Science Swiss offers a series of 25 videos produced by the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation in order to give us the chance of getting an idea of the fascinating world of science. The video (18) I propose you to watch is about orang-utans and professor Carel van Schaik from The Anthropological Institute at Zurich university explains us many intersting things about them and their connection to the human being. (LEVEL APPROX.B2)
Unfortunately, the above mentioned video is no longer available on swissinfo.ch and I therefore add the link to a conversation with professor about this subject on New York Times:http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/15/science/15conv.html?_r=0
WORKSHEET
Please put the following sentences into reported speech?
a) Professor van Schaik said: ” By observing the apes we learnt where we come from.”
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b) He also said: ” Observing animals in their natural habitat is hard work, exhausting, it wears me out, it can make me ill, it will give you something new.”
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c) The scientist explained: ” We encountered orang-utans in groups up to 15 in the mid 90s in Sumatra.”
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d) The scientis also affirmed: “Any” had a magical way with tools and she made objects that fitted her needs.”
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Conditional sentences:
-If we didn’t have apes and all the knowledge they have given us, we …………………. ……………….. where we come from.
-If they didn’t manage to remove the seed from the fruit with a small stick, they ………………… ………………it.
More questions:
1) How do they learn? ……………………………………………………………………………………..
2) What is the attitude of the marmosets ?(small monkeys from South America)
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3) What seems to be the most important thing about child rearing?
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4) Do gorillas in zoos behave in the same way as the before mentioned animals?
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In the following video professor Van Schaik speaks about evolutionary antropology in general/Are we still cooperative or have we become purely competitive?
Ich verweise auch auf einen Artikel aus der ZEIT online zu diesem Thema:
http://www.zeit.de/2008/46/P-Carel-van-Schaik
Categories: ENGLISH/MAR, HISTORY/GESCHICHTE, SCIENCE/WISSENSCHAFT, VIDEOS
