The Stories that monuments tell

Shakespeare wrote that there is reason in all things, if only we are clever enough to find that reason. We must agree with the great writer, although the reason in many things around us is sometimes very difficult to find. Among the most difficult sometimes are people’s reasons for building monuments.

We do not mean monuments whose history is well known to the whole world. But to understand other monuments, to “find the reason” in them, we need special guidebooks, the explanations of specialists. We shall speak here of monuments of this kind, monuments to people, animals, birds and even insects.

In Queensland, Australia, stands a monument to an unpleasant little insect, with a long Latin name Cactoblasis. The people of the country want to remember the insect because it helped to correct a catastrophic mistake.

As we know, plant and animal life in Australia is not the same as in other parts of the world. Today, nobody is allowed[1] to bring living organism into Australia from other countries, for very good reasons. Here is[2] one of them.

A few years ago, somebody brought a cactus plant to Australia from Argentina. The plant found a wonderful new home in Australia. It began to grow and spread with such fantastic speed that soon it didn’t give other plants a chance to live. The farmers started a war against the cactus; the government spent tremendous sums of money, but they were not successful. The cactuses continued to spread, and Australian grass had no place[3] to grow. At last biologists found an insect that eats cactus plants. Three thousand million eggs of this insect were brought[4] to Australia: the cactuses were all eaten up[5], and the farmers put up a monument to the insect that had saved their land from the terrible enemy.

Shakespeare says there is reason in all things. But there are probably few people who can find reason in the explanation that the English give of their monument “To the Last Wolf”. Long ago, the forests of England were full of wolves. Today there are no wolves left[6] (true, there aren’t many forests either). The English put up a monument to the wolf, not as a sign of their victory over the marauder, but because, as they say, nature has become poorer and less interesting since the last wolf was killed.

Упр. 12. Ответьте на вопросы к тексту:

1. What is one of the most difficult things to find? 2. Whom do people put up monuments to? 3. Why did farmers put up a monument to Cactoblasis? 4. Are people allowed to bring any living organisms into Australia from other countries? 5. What plant was brought to Australia from Argentina? 6. Why did farmers start a war against it? 7. Who helped farmers in their war against cactus plants? 8. How do the English explain their building a monument to the wolf?

Дата добавления: 2015-07-11