Reading
Floating ducks
Floating ducks
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1 Read the text quickly and tick the words that are mentioned.
Fairtrade survey
Fairtrade survey
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turtles fish beavers ducks dolphins frogs rivers
lakes oceans sailing boat canoe ship
Street scenes
Street scenes
Have you ever been to a duck race? It sounds strange, but racing ducks in rivers is a popular
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way to raise money for charity. The ducks aren t real  they are toy ducks, made of plastic. The
first duck race in the USA took place in 1988. In the same year,
there was a duck race in Stockbridge in Scotland. Now there are
duck races all around the world. People pay money to  adopt a
Snow and ice
Snow and ice
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plastic duck. Then thousands of ducks are put into the river. The
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winning duck is the first one to arrive at the finishing line. The
person who adopted the winning duck wins a prize. There is a
duck race in Singapore every year. In 2002, they raced 123 500
ducks. That was a world record. In 2007, the Great British Duck
Moving pictures
Moving pictures
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Race in London broke the record when they raced 165 000 ducks!
And here is another story about plastic ducks. In 1992, some boxes of toys fell off a ship into
the Pacific Ocean. The boxes broke open, and the toys floated
away. There were about 29 000 toys in total. Most of them were
African drumming
African drumming
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ducks, but there were some frogs, turtles and beavers too. Some
of the toys floated south, towards Australia and South America,
but most of them floated north. Some of the toys were found in
Alaska and Canada. Eight years later, in 2000, some ducks were
found in Iceland. Why did they take so long to get to Iceland?
The platypus
The platypus
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Scientists think they got stuck in the ice! In 2003, some of the toys
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floated to Europe, and some floated to the east coast of the USA.
Many of the toys have visited three oceans: the Pacific, the Arctic
and the Atlantic! Scientists are very interested in the toys. They want to know when and where
people find the ducks, because they can get a lot of information about how the oceans move.
Earth facts
Earth facts
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2 Find these words in the text. Write.
1 a competition, where the fastest person/animal/vehicle is the winner = r __ __ __
2 an organization that helps people = c __ __ __ __ __ __
A design project
A design project
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3 stay on or near the surface of a liquid (verb) = f __ __ __ __
4 part of a country that is next to a sea or ocean = c __ __ __ __
Term 1 Guess what it is?
Term 1 Guess what it is?
3 Read the text again and write T (true) or F (false).
1 Duck races started in 2002.
Term 2 Tall stories
2 In 2007, there were 165 000 ducks in the Great British Duck Race.
Term 2 Tall stories
3 In 1992, lots of plastic toys fell into the Atlantic Ocean.
4 In 2000, all the ducks arrived in Iceland.
Term 3 Problem pages
Term 3 Problem pages
Floating ducks
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