Listening Topic: Life Sciences – Tour at the Eden Project
A. You are going to listen to a tour guide talk about the Eden Project. After listening, mark the one statement that is false.
1 The Eden Project has gardens and educates people about horticulture.
2 There are four different landscape and garden areas.
3 The plants were not taken from the wild.
B. Listen to the talk again. Choose the correct answer to complete each statement. Listen again if necessary.
1 The tour guide says the Eden Project wants to make issues related to plants ____.
a interesting to anyone
b interesting to people who work with plants
2 The Eden Project has ____.
a 5000 different plants
b 100,000 different plants
3 The Eden Project has ____.
a three different biomes
b two different biomes
4 The different areas of the Eden Project are ____.
a an outdoor landscape, a temperate biome, and a tropical biome
b a temperate biome and a tropical biome
5 Each section has ____.
a only plants used for food
b different types of plants used for food, clothing, and other things
6 The outdoor landscape area has plants from ____.
a Britain
b Britain, Russia, and parts of North and South America
7 The warm temperate biome has plants that live in places where ____.
a it’s dry and the soil isn’t good
b it’s dry but the soil is good
8 The humid tropics biome ____.
a is the largest in the country.
b is the largest in the world
Answers
A
1 T 2 F 3 T
B
1 a 2 b 3 b 4 a 5 b 6 b 7 a 8 b
Audioscripts
A = Guide, B = Whole Group,
C = Group Member 1, D = Group Member 2
A: Hello, everyone. I know many of you have come from far away to visit us here in Cornwall in England, so welcome to the Eden Project!
To begin, let me give you a bit of background on the project. Our aim is to take horticulture … the science of growing fruits, plants, and flowers … and blend it with art, science, and education. We also work to find a balance between growing plants for our needs and conserving land worldwide. Overall, our aim is education … and not just for people already interested in plants and horticulture. We want to make plant-based issues interesting to the ordinary person. We have 100,000 different plants here, and 5000 different species of plant.
B: Wow. That’s amazing.
A: Yes, it is. Oh, I forgot to mention, feel free to ask questions at any time.
OK, you can see that we have some amazing gardens to walk around in. Three different areas in fact, including the two biomes. The biomes are the clear domes that you see from here. We’ll talk about the different areas and then you can explore on your own. If you move closer to the map, you’ll be able to see better.
As you can see, we have three different areas with different kinds of plants in each area: one is the outdoor landscape, another is the warm temperate biome, and then the third is the humid tropics biome. Each biome has different sections with different types or categories of plants, whether it be plants for food, plants for use in making fiber … clothes and things like that … and so on. There will be signs giving you information on each section.
Let’s talk about the outdoor landscape first. This has the natural landscapes and plants of temperate regions. This is like our region of Cornwall, like where we are now, and really most of Britain, as well as parts of Russia and parts of North and South America. This landscape will continue to change over time, and, of course, the plants here change with the seasons too. Oh, it’s quite a long walk down to the end of this section, but there is a train that runs from here at the Visitor Centre. Any questions? OK, let’s go on to the warm temperate biome. You can see it here on the map. Think of the regions of the Mediterranean for this one, as well as parts of South Africa, Australia, and some of California in the United States. Plants in these regions have to live in difficult conditions: very dry and usually the soil isn’t very good.
C: So, would these plants include things like olive trees and citrus fruits?
A: Yes, exactly. OK, let’s talk about the second biome. This is the humid tropics biome. Think of tropical regions such as West Africa, Malaysia and tropical South America. It’s actually the largest biome in the world and has over 1000 plant species in it. And, of course, the temperatures are pretty warm in there, so bear that in mind.
D: Can I ask how, or where, you got all these different plants?
A: Yes, that’s a good question. First of all, they weren’t taken from the wild and most of them are not rare. Many were grown from seed in our nursery here and others came from botanic gardens or research centers around the world. Also, we consulted with people from the different regions represented here when we got plants. OK, that’s all. Thanks for coming and enjoy exploring the Eden Project! I’ll be around for a few minutes if there are any more questions.
B: Thank you. That was great.
Related Posts
- Practice English Listening A2 Exercises – A matter of opinion
- Practice English Listening A2 Exercises – Now and then
- Practice English Listening A2 Exercises – People and places
- Practice English Listening A2 Exercises – Spaces
- Practice English Listening A2 Exercises – Getting organised
- Practice English Listening A2 Exercises – Feelings