News Mash-up: Amazing Animals

Category: Science/Environment

Listening

Unlocking Word Meanings

Read the following words/expressions found in today’s article.

  1. tuberculosis / tʊˌbɜr kyəˈloʊ sɪs / (n.) – an infectious disease that affects the lungs
    Example:

    Symptoms of tuberculosis include coughing blood, sudden weight loss, and tiredness.


  2. enthusiasm / ɛnˈθu ziˌæz əm / (n.) – a strong feeling of excitement or interest towards something
    Example:

    The crowd showed their enthusiasm for the band’s performance by cheering loudly.


  3. distinguish between (something) / dɪˈstɪŋ gwɪʃ bɪˈtwin / (phrasal v.) – to recognize one thing from another
    Example:

    I find it hard to distinguish between the twins.


  4. excerpt / ˈɛk sɜrpt / (n.) – a short part taken from a story, speech, film, etc.
    Example:

    We are required to read an excerpt from a Japanese story for our language class.


  5. familiar / fəˈmɪl yər / (adj.) – easy to recognize or often seen, heard, or experienced
    Example:

    The area wasn’t familiar to me, so I got lost while driving.


Article

Read the text below.

Magawa, Cambodia’s landmine-sniffing ‘hero’ rat, dies in retirement, age 8


He found more than 100 landmines and explosives in Cambodia before he retired last June. But now Magawa, the African giant pouched rat, has died at age 8.


Magawa was the most successful “HeroRAT” used by international charity APOPO. He died over the Jan. 8-9 weekend. APOPO uses trained rats to detect landmines and tuberculosis.


“Magawa was in good health and spent most of last week playing with his usual enthusiasm, but towards the weekend he started to slow down, napping more and showing less interest in food in his last days,” the nonprofit organization said in a statement.


APOPO said Magawa’s help allowed communities in Cambodia to live, work and play more safely. “Every discovery he made reduced the risk of injury or death for the people of Cambodia,” APOPO said.


APOPO began training rats in Belgium in the 1990s. (Reuters)


Dogs’ brains can tell Spanish from Hungarian


Dogs can distinguish between languages, researchers in Hungary found, after playing excerpts from the story The Little Prince in Spanish and Hungarian to a group of 18 canines and examining how their brains reacted.


“(In the research) we found for the first time that a nonhuman brain can distinguish (between) languages,” said Laura V. Cuaya of Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, who led the study.


All the dogs in the experiment had heard only one of the two languages — either Hungarian or Spanish — from their owners before, allowing researchers to compare how their brain reacted to a highly familiar language and to a completely unfamiliar one. (Reuters)


These articles were provided by The Japan Times Alpha.


Viewpoint Discussion

Enjoy a discussion with your tutor.

Discussion A

  • Magawa worked as a landmine detector. In his career, he has found more than 100 explosives. Do you think it’s a good idea to use animals in dangerous missions like this? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • APOPO said Magawa’s help allowed communities in Cambodia to live, work and play more safely, and every discovery Magawa made reduced the risk of injury or death for the people of Cambodia. Do you think his loss will have a significant impact on communities in Cambodia? Why or why not? Discuss.

Discussion B

  • Dogs can distinguish between languages, researchers in Hungary found, after playing excerpts from the story The Little Prince in Spanish and Hungarian. What do you think is the importance of this study (ex. that dogs are smarter than we think, that they can be trained in languages)? Discuss.
  • In the study, the researchers found out for the first time that nonhuman brains can react to languages. Given this finding, do you think it’s possible for animals to communicate with humans? Do you want to have the ability to communicate with animals? Why or why not? Discuss.