Unit 12

Vital functions III: reproduction

Audio scripts:
Unit 12, activity 3, page 73. Listen and complete the text.
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Reproduction enables survival of a species over time, as living organisms create new organisms
and transmit their characteristics to their offspring. Sometimes, genetic changes occur which,
after a long time, cause species to evolve into new species. There are two different types of
reproduction: sexual and asexual. In sexual reproduction, the product is a zygote with a
combination of genetic material from the male gamete, or sperm, and the female gamete, or
egg. In asexual reproduction, the parent produces offspring without the genetic contribution
of another individual. Therefore, there is no genetic variation in the offspring. This means that
the possibility that species evolve depends on mutation, or changes in genetic material, which
can occur randomly in asexual reproduction. Asexual reproduction is much more common in
unicellular organisms than in multicellular ones, and in the animal kingdom, its only observed
in some invertebrates.

Unit 12, activity 18, page 77. Listen and complete the text.
After being fertilised, the egg is transformed into a seed, which contains the embryo and
food reserves. It can have one or two leaves called cotyledons. In angiosperms, the ovary is
transformed into the fruit, which protects the seed, while gymnosperms store their seeds
inside woody pine cones. When theyre ripe, the fruit from pine cone releases its seeds to
germinate. A radicle emerges first, and then cotyledons, which carry out photosynthesis. Until
it is independent of nutrients from the seed, the plant is called a seedling.

algaida editores, S.A. Authorized photocopiable material.

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