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GENERAL ENGLISH · IELTS COURSE · INTERMEDIATE (B1-B2)

DODO
QrrkoD Scan to review worksheet

Expemo code:
1D9J-14NB-CDNM

1 Warm up
You are going to watch a short video about the dodo. Look at the picture at the top of the page and
then read the sentences and try to predict the correct option. Use the glossary to help you with the
words in italics.

1. Dodos were large birds which became extinct in modern times / thousands of years ago / because
of climate change.

2. There were originally no predators on the island where they lived, so adult dodos had no fear of
anything / could not fly / had too many babies.

3. Later, rats / cats / dogs ate their eggs.

4. Most pictures of dodos are inaccurate, and we only have one skeleton / a couple of body parts /
written descriptions to study today.

Watch the video to check your ideas.

Glossary:
extinct - not existing anymore because they have all died
predators - animals which hunt, kill and eat other animals
inaccurate - wrong in some way, incorrect or inexact

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Discuss these questions in pairs or small groups.

1. What do you think the expression in italics means? "No one uses Facebook anymore - it’s as dead
as a dodo!"

2. How do you feel about what happened to the dodo?

3. Do you think it’s possible to bring extinct species like the dodo back to life?

4. Do you think it’s a good idea to do this? Why/not?

2 Vocabulary

Read the sentences and choose the correct preposition from the box to complete each one - one item
is extra. Then explain the meanings of the underlined phrases.

about / in / of / out / to / with

1. All of the dinosaurs died millions of years ago.

2. One of my dreams is to visit Africa to see lions the wild.

3. People should stay at home if they’ve had contact someone who has Covid.

4. The destruction the Amazon rainforest is having an effect on our climate.

5. Your hard work will certainly lead great success.

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Complete the word table and underline the stressed syllables.

verb noun adjective

1
endanger - put something at -
risk
2
- extinct - not existing anymore
because they have all died

3
fail - to be unsuccessful

4
- inaccurate - wrong in some
way, incorrect or inexact

5
- predator - an animal which
hunts, kills and eats other
animals
6
release - let something go free -

7
support - agree with -
someone’s idea or plan

3 Writing - model answer

Read the instructions in the box for an agree/disagree essay, which is one of the three types of writing
task 2 on the IELTS exam.

Bringing extinct species back to life is an important conservation science priority.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own
knowledge and experience. Write at least 250 words.

In this type of essay, you can agree with the statement in the task, disagree with it or give some
views which support both sides of the argument. How would you answer the question and what
points would you make?

Read the model answer to see what position the writer is taking.

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Model answer

Many people have wondered what it would be like to see a real dodo or dinosaur walking
around in the wild or in a zoo. It is possible that scientists will soon have the technology to
help extinct species live again, but this is almost certainly not the most important use of our
time and money for several reasons.
First, it’s important to remember that there is more than one reason why a species might
have died out. Although some species such as the dodo became extinct as a result of careless
human activity, others died out because they weren’t able to survive in their environment,
perhaps due to climate change. Bringing recently extinct species back to life may have the
same result, so this effort would clearly be a waste of time and money.
Second, if we bring some extinct species back to life, we may not be able to control exactly
what happens. For instance, releasing predators back into the wild will result in the deaths
of other endangered animals and the destruction of their ecosystems. Finally, there is an
additional risk that contact with these creatures may lead to another terrible pandemic among
humans.
In conclusion, bringing extinct species back to life is not an important scientific priority
since it has a high chance of failure and may actually put other plants, animals and humans
in danger. For these reasons, we should not support these types of projects, but spend our
time and money on conserving the environment as it is now.

1. Did the writer make any of the same points that you did?

2. How many paragraphs does the writer use?

3. What is the topic of each paragraph?

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4 Language point - grammar

In academic writing, it’s very important to connect points in a clear and logical way so the reader can
understand your ideas. We use linking words to show the relationships between ideas within one
sentence or between two sentences. Look back at the model answer and use the words in bold to
complete the table, as in the example.

express this relationship connects ideas within one connects ideas between two
sentence sentences
1
cause and effect because, , -
2
,
3

4
contrast , -
5
,
6
,
7

8
example - ,
9

10
items in a list - ,
11
,
12
,
13
,
14

Add these items to the correct place in the table.

as / despite / even though / for example / next / then

Compare these two sentences.

• Although it rained, we enjoyed the picnic.

• Despite the rain, we enjoyed the picnic.

1. Which linking word is followed by a noun?

2. Which one is followed by a clause (subject + verb)?

Tip: In spite of is used in the same way as despite.

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5 Practice

Read the paragraph and then choose linking words from the table to complete the sentences. Sometimes
more than one answer is possible.

Of course, there are also a few reasons why bringing back an extinct species would be a
1
good idea. , we could re-introduce a species to its original environment after
2
removing the cause of its extinction. , dodos could return to Mauritius if the
3
rats were removed from the island, this might be difficult. This would be an
4
especially good idea for keystone species they have an important part to play
5
in maintaining ecosystems. , some extinct species are very famous, like the
6
dodo, their reintroduction would help raise interest in conservation around
7
the world. , bringing some species back to life would help us understand
more about extinction in general and might help us prevent future loss of animal and plant
8
life. these arguments, it’s very unlikely that scientists will be able to achieve
this goal.

Can you think of any more points in favour of bringing extinct animals back to life?

6 Plan your writing

Read the task and prepare to answer the question by completing the activities.

There are currently many endangered species at risk of extinction and it’s equally important to
save all of them.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own
knowledge and experience. Write at least 250 words.

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Complete the table with some notes about ideas that you might want to include in your writing. At
this point, it’s a good idea to think about both sides of the argument and then decide which position
you want to take: all endangered species are equally important to save, or only some species are
worth saving. You can also include reasons why you agree and why you disagree with the statement.

What position are you going to take: agree, disagree or a bit of both?

Write your essay. It is helpful to double space for your teacher to make corrections as they read.

7 Optional extension

Conservation and the environment may be the topics of discussion questions in Part 3 of the IELTS
speaking exam. Discuss these questions in pairs or small groups. Include reasons and examples in
your answers.

1. What can we learn from exploring the wild areas of the earth?
2. Who do you think is most responsible for protecting the environment - individuals or the government?
3. What are some of the environmental problems your country faces and how are people working
to conserve the environment?
4. How do you think zoos could be improved?
5. What are the advantages and disadvantages of tourism in conservation areas where endangered
species live?

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8 Appendix

Marking framework

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Transcripts

1. Warm up

Presenter: Extinction is not just something that happened in the ancient past. Some animals have
gone extinct in much more recent times. This is one of the rarest specimens in our
museum collections. It is a skeleton of a dodo bird. The dodo was one of the first animals
known to go extinct due to human actions in modern history.

Presenter: The dodo was a large bird, which lived on an island called Mauritius in the Indian Ocean.
After spending many generations living on the island with no predators, dodos became
flightless and developed a ground-living, ground-nesting lifestyle, with no need to fly to
escape predators.

Presenter: All was well until the 1600s, when humans began visiting the island as a stop on their
round the world sailing explorations. Ships carried rats to the island, and they began
to eat the dodo’s eggs. These flightless birds were easy to hunt and provided a good
source of fresh food for sailors after months at sea. With no way of escaping these new
predators, the dodo eventually became hunted to extinction in 1688.

Presenter: Very few specimens exist in museums around the world. We only know what they look
like from early drawings and paintings that were made in the 1600s, most of which are
now thought to be inaccurate. Only one taxidermy or stuffed specimen of the dodo
exists today at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and only the head and
one foot still survive. The dodo remains one of the most famous examples of extinction
caused by humans.

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Key

1. Warm up

10 mins.
Introduce the topic and look at the picture and the sentences to predict the correct option - the glossary will
provide some support. Then play the video (~2 minutes) for students to check their ideas. They may not understand
all the information, but the images will help, and they should be able to complete the task. Note that the speaker
has a slight Irish accent. For all these reasons, this is good training for the IELTS listening exam.

1. in modern times
2. could not fly
3. rats
4. a couple of body parts
Check answers and then pose the follow-up questions. Round off this stage by asking some students to share
their ideas.

1. This popular simile extends the idea of extinction to describe things which are no longer important or relevant.
2. Students’ own answers.
3. Students’ own answers.
4. Students’ own answers.

2. Vocabulary

10 mins.
Part 1
Explain the instructions and ask students to complete the first activity. Check answers and elicit some definitions
of the whole underlined phrases using the context of the sentence to help.

1. out 2. in 3. with 4. of 5. to
Explanation of terms:
die out = become extinct, so that no individuals are living anymore;
in the wild = in their natural environment without human help or control;
contact with = a situation where two people touch or are close to each other;
destruction of = damage or harm beyond repair;
lead to = result in; extra = about.
Part 2
Set the second exercise, including marking the stressed syllables. Students may be able to guess some of the items
or you may decide to let them use a dictionary. Check answers and drill pronunciation.

1. endangered 2. extinction 3. failure 4. inaccuracy

5. predatory 6. release 7. support

3. Writing - model answer

10 mins.

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Go over the task instructions in the box and the information about this type of writing task. Elicit three or more
ideas from the class about what points they would make in this essay - these could be in favour of or against the
statement. Then give students a couple of minutes to read the model answer and compare the ideas presented
with their own.
Pose the follow-up questions to the whole class.
1 - Student’s own answers.
2 - The writer completely disagrees with the statement.

1. Students’ own answers.

2. There are four paragraphs - this is the recommended structure for this type of essay. Make sure students
understand that a paragraph is a set of sentences which relate to one topic and that these appear as a block of
text, separate from other paragraphs.
3. Paragraph 1 is a short introduction, paragraph 2 gives one reason not to bring back extinct species, paragraph
3 contains two more related reasons and paragraph 4 is a short conclusion, signposted by the easy-to-remember
phrase In conclusion...

4. Language point - grammar

10 mins.
Go over the introduction and instructions and example. Students can work in pairs to complete the first part of
the task - they will not complete all the blank spaces. Then set the follow-up task - you could do this with the
whole class. Check answers.

1. so 2. since 3. as 4. but
5. although 6. despite 7. even though 8. for instance
9. for example 10. first 11. second 12. finally
13. next 14. then
Finally, go over the information about despite/in spite of. Further practice with this language point is offered in
the next stage if your students need it. Otherwise, go on to the following stage to plan a task 2 writing. Further
explanation and practice with linkers is offered in another lesson in this course plan.

1. despite - we could also say Despite the bad weather...

2. although subject (it) + verb (rained) ...

5. Practice

10 mins.
Students should read the whole paragraph before they start filling the gaps. They can work alone and check
answers in pairs before you check with the whole class. Elicit all possible answers where more than one is correct.
Pose the follow-up question for a short discussion.

1. First
2. For example/For instance
3. even though/although/but
4. because/as/since
5. Second/Next/Then
6. so
7. Finally
8. Despite/In spite of

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6. Plan your writing

10 mins.
Students now brainstorm some ideas to respond to a similar writing task. Work with the whole class to brainstorm
ideas to complete the table - on this occasion, it will be helpful to come up with a range of positive and negative
points before individuals select their position. They will finish the writing as homework. Double-spacing the text
allows the teacher to make corrections and comments more easily.
Note that a marking framework for this task appears in the Appendix. You may wish to go over this with your
students before they start writing or introduce it when you return their marked work. While most teachers mark
writing by correcting mistakes, a framework like this offers a useful way of giving feedback on individual exam
criteria. It is not uncommon for students to excel in one area while needing to improve in another, for example
one student may use a range of grammar and vocabulary accurately but fail to organise the text logically, while
another may organise the text clearly but use the wrong register/style completely. This framework makes it clear
what went well and what didn’t and offers a chance for the teacher to make positive remarks (for example, "Good
point in paragraph 3!" or "Effective short introduction!"). Students also need the benefit of the teacher’s expertise
to select one area for improvement. It can be helpful to ask students to rewrite and improve their essays after
feedback.

7. Optional extension

10 mins.
Students gain some experience with the longer discussion questions which appear on Part 3 of the IELTS speaking
exam. Go over the instructions and make sure students are aware of the need to include reasons and examples
in their answers. There is more in-depth coverage of this part of the exam in other units of this course plan.
Monitor and support as necessary and then offer feedback and correction, including pronunciation, as necessary,
and support students to express their ideas in longer answers.

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