Australia is the 6th biggest country in the world. Only Russia, China, Canada, USA and Brazil are (1)  ______ . It is the world’s largest island.

           Even though the country is so big, it only has about 23 million inhabitants. 88% of all Australians (2) ______in the big cities or smaller towns, which makes big areas of the country empty.

           Australia lies in the (3) ______  hemisphere which means that the more South you go, the cooler it gets. In the north parts of the country, it is always hot. The (4)______ of the country has really hot summers and mild winters. Snow only falls in the Australian Alps and in Tasmania. When we have (5)  ______  in Europe and Asia, the Australians have summer. So they celebrate Christmas in the (6)______ of the summer!

           Australia is famous for its wildlife. The most famous (7) ______  is probably the kangaroo. The kangaroo, or roo for short, has (8) ______    Australia’s national Symbol. The word “kangaroo” was the first Aboriginal (9)  ______   in the English language. There are several spices of kangaroos. The red kangaroos (10) ______the biggest ones and they are found in the middle of the country.

THE ICE DOGS

I came to Chukotka, in Russia, to go on a (1)______ up the coast to the Bering Strait with a team of dogs. To do this, I had to learn how to (2)______ the dog team. For the people who live in the far north of Russia the dog sledge is the only sure (3)______ of transport across the snow and ice. (4)______ you become the new leader of a dog team, your (5)______ task is to make the dogs realize you are useful to them - you feed them. (6)______ a difficult first few weeks, the dogs started to listen to my orders. But even then, although they were clearly (7)______ hard, they were only guessing (8)______ I meant them to go left or right. Unable to understand my orders, some dogs would go one (9)______, some the other.

The rest too, hoped that they would be doing the right thing (10)______ going straight ahead.  

1.                  A. visit                        B. break                       C. journey                   D. voyage

2.                  A. teach                       B. train                        C. practice                   D. improve

3.                  A. means                     B. way                         C. use                          D. purpose

4.                  A. As              B. Because                  C. Who                        D. When

5.                  A. main                       B. best                         C. right                        D. clear

6.                  A. Until                       B. Still                         C. After                       D. While

7.                  A. doing                      B. learning                   C. making                    D. trying

8.                  A. or                B. whether                  C. unless                      D. that

9.                  A. manner                   B. way                         C. method                   D. style

10.              A. with                        B. to                            C. by              D. for