Learning English - Words in the News - Whale graveyard unearthed

Last updated at 16:30 GMT, Wednesday, 16 November 2011

Whale graveyard unearthed

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Report and vocabulary

transcript: The fossilised bones of whales unearthed in the Atacama Desert in Chile.

Palaeontologists have dug up a massive grave containing the seven-million-year-old creatures.

Fossils from fifteen animals have so far been excavated, some of them complete skeletons. The hoard also includes the remains of sharks, dolphins and seals.

The discovery is believed to have global importance and is crucial for research.
fossilised: the remains of animals or plants that have become hard and turned into rock
palaeontologists: people who study fossils
excavated: to have dug up something that has been buried for a very long time
hoard: a collection of food, money, or in this case valuable and rare fossils
crucial: something that is extremely important because it will affect other things

Exercise

Use one of the words or phrases below to complete each of these sentences from a 大象传媒 news report.

Note that you may have to change the form of a word to complete the sentence correctly.

fossilised/palaeontologists/excavated/hoard/crucial

A team of archaeologists has started one of the largest investigations ever mounted on the WWI battlefields. They have been given permission to _________ a large section of trenches and tunnels close to the huge Lochnagar Crater.

2.

Being so slight and spindly, it is not really surprising that ancient harvestmen have a relatively poor record. Only around 33 _____________ species have been discovered so far, and for some of those the quality of preservation is not brilliant.

3.

A metal detector enthusiast has found a major ___________ of Viking silver in a field on the Cumbria-Lancashire border.

4.

For 150 years, a species called Archaeopteryx has been regarded as the first true bird, representing a major evolutionary step away from dinosaurs. But the new fossil suggests this creature was just another feathery dinosaur and not the significant link that __________________ had believed.

5.

The prime minister believes stability and an end to the debt crisis is ___________ for any chance of a recovery in the UK economy.