Listening Part 2: Poison or Venom? Difference and Medical Treatment (Intermediate): Snap Language™

Poison or Venom? Difference and Medical Treatment

(Intermediate, B-Level)

About This Unit

This listening exercise is part of a unit. The table of contents lists all other activities you can explore.

Listening Practice

Instructions

You are about to listen to a podcast discussion about this passage about poison and venom. To practice listening, complete this exercise first. You can read it later if you would like.

The following procedure is recommended:

Learn the content. Click the “play” button and listen to the passage carefully. Focus on understanding the content.

Complete the fill-in-the-blanks exercise. When you are ready, click play again and follow along the script below the player.

When you see a blank, put the cursor in the blank and type what you hear. The missing information will play three times. If you cannot type in time, click “pause” or hit “Rewind” (to go back 40 seconds) or use the scrubber to go back a few seconds.

Once you type your answer in the blank, click “Answer” to check your answer. (Check your spelling and capitalization.)

PDF Handout 2. If you prefer, you can print this document (includes the script with blanks and the answer key).

Use “play” and “pause” buttons and the slider to control playback.

Portions of this voiceover are AI-generated.

Script:

Speaker 1: Today we’re digging into something, uh, really interesting where words often get a bit mixed up. Yeah, the whole “poison versus venom” thing.

They’re both toxins, obviously dangerous, but is fundamentally different, right?

They’re both toxins, but how they work is fundamentally different, right?

Speaker 2: Exactly. And that how the delivery mechanism, that’s really the core of it. Understanding that is key.

Speaker 1: Okay, so let’s unpack poison first.

What ? When we say that, what are we really talking about?

What actually defines something as a poison?

Speaker 2: Right. So, when you interact with it.

… poison is basically a toxin that causes harm when you interact with it.

Speaker 1: Interact how?

Speaker 2: Well by touching it or eating it. Maybe .

… maybe breathing it in.

The key point is .

The key point is the organism itself isn’t injecting it.

Speaker 1: Ah! Can you give us some concrete examples? Make it real for us?

Speaker 2: Sure. if eaten.

Many types of mushrooms are fatally poisonous if eaten.

Even something like a stinging nettle. You brush against it.
. Still a form of poisoning through contact.

You touch it, and its hairs cause that irritation.

Speaker 1: Okay, that makes sense. with the substance.

It’s all about us coming into contact with the substance.

So let’s flip to the other side then. Venom. This sounds more active.

Speaker 2: It is.

That’s the fundamental difference.

Venom is into another creature...

Venom is a toxin that an animal actively injects into another creature.

Speaker 1: Actively injects...

Speaker 2: ... usually through a bite, like with fangs, or .

... usually through a bite, like with fangs, or a sting using a stinger.

The animal has to perform an action to deliver the venom into your body. And these venoms can be nasty targeting different things. You have …

You have neurotoxins that mess with your nervous system

… or hemotoxins .

… or hemotoxins that go after your blood or tissues.

Speaker 1: So what are the classic examples here and how do they pull off this injection?

Speaker 2: Well, snakes are probably the most famous example, right?

Using their fangs during a bite.

Then you’ve got scorpions, bees, wasps. .

They all use stingers.

Scorpions inject venom. Bees and wasps often leave this stinger behind, still delivering that venom payload.

Speaker 1: Okay.

Okay. This distinction is actually much clearer now.

Is there, like, a really simple rule of thumb for us listeners to keep this straight?

Speaker 2: Yeah, .

Yeah, there’s a pretty neat way to remember it.

Think of it like this: .

Think of it like this: It’s venomous if it bites or stings you.

Speaker 1: Okay. It acts on me.

Speaker 2: Right. .

And it’s poisonous if you bite or touch it.

Speaker 1: Ah! I act on it. That actually clears it up perfectly. It bites you; it’s venomous. You bite it; it’s poisonous.

Speaker 2: That’s the core distinction, yes.

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🤔 Did you know?

The podcast discussion in the above listening passage is part of a unit. (See the table of contents). It includes a reading passage that you can also listen to and read along. Feel free to explore the whole unit so you can work on different skills.

Check out other intermediate-level passages with audio.

Back to Passages To ESL Catalog

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