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CELPIP Practice Reading: Reading for Information ID: #60132 Medium RC31

Read the following passage:

Dinosaur discoveries that changed the world

A: Recently, an auction of a dinosaur skeleton, discovered in Jurassic-aged rocks in the US, was held in West Sussex, England. The skeleton was that of a largely complete, immature, three-metre long carnivorous dinosaur: Allosaurus fragilis – "delicate strange reptile". It was anticipated that the specimen would sell for somewhere in the region of £300,000-£500,000. Interestingly, bidding stopped before the reserve price was reached, so the specimen is still on the open market.

The price or value of fossils has a history that is practically as long as the science of palaeontology (the study of fossils) itself. Believe it or not, the tongue-twister "she sells seashells on the seashore" has its origin in the work of one of the earliest and most celebrated fossil collectors, Mary Anning. Mary lived during the early decades of the 19th century and had the knack of finding fossils, including those of seashells – bivalves, brachiopods, belemnites and ammonites – along the shores of Dorset and in the crumbling Jurassic cliffs, which she then sold.

B: Pride of place must go to Megalosaurus bucklandi "Buckland's big reptile" – because it proved to be the earliest discovered and scientifically described dinosaur. Its remains, though incomplete, began to be collected from quarries at the village of Stonesfield in Oxfordshire in about 1815. The bones, teeth and jaws were passed to Oxford University Museum, where they still reside, and were studied by the greatest living anatomist of the time Georges Cuvier, who visited Oxford (and its custodian William Buckland) from Paris to see the material.

C: Charles Darwin profoundly disturbed the established Victorian world and galvanised scientific interest in evolution when he published his book On the Origin of Species in 1859. With masterly circumspection, his book laid out the reasons for concluding that organic life had changed or evolved over the immensity of geological time. 

D: In the mid 1960s a young palaeontology professor, John Ostrom from Yale University was exploring the badlands of Montana looking for dinosaur fossils. What he found was to change our understanding of dinosaurs, their biology and behavior in the most extraordinary way. Ostrom discovered the scattered remains of a medium-sized predatory dinosaur which he studied and then named Deinonychus antirrhopus – "Terrible claw with a counterbalance".

E: Not given in any of the above paragraphs

Decide which paragraph, A to D, has the information given in each statement below. Select E if the information is not given in any of the paragraphs.

1.
Deinonychus antirrhopus is a Terrible claw with a counterbalance.

2.
Dinosaurs can well be on their way back if historians work with scientists.

3.
An auction of a dinosaur skeleton was held in West Sussex, England.

4.
Charles Darwin published his book On the Origin of Species in 1859.

5.
This finding changed the scientists' understanding of dinosaurs.

6.
Megalosaurus bucklandi is also known as Buckland's big reptile.

7.
Megalosaurus bucklandi species was over 100 meters tall and 20 feet wide.

8.
Mary Anning lived during the early decades of the 19th century.

9.
Remains of this dinosaur were collected from quarries.

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