You're in the way, Jack! Move, so we can all see the screen.
play_circle
pause_circle
She says she's attached some photos so that we can see what
happens to a reef when the coral dies.
play_circle
pause_circle
And she's got the name of an expert at Brisbane University. She's
going to interview him in order to find out more.
play_circle
pause_circle
Did you see that article about rainforests in the newspaper? It
says vast areas of forest are destroyed every day so that farmers
have land where they can grow crops.
play_circle
pause_circle
The rainforests are cleared to provide land for cattle, too.
play_circle
pause_circle
We should email Sofia in Brazil to ask her about this.
play_circle
pause_circle
The trees are cut down just so we can eat meat.
play_circle
pause_circle
You're going to become a vegetarian, are you, Jack? No more
burgers?
play_circle
pause_circle
Well,..
play_circle
pause_circle
Listen 5 times
play_circle
pause_circle
Conversation 2
It was nice of Carrie to send us these photos.
play_circle
pause_circle
Yes, she said she'd been looking for pictures of the Great Barrier
Reef, and she came across these.
play_circle
pause_circle
Those mountains are amazing.
play_circle
pause_circle
Carrie says they're called the Blue Mountains, and they're in New
South Wales. That's in the southeast, I think.
play_circle
pause_circle
They look really high and rocky.
play_circle
pause_circle
But there's lots of vegetation, bushes and trees and things.
play_circle
pause_circle
I wonder why they're called Blue Mountains.
play_circle
pause_circle
No idea. They don't look blue to me.
play_circle
pause_circle
The next picture is really weird. What's that?
play_circle
pause_circle
That's Uluṟu. It's a huge rock in the centre of Australia, in the
desert.
play_circle
pause_circle
Uluṟu! That's a strange name.
play_circle
pause_circle
Some people call it Ayres Rock, but Uluru is its Aboriginal name.
According to Carrie, it's a very important place for the
Aboriginal people. You can walk round it and there are caves at
the base and in the caves, there are paintings that are thousands
of years old.
play_circle
pause_circle
Wow! I'd really like to go there.
play_circle
pause_circle
This picture looks like a rainforest. I didn't know there were
rainforests in Australia.
play_circle
pause_circle
Carrie says the photo was taken in Queensland. That's the
northeastern part of Australia. She says the climate is really hot
and incredibly wet during some months of year.
play_circle
pause_circle
Right. So that's why they've got rain forests there.
play_circle
pause_circle
Carrie says this photo is taken in a National Park.
play_circle
pause_circle
A National Park! That's good. They're looking after the forest
then.
play_circle
pause_circle
What's the last picture?
play_circle
pause_circle
This is the Great Barrier Reef. It's on the northeast coast, isn't
it fantastic?
play_circle
pause_circle
And it's made of coral. That's amazing.
play_circle
pause_circle
Carrie went there to go scuba diving, didn't she?
play_circle
pause_circle
Lucky girl, I'd love to do that.
play_circle
pause_circle
Me too.
play_circle
pause_circle
Listen 5 times
play_circle
pause_circle
Reading
The White Giraffe
play_circle
pause_circle
Martine Allen's parents have died and she has travelled from
England to Africa to live with her grandmother who owns a wildlife
reserve.
play_circle
pause_circle
Tendai, a Zulu tracker who works for her grandmother, has told her
of a rare white giraffe believed to be in the reserve.
play_circle
pause_circle
He has found its tracks and he has followed them but he has never
been lucky enough to see the animal itself.
play_circle
pause_circle
One rainy night, Martine glimpses the giraffe from her bedroom
window.
play_circle
pause_circle
She decides to go into the reserve to find it.
play_circle
pause_circle
The air was perfume-sweet with the scent of fallen mangoes and
gardenia blossoms.
play_circle
pause_circle
Martine set off blindly through the dripping trees in the general
direction of the game park gate.
play_circle
pause_circle
The one useful thing she'd overheard during her investigations the
previous week had been Tendai telling her grandmother the new code
for the padlock.
play_circle
pause_circle
She'd made a point of committing the numbers to memory.
play_circle
pause_circle
When her hands touched the cold metal gate, she felt for the heavy
chain that bound it and the lock that secured it.
play_circle
pause_circle
Only then did she switch on her torch and enter the numbers on the
wet dial.
play_circle
pause_circle
The padlock clicked open! Martine stared down at it, unable to
believe that it had been so easy.
play_circle
pause_circle
She realised that she'd been secretly hoping all along that
something would happen to prevent her from going into the game
reserve.
play_circle
pause_circle
She glanced over her shoulder. Once more, the house stood in
darkness.
play_circle
pause_circle
Whatever happened now, there was no turning back.
play_circle
pause_circle
Martine stepped through the gate and stifled a cry of terror.
play_circle
pause_circle
Two red eyes glared at her.
play_circle
pause_circle
The bushes shook violently and a waterbuck sprang up so close to
Martine that its fur actually brushed her.
play_circle
pause_circle
With a shake of its horns, it bounded away into the blackness.
play_circle
pause_circle
Martine's heart smacked wildly against her ribcage.
play_circle
pause_circle
She tried to imagine what Tendai would do in a similar situation.
play_circle
pause_circle
Not that he was likely to be in a similar situation, but if he
were she was sure that everything would be about staying calm and
thinking clearly.
play_circle
pause_circle
"Focus," she thought. "I have to focus. I can do this."
play_circle
pause_circle
More than anything in the world she wanted to find the white
giraffe.
play_circle
pause_circle
Why, she wasn't sure; she just knew she had to do it....
play_circle
pause_circle
The beam from the torch picked out the path that led down to the
waterhole, where the frogs were competing in a noisy chorus.
play_circle
pause_circle
Blue lightning shuddered over the mountains on the far horizon.
play_circle
pause_circle
Martine set off as quickly as she dared, trying to avoid the
puddles
play_circle
pause_circle
Even so, her jeans were soon soaked through.
play_circle
pause_circle
In places the grass was taller than she was and cold droplets
drenched her hair and ran down her neck.
play_circle
pause_circle
As she walked, unseen creatures slithered and scurried and hopped
away through the undergrowth.
play_circle
pause_circle
Martine tried not to imagine the worst.
play_circle
pause_circle
She wasn't sure which she was most scared of, snakes and
creepy-crawlies or man-eating carnivores, but she fervently hoped
that she didn't meet any of them.
play_circle
pause_circle
After what seemed an age, the temperature dropped and she saw
she'd reached the water's edge.
play_circle
pause_circle
She tried to pinpoint the exact spot where she had seen the
giraffe.
play_circle
pause_circle
She was pretty sure it had been beside the old gum tree that
stood, like a startled skeleton, on the left bank of the
waterhole.
play_circle
pause_circle
As if sensing danger, the frogs fell silent. Tendrils of mist
hovered over the water and the night air was laden with threat.
play_circle
pause_circle
Martine quelled the butterflies in her stomach. She'd come too far
to go back now.
play_circle
pause_circle
She lifted her torch and shone it into the surrounding bush.
play_circle
pause_circle
Nothing moved. Not a mouse, not a lion, not even a bird.
play_circle
pause_circle
Disappointment hit her like a blow.
play_circle
pause_circle
What had she been thinking? A mythical giraffe!
play_circle
pause_circle
She'd risked her life in pursuit of a fairy tale and now she had
to try to get home in one piece.
play_circle
pause_circle
Sheer instinct warned Martine something was behind her.
play_circle
pause_circle
The same sixth sense told her to turn around very, very slowly.
play_circle
pause_circle
A Cape cobra was coiled in the mud barely six feet away from her,
hood spread wide, swaying in the yellow torch light.
play_circle
pause_circle
Martine recognised it immediately as one of the most poisonous
snakes in Africa, more deadly even than the mamba.
play_circle
pause_circle
Its golden colouring was unmistakable. So was the band around its
throat.
play_circle
pause_circle
The cobra's lips parted and its black tongue flickered out evilly.
play_circle
pause_circle
Martine dropped her torch in panic. It rolled behind a boulder and
dimmed to a faint glow.
play_circle
pause_circle
Then it went out.
play_circle
pause_circle
In the split second before she was plunged into darkness, Martine
saw the cobra draw back its head to strike.
play_circle
pause_circle
Helplessly, she waited for its lethal bite.
play_circle
pause_circle
It never came. Instead, a pale blur exploded from the trees.
play_circle
pause_circle
There was a hideous hissing sound and the flash of flying hooves.
play_circle
pause_circle
The last thing Martine saw before she crumpled to the ground was
the white giraffe.
