English, baby!

Insect Invasion

Date: Jul 25 2008

Themes: Pets

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

Going out to the woods always sounds like a good idea. And usually it is. But sometimes you get there and at first it looks just like you imagined: trees, a stream, no people around. But then you get out of the car and they start crawling on you, biting you, buzzing around your ears. Oh yes, you didn’t count on...bugs!

For some bugs, like mosquitos, we are food. But generally humans and bugs just coexist, the bugs occasionally crushed by a footstep or hand and the humans generally annoyed or itchy.

Of course, sometimes bugs and humans go to war. Listen to Mason and Jason talk about their battles with bugs.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Jason

Mason

Jason: There are certain parts of this world that I feel are just territory of the bugs.

Mason: Bugs?

Jason: We don’t control those parts of the world. The mosquitoes own that territory.

Mason: Yeah, man, I feel like that part’s been my back yard lately.

Jason: Really?

Mason: Seriously. You go walking…and it’s only at certain times, like dusk, usually…but you’ll just be walking and then you just hit this cloud of bugs and if you happen to have your mouth open or if you’re catching an inhale, it’s just like, bugs for dinner.

Jason: It’s so weird. How do people live in climates where you have to have a mosquito net around your bed and stuff like that?

Mason: Yeah, I don’t know.

Jason: It’s just such a huge part of your life, defense against these teeny-tiny armies.

Mason: And let’s be honest. We’re talking about the annoying bugs. Because there’s 10 million different kinds of bugs. There’s some awesome bugs.

Jason: Sure, like a ladybug isn’t going to bother anyone.

Mason: Yeah, but I mean more like the death bugs like praying mantises and really huge beetles. Those are cool bugs. You wouldn’t mind those.

Jason: Oh yeah. Old movies used to use praying mantises blown up to represent monsters destroying cities and stuff just because they look so cool. They’re intricate like…

Mason: But just, you know, the everyday bugs, the mosquitoes, the ants, the moths, I don’t need those bugs.

Jason: Well, for me it’s the ones that bite…that’s why mosquitoes are terrible. You just get covered in mosquito bites. And moths are awful because they’re kind of like zombies of bugs. They just fly at you and bounce off you and seem to have no brain and are just constantly bumping into things and being really annoying.

Mason: And spiders. I gotta walk into their spider webs and that stuff just feels like it never gets off you.

Jason: If I leave my car in place for like five minutes, there’s a spider web attaching it to whatever the nearest other object is.

Mason: You gotta wonder though. Let’s take a minute and think of it from their perspective. We’re just constantly thwarting whatever they’re doing.

Jason: That’s true.

Mason: Like think of that poor little spider. “I guess I’ll make my web again.”

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Discussion

Jason says that he thinks we ought to recognize that the bugs just own some places on Earth. There are too many of them there for us to live alongside them! But people live there anyway. Jason and Mason can’t imagine what it’s like to live in a place where you sleep in a mosquito net every night.

Or can they? Mason says his back yard has more and more bugs all the time. And not the cool bugs like praying mantises, but annoying or harmful bugs like ants and bees.

But then Mason starts to think about things from the bug’s perspective. What would it be like to have anything you build or do be destroyed by people? Being a bug wouldn’t be so easy.

Are there lots of bugs where you live? Do you like bugs or are you afraid of them?

Comments

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magic1015

China

i hate those disgusting insects ,the mosquitoes ,the flies …exactly ,they do harm than good to us …

the summer time is the most horrible period in my college , i can never stop scarching my skin which is bite…

Rikarduhedgehog

Portugal

:)
Good lesson :)

Rikarduhedgehog

Portugal

:D hahaha :):):)

it's a bug :):):) but it's a funny bug :P:)

leonapanda

China

Is Germany make English as the second language,just like France ?

My English standards is still Primary level,sorry~

dearpesar

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

this type of lesson is very helpful for listening. hope we have more in future.
thankyou englishbaby

Christoph07

Germany

Normally I tought I dont need any bug. In the second view it is to scary to hear that 27,000 types of animals and plants are gone from this planet in one year. (Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE)) And the bugs are one important factor in our ecological system. Maybe nothing will be happen when we have not so much species. But a lot of scintists are thinking that the consequences of broken ecological systems are unfortunaly for human beeing. So when you see a little spider: let it out and dont kill it. This spider want to catch the next mosquito who wants Your blood :-)

ptgg

China

quite interesting

195854255

United States

I hate mosquitos. They bite me and it is so itchy..Also, they pass deseases from one person to another. They are annoying,disgusing anddangerous insects