Listening: Can a Tiny Tax Change Behaviour?

Answers and an explanation for each question appear once you add this activity to your own library.

B2 | Listening from video | 11 min

Can a Tiny Tax Change Behaviour?

Watch the whole video. You can watch more than once. Then answer the questions below. (5:29)

Choose the best answer.

1. What is the main message of the video?

____ A small charge on plastic bags changes little, because people just pay.____ A small charge can change habits, but replacement bags cause problems.____ Paper and cotton bags are always better for the environment than plastic.

2. According to the video, what happens when a shop charges even one small coin for a bag?

____ Shoppers decide that their groceries are now too expensive.____ Shoppers start to take five or six bags at once.____ Shoppers stop and ask whether they really need a bag.

3. What happened to the money collected from the Irish bag levy?

____ It fell sharply, as shoppers bought far fewer bags.____ It rose steadily, because the charge went up every year.____ It stayed the same, because shops kept collecting it.

4. Why can "bags for life" make plastic pollution worse?

____ They need more plastic and are often thrown away early.____ They tear quickly, so shoppers have to replace them often.____ Supermarkets sell them at a lower price than thin bags.

True, False or Not Given? Choose Not Given if the video does not say.

5. Irish supermarkets earned less money after the charge was introduced.

____ True____ False____ Not Given

6. Within a year of the charge, most Irish people were in favour of it.

____ True____ False____ Not Given

7. England introduced its plastic bag charge before Ireland did.

____ True____ False____ Not Given

Complete each sentence with the words you hear.

A NUMBER from the video.

8. Before the levy, an average person in Ireland used about ____ plastic bags a year.

A NUMBER from the video.

9. Plastic bags accounted for about ____ percent of the litter in the whole country.

A NUMBER from the video.

10. A 2019 report said that ____ large British supermarkets together sold more than 1.5 billion bags for life in one year.

Can a Tiny Tax Change Behaviour?

Related lessons

Business Listening: Job Interview Tips

Listening: Handling Mistakes in Presentations

Listening: Languages with no numbers and no left or right

Listening: The story of how coffee spread around the world

Listening: How the Milky Way got its shape

Listening: How the Electoral College works