Crocodiles, blood and carbon dioxide

Crocodiles kill their prey by diving under water once their prey is firmly between their power (1) jaws. Crocodiles can survive under water much longer than their prey, which dies from drown (2) long before the crocodile needs to surface for air. The secret of crocodile’s able (3) to stay under the water, whilst its prey drowns, lies in differ (4) in its haemoglobulin, resulting in the release of more oxygen that able (5) the crocodile to survive. Meanwhile, the prey’s haemoglobulin is capable (6) of similar respond (7), so the prey dies.

The genetic coding responsible for the behavior of both crocodile haemoglobulin and that of certain fish has now been identity (8) and introduced into the bacterium used to make art (9) human haemoglobulin. Man-made haemoglobulin which behaves like that of crocodile or fish might allow humans to stay longer periods under water. Such haemoglobulin could be use (10) to divers. More importance (11), it might be useful to those people with diseases which cause respiration (12) difficulties.

 

 

13. Заполните пропуски подходящими по смыслу словами из предложенного списка.

MYSTERIOUS MIGRATION

One of the most (1) ___ things in nature is the ability of certain creatures to find their way home, sometimes from great distances. Birds are not the (2) ___ ones who can do this. Bees, eels, and salmon are able to return to a (3) ___ place after long journeys, too.

Most migrations take place between (4) ___ places and regions where animals feed. For some animals, such as the lemming, the move is a one-way trip. Some scientists call this movement emigration, because these animals never return to their homes. For other animals, such as birds, the migration includes a (5) ___ trip home. Birds move in periodic migration, or at (6) ___ times during their lives, and often to the same place year after year.

Certain types of butterflies migrate, too, and find their way home over (7) ___ distances. In the tropics one can sometimes see great (8) ___ flights of butterflies all flying (9) ___ in one direction. They may go a thousand miles and more and then return again in another season.

Despite all the (10) ___ that have been made to explain how these creatures find their way home, we still have no (11) ___ explanation. Since many of the birds fly over great (12) ___ of water, we can’t explain it by saying they use (13) ___ to guide them. Just to say they have an “instinct” does not really explain the actual (14) ___. The reason they do it may be to obtain food or to reproduce under the right conditions. But the signals and (15) ___ they use on their flights are still a mystery to man.

 

14. Заполните пропуски подходящими по смыслу словами из предложенного списка.

CURIOUS FACTS ABOUT ANIMALS

 

 

· HIPPOS

During a nightly grazing session, a hippo can eat up to 40 kg of grass and dead leaves. This (1) ___ to about 12 full sacks of food.

When a hippopotamus dies, other hippos (2) ___ the corpse and lick it. They may remain like this for a whole day, driving away any hungry crocodiles. They only (3) ___ the corpse when the crocodiles become too numerous to (4) ___.

 

· ANTS AND FUNGUS FARMING

Leaf-cutter ants feed their larvae on fungus that they (5) ___ themselves in underground gardens. The ants depend on the fungus for food, and the fungus cannot (6) without the ants. When a new queen takes flight to (7) ___ another colony, she takes some of the fungus with her in a special mouth pouch.

 

· FISHY CHLOROPHYLL

The eye retina of the deep see fish malecosteus niger (8) ___ chlorophyll. This is the only known instanceof chlorophyll being found in an organism that is not plant or bacteria.

 

· PREGNANT MALES

In sea horses it is the male that carries the babies. The female (9) ___ her eggs into his brood poach, where he fertilizes them. They (10) ___ there up to six weeks while he (11) ___ them till they reach independence.

 

· SHARKS NEVER STOP

Sharks have to keep swimming to (12) ___. The great white shark must swim constantly at about 3,5 kmh to (13) ___ enough oxygen reaches its bloodstream. An immobile shark (or one dragged backward) drowns.

 

· EATING WITH THEIR EYES

Frogs and toads never eat with their eyes open. When eating, they have to push back their eye balls in order to (14) ___ food into the stomach.

 

· LOBSTERS LINE UP FOR EFFICIENCY

When spiny lobsters (15) ___, they do so by walking in lines of up to 65 along the seabed, each clinging with its claws to the rear of the one in front. Scientific experimentations with sea lobsters, weights and pulleys have shown that such an arrangement (16) ___ drag and allows a 25% improvement in speed through the water.

 

· ACCELERATING FLEAS

As a flea jumps, its rate of acceleration is 20 times that of the space shuttle during launching. It (17) ___ a speed of 100m per sec within the first 500^th of a second.

· MAGNETIC MOLLUSK

The chiton, a species of marine shelled mollusk, (18) ___ magnetism to find its way home. The teeth on its tonguelike radulla contain magnetite, and (19) ___ the chiton to return to exactly the same place on its home rock after nighttime feeding.

 

· RADIOACTIVE RESISTANT BACTERIA

The bacterium Deinococcus radiourans can (20) ___ at gamma radiation levels of up to 50 000 grays – thousands times greater than that needed to kill a human.

 

JOKES

· Prayer: “Dear Lord, help me be the kind of person my dog thinks I am.”

 

· – Do you know it takes three sheep to make a sweater?

– I didn’t even know they could knit.

 

· I crossed a carrier pigeon with a woodpecker so that it would not only carry messages but also knock on the door when it arrived.

 

· Two pigeons were flying over a car dealer’s and one said, “Why don’t we put a deposit on that Mercedes?”

 

· The farmer’s new scarecrow is so intimidating that not only have the crows stopped stealing his corn, they are even bringing back the stuff they stole last year.

 

· I sent my dog to an obedience school. He still bites me, but at least he looks very embarrassed.

 

 

1. Образуйте соответствующее однокоренное слово.

BALANCE IN NATURE

 

The awe (1) truth is that many species are in danger of becoming extinction (2) unless wildlife conserve (3) societies are supported by all of us. We must not miss the opportunity to help animals which need protect (4) and we have to pay attend (5) to the species which are danger (6).

National parks, reserves, being established throughout the world, as well as convention (7) zoos, provide us an experience of seeing wild animals at close quarters. This helps to persuasion (8) all of us that wildlife needs as much help as we can give them. On the other hand, there is a number of species whose aggression (9) spread around the world can result in severe economic and environmental problems, thus upsetting the natural balance and biological diverse (10). The tasks of biologists is to identity (11) such species and to take the necessary prevent (12) measures.

 

 

2. Образуйте соответствующее однокоренное слово.

HUNTING

In the beginning, humans hunted because they had to. Until the introduce (1) of farming methods, animals had to be tracked down and killed in the wild. A success (2) hunting trip would sure (3) that the hunters’ families did not die of starve (4) for another few weeks.

Nowadays, however, hunting has nothing to do with survive (5). Fresh meat is easily obtain (6) from shops. What is more, people frequent (7) hunt animals which they cannot even eat. So why do they do it? For some, hunting is a profit (8) business. But for others, the only explain (9) seems to be that they take some kind of pleasure in cruel (10).

Many people have guilty conscious (11) realizing that our gaming and hunting passion have contributed to the extinction of number (12) species. As for history (13) species, many paleontologists have been trying, though success (14), to explain the enigma (15) disappearance of such species as mammoths and dinosaurs.

 

 

3. Образуйте соответствующее однокоренное слово.

NATURE’S LAST RESORTS

 

In Darwin’s time there were very many nature (1) predators, and a balance of differ (2) species existed. Wild birds showed so little fear that the first men could approach them without making them fly off. The biggest dangerous (3) was that once upon a time an occasion (4) fire broke out, which actually helped control the animal popular (5). However, early visitors proved to be

welcome (6) guests: they introduced rats, cats and dogs that grew in number and hunted iguanas and ate tortoise eggs. These create (7) having remained in evolutionary preserve (8) of million years ended up in danger of extinction and were lost in hundreds.

Fortune (9), radical measures were taken to ban uncontrollable hunting and locals started to destroy as many of these invade (10) as necessary, though wild cats and rats turned out difficult to find. In the recent years, a new threaten (11) has appeared in the form of tourism. Despite the best efforts of the Ecuador government, the tide of tourists seems resist (12), and may again upset the fine balance of nature on the population (13) islands.

 

4. Образуйте соответствующее однокоренное слово.

GOLDEN LION TAMARIN

 

One of the victims of the appear (1) of the Atlantic forest in Brazil is the golden lion tamarin, a rarely (2) species of monkey in extinction. Ecology (3) became aware of the tamarin’s situation when this once number (4) species was reduced to a few hundreds. They try to reverse the disaster (5) process by breeding them in zoos. Their introduce (6) into the rainforests was difficult because the first generate (7) was not very adapted. Their children do better, but they are also under threat. They need protect (8) from hunters eager to capture them since the legal (9) trade in rare animals is prosperity (10) multi-million business.

 

 

5. Образуйте соответствующее однокоренное слово.

THE AMERICAN EAGLE

America’s national symbol is a great bird which is known as the bald eagle. Yet, the number of this spectacle (1) species dropped from 50,000 in the 1940’s to about 300 today. Lucky (2),America has taken measures by start­ing to breed them. This project is implement (3) at a research centre in Oklahoma, where 300 have been breed (4) and then released into the wild. The eggs are taken from wild eagles’ nests, found in the country, and are flown straight to the centre by aeroplane. During the fly (5), they are kept warm in a special con­tain (6) protecting them from sunlight, which could easily kill them.

Once they are at the centre, they are continue (7) supervised until they hatch. Eight hours after the birds’ emerge (8), they are given their first meal, consist (9) of little pieces of a special meat. At the age of 6 weeks, they are tak­en outside to get custom (10) to the cooler temperatures.

The final stages of the birds’ introduce (11) to the wild takes place at the top of a tower where they are kept in a big cage and fed on fish. As time goes by, the cages are move (12) and the young eagles are event (13) encouraged to fly. All would agree that the see (14) of these beautiful birds flying high in the skies makes all the trouble worth (15).

 

6. Выберите подходящее слово из предложенных трех вариантов.

VANISHING HORSES

 

Although the Przewalski horse once (1) ___ of Mongolia, the Ukraine and China became (2) ___ in the wild in the 1960s, a genetically (3) ___ and stable population has been successfully (4) ___ during the past 100 years thanks to the efficient (5) ___ among the zoos in Europe and the US. Today the (6) ___ population of Przewalski horse stands at approximately 1500 (7) ___. In the past few years a number of them have been successfully (8) ___ into their natural environment of the (9) ___ countries. In return for being allowed to (10) ___ freely in a semi-reserve in

70 000 hectare (11) ___ the Przewalski horse keeps the native grass short thereby helping to (12) ___ the future of the Hungarian steppe known as Puszta.

 

	A domestic	B national	Cnative
	A exhausted	B extinct	C declining
	A diverse	Bdifferent	C versatile
	A founded	B established	C stabilized
	A exchange	B interrelation	C cooperation
	Aworldwide	B worldly	C planetary
	A heads	B items	C individuals
	A reappeared	B reintroduced	C reinforced
	A respective	B respectful	C respected
	A wander	B wonder	C stroll
	A closure	B inclusion	C enclosure
	A seclude	B secure	C sustain

 

7. Заполните пропуски подходящими по смыслу словами из предложенного списка.

THE COELACANTH

analysis fossils coast decomposed prevented presumed exciting enabling carrying ancient common extinct hollow peculiar

The fish the coelacanth which was (1) ___ during the early history of the world, gets its name from the (2) ___ Greek term for ‘ hollow spine ’. At the beginning of the twentieth century, scientists believed that it was (3) ___. Indeed, they worked out from the (4) ___ of coelacanths that it had been extinct for over sixty million years.

Then, in 1938, an extremely (5) ___ scientific discovery was made. A local man fishing off the (6) ___ of South Africa caught a very (7) ___ fish. He brought it back to the mainland for (8) ___, and it was identified from its (9) ___ spine and the shape of its fins as a coelacanth. The fish was not extinct after all! Unfortunately, the fish (10) ___ rapidly, which (11) ___ scientists from (12) ___ out further studies on it. However, in 1952 a number of coelacanths have been caught in the seas around east Africa, (13) ___ the scientists to examine the fish which everyone (14) ___ had died together with the dinosaurs.

8. Образуйте соответствующее однокоренное слово.