英語播客 A Cup of English A nocturnal visit by deer.

Wow! What a shot! I have been hoping to get a photo or a video of deer to show all of you. This time of year is crazy with the deer coming down from the nearby mountains. They are all over the place, and obviously very comfortable in town. I think the fact that there are orchards here and there in town help. They sleep in the orchards, and have plenty to eat there. Then at night they walk around the neighborhoods, looking for more tasty treats. It just so happens that a favorite spot for some of them is our property! A few years ago, we found three of them sleeping on our back porch! Now, however, we have dogs, so they keep away. The two dogs that we have live in the back garden. It is a large area that is fenced in, ideal for dogs. So now, we don't have any deer visitors in the back garden. Our dogs do, however, alert us as soon as they smell them approach. Infact, they bark like crazy and drive everybody nuts. It doesn't happen during the day, because the deer only come around at night. We have often had to put the dogs in the garage at 3am because of the noise. We don't want to make enemies of our neighbors. I can see that deer have been hanging out in our front yard because there are hoof prints and droppings everywhere. One of my neighbor friends told me that she saw a large herd of deer walk up the road, and settle in my front garden where we have alpine trees. When I was pulling up to the house the other night, my headlights flashed in the eyes of three deer who were happily munching away at the plants near my entryway. The dogs were barking, of course, but the deer seemed to know that the noisey want-to-be-wolves couldn't get out. I drove towards the deer very slowly, illuminating them. Their ears pricked up and they turned to face me. Then, they gracefully turned and walked into the darkness. It doesn't happen very much, but when it does, it is so worth watching.

Grammar notes.

Related vocabulary: to alert, to drive ...nuts, hoof/ paw prints, a herd.

1. The alarm alerted us to the fire that had started in the kitchen.

2. That music is driving me nuts; can you please turn it down, or off!

3. A good hunter can track an animal by its prints: paw prints for wild cats and bears, and hoof prints for deer, elk, and moose.

4. There are so many names for groups of animals: a herd of cows, a school of fish, a pack of wolves, and a swarm of bees are just a few.