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