Assignment C - Part 2.i
Authentic Text
✓ Check the Class Description and Notes on Part 2 on the assignment platform before you begin.
✓ The text should be 500 - 700 words long. (4-5 minutes for listening texts).
✓ In this document, provide a copy of the reading text or a transcript of the listening text you
have chosen.
✓ Ensure the text is referenced, and if you have selected a listening text or video, provide a link.
✓ If you choose a reading text, you can shorten and/or adapt it slightly.
✓ Please supply a copy of the original and your adapted version.
✓ If you have adapted the text, briefly explain the decisions you've made about changing the text
in section b) of the essay.
✓ Highlight 12 vocabulary items (words or phrases) which would be useful to pre-teach.
Sustainable Supermarkets (Source: Learn English – British Council)
Many of the major supermarket chains have come under fire with accusations of various unethical
acts over the past decade. They've wasted tonnes of food, they've underpaid their suppliers and
they've contributed to excessive plastic waste in their packaging, which has had its impact on our
environment.
But supermarkets and grocers are starting to sit up and take notice. In response to growing
consumer backlash against the huge amounts of plastic waste generated by plastic packaging,
some of the largest UK supermarkets have signed up to a pact promising to transform packaging
and cut plastic wastage. In a pledge to reuse, recycle or compost all plastic wastage by 2025,
supermarkets are now beginning to take some responsibility for the part they play in contributing to
the damage to our environment, with one major supermarket announcing their plan to eliminate all
plastic packaging in their own-brand products by 2023.
In response to criticisms over food waste, some supermarkets are donating some of their food
surplus. However, charities estimate that they are only accessing two per cent of supermarkets'
total food surplus, so this hardly seems to be solving the problem. Some say that supermarkets are
simply not doing enough. Most supermarkets operate under a veil of secrecy when asked for exact
figures of food wastage, and without more transparency it is hard to come up with a systematic
approach to avoiding waste and to redistributing surplus food.
Some smaller companies are now taking matters into their own hands and offering consumers a
greener, more environmentally friendly option. Shops like Berlin's Original Unverpakt and London's
Bulk Market are plastic-free shops that have opened in recent years, encouraging customers to
use their own containers or compostable bags. Online grocer Farmdrop eliminates the need for
large warehouses and the risk of huge food surplus by delivering fresh produce from local farmers
to its customers on a daily basis via electric cars, offering farmers the lion's share of the retail
price.
There is no doubt that we still have a long way to go in reducing food waste and plastic waste. But
perhaps the major supermarkets might take inspiration from these smaller grocers and gradually
move towards a more sustainable future for us all.
© 2020 The TEFL Academy. All rights reserved. 1
Authentic Text
✓ Check the Class Description and Notes on Part 2 on the assignment platform before you begin.
✓ The text should be 500 - 700 words long. (4-5 minutes for listening texts).
✓ In this document, provide a copy of the reading text or a transcript of the listening text you
have chosen.
✓ Ensure the text is referenced, and if you have selected a listening text or video, provide a link.
✓ If you choose a reading text, you can shorten and/or adapt it slightly.
✓ Please supply a copy of the original and your adapted version.
✓ If you have adapted the text, briefly explain the decisions you've made about changing the text
in section b) of the essay.
✓ Highlight 12 vocabulary items (words or phrases) which would be useful to pre-teach.
Sustainable Supermarkets (Source: Learn English – British Council)
Many of the major supermarket chains have come under fire with accusations of various unethical
acts over the past decade. They've wasted tonnes of food, they've underpaid their suppliers and
they've contributed to excessive plastic waste in their packaging, which has had its impact on our
environment.
But supermarkets and grocers are starting to sit up and take notice. In response to growing
consumer backlash against the huge amounts of plastic waste generated by plastic packaging,
some of the largest UK supermarkets have signed up to a pact promising to transform packaging
and cut plastic wastage. In a pledge to reuse, recycle or compost all plastic wastage by 2025,
supermarkets are now beginning to take some responsibility for the part they play in contributing to
the damage to our environment, with one major supermarket announcing their plan to eliminate all
plastic packaging in their own-brand products by 2023.
In response to criticisms over food waste, some supermarkets are donating some of their food
surplus. However, charities estimate that they are only accessing two per cent of supermarkets'
total food surplus, so this hardly seems to be solving the problem. Some say that supermarkets are
simply not doing enough. Most supermarkets operate under a veil of secrecy when asked for exact
figures of food wastage, and without more transparency it is hard to come up with a systematic
approach to avoiding waste and to redistributing surplus food.
Some smaller companies are now taking matters into their own hands and offering consumers a
greener, more environmentally friendly option. Shops like Berlin's Original Unverpakt and London's
Bulk Market are plastic-free shops that have opened in recent years, encouraging customers to
use their own containers or compostable bags. Online grocer Farmdrop eliminates the need for
large warehouses and the risk of huge food surplus by delivering fresh produce from local farmers
to its customers on a daily basis via electric cars, offering farmers the lion's share of the retail
price.
There is no doubt that we still have a long way to go in reducing food waste and plastic waste. But
perhaps the major supermarkets might take inspiration from these smaller grocers and gradually
move towards a more sustainable future for us all.
© 2020 The TEFL Academy. All rights reserved. 1
