Notes on Environmental Practices and Key Vocabulary

Environmental Practices of Big Businesses

• Big businesses often lack moral standards, leading to perceptions of indifference and negligence.

Grammar and Structure

• Understanding advanced sentence structures:
  • Example: "the illness that was to take her life" uses a relative clause to convey future events from a past perspective (structure: was to + verb).
  • Translation: It refers to the foresight of an illness leading to a person’s death.

Vocabulary Definitions

• Artifact: Objects made by humans, often of historical interest.
• Excavate: To dig up ancient objects to learn about the past.
• Geoglyphs: Large drawings on the ground visible from above, typically created hundreds or thousands of years ago (e.g., Nazca Lines, White Horse of Uffington).
• Chalk Downlands: Gentle hills covered with chalky soil, often characterized as soft and white.

Vocabulary List

• Revered (adj): Deeply respected and admired.
• Empirical (adj): Based on real experience or experiments.
• Situational (adj): Related to specific conditions.
• Cumulative (adj): Gradually increasing as more is added.
• Attribute (v): To denote a cause or reason.
• Unfold (v): To develop or become clearer over time.
• Humility (noun): Modesty; not viewing oneself as superior.
• Interpersonal (adj): Relating to relationships between people.
• Moral (adj): Pertaining to right and wrong behavior.
• Conceptual (adj): Related to ideas or mental concepts.
• Afford (v): To provide something abstract, not monetary.

Wisdom and Context

• Research suggests people's reasoning ability varies across contexts.
• Wisdom is influenced by situational factors, not solely an internal trait.
• "Ego-decentering" fosters a broader perspective, enhancing understanding beyond self-interest.