The Reading / Listening - World's Fastest Ant - Level 0

The Saharan silver ant is the world's fastest ant. It runs at 3kph. This is the ant speed of us running 580kph. The ant runs 108 times its body length every second. It makes up to 50 strides a second. An Olympic runner makes four strides a second. The ants' feet touch the ground for just seven milliseconds between strides.

The silver ant runs fast because the sand can be 60 degrees Celsius. It doesn't want to spend time on the sand. They will sink a little and slow down if they spend too long on the sand. Their speed stops their feet sinking into the soft sand. Nobody knew how fast the ants really are, and how they can run so fast.

Try the same news story at these levels:

    World's Fastest Ant - Level 1,  World's Fastest Ant - Level 2   or  World's Fastest Ant - Level 3

Sources
  • https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7580045/Worlds-fastest-ant-hits-record-breaking-speed-TWO-miles-hour.html
  • https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/17/world/record-breaking-ants-scli-intl-scn/index.html
  • https://www.foxnews.com/science/worlds-fastest-ant-360-mph


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 :-)

Phrase Matching

Paragraph 1

  1. The Saharan silver
  2. It runs at
  3. the ant speed of us
  4. body
  5. An Olympic
  6. four strides a
  7. touch the
  8. just seven milliseconds
  1. length
  2. ground
  3. runner
  4. between strides
  5. second
  6. running 580kph
  7. ant
  8. 3kph

Paragraph 2

  1. The silver ant
  2. the sand can be 60
  3. It doesn't want to spend
  4. sink a little and
  5. they spend too long
  6. sinking into the
  7. Nobody knew how
  8. how they can run
  1. fast
  2. time
  3. so fast
  4. on the sand
  5. degrees Celsius
  6. slow down
  7. soft sand
  8. runs fast

Listening — Listen and fill in the gaps

The Saharan silver ant (1) ___________________ fastest ant. It runs at 3kph. This is the ant (2) ___________________ running 580kph. The ant runs 108 times (3) ___________________ every second. It makes (4) ___________________ strides a second. An Olympic runner makes four (5) ___________________. The ants' feet touch the (6) ___________________ seven milliseconds between strides.

The silver ant runs fast because (7) ___________________ be 60 degrees Celsius. It doesn't (8) ___________________ time on the sand. They will sink a little (9) ___________________ if they spend too long on the sand. Their speed (10) ___________________ sinking (11) ___________________ sand. Nobody knew how fast the ants really are, and how they can (12) ___________________.

Put a slash (/) where the spaces are

TheSaharansilverantistheworld'sfastestant.Itrunsat3kph.Thisisthe
antspeedofusrunning580kph.Theantruns108timesitsbodylengthev
erysecond.Itmakesupto50stridesasecond.AnOlympicrunnermakesf
ourstridesasecond.Theants'feettouchthegroundforjustsevenmillise
condsbetweenstrides.Thesilverantrunsfastbecausethesandcanbe6
0degreesCelsius.Itdoesn'twanttospendtimeonthesand.Theywillsink
alittleandslowdowniftheyspendtoolongonthesand.Theirspeedstopst
heirfeetsinkingintothesoftsand.Nobodyknewhowfasttheantsreallya
re,andhowtheycanrunsofast.

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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