Exercise
Tap all the highlighted words in the transcript below to see their definition. ⇩We were not used to these strange times we are living in, just two months ago. First of all, I want to make clear this is not a statement to make you believe that the COVID-19 crisis is a positive situation. I truly believe we are in a very sad and dangerous crisis from which I expect we will soon recover and go back to our normal lives.
But what if we could gather some important lessons from it and use it as an opportunity to start being wiser again and to create a more sustainable future? This could be the warning we all needed to really change things from now on.
Several experts in climatology, pollution and environment, are astonished by the ability that our planet and nature has shown when faced with rapid changes, recovering at an accelerated velocity while CO2 emissions have been reduced between 20% and 40% from what they used to be a couple of months ago.
Experts believe that the dramatic drops in air pollution in China alone could have saved around 77,000 lives in the coming future.
From social distancing to social solidarity: People are used to quickly creating habits to connect and help each other remotely. This could turn into more sustained long-term remote virtual activities that would slow down our day-to day and the negative impact that it has on our planet. Also, this could turn into a higher degree of awareness regarding the importance of helping others at group level and have a major impact on social inequality. Will we be able to get used to this new situation with our environment?
Let’s check some examples of amazing pictures seen recently:
We are becoming used to a situation that is hard, but will for sure improve soon. Being optimistic, I really believe this crisis will be gone soon and I hope we can all take important learnings from it and live a better and more sustainable life.
Grammar – Habits: “Used to” 
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To express “habits”, we apply “used to”, being the past tense of the verb “to use”. This expression has a different meaning from the verb. We use it to talk about something that frequently happened in the past. It is always followed by an infinitive without “to”.
…….
- We used to live in Cambodia, until we left.
- I didn’t use to like jazz, but now I do.
- Did you use to eat at that pizzeria?
- I can’t get used to the new change.
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Dear Marc, thanks for this article.I agree with you I hope we can learn almost a little bit from this hard situation and starting to move ours awareness.I believe we all have to change something in our way of living
Very true, Ángeles! Take care. 🙂
👏👏👏
Also I hope after this crisis to a more sustainable life. Have a good work!
Thanks, Angela!
Dear Marc,
Thank you, too, for this text. You remember us that everything. has a beginning. The “End” exists only for those who do not perceive a new beginning.
Thanks for your feedback. 🙂
Dear Marc,
you touched some very good points. Not only the environment will thank for this temporary stop, but also society, I hope. We just found out the importance of taking care of others, helping people and collaboration between states. This is amazing. We probably needed to be all in the same boat to realize we really need each other. Just a little positive side in this terrible moment.
Take care
Thanks for your feedback, Deborah!