Many great *whales like the Humpback have been so brutally massacred by mankind that *whalers consider them commercially extinct.

Typical is the Blue whale, the largest animal that has ever lived on this earth – 100 feet (30 metres) long and weighing 160 tons. Since 1900 we humans have killed over 300,000 of them and there are only a few thousand left.

Despite international demands to stop the *slaughter, whalers – mainly Japanese and Russian – are destroying four other *species of great whale; some have already been reduced to 20 per cent of their former population. Whalers can turn to other trades but the great whales can never be recreated.

These peaceful creatures have highly developed brains and close family and social organisation. They can communicate over great distances, and dive to great depths.

We cannot yet explain their full role in the ecology of the seas, but if they are wiped out and we find their role was a vital one, it will be too late.

The World Wildlife Fund is campaigning to save the life and resources of the seas – for our own sakes and those of our children.

WWF

whale = baleine > whaler = pêcheur de baleine

species = espèces

slaughter = massacre

1. This text is:

1. a passage from a horror film
2. an advertisement
3. a passage from an adventure book

2. Word Wildlife Fund is campaigning to protect:

1. the whales trade
2. whales
3. the tourist trade

1. What does the title infer?
1. Get to see whales because they are beautiful
2. Get to see whales because they are very big
3. Get to see whales because they will soon disappear

A2 | B2 | C3