Watch this video from How stuff works, which tries to address the question of whether groundhogs can really predict when spring will arrive or this is just an urban legend.
Some of the vocabulary in the video is quite advanced, but Básico 2 students (elementary) will find it possible to understand the words missing in the transcript below.
So, can a groundhog really predict when spring will arrive? To find out, we need to meet Punxsutawney Phil’s family.
Groundhogs are marmots. There are (1) ... different species of these big furry rodents, and these marmots live high in the mountains.
Up here, you have to understand weather, because the winters can be lethal. While psychic powers may be optional, it pays to be a real glutton. Every day, (2) ... spring and summer, a marmot can munch its way through an amount of food equivalent to (3) ... of its body weight. It needs to bulk up if it’s to survive the winter. Because when the snows come, it won’t eat again until the following spring.
Marmots spend most of the winter asleep. Their heart rate can fall from (4) ... beats per minute, to less than (5) ... . And in deep hibernation, their brain activity may drop as much as (6) .... . But occasionally, one will wake up to check the temperature outside. If it’s still (7) ... , then it’s back to the burrow for more sleep.
Like all marmots, a groundhog responds to the (8) ... changes in light and temperature that signal the (9) ... of spring. So you could say that, in a way, the groundhog is a bucktooth barometer.
But in Punxsutawney, they’re not terribly interested in the (10) ... of Phil’s predictions. That’s because this furry forecaster is a marmot, not a meteorologist.
Key:
1. fourteen 2 throughout 3 one-third 4 two hundred and fifty 5 ten 6 ninety per cent 7 chilly 8 seasonal 9 arrival 10 accuracy
