Day 71: Microplastics in the Rhine
At home in Kaiserslautern, Lotta (A), sixteen, rehearses her talk on microplastics in the Rhine for Jugend forscht, Germany's big science competition for young people, in front of her mother Kristin (B).
How to study this lesson 3 steps
- Read the situation under the title. It says who is talking and how they know each other, which decides how politely they speak.
- Read the dialogue line by line with its translation, until every line makes sense. Point at (or tap) a German word to see what it means.
- Spend at least 30 minutes listening to native German, for example from the Resources page. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it yet.
Dialogue
Audio recordings are on the way. For now, each lesson is the dialogue with its English translation.
Keys: E hide English · ← → previous / next day · point at a word to see its meaning
-
A
Achtung, Generalprobe. An fünf Stellen im Rhein entnommen, belegen meine Proben eindeutig: Je weiter flussabwärts, desto mehr Mikroplastik.
OK, dress rehearsal. Taken at five points along the Rhine, my samples clearly show: the further downstream, the more microplastics.
-
B
Eindeutig, bei fünf Proben? Als Jurorin würde ich sofort fragen, wie du ausschließt, dass sie verunreinigt sind.
Clearly, with five samples? As a judge, I'd ask straight away how you rule out contamination.
-
A
Das hat beim Regionalwettbewerb keiner gefragt. Ein Juror meinte nur, meine Filtermethode sei zu grob.
Nobody asked that at the regional round. One judge just said my filter method was too coarse.
-
B
Und warum wirst du dann rot? Bei „verunreinigt“ hast du sofort an deinem Ärmel herumgezupft.
Then why are you going red? At "contaminated" you started fiddling with your sleeve straight away.
-
A
Na gut, in Probe drei sind blaue Fasern, die nicht aus dem Rhein stammen. Die lasse ich unter den Tisch fallen.
All right, sample three has blue fibres in it that don't come from the Rhine. I'll quietly leave it out.
-
B
Das wäre Schummeln. Einmal dabei ertappt, hast du deine Glaubwürdigkeit verspielt, während eine offen benannte Fehlerquelle professionell wirkt.
That would be cheating. Get caught once and your credibility's gone, whereas a source of error you name openly looks professional.
-
A
Soll ich etwa verraten, woher die Fasern stammen? Von deiner blauen Fleecejacke, die ich am Rhein anhatte.
Am I supposed to tell them where the fibres come from, then? From your blue fleece jacket, which I was wearing by the Rhine.
-
B
Umso besser, dann hast du nebenbei gezeigt, dass Fleece Mikroplastik abgibt. Schreib ruhig auf die Folie: „Fehlerquelle: Mutter“.
All the better, then you've shown along the way that fleece sheds microplastics. Go ahead and put it on the slide: "Source of error: Mother".
Your progress is saved in this browser only, with no sign-up. The course page and the menu show where you left off. Well done! Next up: Day 72: A Train Ticket From 1989
If this free course has helped you in your German journey, please consider supporting the project. It's a one-person effort, and even small contributions help keep it running and free for everyone.