English Conversation Questions

Plants

Questions

1. What is your favorite plant? Why?
2. Do you like gardening? What kind of garden would you like to make?
3. Have you ever had any plants in your home?
4. What are some benefits of having plants in your home?
5. What kind of plants can be seen in your city?
6. Have you ever received a flower pot or other small plant as a present?
7. What kind of animals can exist where there are a lot of plants?
8. Are there any plants that people think bring bad luck in your culture?
9. What do plants and people have in common?
10. How do you think plants will change in the future?
11. What do you think of the saying: “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Videos

As benign as it may look up close, the tiny seaweed Caulerpa taxifolia can wreak quite a bit of havoc on coastal ecosystems. This super algae is very adaptable; it also grows fast and spreads easily. Eric Noel Muñoz gives the details of this plant’s incredible invasion, shedding light on the risks of introducing invasive species into new ecosystems.

Lesson by Eric Noel Muñoz, animation by Eli Enigenburg.[/show_more]
Category:  Nature & Environment
Keywords: Environment | Genetics | Oceans | Plants
Morning glories unfurl their petals like clockwork in the early morning. A closing white waterlily signals that it’s late afternoon. And moon flowers, as their name suggests, only bloom under the night sky. What gives plants this

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innate sense of time? Dasha Savage investigates how circadian rhythms act as an internal timekeeper for flora and fauna alike.

Lesson by Dasha Savage, animation by Avi Ofer.

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Category:  Nature & Environment
Keywords: Flowers | Plants | Time
BBC
Hungry Venus flytraps snap shut on a host of unfortunate flies. But, despite its name, flies aren’t the flytrap’s only meal. As long as its prey is roughly the right size and touches two of its hairs within twenty seconds, the

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plant will dine on any insect or spider that comes its way.

Glands in the lobes then secrete enzymes that break the dinner down into a digestible soup. Ten days later, the trap pops open to reveal nothing but a dried out husk.

David Attenborough looks at the extraordinary ends to which animals and plants go in order to survive. Featuring epic spectacles, amazing TV firsts and examples of new wildlife behaviour.

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Category:  Nature & Environment
Keywords: Danger | Insects | Plants
Tucked away in a corner of London’s Royal Botanic Gardens, there is a very peculiar plant. At first glance, it resembles a stumpy palm tree, but this ancient specimen is incredibly rare. It is, in fact,

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the very last of its kind on Earth. Encephalartos woodii is a cycad, a type of plant that once dominated the planet during the Jurassic Period. Over the millennia, the age of the cycad came to an end. And in the case of Encephalartos Woodii, we may have been left with only one—a single male specimen. This tree is the loneliest bachelor on Earth.

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Category:  Nature & Environment
Keywords: Friends | Plants | Trees

Vocabulary:
cove
secluded
float
shore
anchor
lighthouse
greenhouse
handsaw
hammer
power tool
nail
board (noun)
ton
land sick
biomass
canoe
paddle
real estate
prosper
fulfilled

Expressions:
subsistence living
hon

Vocabulary:
word
word
word
word
word
word
word
word
word

Expressions:
expression
expression
expression
expression

Vocabulary:
prestigious
involuntary
swindler
fraudulence
unwarranted
concern
unfounded
impostor
syndrome
faculty
pervasive
prevalent
disproportionately
underrepresented
downplay
abnormality
self-esteem
spiral
accolade
threshold
susceptible
voice (verb)
peer
dismiss
excel
ease
mentor
competence
banish
frank

Expressions:
nagging doubt
shake a feeling
put something to rest
surefire way

Vocabulary:
filmmaker
principle
handcuff
clown
distill
underdog
aspect
familiar
unfamiliar
chopsticks
keyboard
organic
grounded
clarity
stuntman
steady
gag
perfectionist
rhythm
distinct
continuity
elbow
bunch
flail around
unlike
invincible
impressive
humanize
asset
payoff
relentlessness
finale

Expressions:
kick ass
going above and beyond
get smacked in the face
sell a joke

Vocabulary:
explosion
smoke (noun)
engine
unique
pilot
route
unemotional
terror
instant
reach out (to someone)
postpone
urgency
purpose
regret
humanity
ego
reflect
eliminate
frame (verb)
artistic
talent
bawl
miracle

Expressions:
bucket list
brace for impact
mend fences
make sense
connecting dots