bright Lives English · Teacher sheet

Rachel Carson: What If Spring Had No Birds?

Level B1 (Intermediate) · Video 4:35 · 45-minute lesson

brightlivesenglish.com/lessons/rachel-carson-silent-spring/

45-minute lesson plan

TimeStageWhat to do
0–3′Warm-upAsk the class: “Think of a spring morning where you live. What can you hear? What would be different if there were no birds?” Let a few students answer.
3–11′WordsPre-teach the 5 words with the flashcards: pesticide, harm, chemical, spray, environment. Say each word, show the meaning, and ask for a quick example.
11–18′VideoPlay the video (4:35). Students follow the transcript. Play it a second time if needed.
18–26′ComprehensionWorksheet C (or the online Story Challenge): check answers together. Ask “How do you know?”
26–34′Grammarso + adjective / adverb + that + result: to show a strong cause and its result. Show “The book was so powerful that it changed the law.”, then do worksheet E together.
34–42′WorksheetStudents do worksheet A, B and D alone or in pairs. Check with the answer key.
42–45′SpeakingIn pairs: “Pesticides help farmers grow more food, but they can harm nature. How can we have both enough food and a healthy environment?”

Homework: students finish the lesson online (flashcards + Story Challenge). With your class link, you see who finished.

Words and grammar

  • pesticide (noun): a chemical that kills insects or other small animals that eat crops. “DDT was a strong pesticide.”
  • harm (verb): to hurt or damage something (past: harmed). “The sprays were harming birds and fish.”
  • chemical (noun): a substance that scientists make, often in a factory. “Farmers sprayed chemicals on their fields.”
  • spray (noun): a cloud of very small drops of liquid in the air. “Planes covered whole towns with spray.”
  • environment (noun): the air, water and land where people, animals and plants live. “Her book helped people protect the environment.”

Grammar: so + adjective / adverb + that + result — to show a strong cause and its result. “The book was so powerful that it changed the law.”

Discussion questions

  1. Pesticides help farmers grow more food, but they can harm nature. How can we have both enough food and a healthy environment?
  2. What was the hardest moment in Rachel Carson's story? What did Rachel Carson do?
  3. Make two sentences about your own life with “so + adjective / adverb + that + result”. (From the story: “The book was so powerful that it changed the law.”)

Student worksheet

Name: Date:

A Match the words to their meanings

  1. pesticide (noun)
  2. harm (verb)
  3. chemical (noun)
  4. spray (noun)
  5. environment (noun)
  6. insect (noun)
  7. marine biologist (noun)
  8. bird song (noun)
  1. the musical sounds that birds make
  2. the air, water and land where people, animals and plants live
  3. a chemical that kills insects or other small animals that eat crops
  4. a cloud of very small drops of liquid in the air
  5. a very small animal with six legs, like a mosquito or a bee
  6. to hurt or damage something (past: harmed)
  7. a scientist who studies plants and animals that live in the sea
  8. a substance that scientists make, often in a factory

B Complete the sentences from the story

chemicals · pesticide · bird song · harming · insects · environment · spray · marine biologist

  1. Her book helped people protect the .
  2. DDT was used to kill .
  3. Rachel Carson was a .
  4. In her story, the town had no in spring.
  5. The sprays were birds and fish.
  6. DDT was a strong .
  7. Planes covered whole towns with .
  8. Farmers sprayed on their fields.

C Did you understand?

  1. Rachel Carson grew up in a big city.True / False
  2. How old was she when her first story was published?
    1. Five
    2. Ten
    3. Twenty
    4. Thirty
  3. Why did a friend write to her in 1958?
    1. She wanted to buy a book
    2. She found a new fish
    3. The birds in her garden died after planes sprayed the town
    4. She needed a job
  4. The chemical companies liked Silent Spring.True / False
  5. What happened in 1972?
    1. Silent Spring was published
    2. Rachel Carson was born
    3. She saw the sea for the first time
    4. The United States stopped farmers from using DDT
  6. President Kennedy talked about her book.True / False

D Put the words in order

  1. changed / powerful / The / so / that / law / book / the / it / was

E Grammar: so + adjective / adverb + that + result

We use it for to show a strong cause and its result. so + adjective + that: The book was so powerful that it changed the law. · so + much + that: She loved nature so much that she wrote stories about animals. · two sentences → one: The ocean was very beautiful. She decided to study it. → The ocean was so beautiful that she decided to study it. · In speaking, 'that' is often dropped: It was so popular (that) it stayed on the list for 86 weeks.

Example from the story: The book was so powerful that it changed the law.

  1. The ocean was beautiful that she decided to study it. (so / such / too)
  2. The companies were so angry they tried to stop the book. (that / because / than)
  3. She loved nature so that she wrote stories about animals. (much / many / more)

F Your turn

Retell Rachel Carson's story in 5–6 sentences. Use at least three words from exercise A.

Answer key

A. 1c 2f 3h 4d 5b 6e 7g 8a

B. 1 environment · 2 insects · 3 marine biologist · 4 bird song · 5 harming · 6 pesticide · 7 spray · 8 chemicals

C. 1 False · 2 b · 3 c · 4 False · 5 d · 6 True

D. 1 The book was so powerful that it changed the law.

E. 1 so · 2 that · 3 much

Transcript

Imagine a spring morning with no birds singing.

In 1962, one quiet woman wrote a book about that silent spring.

Powerful companies tried to stop her.

Could one book really change the law?

This is the story of Rachel Carson.

Welcome to brightlivesenglish.com, where we teach real English using real-life stories.

Pesticide. A pesticide is a chemical that kills insects or other small animals that eat crops.

DDT was a strong pesticide.

Harm. To harm something means to hurt it or damage it.

The past is harmed.

The sprays were harming birds and fish.

Chemical. A chemical is a substance that scientists make, often in a factory.

Farmers sprayed chemicals on their fields.

Spray. A spray is a cloud of very small drops of liquid in the air.

Planes covered whole towns with spray.

Environment. The environment is the air, water and land where people, animals and plants live.

Her book helped people protect the environment.

Now, one pattern: so and that.

We use it to show a strong cause and its result.

The book was very powerful.

It changed the law.

The book was so powerful that it changed the law.

Ready? Let's begin.

Rachel Carson was born in 1907 on a small farm in Pennsylvania.

Every day, she walked in the woods with her mother.

She loved nature so much that she wrote stories about animals.

At ten, her first story was published in a children's magazine!

At college, she studied English, but then she changed to biology.

In 1929, she spent a summer at a science lab by the sea.

The ocean was so beautiful that she decided to study it all her life.

She worked for the government, writing about fish and the sea.

In 1951, her book The Sea Around Us came out.

It was so popular that it stayed on the bestseller list for eighty-six weeks.

Then, in 1958, a friend sent her a letter.

Planes had flown over her town and covered it with spray to kill mosquitoes.

The next morning, the birds in her garden were dead.

The spray was a pesticide called DDT.

Rachel started to read everything about it.

Farmers sprayed chemicals on their fields, and towns sprayed their streets.

She found that the sprays were harming birds and fish, and maybe people too.

For four years, she worked on her book, even when she was very ill.

In 1962, Silent Spring was published.

It began with a town where spring was silent, because all the birds were gone.

The chemical companies were so angry that they tried to stop the book.

They said she was wrong and too emotional.

But millions of people read it.

Even President Kennedy talked about it.

Scientists checked her work, and in 1963, the government agreed with her.

She died the next year, in 1964.

But in 1972, the United States stopped farmers from using DDT.

The book was so powerful that it changed the law.

Her book helped people protect the environment.

It helped start a new movement around the world.

And today, in spring, the birds still sing.

Let's review. DDT was a strong pesticide.

The sprays were harming birds and fish.

Farmers sprayed chemicals on their fields.

Planes covered whole towns with spray.

Her book helped people protect the environment.

And remember: the book was so powerful that it changed the law.

Rachel Carson's story teaches us: one quiet voice can change the world.

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