Activities activity exercise match the words 1-13 with the appropriate definitions a-m

ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITY 1. EXERCISE 2. Match the words 1-13 with the appropriate definitions a-m.

to harm	a. to begin something such as a plan or introduce something new such as a product;
2. to alter	b. the time of year when crops are cut and collected from the fields;
3. to exploit	c. to eat or drink especially a lot of something;
4. harvest	d. the state of having no food for a long period often causing death;
5. a sparrow	e. no longer existing;
6. to launch	f. to hurt someone or damage something;
7. exhaustion	g. to control or limit something that is not wanted;
8. extinct	h. an amount of something positive such as food or profit, that is produced or supplied;
9. starvation	i. when insects come together in a large group;
10. to swarm	j. to change something, usually slightly, or to cause characteristics of something to change;
11. a yield	k. a small grey-brown bird which is especially common in towns;
12. to consume	1. a condition of extremely being tired;
13. to curb	m. to use something for advantage;

ACTIVITY 2. EXERCISE 3. (T2) Listen to the tape and fill in the blanks with appropriate words and phrases.

Chinese farmers were not (a)____________________with the little harvest they gathered in 1958. Calculation showed that (b )______ kg of grain was eaten by each sparrow. Under the influence of sparrow grain seed eating habit a Chinese leader Mao Zedong ordered the (c )_______________ of sparrows. The whole (d)________________________ killed hundreds of millions of sparrows. Ways of (e)_________________ included breaking eggs, killing chicks as well as shooting sparrows down from the sky. On December 13, sparrows were terrorized by children, workers, farmers holding their pots and pans ( f ) ________________ birds’ landing. Result of these efforts was a nearly (g)_______________ of sparrows in China. Sparrows were replaced with another type of crop eater, a large type of grasshopper population (h )______________ . In 1960, it became known that sparrows ate also (i)_______________ which made Mao Zedong order to stop Great Sparrow War.

ACTIVITY 3. EXERCISE 4. Read the statements and put them in order they come in the record. Listen again and check.

On hearing that information Chinese leader Mao Zedong ordered the extermination of sparrows.

_ The overflow of insects, plus the added effects of widespread deforestation and misuse of poisons were a significant contributor to the Great Chinese Famine (1958-1961) in which an estimated 30 million people died of starvation.

_ Humanity did a lot of mistakes in past but they should serve us as a good lesson.

_Nests were torn down, eggs were broken, chicks killed, and sparrows were shot down from the sky.

_On the advice of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mao declared full-stop to the Great Sparrow Campaign.

_ Consequently, agricultural yields that year were disastrously low.

_ But the story to be told today, we hope, will be a lesson for what can happen when changes are made to an ecosystem.

_They swarmed the countryside as there were no sparrows in sight.

_ They reasoned that sparrows ate grain seeds.

_ By 8 pm of that night, it was estimated that a total of 194,432 sparrows were killed.