The Reading / Listening - Early Humans - Level 0

Animals hibernate for the winter. They escape the cold in a hole. Perhaps early humans did this too. Winters were much colder hundreds of thousands of years ago. Scientists looked at bones from humans from 430,000 years ago. Cuts and other damage on the bones were like those on the bones of animals who hibernate.

Early humans slowed down their bodies in winter so they could survive longer without food. They could not do this like a bear. Bears can sleep for months. Hibernating gave early humans health problems. Many of these were because of not enough vitamin D from sunlight. This made their bones weaker.

Try the same news story at these levels:

    Early Humans - Level 1,  Early Humans - Level 2   or  Early Humans - Level 3

Sources
  • https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/dec/20/early-humans-may-have-survived-the-harsh-winters-by-hibernating
  • https://www.sciencealert.com/early-humans-may-have-hibernated-through-long-winters
  • https://sputniknews.com/science/202012201081521644-early-humans-may-have-slept-through-harsh-winters-new-study-finds/


Make sure you try all of the online activities for this reading and listening - There are dictations, multiple choice activities, drag and drop activities, sentence jumbles, which word activities, text reconstructions, spelling, gap fills and a whole lot more. Please enjoy :-)

Phrase Matching

Paragraph 1

  1. They escape the cold
  2. Winters were much
  3. hundreds of thousands
  4. Scientists looked
  5. humans from
  6. cuts and other damage
  7. like those on the
  8. animals who
  1. of years ago
  2. 430,000 years ago
  3. hibernate
  4. colder
  5. bones
  6. at bones
  7. in a hole
  8. on the bones

Paragraph 2

  1. Early humans slowed
  2. they could survive
  3. without
  4. They could not do this
  5. Bears can sleep
  6. Hibernating gave early humans
  7. not enough vitamin D
  8. This made their bones
  1. for months
  2. weaker
  3. like a bear
  4. from sunlight
  5. food
  6. down their bodies
  7. health problems
  8. longer

Listening — Listen and fill in the gaps

Animals (1) ___________________ winter. They escape the cold in a hole. Perhaps (2) ___________________ this too. Winters were much colder (3) ___________________ of years ago. Scientists looked (4) ___________________ humans from 430,000 years ago. Cuts and (5) ___________________ the bones were like those on the bones of (6) ___________________.

Early humans (7) ___________________ bodies in winter so they could (8) ___________________ food. They could not (9) ___________________ a bear. Bears can (10) ___________________. Hibernating gave early humans health problems. (11) ___________________ were because of not enough vitamin D from sunlight. This made (12) ___________________.

Put a slash (/) where the spaces are

Animalshibernateforthewinter.Theyescapethecoldinahole.Perhapse
arlyhumansdidthistoo.Wintersweremuchcolderhundredsofthousan
dsofyearsago.Scientistslookedatbonesfromhumansfrom430,000ye
arsago.Cutsandotherdamageontheboneswerelikethoseonthebones
ofanimalswhohibernate.Earlyhumanssloweddowntheirbodiesinwint
ersotheycouldsurvivelongerwithoutfood.Theycouldnotdothislikeab
ear.Bearscansleepformonths.Hibernatinggaveearlyhumanshealthp
roblems.ManyofthesewerebecauseofnotenoughvitaminDfromsunlig
ht.Thismadetheirbonesweaker.

Student survey

Write five GOOD questions about this topic in the table. Do this in pairs. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper. When you have finished, interview other students. Write down their answers.

(Please look at page 12 of the PDF to see a photocopiable example of this activity.)

Discussion — Write your own questions

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

(a) ________________

(b) ________________

(c) ________________

(d) ________________

(e) ________________

(f) ________________

(g) ________________

(h) ________________

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

(i) ________________

(j) ________________

(k) ________________

(l) ________________

(m) ________________

(n) ________________

(o) ________________

(p) ________________

Free writing

Write about this topic for 10 minutes. Comment on your partner’s paper.

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Answers

(Please check your answers against the article above.

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