Unit 26 Man and mouse

Pre-listening tasks

Before listening pay attention to the following words and collocations and their translation. They will help you to understand the text.

counterpart – двойник, эквивалент

roam – бродить

crisper view – более четкий ясный взгляд

ailment – недуг, болезнь

housecleaning – уборка

I. In what do you think mouse is similar to human?

II. Translate the following words and word-combinations into English.

отделиться (отколоться) от; мусорная ДНК; диапазон; объяснять ч-л; острота зрения; химическая последовательность; неотложный, безотлагательный; цель; генетическая матрица; иметь (много) общего; вовлеченный во что-то

III. Insert them into the following sentences from the text.

1. As a result, the effort to lay out the _______ _______of mouse DNA has been an _______ _______.

2. …an international scientific consortium has determined more than 96 percent of this sequence. It is most of the _________ for a mouse.

3. Man and mouse are thought to have ________ _____ a common ancestor.

4. The two species _____ such an overwhelming number of genes ________.

5. The human genome is bigger because it is filled with so-called ______ ______,

6. We gave a _______of 30 thousand to 40 thousand as the human gene number.

7. Some groups of genes have expanded on mice, generally those _____ ____ reproduction, smell …

8. Robert Waterston speculates that a shorter generation time, lack of ______ ______ and verbal ability and changes on living environment may ________ _____this.

After listening tasks

I. Listen to the text and check your answers.

II. Listen again and read the following sentences. What factual mistakes can you find in these sentences compared to the text?

1. Mice are very similar to humans genetically, so scientists can perform experiments on them which they can on people.

2. The earlier human genome sequence show that 89% of the 13-thousand mouse gene have a human counterpart?

3. It is thought that man and mouse have descended from a common ancestor, dinosaur.

4.The mouse genome is about 40% longer than that of humans. But human genome is superior because it is filled with more functional DNA.

5. With all these differences, the new mouse gene sequence also shows how the animals are similar to people.

6. Some groups of genes have expanded in mice except those involved in reproduction, smell, and susceptibility to diseases.

7. Once we were small furry animals running around on the floor.

III. “Scientists are also working on the genetic blueprint for the dog, cat, chimpanzee, rat and other species. They say the ability to compare more genomes will propel research on human ailments even faster“. Discuss this in class.

Unit 27 Rapid disruption of symbiosis on African savannah

Pre-listening tasks

Before listening pay attention to the following words and collocations and their translation. They will help you to understand the text.

as well as – так же как, а также

bout – раз, черёд

critter (Amer.) = creature – живое существо

to digest – переваривать

domatium, -tia – полость (в растении) , служащая убежищем другим организмам

encroach – вторгаться, покушаться, посягать

exclosure – территория, отгороженная от окружающего пространства

go for – искать, атаковать

to forage – добывать продовольствие

herbivore – травоядный

mutualism – симбиоз

bulbous – луковичный, напоминающий луковицу

nectary –ries – нектарник

in exchange – взамен, в обмен

to throw up fences – строить заборы

intermediate size – среднего размена

to stem from – происходить от, являться результатом

to set out – начинать, намереваться, приниматься (за что-либо)

on a daily basis – ежедневно, изо дня в день

vigorous – сильный, решительный

essentially – по существу

to swarm – толпиться, кишеть, лезть, карабкаться

rapidly – быстро

I. Match the words in the left column with their synonyms in the right column.

encroach	change
mutualism	crowd
flourish	depend
swarm	enchanting
rapidly	favourable
spin	intrude
rely	quickly
alteration	reel
beneficial	symbiosis
fascinating	thrive

After listening tasks

I. Answer the following questions.

1. What unusual did researcher Todd Palmer notice about an exclosure experiment in Kenia?

2. What conclusions did he draw out of this finding?

II. Listen to the broadcast again and fill in the gaps using the lists of words and words combinations, which you will find after each paragraph.

PALMER: The classic work that____________ mutualism ______ a guy _____ Dan Janzen at the University of Pennsylvania. And he _______ an acacia species in Central America and its ant associates, and____ the first scientist ___________________ the ants ____, _______, __________ the tree from encroaching vegetation and_______________________________ herbivores. And____________, the plants ______________ housing and food for the ants.

also protecting the trees from / in exchange / in fact / named / protecting / studied / to demonstrate that / was / was by / was done on / were / were providing

PALMER: __________________that ecologists ___________ ___________ fences. You ____, _____ fences, ______ things ______ areas and____________________ the communities inside. The original intention of the Kenya Long-Term Exclosure Experiment ______________________ different groups of herbivores, __ everything ____ livestock to big animals ____ elephants and giraffes, and___________________________ critters _______, ____ zebra, buffalo and_________________.

as well / build / do a lot of / from / is throw up / keep / know / like / like / one of the things / out of / see what happens to / so / then the intermediate size / things like that / was just to manipulate

PALMER: "It _____________one ___________________ things that I_______________________________________________ eight years. I ________________ the road _______ the exclosures one morning, and I __________________that the trees where the herbivores ____________________________and_________. And when I _________ my right, to the trees ________________ the electrified fences, they ___________ they ________________ condition. And that_______ me _______________________________ my intuition ____that if you ______ herbivores, if you ______ something that ________ a tree, you_________ the tree _____________________and________, and what I ______________________ the exact opposite of that."

as a little paradoxical because / 'd expect / do well / feeds on / had managed to miss on a daily basis for about / looked like / looked to / next to / of the most obvious / on the inside of / remove / remove / stemmed from / struck / suddenly realized / to start to flourish / vigorous / was / was seeing was sort of / was walking down / were in very bad / were present looked healthy

PALMER: ___________ what the trees ______________________ these bulbous swellings, which __________ domatia, and they_______________ ant housing. ____________ the trees _______ a sugary solution and the ants _________ that nectar and_________ as one of their sources of carbohydrates. ___________, the ants _____________________________ the tree ____ herbivores. And when you _______ the tree, they _____________________________and___________ the offending creature and_______________________ the mucous membranes, so they ______ the eyes, they ______ the insides of the nose, various things like that, __________ the lips and inside of the mouth. So it's an unpleasant experience _______ hundreds of ants _____________ you, and so what that __________________________ the duration of the feeding bouts by these herbivores that _____________________ these trees' leaves and branches.

are called / are doing is producing / are so fond of eating / are supposed to be protecting / as well as / basically they aim for / disturb / does is essentially reduce / essentially / essentially come running out / forage on / from / go for / go for / in addition, / in exchange / produce / 're essentially / swarm onto / swarming onto / to have / use that

PALMER: That's an excellent question, and essentially what ________________________ that the trees over a period of somewhere between five and ten years ________________ — however it is that a tree ________ something — that the herbivores ____________________, and so what they _____ they ______________ their investment or their payment to these ant-bodyguards, so they _______________ fewer of these bulbous homes and they start _______________ of these active nectaries that _______ the sugar-like solution _______________________ the ants because they ______________ as great a need for the ants' services.

are no longer around / as a way of sanctioning / do is / no longer have / producing fewer / realizes / secrete / seems to be happening is / start producing / start reducing / start to realize

PALMER: Yeah, I _________________ a couple of larger messages. The cautionary tale is that while mutualisms __________________________, they __________________________. And in the face of global climate change and the acidification of oceans and, you ____, all the kind of human-induced alterations of the world's landscapes, we _________________ a good sense of what those large scale manipulations _____________________. It's basically a big, __________ experiment, the consequences of which ____________________ for us, __________________ as humans, we _________________________________________ mutualisms from pollination of agricultural crops to fisheries that _______________ coral reefs as sites for young fish __________. So the potential for sort of collapses in these mutualistic relationships as we ______ the environment is great, and the speed with which those relationships ____________ sort-of _____ your head ____.

are going to be doing / are very, very slowly done / can be very rapidly undone / can collapse / change / could be not so good / don't really have / especially because / know / makes / rely heavily on / rely pretty heavily on a lot of different / spin / to develop / unintended / would say there's

III. Listen to the broadcast again paying particular attention to the reporter’s part, then in groups of two act out the dialogue.