7 Wonders of the Natural World

Unit 7 VOCABULARY 1 National Geographic explorers know it’s important to be prepared before ascending steep mountains or descending into underwater caves. You need safety gear like a headlamp to shine the way and rope for a safe return. Curiosity helps, too! Let’s read about some exciting discoveries and explorations. Matthew Berger, son of famous explorer Lee Berger, made an amazing discovery in South Africa by accident. Nine-year-old Matthew was running after his dog when he tripped over and located a two-million-year-old fossil of a boy. Mireya Mayor is an outdoor scientist who observes wildlife. To find gorillas, she crosses streams, climbs mountains, and crawls along tunnels. Her work is sometimes very dangerous. Once she was even chased by a gorilla! Mayor believes anyone with curiosity can be an explorer. Whenever Kenny Broad descends into a deep saltwater cave, he takes risks. Broad needs lights and most importantly a guideline, or rope, from the surface into the cave, which helps him find his way. 2 Listen and repeat. ascend Climbers use ropes to ascend mountains. descend It takes hours to descend into a deep cave. underwater The underwater plant life here is really beautiful. safety gear You must wear safety gear if you go into a cave. a headlamp Headlamps are a useful invention. shine Can you shine the fl ashlight on this rock? curiosity To be an explorer, you need curiosity. by accident I broke my leg by accident. trip over I tripped over a big stone in the road and fell. locate Can you locate the cave without a map? cross The explorer crossed the river. a stream We live next to a beautiful freshwater stream. a tunnel What is at the end of this tunnel? chase Bees sometimes chase you more if you scream. a risk Why do explorers take big risks? a rope This rope is not very strong.

SONG 1 Listen, read, and sing. Let’s Explore Let’s go exploring! Let’s explore! Let’s go inside a cave. Let’s explore! Be sure to be safe. Let’s explore! There’s so much to see. Don’t forget your safety gear and curiosity! We’re inside a cave. We’re ready to climb down. What should we use to keep us safe? A rope can be used to help us descend. A headlamp can be worn to help us light our way. Let’s explore! Let’s go inside a cave. Let’s explore! Be sure to be safe. Let’s explore! There’s so much to see. Don’t forget your safety gear and curiosity! We’re deep underwater, and we want to ascend. What should we use to help us stay safe? A rope can be used to help us ascend. Let’s follow it to find our way back where we began. When we’re underwater in a jungle or a cave, safety gear must be used to help us stay safe. Let’s explore! Let’s go inside a cave. Let’s explore! Be sure to be safe. Let’s explore! There’s so much to see. Don’t forget your safety gear and curiosity! Let’s explore!

GRAMMAR 1 Passive with modals Headlamps must be worn in dark caves. Dangerous places must not be entered alone. New species have to be studied in a science lab. They can’t be analyzed underwater.

VOCABULARY 2 1 Listen and repeat. a stalactite Stalactites are pointed and hang from the ceiling. a column Columns support buildings. a stalagmite I tripped over a stalagmite on the ground. a bat Bats help humans by eating mosquitoes. a painting I like your painting of a volcano. It’s beautiful. an ancestor The fossil that Berger discovered was our ancestor. 2 Listen and stick. Work with a partner. Quiet, guys! I’m recording this! Shhhh! We’re tired, so we are sitting down and resting. We are looking around the cave. Hundreds of stalactites and stalagmites can be seen, hanging from the ceiling and rising from the ground. They’re beautiful. Next to me, two have joined together to form a column. Above us, on the roof of the cave, bats can be heard. And in front of us is the most beautiful thing of all. It is a painting of a spotted horse. It’s hard to imagine that our ancestors painted it more than 10,000 years ago! GRAMMAR 2 Make + someone + adjective Caves make me scared. Exploring makes Mireya happy. Heights made her nervous.

READING 1 Listen and read. ANGEL FALLS Imagine searching for gold, but instead of finding it, you see one of the great wonders of the world. That’s what happened to Jimmie Angel. Jimmie loved to fly. A miner hired him to fly to Venezuela in search of gold. In 1933, during one of his flights, he saw an amazing waterfall. The waterfall became known to the world in 1937. That year, Jimmie’s expedition flew over the waterfall and then landed on a table-top mountain. A wheel sank into the mud and broke. The plane was stuck. Jimmie and his crew descended the mountain and then hiked through the jungle for 11 days. After this adventure, the falls were named in Jimmie’s honor: Angel Falls. Angel Falls is located in southeast Venezuela in Canaima National Park. It’s the tallest waterfall in the world. It’s 62 meters (about 200 ft.) taller than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and almost twice as tall as the Shanghai World Financial Center in China. A column of water falls almost 980 meters (3,200 ft.) from the top of the mountain to its base. Not all of the water reaches the base of the canyon. Some of it blows away into a fine mist. You can reach the falls by canoe or boat. When the boat ride ends, you have to cross streams and hike through the jungle to reach the falls. You can also reach them like Jimmie did, by plane. After visiting the falls, you can see Jimmie’s restored plane. It’s outside the airport at Ciudad Bolívar.