Monkeys trained to pick coconuts
Listening exercise. Look up the words and phrases below in the dictionary. Watch the video and complete the transcript.
fear of heights
Unlike most humans, Sharlie has no 1) ___________. For him climbing a 25-meter palm tree is 2) _________ . Things only get complicated 3) _______ he is at the top. This is Sharlie’s 4) __________ — collecting coconuts for his master and it was Som Pong who taught him. He’s lived with monkeys since the age of eleven. They help him with his 5) _____________, but first he has to train them. In six month’s time the youngest of Som Pong’s 6) ________ could become an expert. Meanwhile he will have to show a little more 7) ________. Som Pong is also 8) ________ another monkey and this one is quite promising. Advanced training — its’ hardly the obvious thing to do, to 9) ________ the coconut while hanging from a branch. He is doing pretty well. Sharlie seems 10) ________ talented, but there are still some things he can’t do. Sharlie is Som Pong’s best pupil, so he certainly deserves this 11) ________. Som Pong knows that Sharlie would probably prefer the forest to 12) _________. On the other hand, with Som Pong there is a plentiful supply of food. Som Pong thinks they have a kind of 13) ________, each to help each other. The work Som Pong and Sharlie do together isn’t so unusual in Southern Thailand. Monkeys have been trained to collect coconuts there for a long time now, but not everyone is lucky enough to live with a monkey as 14) ________ as Sharlie.