The Reading / Listening - Hero Mother - Level 4

A woman has been called a hero after fighting a mountain lion that attacked her five-year-old son. She dragged her little boy away from the big cat and beat it with her fists in her garden. The boy had bites and cuts to his head and body. He is now in a stable condition in a local hospital. He is expected to make a full recovery. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife said the mother was a "true hero" for saving her son's life.

The mountain lion was less than a year old. It was probably practising its hunting skills. Officials shot the lion and stated: "Wildlife forensics scientists analyzed samples from underneath the claws of the suspect lion carcass and isolated traces of human tissue and blood with a DNA profile that matched the [boy]." A different mountain lion was found. It was shot with a non-lethal tranquilizer and then released.

Try the same news story at these levels:

    Hero Mother - Level 5 or  Hero Mother - Level 6

Sources
  • https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/08/29/california-mom-fights-mountain-lion-attacked-5-year-old-son/5643763001/
  • https://www.foxnews.com/great-outdoors/california-mom-mountain-lion-attack-bare-hands
  • https://news.yahoo.com/california-mother-fought-mountain-lion-103022874.html


Make sure you try all of the online activities for this reading and listening - There are dictations, multiple choice activities, drag and drop activities, sentence jumbles, which word activities, text reconstructions, spelling, gap fills and a whole lot more. Please enjoy :-)

Phrase Matching

Paragraph 1

  1. A woman has been called
  2. fighting a
  3. She dragged her little boy
  4. beat it with
  5. The boy had bites and cuts
  6. now in a stable
  7. in a local
  8. He is expected to make a full
  1. condition
  2. her fists
  3. hospital
  4. away
  5. a hero
  6. to his head
  7. recovery
  8. mountain lion

Paragraph 2

  1. practising its hunting
  2. Officials shot
  3. forensics
  4. samples from underneath
  5. traces of human tissue
  6. a DNA
  7. A different mountain lion was
  8. shot with a non-lethal
  1. and blood
  2. scientists
  3. tranquilizer
  4. the lion
  5. found
  6. the claws
  7. skills
  8. profile

Listening — Listen and fill in the gaps

A woman (1) ___________________ a hero after fighting a mountain lion (2) ___________________ five-year-old son. She dragged her little boy away from the big cat and beat it (3) ___________________ in her garden. The boy had (4) ___________________ to his head and body. He is now in a stable condition in (5) ___________________. He is expected to make (6) ___________________. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife said the mother was a "true hero" for saving her son's life.

The mountain lion (7) ___________________ a year old. It was probably practising its hunting skills. Officials (8) ___________________ and stated: "Wildlife (9) ___________________ samples from underneath the claws of (10) ___________________ carcass and isolated traces of human tissue and blood with (11) ___________________ that matched the [boy]." A different mountain lion was found. It was shot with a non-lethal tranquilizer (12) ___________________.

Put a slash (/) where the spaces are

Awomanhasbeencalledaheroafterfightingamountainlionthatattacke
dherfive-year-oldson.Shedraggedherlittleboyawayfromthebigcata
ndbeatitwithherfistsinhergarden.Theboyhadbitesandcutstohishead
andbody.Heisnowinastableconditioninalocalhospital.Heisexpectedt
omakeafullrecovery.TheCaliforniaDepartmentofFishandWildlifesaid
themotherwasa"truehero"forsavingherson'slife.Themountainlionw
aslessthanayearold.Itwasprobablypractisingitshuntingskills.Official
sshotthelionandstated:"Wildlifeforensicsscientistsanalyzedsamples
fromunderneaththeclawsofthesuspectlioncarcassandisolatedtraces
ofhumantissueandbloodwithaDNAprofilethatmatchedthe[boy]."Adi
fferentmountainlionwasfound.Itwasshotwithanon-lethaltranquili
zerandthenreleased.

Student survey

Write five GOOD questions about this topic 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.

(Please look at page 12 of the PDF to see a photocopiable example of this activity.)

Discussion — Write your own questions

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

(a) ________________

(b) ________________

(c) ________________

(d) ________________

(e) ________________

(f) ________________

(g) ________________

(h) ________________

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

(i) ________________

(j) ________________

(k) ________________

(l) ________________

(m) ________________

(n) ________________

(o) ________________

(p) ________________

Free writing

Write about this topic for 10 minutes. Comment on your partner’s paper.

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Answers

(Please check your answers against the article above.

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