Read the information given below and a) summarize the main idea; b) express your own attitude to the problem

DO YOU KILL YOUR DINNER?

The word “vegetarian” was coined in about 1840 to mean people who lived without killing for food either for moral or health reasons, or both. But practice is much older than that.

Greek philosophers recommended vegetarianism and famous people who have practiced it in the past include Leonardo da Vinci, Tolstoy, Voltaire, Tagore and Bernard Show. Surely this proves that mental activity does not depend on fresh-foods. What then are the arguments that might stop us eating meat?

Man’s body is more like those of frugivorous mammals (such as our cousins the apes) than like those of carnivorous and even omnivorous animals. Why? For millions of years Man must have lived on fruits, nuts, grains and leaves and so developed that kind of digestive system. Perhaps the more we get away from this diet towards meat-eating, the less likely we are to be healthy. Cancer, tuberculosis and heart disease are certainly more common in meat-eating communities.

But if it is so unnatural for Man to have an omnivorous diet, why do we eat (and enjoy) meat at all? One theory is that Man may have started eating the flesh of animals during the Ice Ages when most of the vegetation was destroyed. Today the Eskimos still live almost entirely on flesh – they have no alternative!

Vegetarians claim that the basic food elements which we need to grow and be healthy come from the earth, air and water through vegetation. Therefore they argue that by eating meat we are getting these foods secondhand after they have been digested by the animal. (It is interested to note that Man doesn’t eat carnivorous or even omnivorous animals. It seems we do not enjoy receiving these food elements thirdhand. Getting food secondhand through animals also means getting chemicals and hormones used in farming and feeding animals. In fact it has been said that the average American contains so much DDT – a dangerous chemical – that he is not fit to be eaten!)

Meat is generally thought to be a ”first-class” protein, but in fact it contains more water than protein, and is a very poor source of all the other food elements – minerals, vitamins and carbohydrates. Weight for weight tha soya bean has more of all the essential amino-acids – and is, of course, much cheaper.

19. Read the text and a)answer the questions:

1. In which countries does the Monarch live?

2. How far can it travel when it migrates?

3. What problems does it face on its journey?

4. What season does it travel?

5. Why does it face extinction?