Episode 177 B

EPISODE 177
LEVEL B1 – B2

READING COMPREHENSION

Ways to Reuse Coffee Grounds
Don’t just wake up and smell the coffee…drink it and then use the coffee grounds in those 12 amazing, all-natural way. Coffee is good for more than just waking you up in the morning! Take a look at this list and find the perfect recycling tips and tricks so you can enjoy your coffee again – even after you’ve finished enjoying your morning cup of joy. You’ll never throw away your used coffee grounds again after seeing just how many things you can do with them!
1. Pest Repellent
Sprinkle used coffee grounds around your plants to protect them against destructive garden pests like ants, snails, and slugs. It has even been said that old grounds mixed with dried orange peel will keep away some small mammals like cats.
2. Fertilize Your Garden
If you grow azaleas, hydrangeas, rhododendrons, camellias, roses, or other acid-loving plants, then used coffee is the fertilizer for you! Mix your old grounds with dead grass clippings, brown leaves, or dry straw to neutralize some of the acidity, the spread them around your plants. Used coffee grounds add nitrogen and potassium to the soil, as well as a boost of magnesium which all plants need to stay healthy. Just remember that this fertilizer
lacks phosphorus and calcium so it isn’t ideal for encouraging blooms and fruiting. You’ll need to add lime or wood ash to the mix if you want to create a complete fertilizer using old coffee grounds.
3. Compost It for Later
If you don’t have a use for coffee ground fertilizer right away, go ahead and throw it on the compost heap. Coffee grounds make excellent “green” matter as they are rich in nitrogen. Also, beneficial worms may be attracted to your compost with the addition of old coffee. Just be sure to limit the amount of grounds that you add to your pile so that you don’t throw off the ratio of “green” to “brown” matter.
4. Caffeine for… Carrots?
If you love carrots and you love coffee, then you’re in business! Your carrots will love you back if you share your old grounds with them at planting time. Before you sow carrot seeds, mix them with some old dried coffee grounds to give them an energy boost right from the get-go. You’ll get bigger and better produce with the added bonus of deterring pests that want to eat your carrots before you do.
5. Absorb Food Odours
Used coffee grounds can be used much like baking soda for absorbing food odours in the refrigerator and freezer. Just load up a small open container with your old grounds, place it in the back of the fridge, then forget about it for a couple of weeks while you collect more grounds. As an added bonus, after you remove smelly old grounds from the refrigerator or freezer, you can then toss them on the compost pile or use them for fertilizer!
6. Natural Abrasive
Sprinkle old coffee grounds onto an old cleaning cloth and use them to scrub away stuckon food from counters or dishes. While used grounds are abrasive, they aren’t so harsh that they will damage the surfaces in your kitchen.
7. Beautiful Golden Dye
If you’ve ever spilled coffee on a white shirt, you know the “beautiful golden” colour to which I am referring. Turn that pesky coffee stain around and use it to your advantage. Rewet old coffee grounds and use it to dye everything from feathers and cloth to Easter eggs. Used coffee grounds soaked in a bit of water can also be used to turn boring white paper into ‘antique’ parchment. This faux parchment can then be used for all kinds of arts
and crafts including some very interesting and beautiful gifts!
8. Homemade Candles
If you love the smell of coffee, why not turn your old grounds into all-natural homemade candles? For this fun up-cycling project you will need a small paper coffee cup, a paper towel, about a cup of wax candle ends, a wick, scissors, a small sauce pan for melting the wax, a small glass mixing bowl, and of course some used coffee grounds.
Adapted from www.theguardian.com

 

 

Ex. 1 Find the words or expressions in the text which mean the following:
1) with no artificial ingredients: __________
2) sth that scares away unwanted animals in the garden: __________
3) animals that drink their mothers’ milk when little: __________
4) to make sth ineffective by force or doing sth opposite: __________
5) ground, earth: __________
6) to not have sth: __________
7) to provide incentive to do sth: __________
8) to make sb/sth not want to do sth: __________
9) sth that other things can be polished or cleaned with: ___________
10)a top of a kitchen work area: __________
11)causing trouble, annoying: __________
12)false: _________

 

Ex. 2 Match the expressions from the two columns into logical collocations:
1)  wake up                                                         the get-go
2)  coffee                                                             off the ratio of sth
3)  tips                                                                 to the mix
4)  to protect                                                      and tricks
5)  a boost                                                          and smell the coffee
6)  to add sth                                                     sth up with sth
7)  to throw                                                       cycling
8)  right from                                                    of sth
9)  to load                                                          grounds
10) up                                                                sth against sth else

 

Ex. 3 Provide English equivalents of these expressions:
1) rozsypać, posypać
2) nawozić
3) natychmiast
4) korzystny
5) być „w domu”
6) zasiać coś
7) plony
8) pochłaniać coś
9) szorstki
10)rozlać coś na coś
11)zafarbować coś
12)pergamin

 

Grammar corner…

You’ve probably found it quite daunting and overwhelming to learn 16 grammatical tenses in English. One way to wrap your head around them is to not learn separate tenses but aspects, e.g. perfect or continuous. If you remember that in grammar terminology „perfect” means „completed” or „done”, you will learn easily thatpast perfect means – completed before a past event, present perfect means – completed (until) now, while future perfect means – completed at a future date. Examples, respectively:

I hadn’t had any experience when I started my first job (the time of you not having experience finished when you started your first job),

I’ve already written five reports (five reports are written as of now), I will have worked here for 10 years next Monday (Monday is the day on which your 10-year period at the company will have finished).

 

Ex. 4 Fill in the gaps with a phrase with the correct perfect tense.

1. According to the legend, the brand name Virgin comes from the fact that Richard Branson ____________________ (to be) totally inexperienced when starting each of his businesses.
2. I ____________________ (already write) the presentation, so you can take a look at it and give me your comments.
3. I ____________________ (not finish yet), so stop asking. I will tell you when I’m done.
4. When they realized they were being cheated out of their money it ____________________ (already be) too late.
5. I ____________________ (complete) my residency in June and then I will be a real doctor.
6. We need to order new toner for the printer because this one ____________________ (run out) by the end of the month.
7. Come on, ____________________ (make up) your mind yet? I’m hungry, so please decide what you want to eat.
8. I ____________________ (make) you some coffee – it’s in the pot in the kitchen.
9. Hurry up or we ____________________ (finish) eating by the time you get here!
10.I ran out of gas on the highway because I ____________________ (forget) to fill up.

 

 

GLOSSARY
all-natural naturalny – a pest repellent środek na szkodniki
a mammal – ssak
to neutralize sth – zneutralizować coś
soil – gleba
to lack sth – nie mieć czegoś
to encourage sth – zachęcać do czegoś / sprzyjać czemuś
to deter sb / sth – odstraszać kogoś / coś
an abrasive – środek ścierny
a counter – blat / lada
pesky – upierdliwy
faux – fałszywy
wake up and smell the coffee  – przyznaj się do błędu
coffee grounds –  fusy z kawy
tips and tricks – porady
to protect sth against sth – bronić czegoś przed czymś
a boost of sth  – zastrzyk czegoś (np. energii)
to add sth to the mix  – dodać coś do czegoś (też metaforycznie)
to throw off the ratio of sth  – zaburzyć równowagę czegoś
right from the get-go  – od samego początku
to load sth up with sth  – napełnić coś czymś
up cycling  – kreatywne wykorzystanie odpadów
to sprinkle sth – rozsypać coś
to fertilize – nawozić
right away – natychmiast
beneficial – korzystny
to be in business – być „w domu” (metaforycznie)
to sow sth – zasiać coś
to absorb sth – pochłaniać coś
harsh szorstki
to spill sth on sth – rozlać coś na coś
to dye sth –  zafarbować coś
parchment – pergamin
ingredients – składniki
incentive – zachęta
daunting – przytłaczające / dołujące
residency –  staż lekarza w szpitalu

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