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The Blue Planet

Chapter · November 2016

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Zainab Jaafar Auda

University of Basrah
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 An English Course to the Students of Marine Sciences
Set and designed by Lecturer Zainab Jaafar Auda Unit 1
Faculty of Marine Sciences, University of Basrah 2016

Unit 1: The Blue Planet

Key Vocabulary

Habitat Living things plant freshwater hugely ocean floor flow

minerals dissolve evaporate continent vest seep

 Brainstorming This is the map of Earth. The blue color shows the seas and
oceans. Can you name the oceans and show their locations?

1.1. The Blue Planet

Earth is one of the few planets that look blue from space, thanks to the huge
amounts of water covering it. Seas and oceans cover 70 percent of Earth’s
surface. At their deepest, the oceans are about 6.8 miles (11 kilometers [km])
deep. In total, they contain about 324 million cu miles (1.3 billion cubic
kilometers [cu km]) of water. There are more living things in the seas and
oceans than in any other habitat on Earth.

 Check Point: work in pairs to answer the following:

1. Earth is called blue planet because ------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
2. The natural home of a plant or an animal is called ------------------------.
3. True or false; the continents contain more living things than the seas
and oceans?
4. Think about the animals that live under water. Can you name five of
them?

1
 An English Course to the Students of Marine Sciences
Set and designed by Lecturer Zainab Jaafar Auda Unit 1
Faculty of Marine Sciences, University of Basrah 2016

Look at Planet Earth picture. How many oceans do you see? What are
they? Can you name the continents shown in the picture?

Water Body A part of the earth's surface covered with water (such as
a river, lake, or ocean)

Ocean Sea Gulf

Lake pond
River

Think about the different water

bodies in your country. Make a
list of them. Try to show their
positions on a map.

2
 An English Course to the Students of Marine Sciences
Set and designed by Lecturer Zainab Jaafar Auda Unit 1
Faculty of Marine Sciences, University of Basrah 2016

1.2. Seas and Oceans:

The seas and oceans are a hugely important part of Earth’s history and geology.
They formed more than four billion years ago, when Earth was very young. The
shape of the oceans and the ocean floor has changed a great deal over that
time.

Investigate: Work in pairs and discuss the following statements.

Which one is true and which is false? Why?

1. An ocean is larger in size than a sea.

2. A sea is deeper than an ocean.
3. Oceans and seas’ water is freshwater.
4. There are more seas on Earth than oceans

 Earth’s Oceans
 The Pacific Ocean
 The Atlantic Ocean Vocabulary Focus
small X large
 The Indian Ocean
shallow X deep
 The Southern Ocean fresh X salty
(Antarctica ocean)
 The arctic Ocean

1.3. Why is seawater salty?

As rivers flow to the ocean, they carry small amounts of salt and other
minerals with them, dissolved from the rocks over which they flow. This salt
collects in the seas and oceans and, when water evaporates, the salt is left
behind. There are also vents and seeps on the ocean floor. At these openings
hot water from inside earth flows into the oceans, carrying dissolved salts with
it. Besides being about 3.5 percent salt, seawater also contains small amounts of
many other minerals, including gold.

 Use the words in brackets to complete the following sentences:

1. Rivers ------------ to the ocean. (flow, flowed, flowing)

2. Water change into steam or gas is called ------------. (evaporate,
evaporation, evaporated)
3. The ocean floor ------------. (vent and seep, venting and seeping, vents
and seeps)
4. Earth vent and seep ------------. (a hot water, hot water, hot waters)
5. Oceans contain ------------ salts. (dissolve, dissolved, dissolving)

3
 An English Course to the Students of Marine Sciences
Set and designed by Lecturer Zainab Jaafar Auda Unit 1
Faculty of Marine Sciences, University of Basrah 2016

 Match the following cards to make correct phrases. More than one link is
possible to some words. Follow the example.

 Salty water
 ---------------
 ---------------
 ---------------
Large Ocean
Salty
 ---------------
 ---------------
 ---------------

 Structure Spot: The five basic sentence patterns

The English sentence consists of two parts, the subject and the predicate.
Here is a list of the five basic sentence patterns of English:

Subject Predicate

1. Verb
Subject
(Intransitive)

The salt dissolved

2. Verb Direct
Subject
(transitive) Object

The oil polluted the ocean

Verb Subject Complement:

3. Subject
(transitive) noun or adjective

The ocean is deep

Verb Indirect Direct

4. Subject
(transitive) Object Object

The teacher explained the student s the procedure

Verb Object
5. Subject Direct
Complement:
(transitive) Object
Noun or adjective

The rain left the sky clean

4
 An English Course to the Students of Marine Sciences
Set and designed by Lecturer Zainab Jaafar Auda Unit 1
Faculty of Marine Sciences, University of Basrah 2016

 Make complete sentences using the vocabulary inside the circles:

1. The Atlantic is a deep ocean.

2. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

3. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

4. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

5. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

 Presentation1

Work in groups and prepare for a presentation. Use

the Unit map to show the location of the oceans.
Describe their positions in relation to the continents.
Show the largest ocean and its borders. Show the
closest seas and oceans to your county.

 Write a short paragraph about the same

information included in the presentation.
 Use your own words whenever possible.

1
Presentation: a speech or talk in which a new product, idea, or piece of work is shown and explained
to an audience.

5
 An English Course to the Students of Marine Sciences
Set and designed by Lecturer Zainab Jaafar Auda Unit 1
Faculty of Marine Sciences, University of Basrah 2016

INDEX
Continent One of the seven main areas of land on the Earth
Dissolve To become liquid
Evaporate To change into steam or a gas and disappear
Flow To move in a smooth and continuous way
Freshwater not salty water
Gulf A part of the sea that is almost surrounded by a land
Habitat The natural home of a plant or an animal
Hugely very largely
Lake A large area of water that is surrounded by land
Minerals a natural substance such as coal, salt, oil, etc.
Ocean The mass of salt water that covers most of the surface of the earth
Planet A large body in space (like a star) that moves around the sun or another
star
Pond An area of water that is smaller of a lake
River A large natural stream of water that flows across country
Sea The salt water that covers large part of the surface of the earth

Main Verbs

Present Past Past Perfect Noun Adjective

Flow Flowed Flowed
Dissolve Dissolved Dissolved Flow
Evaporate Evaporated Evaporated Evaporation

Main texts were selected from:

Claybourne, Anna. (2007). Earth’s Final Frontiers: Deep Ocean. USA: Heinemnn
Library, Chicago.

Index Dictionary: Oxford Word Power

© All the activities were created by the course designer

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