The Rain Forest, and What Is Being Lost: Homework

Why the forest matters, why the soil gives out, and what each side of the hard question says.

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Part A — Key Words / 4

Type the word that fits each clue.

1.
A forest is cleared for farms or lumber. What is the destruction of forests called?Answer
2.
A place holds a great variety of plants and animals. What is that variety called?Answer
3.
A thick, warm tropical forest gets a great deal of rain. What kind of forest is it?Answer
4.
Plants take this gas in from the air, and animals give it off when they breathe out. What is it?Answer

Short answers. Think about why.

1.
About what percent of the species in the South American rain forests have even been identified?Answer
2.
Clearing a rain forest has two dangerous effects. One is on the air. What is the other on?Answer
3.
Why does clearing a huge forest change the air?Answer
4.
Where are most of the nutrients in a rain forest held?Answer
5.
About how long can a cleared patch be farmed before the soil gives out?Answer

A farmer's case, and the hard question.

1.
A farmer has farmed his patch for a few years. What has happened to the soil?Answer
2.
What does he have to do next to grow his next crop?Answer
3.
The lesson says the farmer isn't the enemy of the forest. What must he be part of?Answer
4.
One side of the hard question says the forest matters to everyone. Does it want the United States to buy the land and keep it, or the local people to decide?Answer
5.
The other side says the local people should decide. What does it say the rest of the world should help them find?Answer

Answer each one in one sentence. You mark these yourself against the key.

1.
Why does the book say the farmers aren't simply villains?Answer
2.
Give one reason that one side of the hard question offers, in your own words.Answer

Done? Check your answers.

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Total / 16

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Notes

Part A — the answers.

Part B — the answers.

Part C — the answers.

Part D — what a good answer includes.

Answers vary. A good answer says native people depend on farming and cutting the land to feed their families, the book compares it to the American pioneers, and any answer that works has to include them.
Answers vary. A good answer gives one reason from either side: the forest matters to everyone, a poor country shouldn't have to give up its only income, the people who live there should decide, or the world should help them find another way to live.