How Wild Flyers Challenge the Rules of Animal Travel
In the app: the whole story at your level, listening, the quiz and the word cards.
The same story at six levels
How the first sentence reads at every level, from A1 to C2.
- A1
Scientists studied 50 wild bird and bat types.
- A2
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior studied 50 wild bird and bat types.
- B1
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and Swansea University studied 50 wild bird and bat types.
- B2
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and Swansea University led a study of 50 wild bird and bat species.
- C1
Laboratory tests using swim tanks, wind tunnels, and treadmills have long produced a standard textbook ranking of animal travel.
- C2
Put an animal in a swim tank, a wind tunnel, or on a treadmill, and a neat hierarchy of movement emerges: swimming is the most energy-efficient way to travel, flying comes second, and running trails behind.
Key words
Words from the B1 text, with their meaning.
- current
- A continuous movement of water or air in one direction.
- challenge
- To question whether something is true or right.
- ranking
- A list that shows who or what is best, second best, and so on.
- track
- To follow the movement of a person or animal, often using special equipment.
- sensor
- A small piece of equipment that notices changes in heat, light, or movement.
- beat
- To move wings up and down repeatedly.
Rewritten with AI from facts reported by Max Planck Society. Read the original for the full report.