Questão 2599090

Instruction: answer questions 31 to 40 based on the following text.

Flying foxes are dying en masse in Australia’s extreme heat

1. The 30,000 gray-headed flying foxes in Yarra Bend Park, just outside the heart of
2. Melbourne, Australia, were having a fairly normal early spring. In September and October,
3. prime birthing season for the 11-inch long megabats, many of the flying foxes had returned
4. to the park from their winter migration up the coast. Females were birthing pups as normal,
5. says biologist Stephen Brend, who is ___ charge of monitoring gray-headed flying foxes at
6. Yarra Bend Park, which is home to a significant colony of the bats. “But then it got too hot,
7. too quickly” says Brend.
8. Incapable ___ surviving the extreme, relentless heat that gripped Melbourne ___
9. December, the flying foxes were dying. Across three days just before Christmas, when
10. temperatures exceeded 110 degrees Fahrenheit, 4,500 of the park’s gray-headed flying
11. foxes perished — 15 percent of the colony’s population. The tragedy in the park echoes
12. scenes of wildlife suffering across the country and puts a spotlight on the perils of extreme
13. heat, which for some species can be just as deadly as fire. Australia’s endemic animals are
14. falling victim to the heatwaves and fires that are ravaging the country at an unprecedented
15. scale. It’s the hottest and driest summer in Australia in recorded history. As the planet
16. warms, large-scale fires are becoming more frequent, and bushfire seasons are getting
17. longer.
18. For gray-headed flying foxes, which are classified as vulnerable to extinction, the
19. Yarra Bend event is not isolated. “The colony in Adelaide suffered even worse,” says Brend.
20. ___ January 4, many thousands of flying fox babies died ___ multiple roosts in and around
21. the Sydney region in New South Wales, where the temperature reached a record-breaking
22. 121 degrees Fahrenheit. Professor Justin Welbergen’s team, which monitors flying fox heat
23. stress conditions, is calculating a final death toll.
24. This summer’s extreme heat and extreme fires, which have imperiled Australia’s
25. entire eastern coast “risk wiping out the 2019 generation” of newborn bats, Brend says.
26. Some 80 percent of flying fox pups are born in October. They were young and vulnerable
27. when heat waves and wildfires broke out late last year. Flying foxes play a vital role in the
28. forest. They carry seeds and pollinate trees, gardening the forest by night. “Bats need the
29. forest and the forest needs the bats,” says Brend. And it’s still the middle of summer in
30. Australia. “We’ll battle on for our upside down friends, but things look very grim” says
31. Lawrence Pope, a rescuer.” “In this horror year, all species are suffering.” Brend says.
32. “We’re hot, and they’re hot, and it’s a nightmare.”

Adapted from: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/01/flying-foxes-are-dying-en-mqasse-in-australias-extreme-heat/

Consider the best synonyms to the following words respectively, regarding their meaning in the text.

I. fairly (l. 02).

II. relentless (l. 08).

III. ravaging (l. 14).

Select the alternative with the correct answers.