Crocodiles Tear Up While Eating
Are crocodiles capable of feeling remorse?
Interesting Facts in Easy English
Pre-Listening Vocabulary
- tear up: to cry a little bit; to become weepy
- insincere: fake; not truthful
- shed: to drop or remove something, such as a layer of skin or a tear
- remorseful: full of guilt
- sympathy: a feeling of sadness for another person’s loss
- paralysis: the inability to move an area of the body
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Crocodiles Tear Up While Eating
Comprehension Questions
- What does it mean if a mom says her son has a bad case of “crocodile tears”?
- What do scientists think crocodiles are incapable of?
- Why does the report mention facial paralysis?
Discussion Questions: How can you tell whether or not a child is truly hurt or sad or whether he’s crying crocodile tears?
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Crocodiles Tear Up While Eating
The expression “to cry crocodile tears” means to cry insincerely. Children are often accused of shedding crocodile tears in order to get attention. The expression “crocodile tears” goes back as far as the 1400s. It come from a myth that crocodiles pretend to be remorseful after killing their prey. While scientists don’t believe that crocodiles are capable of sympathy, crocodiles do tend to shed tears while eating. This is likely a physical response that goes along with their tendency to blow out air as they eat. Humans who suffer from a rare facial paralysis sometimes exhibit a similar physical response. When they taste or eat food, they start to cry.
- If a mom says her son has a bad case of “crocodile tears” she probably means he isn’t really hurt or doesn’t have a good reason to be crying. He’s just looking for attention.
- Scientists think crocodiles are incapable of expressing remorse after killing their prey.
- The report mentions facial paralysis because people who suffer from a rare form of facial paralysis sometimes shed tears while eating.
