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Long before the arrival of Europeans on the Canadian prairie, the First
Nations people lived in a harmonious relationship with their natural surroundings.
Every item of their culture, from sewing needles to homes was obtained from nature.
Their homes were called teepees and were like large tents made from the skins of
Line deer. These people - tribes with names like the Blackfoot, the Peigan and the Blood
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people - were nomadic, which means that they travelled from place to place following
the animals they hunted or the growth of the berries and fruits on the bushes and
trees.
They had horses, although horses came to North America after escaping from
Line the Spanish explorers who brought them here to explore the areas around Mexico
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and Texas. Boys and girls were both expert riders. They did not use saddles or reins
or stirrups; they rode "bareback". Their clothes were made from deer skins and
buffalo skins and decorated with the parts of other animals - tails from squirrels and
gophers, quills from porcupines and the delicate bones of birds.
These children of nature did not ever have to go to school. They did not have
Line
(15) to study to get into a prestigious college, nor did they have to worry about finding a
job after graduation. This does not mean their life was easy. The winters were very
long and very cold and there were sometimes wars between tribes. There were also
the very great dangers involved in the buffalo hunt. Warriors rode at top speed (with
no saddle) beside the huge buffalo shooting arrows to bring them down. The
Line chances of a buffalo turning suddenly or of falling off the horse were very great. We
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must remember that there were also no hospitals in those days. Even so, the young
people of the tribes must have enjoyed a very pleasant lifestyle: fishing and
gathering berries in summer, hunting in the forests in the early morning, dancing
around the fire at night and listening to the old people tell stories and legends from
Line long ago.
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http://www.agendaweb.org/reading-exercises
Questions
4. According to the passage, how often that people were killed while hunting buffalo?
A. rarely
B. always
C. regularly
D. never
When deep snow melts it creates a large amount of water. Although deep
snow alone rarely causes floods, when it occurs together with heavy rain and sudden
warmer weather it can lead to serious flooding. If there is a fast snow melt on top of
Line frozen or very wet ground, flooding is more likely to occur than when the ground is
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not frozen. Frozen ground or ground that is very wet and already saturated with
water cannot absorb the additional water created by the melting snow. Melting snow
also contributes to high water levels in rivers and streams. Whenever rivers are
already at their full capacity of water, heavy rains will result in the rivers overflowing
Line
(15) and flooding the surrounding land.Rivers that are covered in ice can also lead to
flooding. When ice begins to melt, the surface of the ice cracks and breaks into large
pieces. These pieces of ice move and float down the river. They can form a dam in
the river, causing the water behind the dam to rise and flood the land upstream. If the
dam breaks suddenly, then the large amount of water held behind the dam can flood
Line the areas downstream too.
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Broken ice dams are not the only dam problems that can cause flooding.
When a large human-made dam breaks or fails to hold the water collected behind it,
the results can be devastating. Dams contain such huge amounts of water behind
them that when sudden breaks occur, the destructive force of the water is like a great
Line tidal wave. Unleashed dam waters can travel tens of kilometers, cover the ground in
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meters of mud and debris, and drown and crush everything and creature in their
path. Although scientists cannot always predict exactly when floods will occur, they
do know a great deal about when floods are likely, or probably, going to occur. Deep
snow, ice-covered rivers, and weak dams are all strong conditions for potential
Line flooding. Hopefully, this knowledge of why floods happen can help us reduce the
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http://www.agendaweb.org/reading-exercises
Questions
11. The word "saturated in line11 is closest in meaning to
A. fresh
B. sodden
C. crummy
D. immense