Ñòð.81 Unit 9 ÃÄÇ Âåðáèöêàÿ Forward 9 êëàññ

Ïðèâåäåì âûäåðæêó èç çàäàíèÿ èç ó÷åáíèêà Âåðáèöêàÿ, Ìàêêèíëè, Õàñòèíãñ 9 êëàññ, Âåíòàíà-Ãðàô:

READING AND VOCABULARY

1 Work in pairs and complete the similes. Use a dictionary to help you. Then answer the questions below.

brave gentle proud quiet blind wise

• Do we have similar similes in Russian?

• Which animals are, in your opinion, the wisest/most intelligent?

2 Look at the photo and read the title and introduction of the article. What creature do you think the article is about?

3 Read the text as you listen to it and check your predictions from Exercise 2. What information did you find most interesting?

Òåêñò àóäèðîâàíèÿ:

As intelligent as ... ?

It looks like an alien, can copy other animals and can change color, shape and size in a second. Alec Peters investigates a mysterious creature that might be too intelligent for humans to understand.

Ask a biologist what the most intelligent creatures are on Earth, and they’ll probably come up with a fairly similar list: larger mammals such as horses, dogs, dolphins, pigs, the great apes as well as some birds like crows and ravens. But now some scientists believe that one of the most intelligent beings on Earth is in fact the octopus — which doesn’t belong to any of these groups.

Every schoolchild knows that octopuses (or octopi) have eight legs or tentacles and can shoot ink while trying to escape from enemies. But there are many other unusual things about octopuses. For example, the legs of some octopuses can grow to over nine meters in length and are extremely strong. If an octopus loses a leg, it can grow a new one. It also has three hearts and complex eyes, which seem to belong to a mammal rather than a sea creature. Octopuses also seem to be experts at escaping — they have extremely soft, flexible bodies and can escape through holes not much bigger than their eyes. There are many biologists who have stories about walking into the laboratory after lunch to find their octopus had escaped from its aquarium and was now hiding in a teapot or climbing a bookshelf!

However, even until quite recently, little was known about octopus’s intelligence. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, octopuses usually live at the bottom of river mouths and seas — areas which are not attractive to researchers. Secondly, they are not social animals so it can be difficult to study their interaction with others. Perhaps most importantly, octopus’s intelligence is not easy for humans to understand. When we observe mammals such as rats or dogs, we can often instinctively understand their behavior. Octopuses, however, can seem like aliens. Scientists need to

have a lot of imagination to be able to understand what an octopus is thinking!

In the 1950s, the US Air Force sponsored scientists to study the way octopuses use their brains. They hoped that they could use this knowledge to help them build better computers. However, their brains were so complex that the scientists quickly gave up. And even today the octopus brain is a mystery. Octopuses have a very complex nervous system and recent research suggests that they have some of their intelligence inside each arm, which means that each arm can ‘think’ for itself. It also appears that they have good memories, perhaps similar to a cat’s. Some octopuses in laboratories seem to play with objects as if they were toys — a sure sign of intelligence. Others could pick up complicated skills like opening jars.

Perhaps the most striking thing about octopuses is their ability to change their color and body pattern. They do this to camouflage themselves and also to communicate with others. They can completely change their appearance in less than a second — a striped octopus can suddenly become spotted. It can change its skin to look like rocks, sand or plankton. A scientist once observed an octopus that changed its appearance nearly 1,000 times during seven hours of feeding! It can change its appearance to look like a dangerous predator — and can even copy its style of swimming.

Some scientists have even suggested that these different patterns and colors are in fact a very sophisticated language — and that each design is a different verb, adjective or noun. But nobody has been able to work out what they might be saying. It seems like the problem isn’t the limitation of the animals ... but the limitations of humans!

4 Read the text again and choose the correct answers.

1 Now some scientists believe that

a all octopuses are more intelligent than larger mammals.

b we can add the octopus to the list of most intelligent animals.

c the octopus isn’t in fact a mammal; d we should find a new group for octopuses.

2 An octopus’s eye is

a something that even schoolchildren know about.

b rather unusual for a mammal,

c rather unusual for a creature that lives in the sea.

d not very complicated.

3 Octopuses are good at escaping because

a they can change the shape of their body,

b they choose surprising places to hide in.

c they have very small eyes, d the scientists who study them often go out

4 One of the reasons that we didn’t know how intelligent octopuses are until recently was that

a they live in places where researchers don’t like going.

b they don't like being observed.

c they don’t like socializing with humans, d they are so different from other animals we know.

5 One tiling that suggests glial octopuses are intelligent is that

a they were smarter than US Air Force computers.

b their brains are similar to cats’,

c they clam how to do complicated tasks,

d the octopus's brain is a mystery.

6 One of the reasons octopuses often change their appearance is because

a they want to become less noticeable,

b they get bored when they are eating for a long time.

c they are very talkative; d they enjoy copying other animals.

5 Find the underlined words in the text which have similar meanings to words a-e.

a design

b creatures

c sophisticated

d observe

e scientists

6 Think Back! Write as many words in each category as you can in three minutes.

7 For each category below, give examples from Exercise 6.

Which animals/creatures are

• often hunted?

• in danger of extinction?

• often thought of as pests?

• often kept as pets?

• kept for milk, meal or fur?

8 Work in pairs. Choose the sentences you think are true. Then check your answers on page 119.

Animal Quiz

1 Elephants are the only animals that can’t jump.

2 A rat can survive for longer without water than a camel.

3 Crocodiles can’t stick out their tongues.

4 A duck’s quack has no echo - nobody knows why.

5 Butterflies taste with their feet.

6 An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.