Listening

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Helpful Words and Phrases

Listen and repeat.

  1. species
    • ex. Dogs and wolves belong to the same species.
  2. endangered
    • ex. Those elephants are endangered. There are only about 1,000 still alive.
  3. a habitat
    • ex. The forest is the brown bear’s habitat.
  4. survive
    • ex. Plants cannot survive without sunlight, water and air.
  5. a mate
    • ex. The female tiger and her mate had two babies last year.

Article

Read the article below and answer your tutor's questions.

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Romeo was called the loneliest frog in the world. He lived alone in an aquarium for 10 years. Romeo is a Sehuencas [say-wen-cus] water frog, an endangered species of frog from Bolivia. Pollution, climate change, and the destruction of their habitat caused the number of Sehuencas water frogs to greatly decrease. Scientists thought that maybe Romeo was the last one.

To help Romeo and his species survive, scientists tried to find him a mate by creating a profile for him on the dating website Match.com. They also collected money to look for other Sehuencas water frogs. When scientists returned to the river where Romeo came from, they found five more Sehuencas water frogs, three males and two females. They named one of the females Juliet and chose her to be Romeo’s mate.

The scientists are now keeping the frogs in a safe place until their numbers increase. Then, the frogs will be returned to their natural habitat. The scientists also plan to teach the people who live near Romeo’s habitat to protect the endangered frogs. The scientists want them to help Romeo and his species survive.

Discussion

Choose a topic and discuss the questions with your tutor.

Protecting Endangered Animals

  • Do you think that there are many endangered animals in your country? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • Do you think that endangered animals should be protected? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • Do you think that people who hurt endangered animals should be punished? Why or why not? Discuss.

Animal Habitats

  • Do you think that your country has many good habitats for animals? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • Do you think that animal habitats should be protected? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • Do you think that endangered animals should live in zoos or in their natural habitat? Why? Discuss.