Variant 4

1. Read the text and mark the following statements «True» or «False».

1 The author sets his piece in an African country. TRUE
2 In this context the word pen means shed for cattle. TRUE
3 Lions hunt only in the daytime. FALSE
4 The lioness successfully captured her prey. FALSE
5 The cubs depend only on the male lion. FALSE
6 The lioness feeds the cow to her hungry cubs. FALSE
7 The lioness cannot stay long with her cubs. TRUE
8 Herders kill lions for sport. FALSE
9 Livestock means farm animals. TRUE
10 Livestock is used as currency among the Kenian people. TRUE

2. Complete the text with the correct words from the table.

The Earth from Above: the Role of Satellite Photography

Deserts are dry, desolate places where water is extremely rare and precious. It (1) seldom rains, and the rain never lasts long, so the only plants and animals that live in the desert are those that, are able to conserve water.

Not many people live in the desert. Those who do live near water. Almost all of the 60 million people in Egypt live (2) along the Nile River. In satellite pictures, the agricultural land hugging the Nile River looks like a green ribbon winding through the dry Sahara Desert.

In some places near the equator, rain falls year-round. The warm temperatures and (3) fine weather result in lush tropical rainforests in Central and South America, Africa and Asia.

There are more species of animals and plants in the rainforests than anywhere else on Earth — so many that most have not even been (4) named. People living in the forests and, more recently, scientists have learned that many of the exotic plants are valuable. Some of them are sources of food and others are sources of important medicines.

In some parts of the world, the rainforests, are in danger. (5) Because satellite pictures show rainforest destruction very clearly, they are being used to monitor this huge jungle. Even a rainforest the size of the Amazon can be photographed in only a few hours by a satellite.

{By Sally Ride, American astronaut)