教材文本 Unit 4 Listening and discussing

Unit 4 Exploring plantsListening and discussing1 In groups, look carefully at the photos of the plants and answer the questions. 1 How would you describe each plant? What do you think is unusual about each plant?2 One of the pictures shows pitcher plants and another shows “living stones”. Which picture shows which plant? The name of the plant in the other picture is Rafflesia. 2 Now listen to Mark, Gordon and Andrea telling their class about these plants. Which student talks about which plant?PlantABCStudents nameName of the plant3 Listen again and complete the table with the correct information. You might need to listen several times. MarkGordonAndreaName of the plantReason for its name-Its smell-Its shapeIts size-How it gets its foodWhere it lives-What its 1eaves are likeHow common it is-How it is pollinated-4 Listen to the other studentsreactions to Mark, Gordon and Andreas descriptions of the plants. Write down the expressions they use. Expressions of wonder _ _ _ _ _ _Expressions of disgust _ _ _5 Now look at these photos of unusual things in pairs. Do you react with disgust or wonder? Use the expressions you wrote down in Exercise 4 or any other expressions you know to express your reaction. LISTENING TEXTUNUSUAL PLANTSListen to Mark（M）, Gordon（G）and Andrea（A）telling their class and their teacher （TH）about some plants. TH：Today Mark, Gordon and Andtea are going to tell us about some unusual plants. Mark, do you want to go first?M：Sure. Today, I want to talk about an insect-eating plant called a pitcher plant. Heres a photo of it, Look at this part here. Its shaped like a pitcher, Its actually a leaf even though it looks like a flower. Its really clever the insects are attracted by the sweet smell coming from what they think is a flower. But its a trap. Once an insect goes down into the pitcher, it cant get out as there are small hard hairs pointing downwards that prevent it from escaping. In the end, the insect falls down into a pool of liquid at the bottom of the pitcher and gets digested by the plant. S1：Thats amazing!S2：What fantastic plants!TH：Gordon. G：These are the plants Im going to talk about. Theyre often called“living stones”, but even though they do look a bit like stones, they are in fact plants. S3：Wow!S4：How interesting!G：Their scientific name is Lithops and they come from South Africa and Namibia. The body of a lithops is actually a pair of leaves that have become rounded Iike a stone. This is because this plant lives in very hot and dry places. When the Ieaves are shared like this, not much water is lost from the plant. Another interesting thing about these strange plants is that theyre the same colour and appearance of the soil and stones around it. This makes them less obvious to animals looking for food. TH：Thanks, Gordon. Andrea. A： Im going to tell you about Rafflesia arnoldii, a plant that has a flower about one metre wide. In fact, Its the largest flower in the world. Rafflesia arnoldii doesnt have any leaves, stems or roots. It doesnt need them as its a parasite. It gets its food by living on another plant. You might think that this flower shouId smell wonderful but it actually Iooks and smells like rotting meat!S2：Oh, yuck!S1：Thats disgusting!S3：I think its fantastic!A： Me too. Anyway, it attracts insects that eat dead animals but instead of getting a feed, the insects pick up its pollen and spread it to other Rafflesias. Rafflesia arnoldii grows in the jungles in Indonesia but as the forests are being cut down, its becoming very rare. TH：Thanks, Andrea and thanks everyone. Those plants are certainly fascinating. Answer key for Exercise 1：1 Answers may vary. 2 A：“living stones” (lithopsthe plants look like stones)；B Raffiesia；C pitcher plants（“pitcher” is another name for “jug”the plants look like jugs or vases）Answer key for Exercise 2：PlantABCStudents nameMarkGordonAndreaName of the plantPitcher plantLiving stones or LithopsRafflesia arnoldiiAnswer key for Exercise 3：MarkGordonAndreaName of the plantPitcher plantLiving stones（Lithops）Rafflesia arnoldiiReason for its nameIts shaped like a pitcher （jug）They look like stones.Its smellLike rotting meatIts shapelike a pitcherroundedRound with large thick petals（this information is from the photo）Its sizesmall （like stones）One metre wide（the largest flower in the world）How it gets its foodFrom insects that fall into the pitcherFrom the soilFrom another plant（it is a parasite）Where it livesHot dry places in South Africa, NamibiaJungles in parts of IndonesiaHow common it isShaped like a pitcherRounded like stonesDoesnt have leavesHow common it is It is becoming rareHow it is pollinatedInsects th