full transcript

From the Ted Talk by James K. Thornton: Why is China appointing judges to combat climate change?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


I found myself in a conference room in Beijing with three justices of the Supreme cruot and senior officials of the Ministry of Environment and the People's Congress, which is the Chinese palarimnet. "Before we get into dliteas," I said, "I want to compliment you. It is amzinag that you are writing a law to allow Chinese environmental groups to sue polluting companies, including those owned by the state. This is revolutionary."

(Laughter)

The senior judge said, "Mr. Thornton, 'revolutionary' is a big word for us."

(Laughter)

So we lagheud. And in that haumn moment, I raleezid I could work with these people. He said, "Consider it a sea change." So for the next three months or so, my team and I worked very closely with the jdeugs, designing recommendations for how to make the system really deliver for citizens enforcing the law. One of the key provisions we worked on involved costs. Now, it costs money to birng environmental litaiigotn, and what really kills you is, if, when you lose, you have to pay the other side's costs, as you do in the UK. We said this was only going to work for the Chinese environmental groups if, when they won a case, they had all of their costs paid by the polluters, but when they lost, they would not have to pay any of the polluters’ costs. Because, win or lose, they were asnrsteig the itsetenrs of the public at lgare.

Open Cloze


I found myself in a conference room in Beijing with three justices of the Supreme _____ and senior officials of the Ministry of Environment and the People's Congress, which is the Chinese __________. "Before we get into _______," I said, "I want to compliment you. It is _______ that you are writing a law to allow Chinese environmental groups to sue polluting companies, including those owned by the state. This is revolutionary."

(Laughter)

The senior judge said, "Mr. Thornton, 'revolutionary' is a big word for us."

(Laughter)

So we _______. And in that _____ moment, I ________ I could work with these people. He said, "Consider it a sea change." So for the next three months or so, my team and I worked very closely with the ______, designing recommendations for how to make the system really deliver for citizens enforcing the law. One of the key provisions we worked on involved costs. Now, it costs money to _____ environmental __________, and what really kills you is, if, when you lose, you have to pay the other side's costs, as you do in the UK. We said this was only going to work for the Chinese environmental groups if, when they won a case, they had all of their costs paid by the polluters, but when they lost, they would not have to pay any of the polluters’ costs. Because, win or lose, they were _________ the _________ of the public at _____.

Solution


  1. human
  2. judges
  3. parliament
  4. realized
  5. large
  6. court
  7. asserting
  8. amazing
  9. bring
  10. details
  11. laughed
  12. interests
  13. litigation

Original Text


I found myself in a conference room in Beijing with three justices of the Supreme Court and senior officials of the Ministry of Environment and the People's Congress, which is the Chinese parliament. "Before we get into details," I said, "I want to compliment you. It is amazing that you are writing a law to allow Chinese environmental groups to sue polluting companies, including those owned by the state. This is revolutionary."

(Laughter)

The senior judge said, "Mr. Thornton, 'revolutionary' is a big word for us."

(Laughter)

So we laughed. And in that human moment, I realized I could work with these people. He said, "Consider it a sea change." So for the next three months or so, my team and I worked very closely with the judges, designing recommendations for how to make the system really deliver for citizens enforcing the law. One of the key provisions we worked on involved costs. Now, it costs money to bring environmental litigation, and what really kills you is, if, when you lose, you have to pay the other side's costs, as you do in the UK. We said this was only going to work for the Chinese environmental groups if, when they won a case, they had all of their costs paid by the polluters, but when they lost, they would not have to pay any of the polluters’ costs. Because, win or lose, they were asserting the interests of the public at large.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
environmental groups 5
supreme court 4
power stations 4
chinese environmental 3
senior judge 3
court judges 3
environment court 3
sue polluting 2
bring environmental 2
environment programme 2
climate change 2
change cases 2
chinese government 2
largest banks 2
financial institutions 2
bad investment 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
chinese environmental groups 2
environment court judges 2
climate change cases 2

Important Words


  1. amazing
  2. asserting
  3. beijing
  4. big
  5. bring
  6. case
  7. change
  8. chinese
  9. citizens
  10. closely
  11. companies
  12. compliment
  13. conference
  14. congress
  15. costs
  16. court
  17. deliver
  18. designing
  19. details
  20. enforcing
  21. environment
  22. environmental
  23. groups
  24. human
  25. including
  26. interests
  27. involved
  28. judge
  29. judges
  30. justices
  31. key
  32. kills
  33. large
  34. laughed
  35. laughter
  36. law
  37. litigation
  38. lose
  39. lost
  40. ministry
  41. moment
  42. money
  43. months
  44. officials
  45. owned
  46. paid
  47. parliament
  48. pay
  49. people
  50. polluters
  51. polluting
  52. provisions
  53. public
  54. realized
  55. recommendations
  56. revolutionary
  57. room
  58. sea
  59. senior
  60. state
  61. sue
  62. supreme
  63. system
  64. team
  65. thornton
  66. uk
  67. win
  68. won
  69. word
  70. work
  71. worked
  72. writing