10Th Form Listening Text #1:

from “Takanakuy: The Fighting Festival of Peru” By Thomas Morton, CNN, 2012

The town of Santo Tomas is 12,000 feet above sea level, nestled cozily in the vertiginous Peruvian Andes.

Hill dwellers and mountain folk alike have had a reputation for hardiness and endurance ever since ancient Greek geographer Strabo described the Thracian people as a "tough bunch of customers."

Being raised on the side of a cliff anywhere tends to favor the strong, sure-footed and stocky, and the environment of the Andes is a particularly punishing place to grow up. The slopes are craggy, storm-blasted and steep, and food is pretty much limited to potatoes and whatever animals you can chase…without falling down the adjacent precipice.

On top of that, altitude sickness generally kicks in around 8,000 feet [above sea level]—setting up house anywhere higher is pretty much relegating yourself to a semi-permanent [nausea]. Maybe you see where I'm going with this, but people in these hills sometimes get a little bit testy. Just being a farmer here is like living your entire life getting ready to fight.

Regions across the Peruvian and Bolivian Andes have traditional fighting festivals and ceremonies as an outlet for this type of mountain-born aggression. Rules about who fights whom and what weapons you can use (if any) vary from place to place, but the general gist remains the same, as does the expected goal of social catharsis and the collective venting of pent-up steam. In Santo Tomas, the festival is known as Takanakuy, everybody fights everybody, and it happens bright and early Christmas morning.

After a few days of preliminary drinking and dancing in costumes that combine the best aspects of traditional Andean horse-riding gear with the most nightmarish aspects of traditional acid trips, the residents of Santo Tomas wake up and head to the local bullfighting ring to beat each other silly.

True/False

1. Santo Tomas was an ancient Greek geographer.

2. Mountain folk have a reputation for hardiness and endurance.

3. The environment of the Andes is a pleasant place to grow up.

4. Food in the Andes is limited to potatoes and animals you can chase without falling.

5. Altitude sickness kicks in at 12,000 feet above sea level.

6. Different regions across the Peruvian and Bolivian Andres have fighting ceremonies to let out aggression.

7. The rules about who fights whom and what weapons are used are always the same.

8. The fighting festival called Takanakuy happens on New Year’s Day.

9. People drink and dance in costumes before fighting each other.

10. During the Takanakuy festival, people also fight bulls.

10Th Form Listening Text #2:

From “"Fantastic" New Flying Frog Found—Has Flappy Forearms” by Christine Dell'Amore, National Geographic, 2013.

Scientists have stumbled across a new species of flying frog—on the ground.While hiking a lowland forest in 2009, not far from Ho Chi Minh City (map), Vietnam, "we came across a huge green frog, sitting on a log," said Jodi Rowley, an amphibian biologist at the Australian Museum in Sydney and lead author of a new study on the frog.

Rowley later discovered that the 3.5-inch-long (9-centimeter-long) creature is a relatively large new type of flying frog, a group known for its ability to "parachute" from tree to tree thanks to special aerodynamic adaptations, such as webbed feet, Rowley said. Rowley dubbed the new species Helen's flying frog, in honor of her mother, Helen Rowley, "who has steadfastly supported her only child trekking through the forests of Southeast Asia in search of frogs," according to a statement. The newfound species—there are 80 types of flying frogs—is also "one of the most flying frogs of the flying frogs," Rowley said, "in that it's got huge hands and feet that are webbed all the way to the toepad."

"Females even have flappy skin on their forearms to glide," added Rowley, who has received funding from the National Geographic Committee on Research and Exploration. "The females are larger and heavier than males, so the little extra flaps probably don't make much of a difference," she said.

As Rowley wrote on her blog, "At first it may seem strange that such a fantastic and obvious frog could escape discovery until now—less than 100 kilometers [60 miles] from an urban centre with over nine million people."

Yet these tree dwellers can easily escape notice—they spend most of their time in the canopy, she said. Even so, Helen's flying frog won't be able to hide from development near Ho Chi Minh City, which may encroach on its existing habitats. So far, only five individuals have been found in two patches of lowland forest hemmed in by rice paddies in southern Vietnam, Rowley said. The animals can probably tolerate a little bit of disturbance as long as they have large trees and temporary pools, she added.

But lowland forests are among the most threatened habitats in the world, mostly because they're so accessible to people, and thus chosen for logging and development. "While Helen's flying frog has only just been discovered by biologists," Rowley wrote, "unfortunately this species, like many others, is under great threat from ongoing habitat loss and degradation. "The new flying frog study was published in December 2012 in the Journal of Herpetology.

True/False Questions:

1. Helen’s flying frogs are incapable of actual flight but possess the ability to glide.

2. The male frogs are bigger and heavier than the female frogs.

3. There are more than 100 types of flying frogs.

4. Both males and females have flappy skin on their forearms to aid in gliding.

5. Helen’s flying frogs and their habitat are relatively close to the nearest city, Ho Chi Minh.

6. Helen’s flying frog is rather large, as according to the article.

7. The biologist Jodi Rowley is an independent scientist and is not associated with any institution.

8. Yhe feet of the frog are webbed.

9. Jodi Rowley, the primary biologist, is an only child.

10. This species of frog is in no danger of becoming extinct from habitat loss.

Multiple Choice Questions:

11. Helen’s flying frog was named after:

    1. The biologist who discovered the frog.

    2. The biologist’s mother.

    3. The nearest city.

    4. Helen of Troy

12. This species of frog was discovered in which country:

    1. China

    2. Thailand

    3. Vietnam

    4. Cambodia

13. Helen’s flying frog primarily reside:

    1. On the ground

    2. In the water

    3. Under rocks

    4. In the trees

14. Given the subject of the article and the journal in which it was published, what does “herpetology” mean?

    1. The study of flight

    2. The study of jungles where frogs live

    3. The study of amphibians, like frogs

    4. The study of life.

15. How many total frogs have been found in the habitat?

    1. 1

    2. 5

    3. 11

    4. 16

16. The habitat in which Helen’s flying frog lives, a lowland forest, is one of the most at-risk habitats for all of the following reasons according to the article, EXCEPT:

    1. Low variability

    2. Logging

    3. Development

    4. Close proximity to humans

17. When the text reads that the scientists “stumbled across” the new frog, it means that they:

    1. Stepped on it.

    2. Scared it.

    3. Unexpectedly encountered it.

    4. Surprised it.

18. Vietnam is located in:

    1. Northeast Asia

    2. Central Asia

    3. Southern Asia

    4. Southeast Asia

19. Rowley is funded by:

    1. The National Geographic Committee on Research and Exploration

    2. The Journal of Herpetology

    3. Vietnam

    4. Self-funded

20. The extra flaps on the forearms of the females:

    1. Aid in navigation.

    2. Are used for attracting mates.

    3. Act like wings.

    4. Do not help much in gliding.

Listening text answer document

Listening Text #1: from “Takanakuy: The Fighting Festival of Peru” By Thomas Morton, CNN, 2012

True/False

1. False

2. True

3. False

4. True

5. False

6. True

7. False

8. False

9. True

10. False

Listening Text #2: From “"Fantastic" New Flying Frog Found—Has Flappy Forearms” by Christine Dell'Amore, National Geographic, 2013.

True/False:

1. True

2. False

3. False

4. False

5. True

6. True

7. False

8. True

9. True

10. False

Multiple Choice:

11. B

12. C

13. D

14. C

15. B

16. A

17. C

18. D

19. A

20. D