Cutting up food helped human evolution

The Reading / Listening - Level 4

Eating habits and food processing skills from two million years ago helped us to develop language. Researchers say that cutting up meat was a crucial step in our evolution. We needed less time for chewing, which gave us more time to develop language and communicate. Cutting up food saved early humans as many as 2.5 million chews per year. In contrast, chimpanzees spend half their day chewing. This means they have less time to communicate.

Researchers also say the shape of our face changed. Our jaws and teeth became smaller. A professor said: "We went from having…big teeth…to having smaller teeth." He said this, "allowed for the selection for speech and other shifts in the head, like bigger brains." The professor chewed raw meat to test his theory. He said: "You chew and you chew and you chew, and nothing happens." He said that slicing meat, "is the simplest technology of all".

Try the same news story at these levels:

Level 5 or Level 6

Sources

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/12189080/Table-manners-how-learning-to-cut-up-food-was-crucial-to-human-evolution.html
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-raw-meat-stone-tools-evolution-20160309-story.html
http://www.livescience.com/53994-paleo-diet-helped-humans-evolve-speech.html

Make sure you try all of the online activities for this reading and listening - There are dictations, multiple choice, drag and drop activities, crosswords, hangman, flash cards, matching activities and a whole lot more. Please enjoy :-)

The Activities

MATCHING

PARAGRAPH ONE:

1.	food	a.	and communicate
2.	cutting up	b.	their day chewing
3.	a crucial step in	c.	meat
4.	We needed less time	d.	processing
5.	develop language	e.	for chewing
6.	as many as 2.5 million	f.	communicate
7.	chimpanzees spend half	g.	our evolution
8.	less time to	h.	chews per year

MY e-BOOK

ESL resource book with copiable worksheets and handouts - 1,000 Ideas and Activities for Language Teachers / English teachers

See a sample

PARAGRAPH TWO:

1.	the shape of	a.	nothing happens
2.	Our jaws and	b.	for speech
3.	this allowed for the selection	c.	meat
4.	bigger	d.	our face
5.	The professor chewed raw meat to	e.	brains
6.	you chew and you chew, and	f.	of all
7.	slicing	g.	teeth became smaller
8.	the simplest technology	h.	test his theory

LISTEN AND FILL IN THE GAPS

Eating habits and food processing (1) ___________________ million years ago helped us to develop language. Researchers (2) ___________________ up meat was (3) ___________________ in our evolution. We needed less time for chewing, which gave (4) ___________________ develop language and communicate. Cutting up food saved early humans as many as 2.5 million (5) ___________________. In contrast, chimpanzees spend half their day chewing. This means they (6) ___________________ communicate.

Researchers also say (7) ___________________ face changed. Our jaws and teeth became smaller. A professor said: "We (8) _______________…big teeth…to having smaller teeth." He said this, "allowed for the selection for speech (9) ___________________ the head, like bigger brains." The professor chewed raw meat (10) ___________________. He said: "You chew and you chew and you chew, (11) ___________________." He said that slicing meat, "is the (12) ___________________ all".

HUMAN EVOLUTION SURVEY

Write five GOOD questions about human evolution 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.

	STUDENT 1 _____________	STUDENT 2 _____________	STUDENT 3 _____________
Q.1.
Q.2.
Q.3.
Q.4.
Q.5.

Now return to your original partner and share and talk about what you found out. Change partners often.

Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

WRITE QUESTIONS & ASK YOUR PARTNER(S)

Student A: Do not show these to your speaking partner(s).

a)	________________________________________________________
b)	________________________________________________________
c)	________________________________________________________
d)	________________________________________________________
e)	________________________________________________________
f)	________________________________________________________
g)	________________________________________________________
h)	________________________________________________________

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Student B: Do not show these to your speaking partner(s).

a)	________________________________________________________
b)	________________________________________________________
c)	________________________________________________________
d)	________________________________________________________
e)	________________________________________________________
f)	________________________________________________________
g)	________________________________________________________
h)	________________________________________________________

FREE WRITING

Write about human evolution for 10 minutes. Comment on your partner’s paper.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Answers

(Please check your answers against the article above.

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