All of that together is the environment — the natural world around us: land, water, air, and every living thing. It is the broadest word in today’s lesson, and every other phrase sits somewhere inside it.

Pandora itself is one immense ecosystem — a community of living things and their surroundings, all depending on each other. That’s no metaphor here: on Pandora, plants, animals, and Na’vi are physically linked, so injuring one part injures the whole.

Each region is also a different habitat — the natural home of a particular animal or plant. The first film explored the forest, the second the ocean, and this one introduces a scorched, volcanic wasteland where almost nothing grows.

That brings us to natural resources — the useful materials that come from nature, such as water, timber, minerals, and fuel. The RDA, the human mining corporation, is still digging, hungry for whatever Pandora conceals — and it has now found Na’vi allies.

To protect means to keep something safe from harm. Jake and Neytiri are struggling to protect their family, and the Na’vi clans are trying to protect the world they belong to.

Its opposite is destroy — to damage something so badly that it no longer exists. Quaritch and Varang will destroy whatever stands in their way. Notice how neatly the pair divides the film: almost every character is doing one or the other.

Kiri, the mysterious girl played by Sigourney Weaver, understands better than anyone what is sacred — holy, or so deeply respected it must not be harmed. For most Na’vi, the Tree of Souls and the whale-like Tulkun are sacred. For the Ash People, nothing is, and that’s precisely what makes them terrifying.

The film returns repeatedly to the balance of nature — the natural state in which every plant, animal, and place depends on the others. The Na’vi understand this instinctively. The RDA shows no interest whatsoever. And the Ash People, having lost their own, now want to shatter everyone else’s.

Then comes an endangered species. A species is one type of animal or plant, and endangered means in danger of vanishing completely. The Tulkun are relentlessly hunted for a precious substance extracted from their bodies, and their survival is one of the film’s most pressing questions.

Contrast that with how the Na’vi live: in harmony with nature — peacefully alongside the natural world, taking only what you need and giving something back. That’s the philosophy of the forest and reef clans, and the exact opposite of the Ash People’s.

Finally, a word you’ll hear in the news almost daily: sustainable — able to continue indefinitely without using up or damaging the resources it depends on. The Na’vi way of life is sustainable. The RDA’s is not.

The words reviewers reach for are the five bonus words above. Even critics who disliked the story admitted the visual effects are dazzling, and Pandora’s floating mountains and luminous plants remain as otherworldly as ever. Varang and the Ash People were widely described as a ferocious new threat, and reviewers contrasted the lush forests of the first film with the Ash People’s burnt, grey homeland. At over three hours, even critics who enjoyed it called it overlong.