SHARKS

Listening Practice: Listen and fill in the blanks

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. And I'm Faith
Lapidus.
This week, we will tell about sharks -- a fish with a public relations problem.
A picture in the newspaper shows a person standing next to a huge shark. The body of the shark
is hanging with its head down. A scale is measuring its weight.
The lines below the picture say the shark was a_______ big one. Or perhaps it was one of the
biggest ever caught in the area. The person who brought in the fish looks extremely pleased.
That person won a battle with what has been called one of nature's fiercest creatures.
Some people, however, do not approve of catching ______. They do not think all sharks are
terrifying enemies. They know that studies show lightning and snake bites threaten people more
than shark attacks.
Activists for sharks note that the _____ are valuable in the ocean. Sharks eat injured and
diseased fish. Their hunting means that other fish do not become too great in number. This
protects other creatures and plants in the ocean.
Environmental activists worry that _____ kinds of fish are in danger of dying out. The National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated that fishing operations kill more than ____
hundred million sharks every year. Sharks are harvested for meat and cartilage, liver oil and,
especially, for their fins. Many of the animals die when people harvesting other kinds of fish pull
in sharks by accident.
George Burgess leads the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural
History of the University of Florida. He says shark attacks increased during the past century for a
_____ reason. Hundreds of millions of people now use the world's oceans, more than in the past.
Professor Burgess says the first ten years of the twenty-first century are expected to register the
most attacks of any ten-year period.
Yet the International Shark Attack File reports that the number of shark attacks has, in fact,
decreased in recent years. During this period, there was an average of ______ attacks worldwide
each year. That compares with a high of seventy-nine in two thousand.
The file gives some likely reasons for the decrease. One reason is that overfishing of sharks and
related fish ______ reduced the size of some shark populations.

Another is that more people are careful to stay away from ______ where sharks swim. And the
file says workers responsible for boating and beach safety may be doing a better _____ of
warning people when sharks are seen.
The International Shark Attack File describes shark _________ as either provoked or
unprovoked. An unprovoked attack means the person is alive when bitten. It also means the
person must not have interfered with the shark.

VOCABUALRY:
WORDS

MEANINGS

WORDS

MEANINGS

Huge

big

Terrifying

scary

Extremely

Very much

Valuable

precious

Pleased

happy

Protect

Save

Fiercest

scary

harvested

killed

creature

animals

reduced

decrease

approve

Like

Provoked

To cause to
become angry

A. Answer the following short questions.

(i)

What is the above paragraph about?

_________________________________________________________

(ii)

Why dont some people approve of catching of sharks?

_________________________________________________________

(iii)

What do sharks eat?

_________________________________________________________

B. Complete the missing letters.

Prot_ct, Aver_ge, Reg_stered, Decr_ _se, Popul_tion

C. Discussing questions.
i)

What sea animals do you like?

ii)

What sea animals are eaten in your country?

iii)

Is it good to hunt and kill sea animals, if not why?

iv)

What would you do if you are attacked by a shark on the beach?

v)

What would you do if your best friend is attacked by shark?