Giraffes
Read and choose: true or false?
1 Giraffes learn to walk when they are twenty minutes old.
2 Giraffes lie down at night.
3 Giraffes can put their tongues in their ears.
4 Giraffes eat for ten hours a day.
You and I learnt to walk when we were a few months old, but baby giraffes can walk after only twenty minutes.
Baby giraffes live in a dangerous world. Lions and other animals like to eat them, so the babies must learn quickly.
They learn to run fast and to stay on their feet almost all of the time. Even at night, giraffes do not lie down. They
stand by a tree and sleep. Big giraffes have long legs and they can run at fifty kilometres per hour. The English word
giraffe comes from the Arabic word xirapha. The word means, 'runs fast'. Giraffes also have very long tongues. A
giraffe's tongue can be fifty centimetres long! Giraffes use their tongues for cleaning themselves. They can even clean
their ears with their tongues! Their tongues are important for other things too. A giraffe's favourite food is green
leaves from acacia trees. These trees have sharp thorns, but the giraffe's tongue can go between the thorns. The
giraffe's long neck is important because the best leaves are at the tops of the trees. Giraffes love these leaves, and they
eat for about eighteen hours every day.
Choose a, b or c:
1 Baby giraffes must learn quickly because .......
a) other animals want to kill them b) they are dangerous c) they eat lions
2 Giraffes do not often .......
a) run b) sit down c) sleep
3 There was an Arabic word for giraffes .......there was an English word.
a) xirapha b) because c) before
4 .......giraffes have fifty-centimetre tongues.
a) All b) Some c) Young
5 Giraffes love to eat .......
a) acacia leaves b) trees c) thorns
6 Their tongues get the .......from the trees.
a) thorns b) wood c) food
7 The best food is .......
a) high up b) on the ground c) between the trees
Choose the three most interesting things about giraffes.
1. ...........................................................................................................
2. ...........................................................................................................
3. ...........................................................................................................
What do you think of giraffes? Choose four words. Then say why.
Giraffes are ...
1. funny 2. slow 3. unusual 4. nice 5. fast 6. clever
7. dangerous 8. ugly 9. tall 10. predators
Read and choose the correct word:
1. Giraffes eat / don’t eat meat.
2. Giraffes can / can’t climb trees.
3. Giraffes have / don’t have four legs.
4. Giraffes sometimes / never drink juice.
5. Giraffes can run fast because / but they have long legs.
6. Giraffes are / aren’t dangerous animals.
7. Giraffes hate / love eating leaves.
Rewrite the sentences from the previous exercise using a singular noun: a giraffe.
1. ________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________________________
4. ________________________________________________________________
5. ________________________________________________________________
6. ________________________________________________________________
7. ________________________________________________________________
Put the words in the correct order:
giraffes dangerou a baby world live
1.
in
ears clea with they their their can
2. tongues
favourite green i food a giraffe’s
3. leaves
What are they like?
slow, fast, dangerous, cute, ugly, beautiful, tiny, enormous, huge, intelligent, vegetarian
1. a snail _____________ 2. a butterfly _____________ 3. a T-Rex _____________
4. a parrot _____________ 5. a rabbit _____________ 6. a lion _____________
7. a cow _____________ 8. a cockroach_____________ 9. an ant _____________
10. a baby bear _____________ 11. an elephant _____________
Fill in with: at, to, on, in
1. I get up ______ 7 o’clock.
2. She usually goes ______ school ______ the morning.
3. Our English lessons are ______ Mondays and Thursdays.
4. Pandas live ______ China.
5. Listen ______ the teacher! She is talking ______ you.
6. Mrs T was born ______ January.
