Instructions
Watch the video and then do the exercises.
Transcript
While some use vicious weapons to dispatch prey, others employ the finesse of a marksman. The archer fish uses a water pistol. It makes a gun barrel by pressing its tongue against a groove in its mouth. It closes its gills to force out the water. It's accurate up to two metres. This expert in ballistics even allows for the curving of the jet through gravity and adjusts for the way light bends at the boundary between water and air, which appears to shift the position of its target. By some amazing computation, it changes its firing angle to compensate for this optical illusion. Archers target anything that moves or glows.
The velvet worm employs even deadlier firepower. One of the oldest invertebrates, its shooting style is unique. Like a gunslinger, it has two pistols. They fire lassos of glue. The threads snake up to a metre. Its glue guns weave from side to side to spread their fire. The strands glue down the victim like a sticky net. This rapid adhesive dries in seconds. The velvet worm's knife-like jaw pierces its victim before sucking it dry.
© BBC
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