12- 86
Tutor: Hi Katie, Hi lan. Come on in!
Katie: Hi Professor Gordon. We wanted to talk to you about our wildlife presentation next week.
Tutor: Have you decided how to organise it?
Ian: Yes, Professor. At first, we were going to focus on the cat family, but then we decided to talk about nocturnal animals instead.
T: Yes, good idea. And how is your planning going?
K: It's going well. We think we have enough material for twenty minutes. The advantage is that there are so many visual aids we can use. We've found lots on the internet which we think will be really interesting.
I: The problem is that this topic has been hard to narrow down. If anything, we've got too much information for just twenty minutes. How do you think we could narrow it down further?
T: It's a broad subject. There are several ways you could do it, but l'd recommend just looking at a representative sample of nocturnal animals, just four or five.
I: Yes, and maybe we could choose one animal from each continent, or a land creature, a marine creature and a winged animal.
K: I like the idea of separating it by different types of animals. And if we limit the detail, we'll definitely have enough time!
T: But don't limit the detail too much. Also, think how you're going to interest the audience.
K: Well, we're going to have a picture for each animal so we can talk through the picture.
T: That's a nice idea, but don't limit yourself to pictures. If you can find any clips of the animals, use them! Showing brief video clips can keep an audience interested.
I: I'll look on the internet tonight.
T: And think of questions to ask your audience. People like to be involved!
K: Yes, that's a great idea. Anyway, Professor, we've been practising our presentation and we'd like to show you a small section. Is that OK?
T: Well, we just have a couple of minutes left, but go ahead!
K: Well, we were thinking of presenting each animal with a picture and describing their physical characteristics.
T: OK, but not in too much detail. That's just background information.
I: We'll start with the jaguar. I'll introduce it by saying that the jaguar is a nocturnal animal and the only species of the genus Panthera to be found in the Americas. Like any cat, it has whiskers and it can move quickly. Its spine has great movement, meaning a jaguar can take long strides, sometimes up to five and a half metres. This makes it a deadly predator, as you can imagine! Moving on to the fur ... Its fur is quite distinct. The markings are like black doughnut-shaped spots on its otherwise yellow fur. People often confuse jaguars with leopards for this reason. Now the tail is interesting. Although some people think the tail has stripes on it, the fur on the tail is actually similar to the body with black circles around the lower section. The jaguar is a creature to be feared. ... Oh, yes, I should have mentioned this earlier. Sorry. Like most cats, it has sharp, retractable claws.
T: Yes, that's fine, but be careful. The jaguar is usually thought of as nocturnal, but strictly speaking, it's crepuscular, in other words, most active between dusk and dawn. But as long as you mention this, you can put it under the umbrella of nocturnal. Is that all?
K: Yes, I think so. Thanks, Professor.
