Listening
exercise
A Moment of Science V
3. Ancient Performance Enhancers
Listen to
the audio file.
Vocabulary:
| Olympics Athens birthplace cheesy athlete biography judging scandal performance-enhancing technology leaden |
stone hand weights halteres plain to see ancient Greek urns depict clutch object to compete in long jump counterintuitive |
result
in to engage to leap into to swing to land to fall within a certain range to have no effect overly to compete for glory counterpart |
Listening
comprehension questions:
1. What practices in the
Olympic games today is this passage critical of at the very beginning?
2. What is a haltere?
3. How do we know about the existence of halteres?
4. What was done with the haltere just before landing, and with what effect?
5. What would happen if the haltere were too light? Too heavy?
4.
Rocket Roach
Listen to
the audio file.
Vocabulary:
| to
be reviled jealous to be around long before to go the way of the wooly mammoth as it turns out agile to regain balance instantaneously to be knocked off balance novel approach dexterity kid |
fantasy miniature rockets to blow to smithereens gunpowder-filled tube to explode just enough force slow motion tape to stumble to right oneself to recover one's stride millisecond to put it another way nerve fires upshot |
incredible nervous system spring-like pogo sticks to compress to make waves in burgeoning biomorphic robotics practitioner to pattern on robot designs mobility strategies to mimic agility |
Listening
comprehension questions:
1.
What reason does the passage give suggesting why we might be 'jealous' of the
cockroach?
2. Explain this phrase: "...long after our species has gone the way of
the wooly mammoth." What does the phrase assume?
3. How do cockroaches surpass human athletes?
4. To what does the passage compare the speed with which a cockroach can regain
its balance, and why is it so amazing?
5. What does this amazing ability of the cockroach rely on, and what does it
not rely on?
6. What possible application might a better understanding of this amazing ability
of the cockroach have, that could be useful to humans?
5.
Here, Boy
Listen
to the audio file.
Vocabulary:
| whereas a ready understanding gestures to fetch comparative psychologist Max Planck Institute Michael Tomasello |
to run
a series of tests sealed container yummy hint wolf, wolves chimpanzees forms of human communication |
puppies to branch off from evolutionary predecessors to debate to evolve to be encoded in one's genes |
Listening
comprehension questions:
1. What is a key
difference between how a dog and a cat react when a human points at something?
2. Dogs and wolves are closely related species. How does a wolf perform in a
similar situation?
3. The passage hypothesizes that this skill developed when in the evolution
of dogs? In what time frame?
4. At which institute in which country was the research this passage is based
on done?