> Other English exercises on the same topic: Countries and nationalities [Change theme]
	> Similar tests: - Geography-Vocabulary - Nationalities - Foreign-foreigner-strange-stranger - Population growth - Countries - Atacama Desert, Chile - Global warming in the Arctic - Himalayas, India: valley of flowers
	> Double-click on words you don't understand

Australia

                     AUSTRALIA

Why does Australia have this unique collection of life ?

            Australia once had the same animal population as the supercontinent it was attached to. Geographic forces separated Australia from the other areas  55 million years ago.              

Placenta mammals couldn't evolve because of the aridity of the continent. Marsupials and monotremes came to dominate.

Monotremes     they are mammals which lay eggs

platypus   echidna

  an anteater

Marsupials        they are mammals whose young are born very immature. Most females have a  pouch in which they rear their young.

koala   numbat

   pouchless, anteater

Flightless birds   they evolved from birds that could fly because they had few predators from which they needed to escape.

cassowary   emu

a frugivore bird   it can run up to 50km per hour

Rabbits and Toads

Rabbits

In 1859 Thomas Austin brought out 24 rabbits and released them on his property for hunting purposes. Within 10 years, two millions could be shot without having any noticeable effect on their population. They compete with native wildlife and are responsible for the extinction of many plant and animal species.

distribution of wild rabbits (the brown part)

Cane toads

They were introduced in 1935 to control insects that were destroying sugarcane crops. There are over 200 million of them now.Some of them are growing. They can reach over 4kg the size of a little dog. They were supposed to be a solution to a problem, now they are the problem.

The aborigines

They migrated from somewhere in Asia. The aborigines' culture goes back at least 50,000 years. They have strong spiritual beliefs that tie them to the land. They were hunter-gatherers and respected the environment.

Very old rock carvings can be found.

They have had a difficult colonial history.

The aboriginal flag

It was designed in 1971 by an aboriginal artist Harold Thomas.

The black represents the people

The red stands for the earth

The yellow symbolizes the sun, the giver of life

Twitter Share
English exercise "Australia" created by lili73 with The test builder. [More lessons & exercises from lili73]
Click here to see the current stats of this English test

Please log in to save your progress.

1. The platypus is a marsupialmonotremekind of duckI don't know

2. Which of these flags is the Australian flag ? 1 2 3 312I don't know

3. Why are there flightless birds ? because they were too heavy to flywe don't knowbecause they had few predatorsI don't know

4. The emu can run up to 20km per hour50km per hour70km per hourI don't know

5. The red of the aboriginal flag stands for the landthe peoplethe sunI don't know

6. What is the name of the first inhabitants of Australia ? the aboriginesthe melanesiansthe maorisI don't know

7. How many toads are there now ? 200,000,0002,000,00020,000,000I don't know

8. How do you spell the name of the animal which is jumping above the title 'Australia' kangarookangorookangoorooI don't know