Author: Ela VALIMAREANU
UNIT 2: GEOGRAPHY
On the Bayou
Preparing to read: If you had been given the opportunity to make a
great discovery what would it have been? What would there have
been the price you had accepted to pay to fulfil your dream?
New Vocabulary
slough, bayou
tilt, quiver, swoop, flare
Specialised Vocabulary
downstream
swamp, strokes
drift down
Word Families
fly (verb), fly (noun)
flight, flying
flown
Phrasal verbs
fill in
pull ahead
look for
Expressions
in unison
in an instant
within easy sight
after a brief pause
make a turn
stall in flight
Nine days after Gene filled me in on his sighting, Tim and I were in a
canoe in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge in east-central
Arkansas, on Bayou DeView, following Gene through a narrow strip of
swamp that spanned only half a mile in its widest spots, where he had
spotted his mystery bird. On our second day in the bayou, February 27,
we began to see some very large cypress trees. We spent the morning
drifting down the bayou, looking for signs of feeding by ivory-bills
themselves. By noon I was ready for lunch; portly people like me prefer
our meals on time. With a few powerful strokes, Gene pulled ahead to
find dry land for a lunch break. As Tim and I drifted slowly
downstream, we scrutinized every bird we saw. At the end of a large
lake, we re-entered the main slough and made a turn to the southwest.
About 200 feet down the slough, at about 1:15 P.M., I saw a black bird,
larger than a crow, perhaps twenty inches long. Appearing about forty
degrees off the starboard bow, it was in powered flight, moving toward
us through the trees. With my peripheral vision I detected that Tim was
looking at the same bird, so initially I said nothing. It was flying like a
duck –fast, with shallow, rapid wing beats. In fact, it reminded me of a
pintail duck in the way its primaries, the ten outermost feather of the
wing, seemed to do all the flying. The inner portion of the wing hardly
moved at all, yet the primaries seemed to quiver, making the wing look
stiff and inflexible. I am an experience birder, yet I had never seen such a
bird before. As the bird flew through the trees at the bayou’s edge, it
tilted its body from right to left about eighty degrees, with its back
toward us. The light was at an angle that perfectly illuminated the bird’s
back, revealing the wing pattern diagnostic of an ivory-billed
woodpecker: The bird was the blackest black I had ever seen. […] As the
bird turned to reveal its back, Tim and I both shouted, in unison: “Ivorybill!” Both of us were in a state of shock. We jerked backward, and I
began trembling; we almost fell out of the canoe from our reaction.
Meantime, the bird swooped up ward and flared its wings and tail as if it
was going to land on a nearby tree. When Tim and I yelled “ivory-bill”,
the bird almost stalled in flight. In an instant it recovered, flying farther
into the tree line on the east side of the bayou. It landed on a tree, still
within easy sight. After a brief pause, it stopped momentarily on another
tree. I whispered to Tim, “Keep watching it; I’m getting the camera.”
(Bobby R. Harrison, “Phantom of the Bayou”, in Natural History, September,
2005, p. 18-21.)
Section I
VOCABULARY ACTIVITIES
I. WORD FAMILY. Make sense of the following paragraph by filling in the
gaps with words from the FLY word family: flying, flight, fly. There can
be more occurrences of the same word. Make your choice and say
whether it is a verb, a noun or other morphological category (different
parts of speech).
The bird was in powered ………….., moving toward us through the trees. It
was ………….. like a duck –fast, with shallow, rapid wing beats. The ten
outermost feather of the wing seemed to do all the ……………. As the bird ………….. through the
trees at the bayou’s edge, it tilted its body from right to left. The bird almost stalled in……………... In
an instant, it recovered …………… farther into the tree line on the east side of the bayou.
II. WORD BUILDING. Put the words in brackets into the correct form making all the necessary
changes: (See G: A, B)
As Tim watched, the bird (LAND) on yet another tree, again for only a second. Then it was gone.
(QUICKNESS) we hauled the canoe ashore and began to follow on foot, but the muck and mire made
a chase on land (POSSIBILITY). Two hundred feet into the (DEFORESTATION), our bird had
vanished. But Tim and I were still in (SHOCKING). Tears were streaming down my face, and I was
(WEAKNESS) in the knees. Tim likewise moved (NERVOUS), his skin as (WHITENESS) as if the
(BLOODY) had been drained from his body.
(Source: Bobby R. Harrison, “Phantom of the Bayou”, in Natural History, September 2005, p. 18-21.)
III. GUESSING MEANING / USING CONTEXTUAL CLUES. Select the best definitions for the words
(phrasal verbs and expressions) marked in bold in the given sentences. ((See G: XVIII)
A. Phrasal verbs
1. They filled her in on their marvellous drifting in the Canyon and made her feel like doing the same.
a. to write the necessary information on an official document, to fill in a form/questionnaire
b. to give someone extra or missing information
2. With a few powerful strokes, he pulled ahead his boat.
a. to move in front of sth/sb
b. to start moving
3. She has been looking for that geographical article since she got up.
a. to take care of sth/sb
b. to search for
B. Expressions
1. The two birders answered in unison all the questions they were asked, it was funny.
a. at the same time
b. at all times
2. Noticing her colleague, her mood changed in an instant; they were together climbing that cliff.
a. Instant food or drink is dried, in powder
b. a moment , an extremely short period of time
3. The ocean was within easy sight and they could hear its roaring.
a. to be very near
b. to happen soon
Section II
LANGUAGE FOCUS
I. SEQUENCE OF TENSES and DIRECT/INDIRECT SPEECH. Read the
following paragraph paying attention to the time references then write it
down into a Reported Speech using verbs of report and making any
necessary changes: (See G: IX)
We spent the morning drifting down the bayou and looking for the place
where he had spotted his mystery bird. Then he pulled ahead to find dry land
for a lunch break. After lunch we re-entered the main slough and made a turn
to the southwest. I eventually saw a black bird, larger than a crow, perhaps twenty inches long. I am an
experience birder, yet I had never seen such a bird before. We jerked backward, and I began
trembling. I whispered to Tim, “Keep watching it; I’m getting the camera.”
The author said that they had spent the morning drifting down the bayou, looking for the
...…………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…
II. INFORMAL / FORMAL USE - phrasal verbs/ single word verbs. Read the following text and
replace the single word verbs in formal English with phrasal verbs making an informal
presentation: ask for, come back, come up, work out, get to, to lay on, go in, go up, let in, set off,
show round, take off, put on. Make any necessary changes and write the forms of the chosen
phrasal verbs in the grid under the text. (See G: XVIII)
The coach will depart at 7 o’clock in the morning. Leaving the town it will ascend some steep
countryside roads and green hills to reach the Monasteries in Bucovina at 12.30. A local guide, a
monk, will make us see the places and will answer any questions that might arise. We will not be
admitted in the monasteries unless we are wearing suitable decent clothing, and will be expected to
remove our sunglasses before entering the yard. We will return via Prahova Valley, where
accommodation will be offered and a meal will be provided for those who have requested it. There
will be a tour guide accompanying us to resolve our problems and make us feel comfortable.
1…………………... 2………………………. 3………………………. 4…………………………..
5………………… ... 6………………………. 7………………………... 8………………………….
9…………………… 10………………………. 11………………………. 12……………………….
13……………………
III. UNDERSTANDING INFORMAL TEXTS. Now listen to the informal text and check your
answers. Then write down the text after having heard it twice.
Section III
TEXT STRUCTURE
I. TIME CONNECTORS. Organise your written text using the following
time connectors as in the reading text: nine days after, on our second
day, we spent the morning, by noon, at about 1:15 p.m., and other
adverbial modifiers of time you can choose from the list below. Find a
suitable context for them and make up a story. (See G: XIII.3.1)
just /shortly after
about midnight
two hours and a half or so
at dawn/at dusk
at midday/at midnight
at noon/at night
at sunrise/at sunset/
at daybreak/at nightfall
in the evening/in the afternoon
during the night
by eight
by the end
meantime
for quite a time/for a while
the following day
all day long
through the night and the
next day
on that day
II. DEFINING. Match the words in the Specialised Vocabulary with their most appropriate
definition conveyed by your text. You have a model in the table: (See G: C1)
1. slough
2. bayou
3. drift down
4. flare
5. tilt
6. quiver
7. swoop
8. downstream
9. strokes
10. swamp
a. shake slightly
b. move up and down into a sloping position
c. in the same direction a river or stream is flowing
d. very wet soft land
e. quick forceful movements
f. move as a result of outside forces, with no control over direction
g. an area of soft, wet land
h. make, become wider
i. an area of slowly moving water away from the main river
j. move very quickly and easily through the air
III. EMPHASISING AND FRONTING. There are many ways of making an emphasis in English.
Read the following examples and make up some of your own in turn. (See G: XVI.2)
1. You’ve gone on that trip a few times, they say.
2. He did join us in the end.
3. Nasty, I would call it, said the birder thinking of his failure to find the mystery bird.
4. Travel I like enormously.
5. Large it was, added the botanist thinking of that cypress tree.
6. Start working on that project she can.
7. In the very middle of the forest there was a narrow strip of swamp.
8. Hardly did he believe what he saw.
9. Never could he have believed such a thing.
10. Only then did he realise what had really happened.