Listening test: Dogs

Listen to two friends talking about the fear of dogs one of them has. Choose the option A, B or C which best completes each sentence.

source: Podcast in English

1 Tricia chose to live in Jordan because
A. the dogs are not aggressive.
B. there are no dogs in the country.
C. there are very few dogs on the street.

2 Tricia has been afraid of dogs since
A. her family left England.
B. she moved to Asia.
C. she was eight or nine.

3 Africans keep dogs as
A. guard dogs.
B. pets.
C. working dogs.

4 Tricia clearly remembers
A. hearing the dogs in the distance.
B. the day she was attacked by a dog.
C. walking near the dogs.

5 When Tricia goes for a walk with her cousin in Britain, she feels
A. nervous even if the dogs are on the lead.
B. okay because the dogs are always on the lead.
C. terrified when the dogs are free.

6 Both Jackie and Tricia think dogs can
A. jump very high.
B. run very fast.
C. smell very well.

7 Jackie thinks the best think for Tricia to do is
A. lose her fear of dogs.
B. stay away from street dogs.
C. stay in Jordan.

I’m talking to Tricia, hi.
Hello, Jackie.
And Tricia works here in Jordan and I understand that she… one of the reasons she chose to work in Jordan is because there are very few dogs on the street, is that true Tricia?
It is, Jackie. It sounds a bit ridiculous but ever since I was a child I’ve had a fear of dogs, and so, perhaps, one of the reasons why I’m enjoying my time in Jordan is because there are so few dogs on the streets.
So what… what was it… what, what happened to make you frightened of dogs then?
It ’s… it ’s an interesting question. I think, very possibly my first experience or memory of dogs really is from when I was a child of about eight or nine. And my family were living in Southern Africa and a lot of families around the area where we lived kept dogs as guard dogs.
For security.
For security reasons, yes, and I have very vivid memories of, for example, walking home from school, you know, thinking about my day at school, thinking about going swimming in the afternoon and in my own little world and suddenly loud barking and ferocious, fierce dogs rushing to the gates of various gardens as I walked past . And I remember feeling terribly shocked and frightened. I mean, there was no way really, the dogs could get out of the gardens and attack me but I think it was just the… the surprise of the noise and the fierceness...
No, but that’s…
…of their faces.
Yeah, no that sounds horrible. So has… has this affected your adult life now?
In a way, I suppose it has because when I go home, when I visit the UK, one of the things I love to do is go walking.
Right.
And my cousin also loves walking but he insists on bringing his three dogs with him.
Right.
And that always, to an extent, spoils my enjoyment of…
Are the dogs, sorry, are the dogs on a lead?
They are, he’s… he’s always very careful about keeping them on a lead because he knows that I have this fear of dogs. He will occasionally let them off the lead, really hoping that they’ll sort of run into the fields and chase each other and enjoy being dogs but what tends to happen, strangely, is as soon as they’ re off the lead, they go for me.
They… they can smell, can’t they, that you’re afraid of them?
I think that’s right. I think dogs have a… a real capacity to sense and smell fear.
So you’ve come to Jordan where there are hardly any dogs but may be in a way, that’s actually not helping your… your fear, is it?
I should probably go and try, you know, get a job in a… in an animal hospice or…
Or I think you should go and live in Thailand, there are street dogs on every corner there.
It might be an interesting experience. Perhaps I’ll… take you up on that suggestion, Jackie, and learn how to overcome my fear of dogs.
Great, thanks a lot Tricia.
Thanks, Jackie.

KEY: 
1C 2C 3A 4B 5C 6C 7A

If Youre Scared of Snakes, Don't Watch This

Watch this National Geographic video about the snakes that gather at the Narcisse Snake Dens in Manitoba, Canada, which is considered the largest gathering of snakes anywhere in the world.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and say whether the statements below are true or false.

The activity is suitable for Intermediate 2 students.



1 Adults are usually more afraid of the snakes than children.
2 Temperatures are scorching hot in the area.
3 During winter, snakes live very close to the surface.
4 It's very unusual in that part of Canada to see sinkholes with so many snakes.
5 Female snakes are bigger than male snakes.
6 Males fight among themselves to get a female.
7 There have been a few accidents with snakes at Narcisse.
8 In the past people tried to eradicate snakes.

People come from all over the world just to see the snake dens here.
A lot of children are a little more willing to hold the snakes and to interact with them. Sometimes the adults are a little more apprehensive which I think is kind of odd. That it’s almost like the fear of snakes has been built into people as they grow up.
I do not like snakes because they are a little unpredictable.
And.... Uh...yeah. I’m doing a terrible job pretending that I like snakes.
Here in the Inner Lake of Manitoba, Canada is the by far the largest aggregations or concentrations of snakes anywhere in the world.
The Inner Lake of Manitoba is so plentiful, or why snakes are so plentiful here really goes back to the geology of the area. Temperatures can reach 50 degrees below zero. And so a snake, being a cold-blooded animal, they have to be able to survive those winter temperatures. So that here in the Inner Lake region the limestone bedrock is very close to the surface. So that allows the cold and the water to crack and fissure the limestone, and it makes great big sinkholes. And that enables the snakes to get below the frost line during the winter.
There is a very limited number of these den sites. So all the snakes in the area have to go to that den site that’s in their region. And so that’s how you end up with literally tens of thousands of snakes being in a sinkhole that might be the size of the average person’s living room.
It is actually very difficult for the males to find a female because if you look from a snakes-eye-view, you just see kind of a sea of living spaghetti and you’re looking for a slightly bigger piece of spaghetti then all the rest them. They’ll detect the female sex pheromone. The males are very easily able to then go past all the other pieces of spaghetti, if you will, and home in on the female.
Often times when the group of these courting males all gather around one female trying to be that lucky guy that’s going to mate with her, they’ll get so wrapped up they can tumble down literally like a ball. So people call them mating balls.
Even though there is tremendous competition for mates, the males are not fighting with each other, they don’t have dominance hierarchies, they don’t have territories set up like other animals would do in a similar situation.
Let’s get a picture in front of the big snake, okay?
I like to call them the ambassadors of the reptile world. They’re a great way for people to interact with wildlife.
Look at mommy and smile!
The garter snakes don’t have teeth and they feel cool when you touch them and stuff.
So they don’t bite you. They just kind of move around in your hand really fast and stuff.
Awesome job, you guys.
Obviously all the snakes here are harmless. The dens here at Narcisse have been set up through Manitoba Conservation. And the boardwalks have been made and they’re regulated. So it is a nice place for people to come visit with minimal impact on the denning sites themselves.
Way back at the turn of the century and even through the 20s and 30s and 40s, people had a pretty bad attitude about snakes and tried to clear them out. Just times have changed a lot. I think people are much more environmentally- conscious.
Really and truly, having these healthy number of snakes means your living in a healthy environment.

Key:
1T 2F 3T 4F 5T 6F 7F 8T

Chesapeake Bay Bridge: Saving drivers too scared to cross

The BBC aired this three-minute video on Chesapeake Bay Bridge in early September last year.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge, or Bay Bridge, rises in the state of Maryland. It has a reputation for being a long and nerve-wracking bridge, ranked as one of the scariest in the world to cross, so much so that some drivers would rather pay someone else to drive them and their cars across the water.
In the clip, Brittney Manzoni, a driver with Kent Island Express, tells us what gives the bridge its reputation.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and say whether the statements below are true or false.

The activity is suitable for strong intermediate 2 students.




1 The bridge is 4.3 kilometres long.
2 There's nowhere to park along the bridge.
3 Jay Gaskins finds coming down worse than going up the bridge.
4 Crossing the bridge usually takes an hour and six minutes.
5 Most of the times passengers don't talk about the bridge.
6 Some passengers travel in the trunk.
7 Chesapeake Bay Bridge is considered to be the scariest in the US and number nine in the world.

A nineteen-year-old fell asleep while driving on the Bay Bridge and a trucker had to swerve out of her way…
And a major crash on the Bay Bridge is snarling traffic both ways…
Friday night’s crash on the Bay Bridge that sent a woman’s car into the Chesapeake Bay, sparking some new fears among drivers.
It’s just scary. I feel very frightened.
This is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. It’s 4.3 miles long. It’s 250 feet at its highest. There are no shoulders to pull over on, you are not allowed to stop anywhere. We escort you and your vehicle over the Bay Bridge, whether you have a fear or if you have seeing problems like depth perception, anything like that, if there’s any reason you cannot cross the bridge by yourself, we’re here for you.
I use it twice a day, you know, going to work and then coming home. I’ve been using it for probably eight years now, just the whole going up to the peak, you know, that would make me nervous, the top didn’t really bother me too bad, but coming down was a lot worse than going up. One day I might get over it, but it just seems, you know, just as easy and, you know, and a lot safer just have someone else do it.
Depending on traffic it can take anywhere from six minutes to an hour. It really depends on the weather, or what’s going on in the area, if it is a weekday or a weekend. We can drive anywhere between ten to thirty people a day. Some people are extremely nervous and we’ll talk about anything but the bridge, other people all they want to talk about is the bridge and what’s been going on with it like the maintenance and recent accidents and breakdowns. But most times we’ll just talk about what their plans are for the day to keep them calm.
They’re completely relieved once they get to the other side, there, there they’ve just got over their fear that is in the past now.
Alright, thank you.
Thank you.
Have a safe trip.
Thank you.
The trip was wonderful. I feel safe and happy.
For some people the scariest part is on the eastbound when you’re going up the upgrade, there is a bend at the top of it and you can’t, you can’t see where the bridge is going, so it looks like you’re just about to launch off the bridge. On the eastbound there’s three lanes, the sides are open like you have the barriers but they are see-through, and that doesn’t help people that have height issues.
I’ve had people request a ride in the trunk before, obviously we can’t, we cannot allow you to ride in the trunk, we’ll just have you laid down in the back seat and cover up, or just put your head down in the front, cover your face if you need to and we’ll talk you through it.
This bridge is ranked number three in the nation on the scary list. I don’t know, this part too, but I think it’s number nine in the world but there’s other scary bridges out there too, and why should we not provide a service for those ones as well, so I hope that one day we’ll be able to franchise out a little bit and branch out.

Key:
1F (miles) 2T 3T 4F 5T 6F 7F

Madrid Teacher series: Dog phobia

In this week's Madrid Teacher series, the teachers are discussing dog phobia.

Just listen to the conversation and find out about the problem with dogs one of the girls has. Do you have a similar problem with dogs? Does anyone you know have a similar problem? If you love dogs, do you find it difficult to understand the fact that some people suffer from dog phobia?

Now, the girl on the left seems to be genuinely surprised with her friend's fear of dogs. She expresses her surprise by using really? Other expressions we can use to show surprise are:
Oh my goodness!
That’s awful.
That’s a shame.
Wow!
That’s incredible.

Another interesting feature of spoken English that is used in the dialogue is the particle so. So is used in a variety of ways in English, but many times English speakers use so in conversation as a linking word that brings two ideas together. Let's pay attention to some of the remarks in the dialogue:

So, Sofia, are you afraid of anything?  [to introduce the topic of conversation].
there’re dogs everywhere in Spain so I’m constantly... [to show result or consequence]
I think because my mom’s afraid of dogs,(...) so, I inherited that phobia. [to show result or consequence]
But, I’m indoors usually so I’m safe. [to show result or consequence]
But I don’t want them to be scared, so I’ll probably say, “go near the dog,” [to show result or consequence]
I’ve heard. So it’s something that I’d like to do in the future because... [to introduce a new idea]

We shouldn't confuse these different usages of so as a linking word, with its use as an intensifier, some examples of which can also be seen in the dialogue:
So many dogs there
so often



Now, let's try to put into practice the above-mentioned features of spoken English. Get together with some English-speaking friends and discuss these phobia-related questions. As you listen to your friends, react to what they say if they come up with a surprising piece of information, and don't forget to use 'so' to introduce a new idea or to show a result.

Do you have any phobias or irrational fears?
How did the phobia start?
In what situations is the phobia triggered?
Do you have any strategies to help you mitigate the effects of the phobia?
What could you do to overcome your phobia?

So, Sofia, are you afraid of anything?
Yes, I am. I’m afraid of animals in general, but especially dogs.
Really?
Yes.
Dogs?
Yes.
Big dogs?
All dogs.
All dogs?
Tiny, tiny Chihuahuas?
From puppies to, yes.
Really?
Yeah, it’s a, it’s a really serious phobia actually because there’re dogs everywhere in Spain so I’m constantly like . . .
And when did this start? Have you always been afraid of dogs?
I think because my mom’s afraid of dogs, and she passed that on to me. Because we’d be walking through a park, and she’d sort of grab my hand and pull me away from the dogs so, I inherited that phobia.
OK. But do you know, do you know why you’re afraid of, do you know what you’re afraid of when you see a dog?
That they’re going to bite me.
Really?
Yeah.
But have you ever been bitten by a dog?
No, because I never . . . I never get close enough for a dog to bite me.
OK.
So no, I’ve never been bitten.
And have you ever done anything to try and overcome this fear?
No. I’ve been thinking about hypnotherapy though.
It’s supposed to work.
Yeah, I’ve heard. I’ve heard. So it’s something that I’d like to do in the future because it’s a little bit difficult going through the park.
I can imagine.
So many dogs there.
I mean, if you’re afraid of spiders or crocodiles…
. . . Yeah.
…things that you don’t see so often, but dogs are everywhere.
Yeah. Yeah, it’s pretty difficult at times.
And does it affect your…, does it affect what you can do, what kind of jobs you can get? I suppose it would.
I can’t be a vet.
No, clearly.
Outdoor things wouldn’t work for me either, outdoor occupations wouldn’t work for me then. But, I’m indoors usually so I’m safe.
But what do you think you’ll do if your, I, I don’t know. Do you have children?
No, not yet. And if you do, what do you plan to do when you see a dog in the park?
I don’t know, I don’t know. But I don’t want them to be scared, so I’ll probably say, “go near the dog,” and I’ll be there sort of scared in the corner.
Maybe you can overcome your fears and then you can get a family puppy.
Yeah, further down the line. Uh-huh.

Talking point: Phobias

Do you have any phobias?
Do you know anyone who has?
What are typical phobias people have?
Is there a sensible explanation for fobias?
How can a person overcome a phobia?

Get together with your talking group and discuss the questions above. The videos below may help you for your discussion.

Now watch this video and say how you would feel if you had to walk along Camino del Rey in Málaga.


Camino del rey from British Red Cross on Vimeo.

Now, do you have any phobias?

You can watch the whole video below.



You can read some background information about Camino del Rey by clicking here.

H/T to Web2literacy.