English vocabulary - Martin Hunt 2016

3 Animals

In this unit you will learn

✵ the names of many animals

✵ parts of an animal's body (wing, claw...)

✵ how to describe animals

Basics

Do you know these words? Check in a dictionary and write the word in your language in the space provided.

Test your basics

Write the English word in the space provided. Don’t look at page 23!

Extension

More animals

✵ A lion is a big cat that lives in the jungle; the tiger is another big cat with orange and black stripes.

✵ The shark lives in the sea and is very dangerous; a snake is also very dangerous and can be poisonous.

✵ A duck is a bird that can also swim; a sheep (plural sheep) is a farm animal while a camel lives in the desert.

✵ A tortoise is an animal that’s very slow and can live a long time.

Birds

Nouns

✵ Wings help a bird to fly.

✵ A beak is a bird’s mouth.

✵ Some birds have webbed feet to help them swim.

✵ Many birds don’t have hair, they have feathers.

✵ Birds don’t live in houses, they live in nests.

Verbs

✵ Many birds can fly through the air.

Fish

Nouns

✵ A shark has a top fin.

✵ Most fish use a tail to help them swim.

✵ Fish live in the sea or in rivers or in lakes.

Verbs

✵ Fish swim through water.

Land animals

Nouns

✵ Many animals have ’hair’; we call it fur; it feels very soft.

✵ Some animals like elephants have no fur, they have skin like we do.

✵ Many animals walk on four legs.

✵ Animals like dogs and cats have paws, not hands or feet; horses have hooves.

✵ A cat can hurt you with its sharp claws.

✵ Some animals have many teeth.

Verbs

✵ Very fast animals can run; very slow animals like the tortoise crawl.

✵ A cat can scratch you with its claws or bite you with its teeth.

Describing an animal

Adjectives

big  fast dangerous long

intelligent wild small  slow

friendly short stupid tame

Writing sentences

A... is a(n)... animal with... and... It can... but it can’t... It comes from...

Example: A camel is a big animal with brown fur and a long tail. It can walk a long way, but it can’t swim. It comes from Africa and hot countries.

Practice

Exercise 1 Can you guess these animals?

1 A ... has four paws, likes fish, and has a long tail.

2 A ... has a large fin and lives in the sea. It is very dangerous.

3 A ... is a large animal that can run very fast. It has four hooves.

4 A ... is an animal that can fly and lives in nests.

5 A ... is a dangerous animal that can bite you. It has no legs, but it lives on land.

6 A ... is a very small animal. It has a long tail, big teeth, and it likes cheese!

Exercise 2 Find the ten animal parts/verbs in the word square and put the words under the correct animal.

Exercise 3 Complete these sentences with the words in the box below. Be careful - one word is not used.

1 The elephant is a large animal with four ... and [grey/gray] ... .

2 Be careful of the cat! She might ... you with her ... .

3 I love sheep, but they’re so ... . They always walk on the road in front of cars.

4 Our mouse is so ... . I love his [grey/gray] ... .

5 The lion ... from Africa; it is a very ... animal.

Now check your answers.

► Exercise 4 (Recordings 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4) Pronunciation practice. Listen and repeat the words on the recording. Use the transcript at the back of the book to help you if necessary.

In use

Reading

Below are the notices for four animals in a zoo. Before you start reading, check you know these words:

Reading 1 Read the notices below and write the name of each animal under the pictures on page 29. One animal is not used.

The Hippopotamus (plural: hippopotamuses) The hippo­potamus, or hippo for short, lives in Africa in wet places. It weighs up to 1,400kg and can live for nearly fifty years in the zoo. Male hippos generally live alone, but female hippos often live in groups of ten to fifteen. Hippos eat many types of grass and only have two enemies: other hippos and, sadly, humans.

The Cockroach Cockroaches are insects. They have survived for 250 million years! Cockroaches are very small, only a few [centimetres/centimeters] long. Cockroaches can live for up to two years and give birth to fifteen to forty young. Cockroaches are great survivors; they can lose their heads and live for a week, dying only because they cannot drink any water!

The Golden Eagle The golden eagle is a bird of prey. This is a bird that hunts for its food, eating other small animals such as rabbits and mice. The female often looks after the eggs, but sometimes the male does. Golden eagles are very fast - they fly at 50 kmh, but can dive at speeds of up to 150 kmh!

The Octopus (plural: octopuses) The octopus has eight legs, and it can grow new ones if they are damaged! The octopus can change [colour/color], and it can release ’ink’ into the sea which helps it hide from other animals. The octopus has excellent eyes and hunts at night. And did you know the octopus also has three hearts?

Reading 2 Decide if the sentences below are true or false. Then correct the ones which are false.

Sometimes male eagles look after the young. ✓

Male hippos live together in groups. Female hippos live together in groups.

1 Hippos eat meat.

2 Cockroaches are big animals.

3 Cockroaches can live without their heads for seven days.

4 Eagles can only fly at 50 kmh.

5 An octopus always has eight legs.

6 Humans are a friend of the hippo.

7 Rabbits sometimes hunt eagles.

8 The octopus can be different [colours/colors].

► Listening

Before you start, check you know these words:

Africa

pet

silver

gold

Note: Paddington Bear is the name of a famous British toy bear; goldfish is a type of small fish.

Animal Rules is a popular quiz show on radio. It is played with two people. One person has to listen to his/her partner and guess the animal.

Listening 1 (Recording 3.5) Look at the animals below. Listen to the recording and number them in the order you hear them. Be careful! One animal is not used.

Listening 2 Listen to the recording again. Match an animal with a sentence in the box below. Be careful! One animal and one sentence are not used!

Now check your answers.

Recap

Here are the words we learned in this unit. Do you know them all? Write down the translations if you need to.

Animals

Cat  dog   bird

horse  mouse (mice) elephant

insect  cow   fish

lion  tiger   shark

snake  duck   sheep

camel  tortoise

Living places

nest  sea   river

lake

Parts of animals

wings  beak   webbed feet

feathers  fin    tail

fur   skin   legs

paws  claws   teeth

hooves

Verbs

fly   swim   run

crawl  scratch   bite

Adjectives

big   small   fast

slow  dangerous  friendly

long  short   intelligent

stupid  sharp   soft

wild  tame

What to do next

✵ Try playing a game of ’animal rules’ with another student.

✵ Think of animals in your country; describe them in English.

✵ Look up the names of animals in your country in an English dictionary.

✵ Describe your [favourite/favorite] animal in English; describe an animal you hate.

✵ Look at animal sites on the internet.

Why not try this unit next?

✵ Body (1)

Answer key for this unit

Test your basics

Exercise 1

1 cat  2 shark   3 horse

4 bird  5 snake   6 mouse

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

1 The elephant is a large animal with four legs and [grey/gray] skin.

2 Be careful of the cat! She might scratch you with her claws!

3 I love sheep but they’re so stupid! They always walk on the road in front of cars!

4 Our mouse is so soft. I love his [grey/gray] fur.

5 The lion comes from Africa; it is a very dangerous animal!

Reading

Reading 1

Reading 2

Listening

Listening 1

Listening 2

(’dog’ and ’It has got long claws’ are not used)