Ideas: 21 Facts to Know

Dear All,

This list of Facts or Trivia is a fun way of adding engaging materials to liven up our English lessons. Here's how I'll use this list in my classroom:

First, I'll duplicate sufficient copies for all students.

Next, I'll read the list aloud and students can respond with their reactions.

I find that reading the list aloud is a good way for students to listen to the pronunciation and the intonation.

Students may also enquire about the meaning of certain words.

As a variation, teacher can include a few factual errors and then asked the students which statements are true or false.

Enjoy!

Rodney Tan
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21 Facts to Know

1. Chewing on gum while cutting onions can help a person from stop producing tears. Try it next time you chop these bulbs.

2. Until babies are six months old, they can breathe and swallow at the same time. How convenient!

3. Offered a new pen to write with, 97% of all people will write their own name!

4. Male mosquitoes are vegetarians. Only females bite and savour blood.

5. The average person's field of vision encompasses a 200-degree wide angle.

6. To find out if a watermelon is ripe, knock it, and if it sounds hollow then it is ripe.

7. Canadians can send letters with personalized postage stamps showing their own photos on each stamp.

8. Babies' eyes do not produce tears until the baby is approximately six to eight weeks old.

9. It actually snowed in the Sahara Desert in February of 1979. Can you beat that!!

10. Plants watered with warm water grow larger and more quickly than plants watered with cold water.

11. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.

12. Grapes explode when you put them in the microwave.

13. Those stars and colours you see when you rub your eyes are called phosphenes.

14. Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

15. Everyone's tongue print is different, like fingerprints.

16. Contrary to popular belief, a swallowed chewing gum doesn't stay in the gut. It will pass through the system and be excreted.

17. At 40 degrees centigrade a person loses about 14.4 calories per hour by breathing.

18. There is a hotel in Sweden built entirely out of ice; it is rebuilt every year.

19. Cats, camels and giraffes are the only animals in the world that walk right foot, right foot, left foot, left foot, rather than right foot, left foot .

20. Onions help reduce cholesterol if eaten after fatty meals.

21. The sound you hear when you crack your knuckles is actually the sound of nitrogen gas bubbles bursting.