Vocab – Discovery Networks – Avatar: Science behind Pandora

A. Previewing
B. Comprehension
C. Vocabulary in context
D. Using Vocabulary
E. Quantifier
Rate this Exercise

A. Previewing

picture 1

picture 2

picture 3

picture 4

Before watching a video which talks about the Pandora in the science fiction movie Avatar, familiarize yourself with the following entries

Pandora – the name of a planet in Avatar (see picture 1).
anatomy – the science concerned with the physical structure of animals and plants.
hornbill – a kind of bird found in tropical and subtropical Africa and Asia (see picture 2).
nudibranches – a group of soft-bodied, shell-less,marine animals which are beautifully coloured (see picture 3).
gestural broad strokes – ‘broad strokes’ means ‘broad brush strokes’, it is the way in which something, especially paint, is put on to a surface with a brush. In the video, it is used figuratively to describe the gesture of the horse-like creature in Avatar.
nectar – a sugary fluid produced in plants.
herbivore – animal that feeds on grass and other plants.
stegosaurus – a kind of dinosaur (see picture 4).
botanists from UC riverside – people who study plant biology in the University of California, Riverside.
Planet Earth – a television documentary nature series co-produced by the BBC and the Discovery Channel. The Discovery Channel version of the series is narrated by Sigourney Weaver.
flesh out – make clear and precise

C. Vocabulary in context

You can improve your memory of a word by associating it with its synonyms. A synonym is a word that has the same, or nearly the same meaning as another word. In the exercise below, three synonyms are provided for each bolded word in the following sentences taken from the talk. Watch the video again and observe how these words are used in a larger context. Select the synonym that best fits that context. Consult a dictionary when necessary.

We were going back to the nature the whole time, and using nature’s resourcefulness and our imagination to fuel what we were doing, which is why the creatures feel real.

❶encourage ❷provoke ❸deliver
That is not really a horse, that’s an alien animal that resembles a horse and its gestural broad strokes.

❶mirrors ❷echoes ❸matches
It’s a nectar feeding six-legged herbivore, that’s vaguely horse-like, but happens to be about the size of a stegosaurus.

❶somewhat ❷absurdly ❸invisibly
You know what I say about Jim is that he does science fiction; he has to do science fact for himself. I mean yes it’s a fantasy world, but there has to be a foundation of reality.

❶imaginative ❷phantasy ❸illusive
I mean yes it’s a fantasy world, but there has to be a foundation of reality.

❶bottom ❷infrastructure ❸ground
You know, all the designers we worked with, they did not come up with things that did not make, you know, physical sense. They have real foundation to why things, you know, work.

❶prepare ❷propose ❸invent

D. Using Vocabulary

Complete the following sentences using the words/ phrases in the box. Use the correct grammatical form of the words.

resemble
vaguely
foundation
fair
come up with
fantasy
fuel

I vaguely remember talking to her once, but I cannot remember when.
That rumor has no foundation at all. I would not believe it.
He came up with good ideas for the product promotion.
The young always live in a world of fantasy and ignore the reality.
My uncle lives a fair distance away so we don't see him and his family very often.
After the earthquake, the city resembled a battlefield.
The prime minister’s speech fuelled speculation that she is about to resign.

E. Quantifier

Quantifiers are words that give information about the number of something: how much or how many. For example, in the video, a bunch of is used to show that the document was created by a group of specialists:

“That was fed into by astrophysicists […] botanists, and a bunch of other ‘-ists’ that created this document.”

Some common quantifiers are:

all of the = every bit of, all
some = not all, a little bit
a lot of = a large number of
a bunch of = many, a lot, a group of

Some quantifiers can only be used with countable nouns (i.e. nouns that can be counted and exist in both plural and singular forms, e.g. car/cars, boy/boys, woman/women). Such quantifiers include:

many = a lot, a high number of
a few = not many, a low number of
few = a low number of and not enough
quite a few = many, a large number of
a number of = a collection of, several

Some quantifiers can only be used with uncountable nouns (i.e. nouns that cannot be counted and exist only in singular form, e.g. air, water, juice, blood, traffic etc.), below are some examples:

a little = a small amount of
little = a small amount of and not enough
a bit of = a small amount, a little
a good deal of = plenty, a medium number of

Complete the following sentences by selecting the appropriate quantifiers/ nouns which fit the sentence contexts. Consult a dictionary when you are not sure whether some nouns are countable or not.

My husband surprised me with a of flowers.
Although I only have friends, they are all very good to me and I am contented with that.
I know people in the area, I need to get to know more of them.
She's got money, you can actually describe her as rich.
I know Mandarin, at least enough to get around Beijing.
There is water left, may I have some more?
We've visited London for a number of .
Can you pass me salt please? This food is tasteless!
The hospital receives money in donations.

Transcription

Transcription- Discovery Networks – Avatar: Science behind Pandora

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onLajIT5k6c

Narrator:	In James Cameron’s new film Avatar, the distant planet Pandora teams with alien animals, strange new plants and human-like beings. The director recently talked to us about how much of a role real world science played in designing Pandora.
James:	Our creature design team, you know, the tables would be covered by books of animal biology, animal anatomy, and photo books with the textures of, you know, everything from the back of the tortoise to part of the interaction between the beak and the skin of a hornbill to poison dark frogs, tropical fish, nudibranchs... So we were going back to the nature the whole time, and using nature’s resourcefulness and our imagination to fuel what we were doing, which is why the creatures feel real. And in parallel with that, the animator were working out how do they move, how do their muscle system move, how does a six-legged dog move, how does a six-legged horse run. Of course that is not really a horse, that’s an alien animal that resembles a horse and its gestural broad strokes. You know, but it’s a nectar feeding six-legged herbivore, that’s vaguely horse-like, but happens to be about the size of a stegosaurus.
Jon:	You know what I say about James is that he does science fiction; he has to do science fact for himself. I mean yes it’s a fantasy world, but there has to be a foundation of reality. So we did a fair amount of research, we researched the plants; we worked with the botanists from UC riverside. You know, all the designers we worked with, they did not come up with things that did not make, you know, physical sense. They have real foundation to why things, you know, work. We’ve also done an eye cap referring to the, just conceptually as, just the Discovery-Channel-type of special, where we put together a four-and-a half-minute piece that Sigourney Weaver has narrated, that is like, you know, “Pandora, 5.1 light years from Earth…” It’s just a narrated Planet Earth, so this is like her doing, you know, “Planet Pandora” now. “A world of wonder and mystery, incredible danger and strange beauty…”
James:	We have a 380-page document called the “Pandorapedia”. That was fed into by astrophysicists, Ethnomusicologists, anthropologists, botanists, and a bunch of other “-ists” that created this document. It’s fully fleshed out and extremely detailed.
Narrator:	For Discovery News, I’m Jorge Ribas