The tragic myth of Orpheus and Eurydice (TED Ed video)

The marriage of Orpheus, the greatest of all poets and musicians, to Eurydice, a wood nymph, was heralded as the perfect union. Anyone could tell the couple was deeply in love. However, ...

Do the interactive exercises below to find out about their tragic story. When you finish, click the "Finish" button at the end to check your answers.

For full screen view click the button at the bottom left hand corner of the worksheet.

Orpheus and Eurydice, an interactive worksheet by serene
liveworksheets.com

For teachers: Click on the image below to download a printable worksheet.

The Milky Way (video)

The Milky Way is our home galaxy. It can be seen in the sky if the night is dark enough, a cloudy white stripe of stars too far to be seen individually with the naked eye.

Listening comprehension cloze test
For full screen view, click here.

Listening comprehension True/False statements

Worksheet
Here is a worksheet based on a video about our galaxy, the Milky Way. There are two listening comprehension exercises (gap-fill and True/False) and a vocabulary exercise (students complete a number of sentences using the words given in a box). Answer Key provided.

To download the worksheet, click here. (The preview looks a little messed up but when you open the file after downloading, it is OK.)

Quiz
Milky Way Quiz: Test Your Galaxy Smarts

How Smart Are Orangutans? (TED Ed video)

Along with humans, orangutans belong to the Hominidae family tree, which stretches back 14 million years. But it’s not just their striking red hair that makes orangutans unique among our great ape cousins. Lu Gao shares some amazing facts about these incredibly intelligent great apes from Asia.

Pre-watching vocabulary task
For full screen view, click here.

Listening comprehension cloze test
For full screen view, click here.

Listening comprehension True/False statements

Orangutan Quizzes

FREE Interactive Orangutans Quiz
Orangutan Quiz
Orang Utan fun trivia quiz
QuizMoz Orangutan Quiz


Worksheet 

Here is a worksheet based on the animated TED Ed video about how smart orangutans are. There are two listening comprehension exercises (gap-fill and True/False) and a vocabulary exercise (crossword puzzle). B/W copy and Answer Key provided.

To download the worksheet, click here.

How Tsunamis Work

Here is a TED Ed video about how tsunamis work. Watch the video and do the tasks below.

For full screen view click here.

Worksheet

Here is a worksheet based on a TED Ed video about how tsunamis work. There is a vocabulary matching exercise and two listening comprehension exercises (gap-fill and True/False). B/W copy and Answer Key provided.

To download the worksheet click here.

The Dog and the Hummingbird (the story of an unlikely friendship)

April 26, 2016. A rescued dog saves a baby hummingbird from death and the two become unlikely best friends.

Task 1.
For full screen view click here.

Task 2.

Worksheet
Here is a worksheet based on the video above. There are two comprehension exercises (gap-fill and  True/False) and a vocabulary exercise (crossword puzzle). Answer key included.

To download the worksheet click here.

 

Octopus Escapes from Aquarium (video)

April 12, 2016. Inky the octopus has successfully escaped an aquarium and re-entered the ocean.

Task 1.
For full screen view click here. To check your answers click here.

Task 2.

Worksheet
Here is a worksheet based on a short BBC video about the escape of an octopus from a New Zealand aquarium. There is a vocabulary matching exercise as a pre-listening activity, a True/False comprehension exercise, a grammar exercise (students are given the transcript and are asked to put the verbs in brackets in the correct tense, active or passive) and finally there is a trivia quiz about octopuses. Answer key included.  

To download the worksheet click here.

Octopus Trivia Quizzes

The Ultimate Octopus Quiz - HowStuffWorks
Octopus Quiz - Fun Facts you Need to Know!
An Octopus is Amazing Quiz
The Giant Pacific Octopus Trivia Quiz - Fun Trivia Games 

Cliff Divers Jump 30 Metres from Victoria Falls! (video)

March 18, 2016. Two cliff divers have practised their skills near Victoria Falls as they leap 30 metres into the Zambezi River.

Task 1

For full screen view click here.


Task 2

Vocabulary

• Caution is care that you take in order to avoid danger or mistakes. e.g. You should use caution when operating the electric saw.
• When you cast/throw caution to the wind(s), you stop being careful and do something that you know has risks. e.g. After thinking about it for years, he finally threw/cast caution to the wind, quit his job, and started his own company.
• If you up something, you make it higher. e.g. The restaurant upped [=increased] its prices.
• When you tackle something difficult, you deal with it. e.g. We found new ways to tackle the problem.
• A boundary is something (such as a river, a fence, or an imaginary line) that shows where an area ends and another area begins. e.g. Those two trees mark the boundary of our property.

RELATED POST
Victoria Falls (multiple choice quiz)


WORKSHEET
Here is a worksheet based on the activities above.

To download the worksheet click here.

Sparrow defies nature and joins Japanese family

Feb 08, 2016. A sparrow has become the newest member of an elderly couple in Japan. Julie Noce reports. (Reuters)

For full screen view click here.

Task 2

Watch the video again and answer the following questions.

1. What is Yoshiko's job?
2. How did she meet Pee-chan?
3. How long has the sparrow been living with the elderly couple?
4. How does it spend its days?
5. Do Mr and Mrs Fujino have any little grandchildren?
6. How does Yoshiko feel about having the sparrow at home?
7. When are Japanese people allowed to capture sparrows as pets?

Britain hit by 100-mile band of snow

Here is a short video to help you revise some weather vocabulary.
Jan 17. A band of snow and ice brings freezing temperatures to Britain. Report by Conor Mcnally.

For full screen view click here.

The Pink Panther in "Shocking Pink" (listening cloze test)

Pink tries to have a quiet afternoon interrupted by a voiceover (a person you cannot see) persuading him to try various do-it-yourself tasks.

Vocabulary

• If you accomplish something, you succeed in doing or completing something. e.g. The ​students accomplished the ​task in less than ten ​minutes.
• When you are shiftless, you are lazy and not interested in anything. 
• Something that is leaky has a ​hole or ​crack in it that ​allows ​liquid or ​gas to get through. e.g. a leaky boat/pipe.
• A faucet (North American English) is a tap on a bath or sink.
• An adjustment is a small change that improves something or makes it work better. e.g. She made some slight adjustments to the recipe.
• When something, such as a pipe, is clogged, it has become blocked, so that nothing can get through. e.g. The sink was clogged by/with dirt and grease.
• A temblor is a (somewhat formal) North American English word for an earthquake. 
• A trunk is a large, strong box used for holding clothes or other things especially for traveling.
• A blunderbuss is an old-fashioned kind of gun with a wide opening at the end. 

Task

Watch the video and fill in the gaps in the extract. For full screen view, click here. 

Alice in Wonderland classic celebrates 150 years (video)

For 150 years, Alice in Wonderland has delighted and inspired generations of children and adults.

Task 1

Task 2 

Watch the video again and answer the questions.

1. What was Charles Dodgson's job at the time when he created Alice's story?
2. Who did he take on a cruise in 1862?
3. What is the pen name he used when he published his book?
4. When was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland published?
5. What is the title of its sequel?
6. When was it published?
7. What sort of things can you find in Alice's shop in Oxford?
8. Which characters didn't exist in the original manuscript?
9. How do some literary critics explain the timeless attraction of Alice's story?

Task 3

For full screen view click here.

Supermoon Lunar Eclipse

Keep your eyes on the skies during the full moon later this month -- because you could see something that hasn't happened for more than 30 years, and won't happen again for nearly 20 more. (Read more...)

Task 1

Watch the video and answer the questions below.

1. What event will you be able to see in the night sky on September 27th, 2015?
2. What is a supermoon?
3. What is a lunar eclipse?
4. How many times has a supermoon lunar eclipse happened since 1900?
5. When was the last time you could see this event?
6. When will you have the opportunity to see this event again in the future?

Task 2

 

This Day in History (Aug 06): Hiroshima Atomic Bomb (1945)

In August 1945, during the final stage of the Second World War, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The two bombings, which killed at least 129,000 people, remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history. (from Wikipedia)

Task 1

Watch the video about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and answer the following questions.

1. When was the first atomic bomb dropped?
2. What was the airplane that dropped the bomb called?
3. Where was the group of scientists who made the bomb based?
4. What happened inside the airplane when the bomb went off?
5. Who was President of the USA at that time?
6. What did the Hiroshima bombing teach mankind?

Task 2

Watch the video again and fill in the gaps in the transcript. 

If you wish to check your answers, you can watch the video on YouTube with the captions on (just click the CC button at the bottom of the video).

Task 3

Worksheet

Click on the image below to download the worksheet.

Related Resources

Hiroshima and Nagasaki - Japan surrenders (Scroll down the page to Downloadable PDF Text and Worksheets)
Hiroshima Peace Day 

Dead Poets Society (trailer)

Dead Poets Society is a 1989 American drama film written by Tom Schulman, directed by Peter Weir and starring Robin Williams. Set at the conservative and aristocratic Welton Academy in the northeast United States in 1959, it tells the story of an English teacher who inspires his students through his teaching of poetry. (from wikipedia)

Nepal: Miracle rescues of teenager and baby bring joy amid earthquake tragedy (video)

Before watching the video, read the comprehension questions and study the words in the vocabulary section below.

Comprehension Questions

1. Where was the teenager found?
2. How long had he been trapped in the ruins?
3. How many hours after the earthquake was the baby found?
4. What alerted the rescue teams to search for him?
5. How many people have been affected by the earthquake?
6. What dangers are the earthquake victims facing now?

Vocabulary 

• Rubble are broken pieces of stone, brick, etc., from walls or buildings that have fallen. e.g. Rescue workers managed to pull two injured people out of the rubble.
• When you assess something, you make a judgment about it. e.g. After the hurricane, officials assessed  the town's need for aid.
• When you alert someone, you give them important information about a possible problem, danger, etc., you warn them. e.g. Several neighbors alerted  the authorities/police when they noticed strangers acting suspiciously.
• A rural area is an area in the countryside. e.g. She lives in a rural  area.
• When you scramble for something, you try very hard to get it before someone else does. e.g. Both players scrambled  for the ball.

 

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The Book Thief trailer (cloze test)

Here is a cloze test based on the trailer for The Book Thief movie.

You can watch the video with English subtitles/captions here.

The Happy Prince summary (cloze test)

Here is a cloze test I made on LearningApps.org. The text is taken from wikipedia.
You might like to check the following related posts before doing the test.
The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde (video)
The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde (worksheet)