- You will work in groups of 3-4 students. Your teacher will assign each group a short video clip from the PBS TV documentary series Evolving Ideas. Each clip explains some aspect of sexual or asexual reproduction and how it may have evolved.
- In your talk provide the answers to the Listening Comprehension, Grammar questions and explain key Vocabulary associated with your video clip. Each member of the class will have a copy of your questions and it is your job to communicate the answers to them. The questions are included below.
- Follow the structure of presentations discussed in class: Introduction, Main body, Summary and Conclusion.
- Produce at least one slide to illustrate your talk.
- Each student should speak for at least 2 minutes.
- The most important thing is that the class understands you.
- Practice your talk before you deliver it.
- Have fun preparing and delivering your talk!
- Say to yourself that “English is easy!!”
Click on the link that corresponds to your designated video clip:
Questions for Students
Songbird Infidelity
Vocabulary
To lust after someone
Woodlot
A cheat
Chicks
To pair up
To sire
Cheating
Grammar
1) Complete the definition.
A cheat in the context of the video is someone ____ (who/which/what/that) _____________________________
2) The male songbird _______ (who/that/which/whom/nothing) the female cheats on is usually weaker than other males already in pairs.
3) What kind of word is ‘songbird’?
Listening Comprehension
3) Which female song birds are most likely to cheat?
4) What happens if the male song bird discovers the female has been unfaithful?
5) DNA testing shows that _____ % of all chicks are not sired by the male that helps feed them.
6) What are the advantages of cheating?
Chimps & Bonobos
Explain the following vocabulary & expressions found in the text.
Poles apart,
Offspring,
Easygoing,
To tide them over
To forge social bonds
Prone to violence
Next-door neighbors
Grammar
1) A bonobo is a close relative of the chimpanzee ______ (who/which/that/what/whom/nothing) has radically different social behavior.
2) Dominant chimpanzee males will kill the young _______ (who/which/that/what/whom/nothing) they did not father.
3) What kind of word is ‘fiber food’?
Listening & Reading Comprehension
4) From the background reading and the video list the differences and similarities between Bonobo and Chimpanzee social behavior.
Consider the following:
a)violence against females
b)violent conflict between neighboring groups
c)community size
d)habitat
e)food
f)sexual behavior
5) Why do young male chimpanzees try to dominate all the females in their group?
6) How do female bonobos manage to dominate males?
7) How do researchers think the radically different social behavior of chimps and bonobos evolved?
Asexual Reproducers
Vocabulary and Expressions
Best overall strategy
Flexibility
On the fringes of habitat
Dubbed
Courtship
Parthenogenesis
To hit a dead end
Roundups
To outlast
Burden
Bother
Grammar
1) Cnemidorphus tessellates is a lizard______ (who, that, which, what, whom, nothing) lives in Texas.
2) Have you found the answer _______ (who, that, which, what, whom, nothing) you were thinking about?
Listening and Reading Comprehension
3) Describe how the lizard Cnemidorphus tessellates reproduces.
4) Explain what the narrator on the video means when he says that each baby is a clone.
5) Explain how “lesbian behavior” may help eggs develop.
6) Has this behavior been proven?
7) What are general purpose genotypes?
8) List three disadvantages of sexual reproduction:
a)
b)
c)
The Tale of the Peacock
Explain the following vocabulary and expressions
Peacock
Peahen
To slow down
Predator
Prey
Sexual selection
Trimmed birds
Trains
Offspring
Females hold out for the best genes
To be choosey
Tail
Tale
Grammar
1) The peacock is a bird ______ (who, that, which, what, whom, nothing) has an enormous tail.
2) The male _______ (who, that, which, what, whom, nothing) the female chose had the most eyespots
Listening and Reading Comprehension
1)Why does the peacock have such a long and burdensome tail?
2)Explain Marion Petrie’s experiments with peacock tail eyespots.
3)Why are females more choosey about who they mate with than males?
4)Which sex is directing the course of evolution in the peacock?
5)What was Darwin’s controversial idea about sexual selection in humans?
6)Do you agree or disagree?
7)In terms of evolution is better for a woman to marry for love or money?
Sweaty T-Shirts
Explain the following vocabulary and expressions
Evolutionary psychology
Roaming the plains of Africa
Infused with a unique smell
Pathogen
Overall
“It was just chemistry!”
Pheromones
The first date
Sex appeal
Grammar
1) Claus Wedekind is a scientist (who, that, which, what, whom, nothing) researches human mate choice.
2) Evolutionary psychology explains almost everything (that/what) you ever wanted to know about love.
Reading and Listening Comprehension
1. What is evolutionary psychology?
2. According to evolutionary psychologists why do things feel good or bad? Why do we dislike the smell of rotten eggs? Why might a dung beetle love it? Why are we attracted to certain smells?
3.Explain how mice fall in love. Talk about pheromones and MHC.
4.Explain the sweaty t-shirt experiment.
5.In the experiment what factor was determining the sex appeal of the young men?
6.What three things do all people, regardless of culture, agree on?
a)
b)
c)
The Red Queen
Explain the following vocabulary and expressions
Dull
Far and wide
To find a mate
To hand on
Topminnows
To harbor
Puddles
A moving target
Hard evidence
To stem from
Huffy
Chess piece
Worm
Enduring mystery why sex
doomed
Grammar
1) Do you agree with _____ (that/what) Robert Vrijenhoek said?
2) Evolution is a theory ______ (that/who/what) __________ (complete with a word or phrase above) observation and inference.
Reading and Listening Comprehension
1)What is the ‘biological imperative’?
2)What is so mysterious about sexual reproduction?
3)Explain the research of Robert Vrijenhoek in Mexico.
4)What percentage of the minnows was infected with black spot disease?
5)Explain the Red Queen idea.
6)How does sex provide challenges to parasites, viruses and your competitors?
© All Copyright, 2007, Ray Genet
