Jared Diamond's View
Diamond believes that the Polynesian settlers on Rapa Nui destroyed its forests, cutting down its trees for fuel
and clearing land for 1 ................... . Twentieth-century discoveries of pollen prove that Rapu Nui had once been
covered in palm forests, which had turned into grassland by the time the Europeans arrived on the island. When
the islanders were no longer able to build the 2 ................. they needed to go fishing, they began using the
island’s 3 .................. as a food source, according to Diamond. Diamond also claims that the moai were built to
show the power of the island’s chieftains, and that the methods of transporting the statues needed not only a great
number of people, but also a great deal of 4 ...................
Great Migrations
The pronghorn, which resembles an antelope, though they are unrelated, is the fastest land mammal of the New
World. One population, which spends the summer in the mountainous Grand Teton National Park of the western
USA, follows a narrow route from its summer range in the mountains, across a river, and down onto the plains. Here
they wait out the frozen months, feeding mainly on sagebrush blown clear of snow. These pronghorn are notable for
the invariance of their migration route and the severity of its constriction at three bottlenecks. If they can't pass
through each of the three during their spring migration, they can't reach their bounty of summer grazing; if they can't
pass through again in autumn, escaping south onto those windblown plains, they are likely to die trying to overwinter
in the deep snow.
ED
E L B E K
D A L A B O E V
Pronghorn, dependent on distance vision and speed to keep safe from predators, traverse high, open shoulders of
land, where they can see and run. At one of the bottlenecks, forested hills rise to form a V, leaving a corridor of open
ground only about 150 metres wide, filled with private homes. Increasing development is leading toward a crisis for
the pronghorn, threatening to choke off their passageway.
Conservation scientists, along with some biologists and land managers within the USA's National Park Service and
other agencies, are now working to preserve migrational behaviours, not just species and habitats. A National Forest
has recognised the path of the pronghorn, much of which passes across its land, as a protected migration corridor.
But neither the Forest Service nor the Park Service can control what happens on private land at a bottleneck. And
with certain other migrating species, the challenge is complicated further - by vastly greater distances traversed,
more jurisdictions, more borders, more dangers along the way. We will require wisdom and resoluteness to ensure
that migrating species can continue their journeying a while longer.
Questions 1-4
Complete the summary below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Pronghorns rely on their eyesight and 1 .................... to avoid predators. One particular population’s summer habitat
is a national park, and their winter home is on the 2 ................... where they go to avoid the danger presented by the
snow at that time of year. However, their route between these two areas contains three 3 ........................
One problem is the construction of new homes in a narrow 4 .................... of land on the pronghorns’ route.
Test 2
Summary completion
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