Week 7 Selective English

You are going to read an article about Albatrosses. Seven sentences have been removed from the article.

Choose from the sentences 1-8 the one which fits each gap (1-7).

There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.

Midway Atoll is silent, chilly, and damp around five a.m., as the winter rainy season begins. The wind whips over the black lagoon, lashing mist and sea salt on the shore 1,200 miles northwest of Hawaii’s main island.

Since early August, when the last of the atoll’s one million Laysan and black-footed albatross occupants flew out at the end of their eight-month mating season, the atoll’s three tiny islands have been hauntingly bereft of its roughly one million Laysan and black-footed albatross residents. (1)____________________ They have grown big and ready for another season, resting in groups on the water surface and feasting themselves on squid and flying fish.

The first morning light appears on the horizon around 6:15 a.m., and bird cries break the quiet as migrants begin to arrive in this isolated area of the Hawaiian archipelago. They are the epitome of elegance in the air. However, when they land, the birds tumble and roll in the characteristic landings that have earned them the moniker “gooney birds.” (2)_______________________ The annual November invasion of the albatrosses on Midway has begun.

Humans have fought animals for space for the last century in an attempt to turn the 2,000-acre Midway from a sandy spit of scrubby flora into a strategic outpost fit for their own occupancy. Midway was founded in 1905 as a way station for constructing telegraph cable across the Pacific. Ironwood trees were brought in. Lawns were planted. (3)_________________________ A hotel and cargo ship piers were erected.

Midway had grown into a significant US Navy station by 1940. On the two largest islands, Sand and Eastern, aircraft runways were built. The earth was dug up to make way for underground fuel storage tanks, and one end of Sand Island was turned into a hazardous chemical waste. (4)_____________________
The Navy finally left six years ago, following a half-century of habitat modification. The federal government paid $90 million to demolish the majority of the old structures, clean up the leaky fuel tanks, and remove polluted soil. Midway has been designated as a national wildlife refuge.

(5)____________________ The outcome has been excellent news for a variety of animals, including 90 species of migrating birds (including the world’s biggest breeding colony of Laysan albatrosses), green sea turtles, and endangered Hawaiian monk seals.

Except for an inexplicable drop in Laysan and black-footed albatross populations on Midway during the last four years, the species’ populations are trending upward. According to one idea, people’ rising desire for squid caught in the North Pacific may be diminishing the Laysan species’ major food source. (6)________________________

“At first, we thought the decline was due to El Ni-o, which could have affected food sources for a lot of different species,” says ornithologist Peter Pyle of the San Francisco-based nonprofit Oceanic Society, which studies the albatross and runs conservation programs in collaboration with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. “However, we’ll have to see what occurs this year,” he says. “For the time being, everything appears to be going well.”

(7)_______________________ Ironwood trees, which serve as excellent human windbreaks, deprive albatross chicks of the breezes they require to maintain their body temperatures. Eastern Island’s trees have been removed.

Using the following options, Fill the Gap ___ [1] ___ ?

The mature adults and the fresh generation of youngsters have been traveling through the northern Pacific without touching land for the previous four months.
Over the last six years, the US Fish and Species Service has been trying to restore habitat and continue research of albatross behavior and other wildlife that began in the 1960s.
The location became a rest stop for passengers on Pan American's Trans-Pacific Flying Clipper Seaplane in the 1930s.
They dust themselves off one by one and begin scouring the ground for the teeny-tiny patch of nesting real estate that serves as home base.
Collisions between albatrosses and military aircraft prompted the United States Navy's "bird abatement program," which resulted in the annihilation of over 54,000 adult albatrosses between 1954 and 1964.
Scientists, however, are waiting to see how many albatrosses return this year before raising any concerns.
Verbesina, an invasive plant, produces gorgeous golden crowns but raises humidity and creates scorching conditions for ground-dwelling birds.
Military uniforms were replaced by those of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and the human population decreased from thousands in the 1960s to 150 now.