Endangered Species

One problem for animals is that their habitat is sometimes destroyed by humans. As human populations increase, more and more space is needed for people. Building areas for people to live pushed animals out of their natural homes. Forest and swamp habitats are the most threatened. Trees are cut down to make room for homes and businesses. Swamps are filled in so that neighborhoods can expand. The habitat is destroyed. The animals have nowhere else to go. Without a habitat, the number of animals begins to go down.

What is the best meaning for the phrase 'go down' as used in the passage?

Endangered Species

Another major cause of endangerment of animals is overhunting by humans. The practice of shooting animals as a sport can quickly bring the animals to extinction. This is a worldwide problem. The governments of countries around the world must unite to agree on laws regarding animals. Some animals may have large enough populations so hunting will not endanger them. Others must be protected.

What does the word 'others' refer to?

Woody Allen's 'Sweet and Lowdown' has received great critical acclaim, not least in the perceptive review of it by Jonathan Romney. But not even he has discussed the aspect of the film I found the most intriguing.

That 'Interiors' was made as a tribute to Bergman was immediately recognized, but no review I have seen has pointed out that 'Sweet and Lowdown' reflects not only Allen's love of jazz, but also his love for Fellini. In this case, the homage takes the form of appropriating and reworking the plotline of 'La Strada (1954)'.

Samantha Morton's superb performance as the mute Hattie in Allen's film has caused comparisons to be made with the blind heroine of Chaplin's 'City Lights (1931)', but it's even more relevant to recall that Giulietta Masina's Gelsomina in 'La Strada' was also Chaplinesque. Both Hattie and Gelsomina are loveable characters with more than a touch of simple-mindedness, and each is exploited by a traveling performer, the man they love.

What makes this more than a passing parallel is the fact that both films lead to the same conclusion, a scene in which the man comes to the belated realisation that the woman he abandoned had been the love of his life, and also discovers that he has lost her.

If I found 'Sweet and Lowdown' immensely fascinating without being wholly satisfying, it was because I was at once convinced that it is a variation on a film which cannot be matched, and which for me is Fellini's greatest.

Complete the sentence with the correct alternative:

_________ father is in Europe.



With thoroughly professional staff. The best and the newest facilities. Country locations are easy to reach by highways, interstates, and airports. (Dozens of flights daily and free limousine services.) Pick the Hershey that's best for you. You'll get unbeatable facilities for work and play. But above all, you'll find all those things you can still trust, alive and well and living in Hershey Resorts.

(Meetings and Conventions, April 1980.)

A palavra "thoroughly" significa o mesmo que

One of the greatest meteor showers of our lifetime may - or may not - soon light up the night sky. The annual Leonid shower, which comes every November, can produce a spectacular "meteor" storm about every 33 years. That time is now approaching. But no one can say whether we are in for an awesome spectacle or nothing unusual. The last great Leonid storm hit the Earth in 1966. For nearly an hour the sky blazed from horizon to horizon with thousands of shooting stars per minute.

Astronomers predict it could happen again in November 1999 or perhaps 2000.

(Skywatch'99)

According to the text,

One of the greatest meteor showers of our lifetime may - or may not - soon light up the night sky. The annual Leonid shower, which comes every November, can produce a spectacular "meteor" storm about every 33 years. That time is now approaching. But no one can say whether we are in for an awesome spectacle or nothing unusual. The last great Leonid storm hit the Earth in 1966. For nearly an hour the sky blazed from horizon to horizon with thousands of shooting stars per minute.

Astronomers predict it could happen again in November 1999 or perhaps 2000.

(Skywatch'99)

In the text, nearly means:

Florida panther, the Everglades

The Everglades, often called a "river of grass," is a unique subtropical habitat for plants and wildlife.

A Florida panther rests quietly in the Everglades of southwestern Florida. Although protected by the Endangered Species Act, only 30 Florida panthers are believed to survive in the Everglades victims of disease and shrinking habitat as well as illegal hunting and automobiles. With the species' fate hanging in the balance, some Florida panthers are being captured for a special breeding program.

Environment: "The Next Frontier", a publication of the U. S. Information Agency.

Question:

Allen: You're pretty dirty.

Helen: I'm even prettier when I'm c1ean.

In "pretty dirty", "pretty" is equivalent to:

1. very

2. somewhat

3. more

4. beautiful

5. ugly

The correct choices are:

We, humans, have probed the heart of the atom, unraveled the mysteries of DNA, and glimpsed the edges of space and time. Yet when it comes to understanding life's place in the universe, we are mere children, standing on a beach, staring uncomprehendingly at a vast, inscrutable ocean. Our predicament is not that we know nothing about life; it is rather that nothing we know can be compared with anything anywhere else. All the creatures of the earth - from worms to whales - are fundamentally cousins, linked by the same biochemistry, sharing the same planetary home. But is the earth's biosphere the only one there is? So far none of the other planets or moons in our system has been shown to harbor life. However, given the vastness of the universe, the possibilities are endless.

(The sciences)

Read the following sentences:

I. We humans have probed the heart of the atom,_____________?

II. All the creatures of the earth are fundamentally cousins,____________ ?

Fill the gaps with the correct sequence:

Dame Yankee - the screen legend Katharine Hepburn

Kate Remembered- appeared with suitable briskness, less than two weeks after the June 29 death of Katharine Hepburn at age 96. Her own departure was one stipulation Hepburn placed on A. Scott Berg before the esteemed biographer of Max Perkins, Samuel Goldwyn and Charles Lindbergh could tell her stories. And as it happened, that gave Berg twenty years of friendship with the great actress to prepare this unusual and unusually fitting "account", as he describes it, of a life lived outside the usual in virtually all things.

Hepburn herself referred to Berg as her biographer, but Kate Remembered is a very unorthodox biography: "Remembered" is the key word, since his touching, encoded tribute is as much about what it meant to be a devoted friend as it is about the object of devotion. And, indeed, Remembered begins dubiously - and somewhat crustiIy - with a story about how Berg met Hepburn. Writing a magazine article about the star, the writer shows up at her Manhattan door and is immediately commanded to use the bathroom by the hostess, certain she knew a guest's bladder better than the owner did.

An understanding of one another quickly follows. And so, gradually, does a sense not only of what Hepburn did, and with whom, but perhaps the closest we can come to feeling that it was like to live Hepburn's life as she did in a pattern of attachments and detachments.

(by Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Week/y.)

According to the first paragraph, it is incorrect to say that:

The fall of angels

The dramatic story of war among angels existed in heaven even before earth was formed. The great 17th century poet John Milton described in his masterpiece Paradise Lost what he considered the first test of free will: the fall of angels.

His story begins when Lucifer is ordered to obey the Son of God. Lucifer refuses, the rebellious angels join him and challenge the power of

Angels join him and challenge the power of God. On the first day, one of the powerful Seraphs and Lucifer meet, angel against angel. On the second day, the archangel Michael enters the battle, and wounds Lucifer. Michael asks for assistance and on the third day the Son of God comes forward. He pursues the enemy to the bounds of heaven and the bad angels throw themselves into the bottomless pit. The war in heaven is over, but Lucifer is far from finished. God has created a new race - humans. The struggle between good and evil begins.

(The Teacher's Magazine, February 1998.)

Complete the sentence below with the appropriate verb form.

When earth_________to be, the angels' war in heaven________________.

The fall of angels

The dramatic story of war among angels existed in heaven even before the earth was formed. The great 17th-century poet John Milton described in his masterpiece Paradise Lost what he considered the first test of free will: the fall of angels.

His story begins when Lucifer is ordered to obey the Son of God. Lucifer refuses, the rebellious angels join him and challenge the power of

Angels join him and challenge the power of God. On the first day, one of the powerful Seraphs and Lucifer meet, angel against angel. On the second day, the archangel Michael enters the battle and wounds Lucifer. Michael asks for assistance and on the third day, the Son of God comes forward. He pursues the enemy to the bounds of heaven and the bad angels throw themselves into the bottomless pit. The war in heaven is over, but Lucifer is far from finished. God has created a new race - humans. The struggle between good and evil begins.

(The Teacher's Magazine, February 1998.)

Question:

He returned home after he________ the office.