Animals, Vocabulary Worksheets

SPLENDID SLOTHS – Vocabulary and ‘Slow’ Idioms Worksheet

Sloth climbing tree

Javier Mazzeo, @Unsplash


A) FUN FACTS

Fill the gaps with the following words:

belief, benefit, detection, hooked, lungs, mammal, moths, swivel, tinge, tropical, vulnerable, weigh     

Sloths have been around for over sixty million years, and until ten thousand years ago there was also even a giant sloth. These super-sized sloths called Megatherium could grow to the size of an elephant and a) __________ up to four tonnes!

Today sloths are found in the b) __________ forests of Central and South America. There are six species, two species are two-toed, and four are three-toed. Curiously though, it’s the number of claws on the forelimbs that is different, as all the species have three ‘toes’ on their back legs. So perhaps we should call them two-fingered and three-fingered sloths!

Sloths are named for their extreme slowness. The pygmy three-toed sloth is in fact the slowest c) _________ in the world, moving at a speed of only 0.24 km/h.

Contrary to popular d) __________, however, sloths aren’t lazy. Their slow-paced lifestyle is a vital part of their survival kit as it helps them conserve valuable energy. Another bonus of moving so slowly is that it helps them avoid e) __________ by formidable predators such as jaguars and harpy eagles who hunt using sight.

Not only are sloths slowcoaches, but their digestion is also very slow – it can take weeks to digest just one leaf!

You may have noticed that sloths often seem to have green fur. This green f) __________ comes from algae. It turns out that a sloth’s shaggy coat is quite the ecosystem – providing a home not only to algae, but also to fungi, g) __________, and other insects. In return, the green colour lends the sloths camouflage, helping them blend into the canopy. Sloths may also h) __________ by snacking on the algae or other inhabitants in their fur.

Thanks to their anatomical design, sloths are adept at hanging upside down. Organs such as the liver, stomach and bowel are attached to their rib cage which prevents them from squashing the animal’s i) __________ and impeding breathing. Their strong j) __________ claws allow them to latch onto branches securely and even to sleep suspended from the trees.

Another design attribute allows three-toed sloths to k) __________ their heads 270 degrees like owls, which may come in handy for keeping an eye out for predators.

Sloths are very cumbersome on the ground as they have little power in their hind legs.  However, they are actually pretty strong swimmers and can even hold their breath underwater for forty minutes!

Sloths may be slow but they are three times as strong as humans. They can lift their whole body upwards using just one arm!

Sloths only come down from trees in order to poop, which they do about once a week. They are extremely l) __________ to predators when they are on the ground and so will even give birth up in the trees!

B) Idioms with SLOW

Complete the idioms with one of the words in brackets.

1.  The government was criticised for being slow off the _________ in helping its citizens affected by the hurricane. They should have acted faster.  (line, mark, step)

2.  Maybe I’m slow on the __________take but I found the plot of the film really confusing at times. Didn’t you? (off, on, up)

3.  The book was slow __________ at first but then it started to get a lot more interesting. (go, going, gone)

4.  Come on, slow__________, hurry up and have your breakfast or you’re going to be late for school. (bus, car, coach)

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Nature Vocabulary Worksheet – Beautiful Bees

BEAUTIFUL BEES

Bees are fascinating creatures and hugely important pollinators. Next time you nibble on an almond or bite into an apple, you might want to say a quiet thank you to these industrious little marvels of nature. Bees are one of nature’s finest examples of teamwork.

Photo by Dustin Humes at Unsplash

A) FUN FACTS ABOUT BEES

Fill the gaps with the following words:

estimated, key, fans, species, gathering, mate, teaspoon, raccoons, duties, intruders, lay

There are around 20,000 a) ____________ of bee in the world but only eight are honey bees.

The queen bee’s sole job is to b) ____________ and c) ____________ eggs. She can produce as many as 1,500 to 2,000 eggs a day.

The worker bees are female and make up most of the colony. They have many d) ____________, such as keeping the hive clean, feeding the young and the queen, e) ____________  pollen and nectar from flowering plants, and they help to make honey.

Worker bees have another duty: to guard the hive or colony from f) ____________ like wasps, bears or g) ____________. They position themselves at the entrance, a bit like bouncers!

The drones are the male bees – their life is a little more leisurely –  they have one h) ____________ role and that is to breed with a queen.

Only the female bees, the workers and the queen, are armed with a stinger.


When the hive gets too hot, the worker bees bring water and they’ll use their wings as i) ____________ to cool things down.

Once a bee has finished foraging (=collecting food) it takes a direct route back to the colony, hence the expression ‘to make a beeline’.

In her lifetime a honey bee will only make about a twelfth of a j) ____________ of honey.

It’s k) ____________ that just to make half a kilo of honey, bees have to visit around two million flowers, totalling about 90,000 air miles!


Now, go look online and find another interesting piece of trivia about bees and share it with your fellow students or a friend or study buddy (or you can tell me on my EnglishSmarts Twitter).

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B) BEE IDIOMS

Oh no! These idioms have got mixed up! Can you BEE a dear 😜, and put the words in italics in the right place?


1.  As soon as we asked for volunteers to help clean up after the party, everyone made a buzz for the door. 

2.  Alice has a bee in her beeline about cars driving too fast down her street. She keeps phoning the council about it but she says they haven’t done a thing about it.

3.  That guy at the bar was really annoying me. I told him to beeswax off.

4.  “Sam says you kissed someone at the party. Who was it? Come on, tell me!” – “No, it’s none of your bonnet.”

Photo by Andy Holmes at Unsplash.com

ANSWERS

A)

a) species
b) mate
c) lay
d) duties
e) gathering
f) intruders
g) raccoons
h) key
i) fans
j) teaspoon
k) estimated

B)

1.  As soon as we asked for volunteers to help clean up after the party, everyone made a beeline (=went directly) for the door. 

2.  Alice has a bee in her bonnet (= she’s obsessed) about cars driving too fast down her street. She keeps phoning the council about it but she says they haven’t done a thing about it.

3.  That guy at the bar was really annoying me. I told him to buzz off (= go away (impolite))

4. “Sam says you kissed someone at the party. Who was it? Come on, tell me!” – “No, it’s none of your beeswax.” (= it’s none of your business, it’s not your concern (impolite))


I love Idioms (1) – Body Parts
I love Idioms (2) – Animals


Idioms with Make (1)
Idioms with Make (2)
Idioms with Keep