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Part

3 Unit 4  Reading 2
Worksheets — Reading

NAME:   No.   CLASS:


DATE:   EVALUATION:
TEACHER:   E. E.

1 
Read the text and give it a title.

Sir David Attenborough has said that he is not optimistic


about the future and that people should be persuaded
against having large families.
The broadcaster and naturalist, who earlier described
5 humans as “a plague on Earth”, also said he believed humans

have stopped evolving physically and genetically because


of birth control and abortion, but that cultural evolution is
proceeding “with extraordinary swiftness”.
“We stopped natural selection as soon as we started
10 being able to rear 90-95% of our babies that are born. We

are the only species to have put a halt to natural selection,


of its own free will, as it were,” he tells Radio Times.
“Stopping natural selection is not as important, or depressing, as it might sound — because our evolution
is now cultural … We can inherit knowledge of computers or television, electronics, aeroplanes and so on.”
15 Attenborough said he was not optimistic about the future and “things are going to get worse. I don’t think
we are going to become extinct. We’re very clever and extremely resourceful — and we will find ways of preserving
ourselves, of that I’m sure. But whether our lives will be as rich as they are now is another question.
“We may reduce in numbers; that would actually be a help, though the chances of it happening within the
next century is very small. I should think it’s impossible, in fact.”
20 The broadcaster, who is a patron of the charity Population Matters, which promotes family planning and
campaigns for sustainable consumption, also appeared to express qualified support for the one-child policy in
China.
He said: “It’s the degree to which it has been enforced which is terrible, and there’s no question it’s produced
all kinds of personal tragedies. There’s no question about that. On the other hand, the Chinese themselves
25 recognise that had they not done so there would be several million more mouths in the world today than there

are now.”
He added: “If you were able to persuade people that it is irresponsible to have large families in this day and
age, and if material wealth and material conditions are such that people value their materialistic life and don’t
suffer as a consequence, then that’s all to the good. But I’m not particularly optimistic about the future. I think
30 we’re lucky to be living when we are, because things are going to get worse.”

He also told the magazine: “I’m luckier than my grandfather, who didn’t move more than five miles from the
village in which he was born. I have all kinds of pleasures and luxuries that I appreciate and I’m very, very fortunate.
I think that applies to the majority of people – in this country, at any rate. But I think that in another 100 years
people will look back at a world that was less crowded, full of natural wonders, and healthier.”
The Guardian. Retrieved from www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2013/sep/10/david-attenborough-human-evolution-stopped

2 
Say if the following sentences are TRUE or FALSE. Quote from the text to support your answers.
  a) According to Sir David Attenborough people should have more children.

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Part

3
  b) Humankind hasn’t evolved due to man’s actions regarding birth control.

Worksheets — Reading

  c) The broadcaster believes the current problems will be solved.

  d) In the past people had more goods and comfort.

3 
Find words in the text with the same meaning as …
a) rapidity (paragraph 2) d) capable (paragraph 5)
b) raise (paragraph 3) e) overpopulated (paragraph 10)
c) stop (paragraph 3)

4 
Explain the following sentences or expressions.
a) “We stopped natural selection as soon as we started being able to rear 90-95% of our babies”


b) “cultural evolution is proceeding ‘with extraordinary swiftness’.”

c) “the one-child policy in China.”

5 
Give your opinion on the following topics.
a) Humans seen as “a plague on Earth”.


b) One-child policy in China.



c) Sir David Attenborough’s view of the future.

be connected  •  Inglês  •  11.o ano  •  Material fotocopiável  •  © Santillana 165

520453 119-190.indd 165 27/02/14 12:23

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