Before beginning with the activities let´s break the ice a little bit and try to work out the English idiom with two animal words meaning "Llover a cántaros" in Spanish. The picture will help you. At the end of this entry, in the IDIOMS and PROVERBS section ,you´ll find the answer and some other English sayings of more frequent use. Have fun and enjoy!!
Discuss the following questions:
Do you have any pets at home ? If not, would you like to have one? Are you fond of them?
What are the pros or cons of keeping a pet?
Who takes care of it?
What does it look like (color, breed, etc.)?
How do you feed it?
Do you play with it?
What is its name? How did you choose this name?
Does it know any tricks or understand any words?
If you don't have a pet, why not?
Would you ever consider getting a pet?
Did you grow up with pets in your home?
What is the best pet to own?
What are some animals that live in your country?
Are there animal rights groups where you live?
Are you afraid of snakes? What is the biggest snake you have seen? Are there any poisonous snakes in your country?
Are you frightened of spiders? What do you do if you see one?
Can you name some endangered species?
Have you ever ridden a horse?
Are there birds or squirrels in your neighborhood?
Do you know someone who owns an unusual pet?
Do you think it is acceptable to test cosmetics on animals?
How do you feel about the use of animals for medical research?
Do you think it is okay to eat meat? Do you know any vegetarians?
Have you ever been to a zoo?
Are there laws about hunting in your country?
What do you think of hunting? Would you eat an animal that you killed yourself?
Do you think it's okay to free animals that have been in captivity all their lives? Why or why not?
Do you think people should buy and wear fur coats?
LISTENING
Watch the following youtube video on the following link and answer the questions. Remember you can watch it with English subtitles.
Once you´ve tried to watch it and listened to it answer the questions, then check your own answers with the right ones below the questions.
Why Do Cats Sleep in Unusual
Places? - Simon's Cat
Watch the video and answer the following questions:
1. How many cats has Simon had in his life?
2. What did his second cat , Chloe, use to love?
3. Where do cats usually like to sleep?
4. What are they fond of?
5. What kind of hiding places can you find for them to
sleep?
Let sleeping cats lie
6. Complete the following sentence:
Please,
resist the temptation to ____them ___
7. How many hours do cats sleep a day? What sort of
cats do preferably do this?
8. What do cats
usually do as soon as you get up? Why?
9. Why do cats love laundry?
10. Why do cats prefer dirty or clean laundry?
11. What do cats do when the sleeping place is a box,
a laundry pile or a suitcase?
Cats that sleep together
12. Complete the sentences:
a) If cats are
sleeping together with interlocking paws, grooming each other or rubbing
against each other, this is because they___________________________________
b) If they are carefully spaced out on the bed, in a
crouched position and they avoid eye contact with the other cats
they__________________________________
13. Do cats dream? What do R.E.M stand for?
14. What do other owners like to think when their cats
are twitching or moving their paws?
Simon´s real cats sleeping places
15. Why does Hugh make Simon smile?
16. What is Teddy´s favourite place?
17. What is Jess´s favourite sleeping place?
18. What does Simon have to do on his bed?
19. Where does Maisy, the ginormous cat, sleep and what
does she do?
Words from the video:
To sneak-
to move in a furtive way.(ir a hurtadillas)
To tumble dry- to dry
clothes with a dryer.
Interlocking paws- connected, joined together.
To Groom- to clean its fur or hair made by using the tongue.
To crouch- adopt a
position where the knees are bent and the upper body is brought forward and
down,
Polytunnel- a tunnel
typically made from steel and covered in polythene, usually semi-circular.
Overgrown- covered with
plants that have been allowed to grow wild because of not cutting them.
Stingers- here they mean plants with stings (pinchos)
Brambles- Sp.zarzas
Ginormous- very,very big (gigantic+enormous)
ANSWERS (These are highlighted in red) :
Watch the video and answer the following questions:
1. How many cats has Simon had in his life? 6
2. What did his second cat , Chloe, use to love? The airing cupboard
3. Where do cats usually like to sleep?Somewhere safe, usually up high.
4. What are they fond of? Somewhere dark and warm.
5. What kind of hiding places can you find for them to sleep?
igloo beds, radiator beds, cardboard with a nice blanket.
igloo beds, radiator beds, cardboard with a nice blanket.
Let sleeping cats lie
6. Complete the following sentence:
Please, resist the temptation to make them up
7. How many hours do cats sleep a day? What sort of cats do preferably do this? 16 , kitten or elderly cats.
8. What do cats usually do as soon as you get up? Why? They steal your seat because it´s nice and warm and it smells of the owner
8. What do cats usually do as soon as you get up? Why? They steal your seat because it´s nice and warm and it smells of the owner
9. Why do cats love laundry? It provides a comfortable place for cats to sleep.
10. Why do cats prefer dirty or clean laundry? It smells familiar to them and it has a scent of the owner on it.
11. What do cats do when the sleeping place is a box, a laundry pile or a suitcase?They tend to rotate round when they are sleeping.
Cats that sleep together
12. Complete the sentences:
a) If cats are sleeping together with interlocking paws, grooming each other or rubbing against each other, this is because they are probably friends.
b) If they are carefully spaced out on the bed, in a crouched position and they avoid eye contact with the other cats, they are not in the same social group.
13. Do cats dream? What do R.E.M stand for? Yes, they do. It stands for Rapid Eye Movement.
14. What do other owners like to think when their cats are twitching or moving their paws? They´re chasing squirrels and thing outside.
Simon´s real cats sleeping places
15. Why does Hugh make Simon smile? Because his sleeping place is a big compost bin.
16. What is Teddy´s favourite place? An old-run down polytunnel
17. What is Jess´s favourite sleeping place? Next to Simon´s pillow.
18. What does Simon have to do on his bed? To make a space by pulling his pillows up.
19. Where does Maisy, the ginormous cat, sleep and what does she do? At the bottom of his (Simon´s ) bed. As she is so big (ginormous) she sprawls out(spreads out, expands) and dominates the entire area.
READING
Other links : READING
Wildlife
Convention Protects Animals Great and Small
Delegates from around the world met this
week in Johannesburg, South Africa to discuss how to stop the trade in endangered animals.
Representatives from 183 countries
attended the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species
conference, known as CITES.
The delegates discussed about 500
animals. The pangolin, or scaly anteater, was among them.
Pangolins are mammals found
in Asia, India and Africa. They eat insects. Hunters catch pangolins and sell
them for their meat and their scales. Some cultures believe the
scales can be used in medicine.
They are the most illegally traded
animal in the world.
While CITES often deals with the
protection of large animals like big cats, elephants and rhinoceroses, it also
pays attention to smaller animals.
One of the first agreements to come from
the convention was to reclassify all eight species of
pangolins. They are now in the most protected group of animals. This means the
CITES considers them in danger of extinction.
John Scanlon is the CITES Secretary
General. He said they used to call the pangolin “little-known.” But in recent
years, Prince William spoke out against the pangolin trade.
canlon said he is pleased a famous
person brought attention to the pangolin. But he noted that there are still
hundreds of small, unknown animals that need help.
“But, we’ve got the snakes here, we’ve
got the lizards here, we’ve got the frogs here. And some really interesting
ones, the earless monitor [lizard], the Titicaca frog, the psychedelic rock
gecko; there are some really interesting animals there that nobody’s paid much
attention to.”
Dan Ashe is the director of the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service. He said it is hard to make people aware of
strange animals.
“We’re dealing with things like the
Delhi Sands flower-loving fly or the Houston toad. These are things which often
the public questions, ‘why is this important, why should we save this?"
Jen Creamer is president of Animal
Defenders International. She said even a cockroach has a “strange sort of
beauty.” Events like CITES provide the chance for discussion of all sorts of
animals.
“With certain species it takes time to
realize that they’re in trouble.”
One of the species Ashe is happy to see
thriving is a small fish called the Oregon chub. It took nearly 20 years to
bring the fish’s population back to strong levels.
The Titicaca water frog is another
endangered animal that could use the support of a prince, or even a movie star.
The Peruvian animal faces the threat of fungal infection and predatory fish.
I’m Christopher Jones-Cruise.
Anita Powell wrote this story for
VOANews.com. Dan Friedell adapted it for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the
editor.
What do you think of the efforts to
protect these animals? __________________
Words in This Story
endangered – adj. used to describe a type of
animal or plant that has become very rare and that could die out completely
mammal – n. a type of animal that feeds milk to
its young and that usually has hair or fur covering most of its skin
scale – n. one of many small thin plates that
cover the bodies of some animals (such as fish or snakes)
psychedelic – adj. suggesting the effects of
psychedelic drugs by having bright colors, strange sounds, etc.
predatory – adj. an animal, fish or insect that
lives by eating others
aware – adj. knowing that something (such
as a situation, condition, or problem) exists
reclassify – v. to reconsider an arrangement of
people or things that have already been grouped by ways they are alike
Seagull that 'thinks' it's a cat
Good morning Kitten
so that´s how the elephant got its trunk from the crocodile
ANIMAL IDIOMS AND SAYINGS:
Answer to the idiom on the presentation picture of this entry about pets:
It´s raining cats and dogs.
This idiom must sound a bit strange as it´s impossible that dogs and pour down from the sky. If you want to find more about the origin of this curious expression read the following links:
/Rain cats and dogs origin1
rain cats and dogs origin2
Even if it´s a funny expression actually it´s becoming a little bit old-fashioned as there are other expressions which are more frequently used instead such as : "It´s chucking it down", "It´s bucketing down", "It´s raining pitchforks" or "It´s pouring down" and even one which might sound a little bit rude " It´s pissing down".
Here are some animals sayings we´ve seen in class and several more.
Guess what they are by looking at the pictures made up with whatsup emoticons. The Spanish equivalent has been given for each case to help you;
1.Vender la piel del oso antes de cazarlo
VIDEOS and other activities on ANIMAL SAYINGS AND PROVERBS:
Animal sayings 1
Online activities 1
