Hello.
This is 6 Minute English
from BBC Learning English.
I'm Sam.
And I'm Rob.
Now, on Friday
the 29th of June 1975,
movie posters appeared in
cinemas all over the
USA with the now
notorious words: 'You'll
never go in the water
again'.
So, do you know
which movie was being
promoted, Sam?
Yes, I think it was
'Jaws' - Steven Spielberg's
infamous horror movie
which terrified a
generation with its
story of a man-eating
great white shark with
a taste for revenge
and for human flesh.
Jaws multiplied people's
fascination with, and
fear of, sharks.
But sharks' fearsome
reputation is not based
on facts: most attacks
on humans are cases
of mistaken identity,
where the shark mistakes
a swimmer for fish.
In recent years the
average annual number
of worldwide deaths
from shark bites was
as low as four.
Today sharks should
be the apex predators
of the ocean - the top
predator that hunts
and eats other animals
but has no natural
predator of its own.
Instead, over 100 million
sharks are caught and
killed each year and,
thanks to this overfishing,
many shark species are
now endangered.
We'll
hear more soon, but
first I have a question
for you, Rob.
Approximately, how many
different species of
shark exist today?
Is it: a) 330?
b) 530?
or
c) 730?
Well, I'll take a
guess at b) 530.
OK, I'll reveal the
correct answer later
in the programme.
Now, as Sam mentioned,
'Jaws' made many people
nervous about swimming
in the sea, largely
thanks to scenes in the
movie showing the shark
biting swimmers in a
frenzy of teeth
and blood.
George Burgess has spent
40 years studying the
cause of shark attacks
in his job as director
of the Florida Programme
for Shark Research.
According to him, the
movie's depiction of
great whites is totally
unrealistic, as he told
BBC World Service
programme, The Inquiry.
Will a single shark that's
involved in a bite on a
human be more likely to
bite another human in
the future?
In other
words, is there
something of the 'Jaws'
image as we saw,
unfortunately, in the
movies of which you
had a white shark that,
apparently, had a
grudge and would
try to go after
humans...
well,
nothing could be
further from the truth
than that.
In the movie, sharks
are portrayed as vengeful
creatures who recognise
and try to kill
individual people.
The shark in 'Jaws' had
a grudge - a feeling
of anger or hatred
towards someone because
of what they did
in the past.
According to marine
biologist, George Burgess,
this is nothing like
the real behaviour of
sharks in the wild.
He
says nothing could be
further from the
truth - an expression
used to emphasise that
something is not
true at all.
The actual truth is that
sharks have been
perfectly designed by
evolution for their
ocean environment.
In fact, they have
hardly changed over
the last 400 million
years, making them
even older than
the dinosaurs.
Sharks' characteristic
design - their fin,
teeth and skin - allows
them to thrive in their
natural environment.
Listen to Oliver Crimmin,
senior curator at London's
Natural History Museum,
explaining more to BBC
World Service programme,
The Inquiry.
If we look at the really
successful features of
sharks you've got to
consider this
cartilaginous skeleton -
that's no bone in the
skeleton.
That flexible
material that the
skeleton is made of
enables sharks to be
very agile, and it
enables them to be
athletic and
it's lightweight.
Sharks' skeletons are
made of cartilage, not bone.
Cartilage is a strong
flexible tissue which
connects joints in the
bodies of living creatures.
Feel for the bony material
in the fold of your
ear - that's cartilage.
Not having bones allows
sharks to be both
flexible - able to bend
without breaking, and
agile - able to move
their body quickly and
easily.
Boneless, bendy,
and built for speed,
sharks really are the
perfect evolutionary design.
Yet overfishing and
the cruel practice of
finning, cutting off
shark fins to make
exotic soups and
returning the wounded
creature to the sea
to die, are threatening
shark numbers.
Which is why it's tragic
that so many of their
species are facing
extinction.
And
speaking of shark
species, what was
the answer to your
question, Sam?
In my quiz question,
I asked how many species
of shark there are
in existence.
Yeah, and I guessed
it was around 530
different species.
Which was the correct
answer, Rob!
And the
variety of shark
species is incredible,
from giants like the
great white to the
tiny dwarf lantern shark.
Ok, let's recap the
vocabulary from this
programme all about
sharks, the ocean's apex
predator - that's the
top predator that hunts
other animals but has
no predators
of its own.
If you hold a grudge,
you have feelings of
anger towards
someone because of
something they did
in the past.
The phrase, nothing
could be further from
the truth, is used
to emphasise that
something is totally false.
Cartilage is the
strong flexible tissue
connecting bones or
joints in the body.
Flexible means able
to bend without breaking.
And finally, if you're
agile, you can move
your body quickly
and easily.
Once again, our
six minutes are over.
Bye for now!
Goodbye!