Africa braces itself for new plague

Tim Redford

Science correspondent

The rains which have just brought hope to the starving in Africa have also triggered a new menace – the biggest plague of locusts in three decades.

          Experts who have been with the Food and Agriculture Organisation in Mali for years were amazed by the size of one swarm measuring 75 by 16 miles. Such a swarm could contain 150 billion insects, between them eating 300,000 tons of fresh vegetation every day. And there are other swarms.

         Giant swarms have also been reported in Cape Verde and Burkina Faso. In Botswana, according to the FAO, locusts have covered between one and two million acres. There have also been reports of a rapid spread of desert locusts in Guinea, Senegal, Mauritania, and Niger, and in Libya, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

         The last major outbreak of locusts was in 1963. ´There are areas to which they retreat in very dry weather, and enough survive so that once it starts raining and raining widely there is suddenly perhaps a 500 per cent rise in population, through a generation, which takes a month.´

         Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria have carried out spraying of both juvenile and adult locusts this year. Other countries are waiting until international meetings have been held in two months´time before making definite plans on how to confront the crisis. However, governments cannot wait until the locust swarms have eaten their crops – that would spell economic disaster.

1.     (a) Were the rains recent or a long time ago?

(b) Which adverb can replace just?

2.    Is their employment with the FAO at an end?

3.    When exactly were these reports received?

4.    (a) Does have been held refer to an action in the present, past or future?

(b) Do we know exactly when the locusts will eat the crops?

UERJ/FFP

LÍNGUA INGLESA II

VERA LUCIA T. DA SILVA

Write the uses of the present perfect simple in the table.

 indefinite future period       indefinite past    definite future period   

 past-present period: unfinished              recent action   

Example sentence	Use	Timeline
1. The rains have brought hope to the starving in Africa.
2. Giant swarms of locusts have been reported in Cape Verde.
3. Experts who have been with the FAO in Mali for years were amazed by the size of one swarm
4.Other countries are waiting until international meetings have been held in two months time
5. Governments cannot wait until locust swarms have eaten their crops.

Choose the correct answer:

1.   (a)The rains have just brought hope to the starving of Africa.

(b) The rains just brought hope to the starving but no solution.

      Which adverbs can replace just in (a), and in (b)?

2.   (a) Giant swarms of locusts have been reported in Cape Verde.

(b) Giant swarms of locusts were reported in Cape Verde.

    To which sentence can the words two days ago be added?

3.   (a) Experts who have been with the FAO for years were amazed.

(b) Experts who were with the FAO for years were amazed.

      Are the experts still working for the FAO in (a), in (b)?

4.   (a) Other countries are waiting until international meetings have been held in two months time.

(b) Other countries are waiting until international meetings are held in two months time.

     Are these countries waiting until the meetings are over or until they begin in (a), 

     in (b)?

5.   (a) Other countries are waiting until international meetings have finished.

(b) Other countries are waiting until international meetings finish.

        Which sentence emphasizes the completion of event?