Collocations for Confident Communication
EXPLORE • ANALYSE • USE • COMMUNICATE
Start the lesson
Every species is part of a living network. Protecting habitats helps that network survive.
Protecting biodiversity is not only about saving individual species; it is about keeping the relationships that sustain life.
Explore the readingLexiLink · Protecting Wildlife and Preserving Biodiversity B2 80 minutes
Complete the tasks, investigate collocations about wildlife and biodiversity in SkELL, and write about protecting species and habitats.
Teacher-facing timing plan; the tasks below follow this sequence.
By the end of the lesson, you will be able to recognise and use lexical collocations related to wildlife conservation, species at risk, natural habitats and biodiversity; verify word partnerships with SkELL; interpret related words in context; and discuss conservation choices with precision.
Study the English definitions and compare the synonyms. No translations are provided.
Read the text carefully or listen to it. Target collocations are shown in bold.
After the title, narration pauses for 3 seconds before continuing. Pause / Resume preserves your place, including during this break, or move the slider to jump to another part of the text.
Ready to play. The voice available depends on your browser and device.
Wild animals and plants are part of connected living systems. A natural habitat such as a forest, wetland or coral reef provides food, shelter and breeding places for many species. When one part of this network is damaged, the effects can spread. Habitat destruction, pollution, climate shifts and hunting can reduce wildlife populations and contribute to the loss of biodiversity. Biodiversity means the variety of living things in a place, including their differences and the relationships among them. A fragile ecosystem may be especially vulnerable because it cannot easily recover when a key species disappears or its surroundings change.
Some animals and plants are classified as endangered species because they face a serious risk of extinction. Effective efforts to protect endangered species depend on reliable information about their populations, reproduction and habitats. Other threatened species may become endangered if current pressures continue, while rare species occur in small numbers or in a limited area. Protected species receive legal protection from specified forms of harm. These categories are related, but they do not mean exactly the same thing. An extinct species has no living members remaining, so prevention is far more effective than trying to reverse species extinction after it has occurred.
Wildlife conservation can involve restoring damaged places, protecting breeding grounds, reducing poaching and connecting separated habitats. Some birds migrate south or move to other regions when seasons change, so conservation plans may need to protect migration routes as well as individual sites. Marine wildlife also depends on healthy seas, where plastic waste, overfishing and underwater noise can create serious pressure. A well-designed conservation programme sets a clear goal, works with local communities and monitors results over time. It can also help native wildlife recover by restoring food sources and nesting areas. Animals cannot thrive in the wild if essential shelter and breeding places disappear.
Protecting nature does not mean keeping people away from every natural area. It means making decisions that allow communities and wildlife to coexist. Local people can help record sightings, report illegal activity, plant suitable native vegetation and respect seasonal limits around sensitive sites. Authorities can preserve the natural surroundings of a reserve and maintain corridors between habitats. These actions help preserve biodiversity while reducing the risk that development will isolate animal populations. Each measure is more useful when it is based on evidence and adapted to local conditions. By protecting habitats, societies safeguard clean water, healthy soils and the living systems on which people also depend.
Choose True or False according to the text.
Choose the paragraph number (1–4). Some paragraph numbers may be used more than once.
Choose the correct ending. Feedback and the correct answer appear only after you select an answer and check it.
Choose the lexical collocation that best completes each sentence. Unanswered items will not reveal their answers.
Open SkELL. Search each keyword in Word Sketch, inspect example sentences and open Similar words. For every keyword, record two collocations and try to use different grammatical patterns: for example, verb + noun, adjective + noun, noun + noun, or verb + preposition. Write one original sentence for each collocation, add two candidate synonyms or related words, and note a short example or context that you checked in SkELL. A word that appears in a similar context is not automatically a synonym, so explain whether it can replace the original word in your example. Your notes will be saved in the teacher's spreadsheet when you submit the lesson.
Teacher scoring: up to 10 points for accurate, distinct wildlife and biodiversity collocations, original sentences showing meaningful use, and evidence from SkELL. Similar words are assessed for relevance and contextual interpretation.
Teacher scoring: up to 10 points for accurate, distinct wildlife and biodiversity collocations, original sentences showing meaningful use, and evidence from SkELL. Similar words are assessed for relevance and contextual interpretation.
No separate “Copy cluster notes” button is needed: these structured fields are included in the lesson submission and appear as individual records in the teacher's spreadsheet.
Choose the one expression that does not form a natural collocation. The questions cover a range of wildlife and biodiversity vocabulary and grammatical patterns. Each item has three natural combinations and one incorrect combination. Unanswered items stay hidden; explanations appear only after you choose and check.
Choose the verb or verb phrase that creates a natural wildlife or biodiversity collocation.
Choose the verb that creates a natural lexical collocation.
Word bank: protect endangered species · monitor wildlife populations · restore natural habitats · raise public awareness · combat illegal wildlife trade · safe breeding grounds · rapid loss of biodiversity · migrate to warmer climates · thrive in the wild · launch a conservation programme
Choose the best correction. Focus on natural lexical word partnerships used to discuss wildlife protection, habitats and biodiversity.
Write at least 100 words on Protecting Wildlife and Preserving Biodiversity. Use at least eight target collocations from this lesson. Write directly in the box; clipboard paste and drag-and-drop are disabled in this field.
Please compose your paragraph here rather than pasting a prepared text. Normal paste, cut/copy shortcuts and drag-and-drop are blocked in this writing field. This browser restriction supports the task rules but is not a complete plagiarism-detection system.
0 words — 100-word minimum to submit; no maximum
Teacher awards up to 5 points for accurate use of distinct target collocations, a clear main idea and relevant examples.
Your name and group from the student profile above, your SkELL collocations and original sentences, related words, corpus notes, writing paragraph and available exercise scores will be collected in the teacher's spreadsheet.
Auto-scored sections: reading MCQ, True/False, paragraph matching, Matching, Sentence Completion, Odd One Out, Find the Collocate, Sorting, Lexical Cloze and Collocation Repair (100 points total). SkELL cluster (10) and productive writing (5) are teacher-scored. Maximum lesson total: 115 points.
Vocabulary reference: IELTS Jacky, “Environment Vocabulary: Topic vocabulary for the IELTS exam” (2018), based on the material supplied for this lesson. Reading and interactive exercises were adapted or written for LexiLink.
LexiLink · Connect words. Build fluency. Lesson submissions are sent to the configured Google Apps Script collector. The teacher must verify the saved row in Google Sheets because the browser cannot read confirmation in no-cors mode.