Local Education: There Is Some Hope

Today, while looking for something else on the Internet, I stumbled across a 2005 English test paper from National Wu-Ling Senior High School in Taoyuan City.

Here's an extract:

A "green" building places a high priority on health, environmental and resource conservation performance over its lifecycle. These new priorities expand and complement the ___31___ building design concerns: economy, utility, durability, and delight. Green design emphasizes a number of new environmental, resource and occupant health concerns:
△ Reduce human exposure ___32___ noxious materials.
△ Conserve non-renewable energy and scarce materials.
△ ___33___ lifecycle ecological impact of energy and materials used.
△ Use renewable energy and materials that are ___34___ harvested.
△ Protect and restore local air, water, soils, flora and fauna.
△ Support pedestrians, bicycles, mass transit and other ___35___ to fossil-fueled vehicles.
Most green buildings are high-quality buildings; they ___36___ longer, cost less to operate and maintain, and provide greater occupant satisfaction than standard developments. Sophisticated buyers and lessors prefer them, and are often willing to pay a premium for their ___37___.___38___ surprises many people unfamiliar with this design movement is ___39___ good green buildings often cost little or no more to build than conventional designs. Commitment to better performance, close teamwork throughout the design process, openness to new approaches, and information on how these are ___40___ applied are more important than a large construction budget.

It's great to see this, but whenever I come across environmental messages in educational materials in Taiwan, I wonder how effective they are. The students may read this; their teachers may talk about it. But when they leave the school and see their teachers go everywhere by car or motorcycle (I've seen local teachers ride scooters to get lunch from a place 40 meters from the school), what kind of behavior will they think is normal? Ecologically conscious, or ecologically oblivious?