Who could have poisoned Banjo? - Modal auxiliaries to speculate about the past

Modals to speculate about the past – Who could have poisoned Banjo?

Hi! Welcome to another great English lesson with New English Academy. My name's Giles Parker and I'm your guide for today's lesson. I live in the beautiful Green Heart of Italy but life isn't always as pleasant as it seems here. So today we're going to hear about how my dog, Banjo was poisoned recently. The grammar point for this lesson looks at how to use modal auxiliaries to make a theory about or to speculate about the past. This is when you see something now but you don't know for sure what really happened so you make a theory or speculate about what happened. We’re going to look at phrases such as Someone must have done it; Someone could have done it; Someone might have done something, or Someone couldn't have done something. We'll do the reading and listening lesson first and then look at the grammar point after. As you listen to the podcast or read the transcript, try to look for these kinds of modal auxiliaries that speculate about the past. This lesson is aimed at advanced level learners because you need to know how to make past participles, and we will focus on some new, rare vocabulary, but don't let that stop you. As always don't forget to check out the website www.newenglishacademy.com for the complete set of interactive comprehension, grammar and vocabulary lessons for this podcast lesson as well as the games and tests. You can also find other free online lessons and a free guidebook on how to use these podcast lessons when you sign up.

Comprehension Text – Who could have poisoned Banjo?

The Green Heart of Italy is a truly beautiful place to live. We're surrounded by steep, wooded hills and small valleys covered in tobacco plants or sunflowers in the summer, or beans or clover or just left fallow at other times of the year. I can let my two dogs, Banjo and Lucy run in the woods when I take them for a walk. The woods are full of different birds and animals. Sometimes the dogs chase a deer or a rabbit or a squirrel but Banjo and Lucy are too slow to catch them.

Recently I was walking Banjo and Lucy on a trail across one wooded hill when Banjo started vomiting violently. Suddenly he couldn't stand up for very long and he started shivering and shaking. He was definitely unwell and tried to crawl under thick bushes to hide. I gave him some water but it didn’t help him. He was really suffering. I half-dragged, half-carried him back down the trail to the car. I suspected that he had eaten some poison that had been left in the woods by someone.

We raced to a vet in town and she saved his life. The vet confirmed that poor Banjo had eaten a kind of poison that is often used by local hunters. She also said that she sees a poisoned dog in her surgery every day of the year. I shouldn't be surprised that guys will put down poison to kill animals. It is supposed to be illegal but people still do it. I don't know who did it but it could have been local truffle hunters. Truffles are a delicious type of fungus that grows wild in the woods here. If you can find it you can sell it for €1000 a kilogram. Local guys train their dogs to find truffles. They also put down poison near where there are truffles. A local hunter might have put down some poison to kill the competition.

Another theory is that Banjo might have eaten poison that was put down to kill foxes. Hunting is a very popular pastime here. It seems to me, between September to February every year, if something – birds, animals - can move, someone is going to shoot it. Local hunters like to grow and release pheasants in the woods here and then hunt and kill them in autumn. Foxes kil