Do you know … ?

Here’s a fun conversation lesson that will help you add to your knowledge about wild creatures. The activity is based on a very short feature, an Eco-quiz, from the nature section of the Bangkok Post.

Here’s what to do.

1. Print out the questions and answers below and cut them apart. Gather a group of five friends or classmates. Each of you take one question and answer pair.
2. Read the question and check the dictionary for the correct pronunciation if necessary and to make sure you know what each animal is. You may have to explain to some of your friends.
3. Practice the question until you can say it without reading.
4. Read the answer and be sure you understand and can explain it, too.
5. Ask each of your friends your question and write down their answers – or, if they don’t know, ask them to guess.
6. After you have all quizzed each other, tell who knew or guessed the correct answer and explain it to the others.

You’ll see that the writers in our nature department sometimes have fun writing these quizzes.

Eco-quiz #1 Suppose you’re a baby snake. Which of these animals would you feel most comfortable with? a) tiger   b) king cobra   c) mongoose   d) hornbill

Eco-quiz #2 Which of these birds can dive underwater? a) cormorants   b) darters   c) kingfishers   d) grebes

Eco-quiz #3 Which of these is definitely not a bear? a) the koala   b) the giant panda   c) the Malayan sun bear   d) Winnie the Pooh

Eco-quiz #4 Why do snakes flick their tongues: a) they want to scare you      b) it helps them breathe c) they have something to say   d) they’re thirsty

Eco-quiz #5 Which of these statements about wild chimpanzees is not true? a) some of them use tools      b) they live in Africa’s savannah c) females tend to have sex with several males d) sometimes they team up and hunt monkeys for food

Eco-quiz #1 cracked The answer is: a) tiger Among all the given choices, the tiger is the only creature that doesn’t enjoy eating snakes.

Eco-quiz #2 cracked The answer is: all except c) Cormorants and darters are excellent divers. They’re so good at diving they can go after a fish and catch it. Grebes can dive, too. But unlike cormorants and darters, grebes use this particular skill as a means to flee from danger. Kingfishers, however, don’t like it wet. Even fish-eating species don’t plunge into water. Instead, they wait on a perch and swoop on any fish that comes near the surface and within striking distance.

Eco-quiz #3 cracked The answer is: a) the koala or maybe c) the giant panda — Read on! Winnie the Pooh – yes – he’s a cartoon character. Still he is a cartoon bear. The Malayan sun bear is a real bear, just as the name suggests. As for the giant panda, some scientists classify it as a bear, yet others prefer to put it in the same family as raccoons. Then again, there are those who believe the giant panda should be assigned a family of its own. As for the koala, it’s a marsupial (a mammal whose young develop inside the mother’s pouch like the kangaroo). Bears, however, are placental mammals – like humans, their babies develop inside the mother.

Eco-quiz #4 cracked The answer is: none of the choices given The truth is snakes have a superb sense of smell and they flick their forked tongues to sample the air around them. Chemicals in the air are delivered via the tongue to a specially designed sense organ connected to the smell area of the brain. By the way, snakes can flick their tongues without having to open their mouths.

Eco-quiz #5 cracked The answer is b) they live in Africa’s savannah (flat grassland) All the other statements are true. Chimpanzees live in Africa, of course, but no in open land like the savannah. They are more at home in the forest. By the way, the tools mentioned in the first coice refer not to such things as wrenches or chainsaws, but to twigs which the apes use to catch ants and termites. All they have to do is to poke these sticks into the insects’ nests. Any insect foolish enough to crawl onto the twigs are nibbled away.

TEACHER'S NOTE The Bangkok Post, and probably your local newspaper too, run regular features like our Eco-quiz, that can be collected until you have enough to make an interesting lesson for your students. Keep your eyes open for interesting material to clip and save. The Eco-quiz is particularly suited to a speaking activity because each student has to repeat the same question several times – a painless and fun way to drill! Go back to the top