Module 2

Hobbies and interests

Elementary – pre-intermediate unit 1 keeping pets

LEAD-IN

1 What is a hobby? It is what you can and like to do when you have free time. We choose a hobby according to our character and taste. When we have a hobby our life becomes more interesting. Many people keep pets at home. The most common are dogs and cats, but people also keep mice, rabbits, goldfish etc.

A Discuss the following questions with other students of your group.

1 Have you got a pet? 3 Do you have time to look after it?

2 What is it? 4 Where does your pet live?

B

READING

2 Now you are going to read the text.

• Look at the title of the text and the photos and say what you think this text is about.

• Guess whether the following statements are true or false, then read quickly through the text and see if your guesses were correct.

1 Rabbits eat only grass.

2 Hamsters and rabbits live very long.

3 It is not very difficult to keep hamsters at home.

4 You can find different food for pets in a pet shop.

PETS

I’ve got two pets – a rabbit and a hamster. The rabbit is female and her name is Flopsy. She’s about three years old now. I keep her in a hutch in the garden, but I play with her every day when I come home from school.

I put her on the lawn. She likes that, because she can run around and she eats the grass, too.

My hamster’s name is Hammy and he’s a male. Hamsters don’t live very long. They only live for about two or three years. Hammy is about one year old. I keep him in a cage in the house. His cage is on a small table in the hall. I can’t keep him in my bedroom, because hamsters are nocturnal and they are very noisy at night. Hammy’s got a wheel in his cage and he runs around it. I play with him in the evening before I go to bed.

Every month my mum takes me to the pet shop in the town. It’s my favourite shop. There are lots of animals there. I buy food for Flopsy and Hammy at the pet shop. They eat vegetables, too, and Hammy likes nuts. I feed them every day and I put clean water in their water bottles, too. I clean the cage and the hutch on Saturday morning.

Have you got a pet? All my friends have. We all love our pets, but do they love us?

3 Are the sentences 1-10 “Right”(A) or “Wrong”(B) according to the text “Pets”? If there is not enough information to answer “Right”(A) or “Wrong”(B), choose “Doesn’t say”(C).

1 Kathy has got two pets at home.

A Right B Wrong C Doesn’t say

2 She looks after her pets very well.

A Right B Wrong C Doesn’t say

3 Kathy keeps her pets in her bedroom.

A Right B Wrong C Doesn’t say

4 Rabbits are very noisy at night.

A Right B Wrong C Doesn’t say

5 Hamsters are nocturnal creatures.

A Right B Wrong C Doesn’t say

6 Kathy’s rabbit has got a wheel in his hutch.

A Right B Wrong C Doesn’t say

7 Every day Kathy buys food for her pets in a pet shop.

A Right B Wrong C Doesn’t say

8 There are a lot of pet shops in Kathy’s town.

A Right B Wrong C Doesn’t say

9 Flopsy likes to eat the grass very much.

A Right B Wrong C Doesn’t say

10 Kathy cleans the cage and the hutch every week.

A Right B Wrong C Doesn’t say