By: Clive Ponting
About this text: this is a chapter excerpt from Clive
Ponting's “ A Green
History of the World: The Environment and the Collapse of Great
Civilizations”; access www.primitivism.com click anthropology and then click the writer’s name. Alternatively,
just google thetitle and author’s name.
Level of
Difficulty:**** (Due to the vocabulary load)
Thanks are due to
Oya Özağaç for locating the soft copy of this text and helping with the typing
up of the questions
BEFORE YOU READ
·
What do you think the effects
of the earth’s rapidly dwindling resources will be on life?
·
Do you envisage conflict or
cooperation in such circumstances?
Now, research
Easter Island to discover its location and see the wonderful statues that
remain to this day. Then, try and unravel the mystery that surrounds these
statues.
QUESTIONS
1. What sentence in paragraph one sets the tone of the article
to follow?
2. On reading paragraph
two, we reach the conclusion that the island was characterised by squalor and barbarism. What proof can you find of this claim?
3. Why exactly did Easter Island become the mystery it did?
4. Thor Heyerdahl`s contention
that the island was first settled from South America is based on the fact that
_________________________________________.
5. What, in your opinion, is the significance of paragraph
four for the whole article?
6. What proof can you offer the claim that the Polynesians
were the greatest explorers of their time?
7. How inhospitable do you
consider the conditions on Easter Island to have been? What do you base your
opinion on?
8. a. Why were the inhabitants of Easter Island reduced to
subsisting on sweet potatoes and chicken?
b. What additional advantage did the cultivation of
the sweet potato have?
9. What were the two important consequences of the social
organization of the Islanders?
10. What proof can you find in the text of the contention that
the islanders were highly intellectual people?
11 a. The most difficult hurdle the ıslanders had to overcome concerning the statues was.........................
b. What was the ultimate significance of the method
of transportation resorted to concerning the statues?
12. How did the scientists
reach the conclusion that Easter Island was not initially the barren island it
later became?
13. Trees were used for
various purposes by the islanders. Which of these probably sealed their fate
according to the text?
14. What was the effect on daily life of the sudden lack of
trees on homes and on boats?
15. What was the cause of the continual fighting and
cannibalism which followed the complete deforestation?
16. What behaviour of the former Islanders seems impossible to
comprehend according to the text?
17. a. What parallelism can you draw between Easter Island and
our world?
b. To what extent do you think our fates will
resemble theirs?
VOCABULARY
paragraph
|
1
|
Lack of importance
|
|
|
2
|
Very small, insufficient (1.
half)
|
|
|
4
|
That which cannot be altered
|
|
|
4
|
To put up with
|
|
|
5
|
Include, cover (2nd
half)
|
|
|
6
|
Survival
|
|
|
10
|
Enormous (2nd
half)
|
|
|
11
|
Very serious (1. half)
|
|
|
12
|
To deteriorate (1. half)
|
|
|
12
|
Terrible (1. half)
|
|
|
13
|
To keep and protect
|
|
WRITING TASK; FIRST ALTERNATIVE
Take another look at the last
question, determine your position and write an opinion essay detailing your views.
WRITING TASK; SECOND ALTERNATIVE
Write an essay discussing the fatal consequences of deforestation.
Use the points below, the text you have just read and notes you make from any
additional research you do.
·
Draught
·
Climate change
·
Land slides
·
Loss of habitat
·
Extinction of species
·
Social upheavals and war
·
Loss of essential resources
WRITING TASK; THIRD ALTERNATIVE
Write a problem solution essay
discussing how to prevent deforestation and avoid the fatal consequences of
this man made disaster. Before you start, do some reading and listening, make
notes and use them to write your essay a long with the text you have just read.
·
Outreach programs to raise
public awareness( to educate farmers, and other members of the public)
·
The banning of camp fires in
forests
·
The deployment of forest
rangers
·
Education starting early on
·
The planting of appropriate
trees ( for example, not planting pine trees in hot zones)
·
Making the planting and
preservation of trees a national policy
·
Using the media to change
hearts and minds.
THE LESSONS OF EASTER ISLAND KEY AND TEACHER’S NOTES
This superb text is a chapter out of a book by the author but available
online at the address specified above. I originally used the book to prepare
the questions and never posted it not being aware that an online edition was
available. My friend and colleague Oya Özağaç having discovered it online, I
can now share it with you. The true story of Easter Island is a horror story
detailing the ultimate consequences of deforestation and the depths to which
humanity will sink when it is a matter of life and death. It is a must have in any reading
program that stresses environmental concerns.
1. Yet despite its superficial insignificance, the history of Easter Island is
a grim warning to the world
2. He found a society in a primitive state with about 3000 people living in
squalid reed huts or caves, engaged in almost perpetual warfare resorting to
cannibalism in a desperate attempt to supplement…
3. The primitive people living in such poverty stricken and backward
conditions when the Europeans first visited the Island could not have been
responsible for such a socially advanced and technologically complex task as…
4. The people inherited a tradition of monumental sculpture and stone work
similar to the grat Inca achievements.
5. It expresses the main point of the article, the reason why it was written
in the first place. The second sentence expresses the main idea
6. Shortest answer: The Polynesians were the most widely spread people on
earth encompassing a huge triangle from…
7. It was inhospitable: drainage was bad, there were no permanent streams on
the island, the island had only a few species of plants and animals, the waters
around the island contained very few fish.
8. The climate was too severe for semi-tropical fruits such as breadfruit and
coconut and extremely marginal for the usual mainstays of their diet taro and
breadfruit. / cultivation of the sweet potato was not very demanding and left
plenty of time for other activities.
9. It was the organization and competition and probably conflict between the
clans that produced both the major achievements of Easter Island society and
ultimately its collapse.
10. A number of the ahu have sophisticated astronomical alignments, usually
towards one of the solstices or the equinox.
11. The most challenging problem was to transport the statues; the cause of the
collapse and the key to understanding the mysteries of Easter Island was
massive environmental degradation brought on by deforestation of the whole
island.
12. Recent scientific work involving analysis of pollen types has shown that at
the time of the initial settlement, Easter Island had a dense vegetation cover
including extensive woods.
13. The moving of statues
14. They resorted to stone shelters cut into the hillside or flimsy reed huts(
minimum); only reed boats incapable of long voyages could be made.
15. Diminishing resources; the amount of protein available fell
16. They were unable to devise a system that allowed them to find the right
balance with their environment. OR, no account was taken of how few trees there
were on the island.
17. Open ended.
VOCABULARY
paragraph
|
1
|
Lack of importance
|
insignificance
|
|
2
|
Very small, insufficient (1.
half)
|
Meager
|
|
4
|
That which cannot be altered
|
Irreversible
|
|
4
|
To put up with
|
Withstand
|
|
5
|
Include, cover (2nd
half)
|
Encompass
|
|
6
|
Survival
|
Subsistance
|
|
10
|
Enormous (2nd
half)
|
Prodigious
|
|
11
|
Very serious (1. half)
|
Drastic
|
|
12
|
To deteriorate (1. half)
|
Regress
|
|
12
|
Terrible (1. half)
|
Devastating
|
|
13
|
To keep and protect
|
sustain
|
REFERALS
1. It’s: the history of Easter Island’s
2. This theory: that the island was first settled from South America is
sufficient although the rest would be correct too
3. It : The history of Easter Island
4. They : The original Polynesians
5. Which: the extended family
6. Where: Orongo
7. It: society
8. This: moving the large number of enormously heavy statues to ceremonial
sites around the island
9. It: the fact that the islanders painstakingly constructed, over many
centuries, one of the most advanced societies of its type in the world
