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ENGLISH FOR TEENAGERS · GENERAL ISSUES · INTERMEDIATE (B1-B2)

AMAZING
ANIMALS
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1 Warm up

Look at the pictures and answer the following questions. Can you name an animal that is ...?

cute / poisonous / fast / noisy / dangerous / friendly / common / clever / rare / weird

Picture 1 Picture 2

Picture 3 Picture 4

1. Look at the animals in the photos. What are they called? Where do they live? What do they eat?
2. Have you ever seen these animals in the wild? Have you ever seen these animals in captivity?

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2 Focus on Vocabulary

Part A: Match each word or phrase to its correct definition.

1. nasty (adj.) a. an animal that kills and eats other animals

2. loyal (adj.) b. always supporting something or someone

3. venom (n) c. very bad or unpleasant

4. nocturnal (adj.) d. the distance from the top or surface of something

to something further down
5. predator (n) e. not able to hurt or damage something or someone

6. harmless (adj.) f. the poisonous liquid that some snakes and spiders
produce
7. seabed (n) g. the bottom of the ocean or sea

8. depth (n) h. active at night (usually used to describe animals)

Part B: Write the correct word or phrase from Part A in each sentence. Do you find any of the
sentences surprising? Is there anything you disagree with?

1. When a whale dies and falls to , the body can provide food for deep-sea creatures
for years.

2. Not all owls are , some are active during the day.

3. While from snakes is extremely dangerous, it has also been used to create life-saving
medicines.

4. Some whales can dive to of 3000 metres and hold their breath for up to two hours.

5. The tiger has no natural but that hasn’t stopped its numbers falling to less than
4000 due to human activity.

6. Many people would say that dogs are friendly but, most of all, dogs are described as .

7. Bites from a tarantula spider are and less painful than the sting from a bee.

8. Being cruel to animals is and people who do it should be sent to prison.

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Part C: Discuss these questions about animals with a classmate and use the word in bold in your
answers.

1. How many nocturnal animals can you name?

2. How many predators can you name?
3. How many venomous animals can you name?

3 Reading: General Comprehension

Part 1: You are going to read an article called The weird and wonderful world we live in. You will read
about the animals in the photos below. Look at the pictures and answer the questions.

Picture A Picture B

Picture C Picture D

1. What animals can you see? What do you think is special about them?
2. Where do you think you might find these animals? Have you ever seen these animals?

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Part 2: Read the article and write A-D in the gaps to match the images to the paragraphs.

The weird and wonderful world we live in

There are around 8.7 million species on Earth. 2.2 million of these are in our oceans while 6.5 million
are on land. There are all types of creatures, big and small, cute and ugly and what we can say for
sure is that some of them are stranger than others. Let’s take a look at four weird animals that you’ve
probably never heard of until now:

1. ‘What’s so strange about a dog?’, you might ask. Not very much until you see this animal, which
is also known as the Hungarian sheepdog. It’s a large, white-coloured dog that has been trained to guard farm
animals such as sheep and goats. Its huge coat of rope-like hair looks better-suited to washing a kitchen floor than
protecting sheep from wolves! However, its coat has multiple uses. It protects the dog from freezing Hungarian
winters and allows it to hide in the middle of the flock it’s protecting. A passing wolf would get a nasty surprise
if a huge dog jumped out from the sheep! These days though, you are more likely to find this loyal friend in the
park with its owners on a Sunday afternoon.

2. An egg-laying mammal? Impossible! Well, say that to this animal which, as well as being a
mammal, is also nocturnal and poisonous. Like many strange-looking animals, it lives in Australia. Its venom,
although not deadly, is extremely painful. Strangely, the poison is not used to hunt, for that it uses something called
electroreception. This is the ability to sense changes in electric fields in a similar way to sharks. Electroreception
means this animal can hunt without using any of the five usual senses. This little creature only grows to around
50 centimetres in length but is so unique that it’s the only animal in its scientific family.

3. If you wanted to imagine a terrifying-looking creature that looks like something from a dinosaur
movie, then you’d probably be imagining this animal. When it lifts its giant frill, this creature has a frightening
appearance. Fortunately, it only does this when it attacks or feels under threat. This is another animal from
Oceania, and it might be a relief to hear that it is harmless as they are only interested in insects. However, plenty
of animals are interested in the lizard, so it has adapted its body to protect itself from potential predators. This
lizard can run extremely fast and when it’s moving quickly it can run on just its back two legs!

4. What creature do you think you could see on the beach that was bigger than you? Maybe a
horse or even a shark or a whale if it had had a problem. But what if I told you that it had six legs! That’s right!
This six-legged creature is the world’s largest of its type and can grow up to 3.7 metres wide (including those long
legs!). That’s more than double the height of the average person! But here’s the good news. These animals live on
the seabed at depths of up to 500 metres so you are unlikely to meet one and scientists say that even if you did,
they are very gentle and wouldn’t do you any harm.

Glossary:
Flock (n): a group of sheep, goats or birds

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Part 3: Read the article again and write 1-4 in the gaps to match the statements to the animals.

a. This animal lives in the ocean.

b. This animal cares for other animals.

c. This animal may harm you if you get too close.

d. This animal can change how it looks.

e. This animal is different from all others.

f. This animal can hide easily in its natural environment.

Part 4: Look at the questions and discuss them with a classmate.

1. Which of these animals is the strangest? (Rank them from 1-4)

2. Which of these animals would you be most afraid of meeting?
3. Which of these animals would you like to learn more about?
4. Is it important to protect all types of animals?

4 Focus on Language: Compound Adjectives

Part 1: Read about compound adjectives and go through the examples. Can you find any other
compound adjectives in the text you read earlier?

A compound adjective is an adjective that uses two words. Usually, we put a hyphen (-)
between the two words when the compound adjective comes before a noun. Look at this
example:

"The Komondor is a large, white-coloured dog that has been trained to guard farm
animals."

White-coloured is an example of a compound adjective.

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Here is another example:

"I’d like to live in an English-speaking country."

English-speaking is a compound adjective. We use a hyphen to connect the word English

with speaking to show that it is being used as one adjective and one idea.

Part 2: We can create compound adjectives with lots of types of words. Look at the table below.
Match words from Group A with Group B, and words from Group C with Group D. Then create some
sentences using compound adjectives.

Group A Group B Group C Group D

world minute old way

ice storey cold quality

twenty looking one known

good cold high fashioned

last famous well blooded

a. I live in a flat in a twenty-storey building.

b. Cristiano Ronaldo is a well-known football player.

c.

d.

e.

f.

g.

h.

i.

j.

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5 Listening: Weird and wonderful animals

Part 1: Look at the questions and choose one of the words from the vocabulary box to put in each
gap. Read the questions with a classmate. Are these facts new for you or did you know them already?
Which do you find most/least surprising?

beak / parrots / mate / naked / penguins / trunk / organ / scales

a. Did you know that the that cover the skin of fish are different from the
that cover the skin of reptiles such as snakes and crocodiles?

b. Did you know that pet can be taught to speak?

c. Did you know that have wings but can’t fly?

d. Did you know that humans are the only ape with mostly skin?

e. Did you know that a toucan’s helps it keep cool in hot weather?

f. Did you know that the heart is the responsible for pushing blood around our body?

g. Did you know that mice use a special song when they want to attract a ?

h. Did you know that elephants have two finger-like features at the end of their to
pick things up?

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Part 2: Watch a video about eight more amazing animals. Look at the table and write down the types
of animals that you see:

rodent / monkey / mammal / amphibian / bird

Name Type of animal Interesting feature Interesting fact

1. The Proboscis monkey Its nose. They’re really good at

Monkey swimming.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

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Part 3: Look at the images below and match them to the names of the animals. Add them to the table
above.

the aye-aye the kakapo the Mexican axolotl the naked mole rat
the pangolin the proboscis monkey the tapir the Titicaca water frog

1. 2. 3. 4.

5. 6. 7. 8.

Part 4: Choose one of the animals and summarise what you have learned about them in small groups.

6 Homework (Writing)

Write 2-3 paragraphs (120 words) describing a strange animal that you think your classmates may
not know about.

You should include:

• Name
• Animal type
• Where it lives
• What it eats
• What special features it has
• An interesting fact about this animal
• A photo or drawing
• Why you like it or find it interesting

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