Long time ago a remote village, in central China, was inhabited mainly by farmers and hunters. One day, a poor farmer lost his entire livestock because of a flood. He prayed hard to God for help or his family would die of starvation. A few days later, an old man with a long grey beard, passing by his house, took a pity on the farmer. He gave him a goose and said “ I don’t have any expensive thing to give you and hope this goose will help you to ease your hardship.” A week later to his surprise the farmer found an egg in his yard. It was not an ordinary egg. It was a golden egg. He was suddenly filled with joy. Thereafter, his livelihood had rapidly improved but the farmer had forgotten his earlier hardship. He became lazy, arrogant and spendthrift. Strangely, the goose only laid one golden egg every six months. The greedy farmer lost...
Academic Reading task – Table completion [Note: This is an extract from an Academic Reading passage on the subject of dung beetles. The text preceding this extract gave some background facts about dung beetles, and went on to describe a decision to introduce non-native varieties to Australia.] Introducing dung1 beetles into a pasture is a simple process: approximately 1,500 beetles are released, a handful at a time, into fresh cow pats2 in the cow pasture. The beetles immediately disappear beneath the pats digging and tunnelling and, if they successfully adapt to their new environment, soon become a permanent, self-sustaining part of the local ecology. In time they multiply and within three or four years the benefits to the pasture are obvious. Dung beetles work from the inside of the pat so they are sheltered from predators such as birds and foxes. Most species burrow into the soil and bury dung in tunnels directly underneath the pats, which are hollowed out from within. Some lar...
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